He’s an extreme sports veteran at 24. The Freestyle Snowmobile rider from Idaho has been throwing machines about in the air for as long as he can remember. And people are beginning to take notice. “I’m definitely not a celebrity yet but the sport has started getting really good ratings at competitions,” he says. “When I first started doing this professionally I was 13 and there was no money in it. I used to do shows in the mid west of America for gas money. Now Freestyle has had number one ratings for the last two years at Winter X Games.”

For him, fear is just a four-letter word. “I’ve never been scared of jumping. When I was a little kid we’d put a piece of wood up on the edge of a bridge and I’d ride my BMX as fast as I could off the edge. I went snowmobile riding with my dad and he’d jump all this stuff and I’d just follow him over it. The jumps kept getting bigger and here I am now.”

He knows a lot about potatoes. “My dad has a potato farm and I worked there every summer I can remember. I love potatoes, but it can definitely get old. When I was growing up my mum never made potatoes, like, excessively. She was careful about that.”

He has animal instincts. “With jumping on a snowmobile, I kind of feel everything inside and know how fast I’m going exactly in my head because you have to land right in the same spot every time. I think it’s naturally programmed in me.”

He does his homework. “The top sports guys are not only competitive but also making the money and marketing themselves correctly. I mean they’re doing it on their own, so you have to stay clued-up on everything to be at the top in this industry.”

He’s all about the burn. “What do I do that isn’t very physical? Well I go fishing sometimes. But that’s about the most mellow thing I do.”

Heath is competing in the Winter X Games, a contest celebrating all that is extreme in the world of winter sports, which runs between 22 and 25 January. For more information visit www.redbull.com and heathfrisby.com