Approaching Dryden's pad, everything seems suburban-normal from the outside, but once you open the front door you quickly realize that the house is pure bachelor-pad design. The living room looks like a strip club (complete with a pole), and there is bike-related decor in every room of the house, including a living room with a dozen helmets and trophies, a well-stocked tire rack in the kitchen, and a garage that looks like it should be connected to a service shop, not a house. Joe shares the house with two fellow stunt riders, though it seems like someone is always squatting on the couch, too.
So how does a guy who grew up in a small town in Maine, population a handful, end up at the top of the stunter food chain in faraway Orlando, Florida? "I've been riding dirt bikes since the age of 6," Dryden says, "but the whole sportbike thing came about purely by chance. Around six years ago I was at a powersports shop with the intention of buying a new snowmobile; they didn't have the one I wanted, so I was looking around the shop and walked through the sportbike section. It was spring, so things were warming up; I figured a bike would be something fun for the summer. I ended up rolling out of the shop that day on a used Yamaha R6. After riding around for a while I stumbled upon the stunt scene online. I met Teach [Chris McNeil] on one of the online message boards. At the time he was living close to me, and we decided to meet up at a local shop and go for a ride. Teach pulled up rolling a stoppie and went right into some burnouts. I had played around with power wheelies, but had never seen someone control the bike like him. We hit the street and headed to one of his practice spots. I had never seen someone rock a long wheelie until that day. After that, I was hooked. I started practicing from then on.
We had to wait till the next day to find out how Dryden landed in the Sunshine State, during the three-hour trek to his favorite tattoo parlor in Jacksonville to see Dee Peacock at his shop, Peacock's Tattoo. During his early days stunting in Maine, Dryden connected with many people who would play key roles in his future, including Shannon Baker, a fellow stunt rider who also owns the custom sportbike shop Kickstand & Wheelies in Wells, Maine. Dryden ended up spending a lot of time at that shop, so much so that soon he started working there for pay. It was at K&W that Dryden met the members of Vertical Outlaws, the team he joined in Maine, and traveling with them to events down in Florida was his first exposure to the Sunshine State's burgeoning stunt scene. In 2004 Dryden decided to spend the winter in Florida to get some more practice, and that winter has now stretched out to two years.
After Peacock put some fresh ink into Dryden's carcass, we continued on to Fort Lauderdale for the Monster Jam monster truck show, where Dryden and fellow Florida stunters Mark "T-Neck" Martinek and Jesse Toler were slated to perform. Although the show took place at an indoor arena with a polished concrete floor that proved a less-than-ideal riding surface, the riders put on a great show that got the crowd going. One of the highlights was Dryden filling the indoor arena with smoke thanks to a sixth gear standstill burn performed with the assistance of the remains of one of the crushed cars. The show is a warm-up for Dryden-by the time this story hits newsstands Dryden will be midway through a two-month tour around Europe with fellow Florida stunt master Aaron Brunelle, performing at the overseas Monster Jam shows.
After watching Dryden, T-Neck and Toler knock out three Monster Jam shows over a two-day span, we headed back to Orlando to part ways. One of us was headed back to a dreary office-the other on a grand tour that would include stops in Paris, Zurich, Antwerp, Milan, Stockholm and other great European cities. Who's the one who doesn't get any respect? Not Vertical Joe Dryden. Not anymore.