In dirt bike terms, I just got “roosted”... all that dirt kicked up by pro Supercross athlete Dylan Merriam.

A Southern California native himself, he’s getting ready for the Supercross opener at Angel Stadium in Anaheim on Saturday.

“There’s going to be a lot of excitement and everything going, but I feel like I handle my emotions pretty well and I like hype. So I think it’s going to go good,” says Merriam.

The sport is all about big air, high-revving four stroke engines and speed, lots of speed.

Combine Motocross and Super Bowl and you get Supercross.

“Over the course of the 17 rounds of Supercross there’s going to be over a million people watching and that’s just in-person, live not including television. So the following’s huge. We’re going to be filling up stadiums all over the United States,” Merriam says.

Austin Politelli is another pro looking to open the 18 week, 17 race season with a big finish.

These athletes take a pounding. All the guys out here have to condition at an elite level.

“We pretty much ride year-round. I train five days a week, so it’s 100 percent effort, your diet, everything,” says Politelli.

These are precision machines and the athletes are at max heart rate for the entirety of the 20-minute race. To win, you first have to get in. Qualifying on race day means knowing your bike, beating the changing dirt conditions and going all in.

“There’s 22 elite riders in the Main. And you’re racing against the best in the world,” says Supercross athlete Ben Lamay.

But in Supercross adrenaline is king. And for these guys, who can go pro as early as 16, that rush is what fuels them.

Like any other pro sport, the physical demands make the sport a young man’s job. But to get on this echelon, it’s the only job they’ve ever had.

“The fact that my favorite thing in the world to do is ride dirt bikes and it’s my job. There’s no better feeling on that. It does have its rough days. But the good days make the bad days worth it,” says Merriam.

Top guys earn millions, but they say if you love what you do you never work a day in your life, and these guys aren’t about to start.