Tour of Nitro Circus Course With BMX Star Ryan Williams

Who's ready to send it? Hey guys, to my right, Ryan Williams. Oh, you know, Australian BMX legend. Nitro Circus superstar. We're in your home right now. This is epic. Nitro Circus, you know, we got a jig. We've got, like, three different ramps, motor cross, BMX, scooter, skateboard, lounge chair with wheels, whatever you want. We're in Long Beach right now. You just came off of San Diego. There's this energy, this buzz in the air that's, like, electric. Can you explain this feeling right now?

The feeling I have is I'm excited to perform in front of thousands of people. We do, we've done like, this is our third show back to back, so we kind of just, like, pack up, fall asleep, wake up in a new town, and then send it again the next day.

You're known to do the world's first of everything. How do you even come up with that?

Uh, well, yeah, I guess I just go to sleep and I dream about trying new tricks and then I wake up and I'm in a new town, and I get to try it in front of thousands of people and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work.

You literally think about it and then try it.

Well, I can kind of close my eyes and I can ride my BMX or scooter.

Walk me through what's happening right now on the floor.

The track crew has come in and they're building as quick as they can because we obviously have a show in just a few hours. So, they've built the, uh, gigantic, uh, the roll in for our jump and then they got the moto set up. And this is like the new VIP section where they can, the, the crowd literally stand underneath the moto guys jumping.

Now, because you're on the road as an athlete, how do you even do that and maintain the stamina and energy going town to town?

Um, well, I guess I've been doing this my whole life, you know. I've rode a BMX and scooter for 20 years now, so it's kind of what I do every day anyway. But, uh, obviously, doing in front of a thousand people, you kind of go a little bit above and beyond what you usually do. But I feel like just, I don't know, it's just something that we do naturally and obviously I'm pretty fit, and then. Yeah.

How did even Nitro begin? Take me to the origins of that.

I think that's got to be Travis Pastrana and his mates, like, it was just kind of a crew that they had and they're capturing it themselves and then they're like, hey, a lot of people want to watch this. So then they made a TV about it and, uh, it's still going today. It's been a long time. I feel like it's been nearly 30 years now.

And then you got the call. How did that go down?

Oh, yeah. I, um, I basically just made YouTube videos. Nitro Circus was coming to Australia and someone was like, there's this scooter kid, he's crazy. And they sent me a message and I'm like, let's go. I didn't even have, like, a practice. It was just like, there's the ramp, like this roll in right here, go. I'm a 17-year-old kid. I'm like, all right, let's go.

You're performing and competing.

Yeah, I feel like, X Games is, is kind of like the pinnacle and like it was my dream, you know, to get a, to be in the X Games. So then to win a gold medal at the X Games, it's, uh, it's a really hard thing to do and then to do it multiple times, I don't know, blown my mind that I've been able to keep doing it. But it's definitely like the most dangerous part of this sport and like it's where I have to do my biggest tricks and hope they work and if they don't, then you either go back to the hotel sad or to the hospital injured.

Oh, no. Okay, you're 31, but you just had a baby who is about to be one year old.

Yeah. In a couple of days. Yeah.

Does that come into your brain at all while you're doing all of this stuff, thinking, maybe I need to be safer?

You know what, I really thought going into bigger father that that would play on my mind and it might hold me back, but it just made me more calculated, and I was already super calculated, obviously, hence not breaking any bones. But, uh, yeah, my son turns one in two days. So, I actually finished the show tonight, get on a plane and fly home for two days just for his first birthday, and then I fly back for the show.

Stop it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wait, you're flying back to Australia.

Yes, 14 hours.

For two days?

Yes, so I'm on, I'm on the plane almost longer than I'm there. But it's his first birthday.

Take me around. Let's see what we got.

Well, these are obviously the motor cross jumps, so you can see these are standard motor cross jumps. The biggest one isn't actually built yet. So it actually gets bigger than this. They put an extra extension on and they nearly hit the roof. Like we actually have to check some roofs, and we have to go between pillars sometimes. This one is good. We're all right. We're not going to hit the roof here. But we have been so close, like the guys have been about three feet away from hitting big screens. This is our roll in. Obviously, it's not finished yet. It doesn't have the bottom part. I would not recommend dropping it in right now. But Woo! It's steep, kind of scary, for the contraptions, like it's not too bad on the BMX or the scooter, but when you're riding a lounge chair with wheels or a, an Eski, we call it an Eski. You call it a cooler.

A We have a cooler.

You know a cooler what you put drinks in?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, we, we jump one of those. Through a ring of fire. Yeah, we got a ring of fire now.

I mean, you said the word scary. Are you ever scared?

You know what, I am scared. The thing is, people think we're not scared, but being scared and having fear is like the smart part of your brain going, this is silly, right? You build like a sense of confidence in yourself and your abilities to go like, okay, I understand what this trick is. I understand what I'm doing. I should, like, 90, 9% of the time I land it, so don't even think about the 1%.

Okay, the hardest trick in your bag.

Hardest trick. The most technical, the one that took me the most. It's called the pre Willy. I throw the bike, it does a front flip, and while it's doing a front flip, I do a back flip with my body, so it's like opposite ways and then I come around and hope the bike's there and I land it. Probably took me 1,100 tries to land. And I only did it once.

You have your own compound, which is amazing, where you practice all of this.

I've got a 40-acre property with, like, not, I don't have a roll in like this, yeah. But I've got a big driveway made out of concrete and it goes straight into a ramp. I have this exact ramp like this at my house to practice.

That's every little boy's dream. You know that.

Yeah, I, yeah, I mean, it was my dream the whole time and then to make that dream a reality, it's perfect.

So, what's the next dream?

Have a, have my son, my son ride my compound.

Oh. I heard you say the word scooters. I yeah. We got one. Let's do it. You got one?

I, I did bring one. Cause how could I not bring a scooter to the interview? Yeah, easy.

Do you have a name for your scooter?

Do I name my scooter? Yeah, my signature scooter, you can get it if you want. It's on sale. Exactly how it, exactly how I ride it, it comes out the box. Oh, that's the landing. Yes. It's got air in it, right? So it's a little softer. And, uh, and then this is Rezzy, so it slides. Because if you fall over, you don't want to grip and roll, you know? It's like a bit slippery, so you'd rather slide. Cause we don't have brakes, well, I don't have brakes.

You, of course, not. We stop by hitting this airbag. Can you do bunny hops? Have you ever done a bunny hop?

Yes. You can put your, to put your foot, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ah, I did it. Hey. That's it. It's like this. I wouldn't have.

Hey, the best thing about scootering, the best thing about action sports,

Yeah.

is there's no rules. So, no matter, it doesn't matter if you stand like this, that can be your own style. Ballerina style. That look like ballerina style.

So, when you are floating midair,

Yep.

what's going through your head?

How do I make this work? Like whatever trick it is, if it's a if it's a triple front flip, I'm counting the ground, uh, twice and then this third time is landing. Like, I'm feeling it, like, I'm feeling the motion that I'm spinning or flipping, and just focusing on what I need to do to land it.

And then so being on the road, what's prep like pre-show?

Stretch, warm up. A lot of the guys, like, I don't know, they'll go for a run, like the guys have already run like 10 k's.

Oh, what's that? Three, three, four miles this morning. Wow. Okay, let's get some exercise in right now. All right, deal. I want to see your bunny hop. Do it again. Show me. Wait. I'm going to do it like you. And then jump. Yeah. Woo. Do you think you could ride one-handed? I don't know. Oh. Yay! Usually new tricks take me a thousand tries. And there you go, first try. Now I want you to do one hand, one foot. One hand on, and then take one foot off. And then you go to 360. Now I'm jumping. Oh. So, this is the next one I want you to learn. It's just do a hang five.

This is called a hang five, cause you hang one foot, and you do a nose manual. So, you're balancing on one wheel.

That's why you are the pro and you are the star of the show. I'm just going to leave that.

Yeah, that took me 20 years to learn.

How do you decompress after a show?

Call my fiancée, get on video call, see my son. But we also have awards with Nitro Circus. Like, there's a lot of camaraderie because we are going out here risking our lives, especially the motor guys. There's people that have passed away riding their motorbike. So, when you finish a show, we all just feel like it's a sense of relief, and we've done another show, we've survived it, and you've got another one the next day.

Okay, so what do you say in the BMX scooter world of action sports? You say good luck. Do you say, you don't say break a leg. What do you say?

No, we do not say break a leg. I feel like other people say that and I say, I'm always trying not to break my leg. That's why I like to tell people. But it's just like you got this. You've got this.