Check out photos of Sunday’s motorcycle stunt show at South Beach’s Memorial Day festival

Motorcycle acrobatics met military precision in South Beach Sunday, as an Air Force honor guard performed drills on the sand and professional motorcross drivers jump their bikes 70 feet above.

“I was praying for them,” said Eileen Saucedo, a tourist from Tampa who drove down to Miami Beach on a whim and discovered the weekend’s Hyundai Air and Sea Show was underway. “I said, ‘Please God, I don’t want to see anything horrible.’”

There were no spills or even visible close calls as a troupe of freestyle motorcross drivers sponsored by Monster energy drink jumped 60 feet up between temporary ramps set up 70 feet apart off the northern end of Ocean Drive.

As the motorcycles headed skyward, drivers would perform kicks, twists and even let go of the vehicle entirely before steering their way back down to the next ramp and safety of the beach below.

Next to the ramps a U.S. Air Force honor guard flipped and twirled their rifles with bayonets at the end, a military drill unfolding to the roar of the bikes above. Farther up, U.S. military planes flew by, a B-1 bomber framing the FMX jumps for the well-framed cellphone photo.

READ MORE: Memorial Day weekend Air & Sea Show features military jet flyovers, water rescue demos

Jody Donnelly, the show host, said the FMX performances happen around the country — but the honor guard drills aren’t usually part of the show.

“It’s a rare occasion,” he said. ‘But when it happens, we are all about it.”

This story was originally published May 29, 2022 at 6:43 PM.