Ryan Williams is a professional scooter and BMX rider from Australia. Theo talks with Ryan about joining Nitro Circus, progressing action sports, and winning X-Games gold.
Ryan Williams IG: https://www.instagram.com/rwillyofficial
New Merch: http://theovonstore.com
New Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour
Podcastville mugs and digital prints available now at https://theovon.pixels.com
Support our Sponsors:
The Zebra: http://thezebra.com/THEO
Betterhelp: https://betterhelp.com/theo for 10% OFF your First Month
Manscaped: http://manscaped.com/THEO for 20% off and free shipping
BlockFi: http://blockfi.com/THEO get a bonus of $25 in crypto after you make your first purchase
CrowdHealth: http://joincrowdhealth.com/fit and enter code THEO at sign up to get your first month free
Liquid Death:: https://liquiddeath.com
Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to tpwproducer@gmail.com.
Hit the Hotline 985-664-9503
Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: http://bit.ly/TPW_VideoHotline
Find Theo:
Website: https://theovon.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon
Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon
Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend
Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon
YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon
Clips Channel: http://https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips
Producer: Spencer https://instagram.com/adventuresofspencer
Producer: Colin https://instagram.com/colin_reiner
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
You can use your speed perks points at participating shell stations to save money on fuel.
The more speed perks points you have, the more you can save on gas.
Then you can tell everybody you saved at the pump.
People love that.
Okay, thanks for listening to my Ed Talk.
This is how we advance.
Manscaped has been busy and just launched the redefined body wash and two-in-one shampoo plus conditioner.
They have everything you need to take care of your body and keep your hair tidy.
Damn it.
Do well.
Look decent.
It's your crotch, Christ.
Support the podcast.
Get 20% off in free shipping by going to manscaped.com slash Theo.
That's 20% off and free shipping by going to manscaped.com slash T-H-E-O.
Be thankful this holiday season for the best gift of all from Manscaped.
Your balls will thank you.
Is there something interfering with your happiness?
Have you ever had happiness?
That's a question I've often asked myself.
Do I have ever had happiness?
BetterHelp can help.
If there are questions about your mental well-being, your depression, anxiety, you need answers.
BetterHelp is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches that make it easy and free to change counselors if you need.
You can Zoom with them.
You can do on the phone.
You can even text them.
Visit betterhelp.com slash Theo.
That's B-E-T-T-E-R-H-E-L-P dot com slash Theo.
This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp.
I've gotten BetterHelp.
And TPW listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash Theo.
Today's episode is brought to you by Liquid Death.
Today's guest is a valiant man, valiant young man.
He's from Australia, if you believe in that.
And he is a world-class gold medalist in scooter games and in BMX bicycling.
This man has done things that you and I could never fathom doing.
Even our dreams, we can't do the things that this man does in actuality.
He's a member of the Nitro Circus.
He's won countless gold medals.
He's from Australia.
And we are so happy to have him here today, Mr. Ryan Williams.
For me to set that parking break and let myself on my shine and tell you what to be all
right, mate.
Yeah.
How you feeling, man?
I feel good.
Yeah.
Did you have a good time?
I'm sitting here with Ryan Williams, who was a real cyclist, I guess, is a real astronaut, cyclist, almost ex-gamer.
What's kind of the appropriate term for somebody like you?
I guess you would say a professional BMX rider and a professional scooter rider.
Okay.
Action sports athlete.
Okay.
I try to do it all.
You do?
Yeah.
Okay, so and action sports, like so when people say action sports, that encompasses what?
Anything that's kind of like, I guess slightly dangerous and considered a sport.
Okay.
I would say so.
Yeah.
And I saw you last night.
We went to the comedy show.
Yeah, yeah, it was sick.
You have a good time?
Yeah, it was so good.
And I was like, I don't know.
I've only been to the comedy store before that.
So this is like the second time going somewhere in Hollywood.
Oh, nice, man.
Yeah.
So, yeah, you guys, yeah, that was such a surprise, dude.
So do you go to a place?
So you live in Australia, right?
Yeah, yeah.
And is there a comedy place you go to there?
Yeah?
No, I've actually never seen a comedy show in Australia.
Wow.
Yeah.
But so, yeah, I'm living here in Huntington Beach, but usually Sunshine Coast and Australia.
And you've been to Australia, right?
Yeah, I've been to Australia, man.
I really like Australia.
You know, I like a lot of, I like how it all started with the inmates and everything putting all like the CD people over there.
Yeah, yeah.
I love CD people.
And so I think I love that about it, you know, just seeing the children and grandchildren of CD people and just seeing like the ant, you know, all the unique animals.
It feels almost like a place.
It feels almost like a secret location kind of, you know?
Yeah.
Or it seems like a practice facility for humanity.
And Mother Nature.
It feels like a training ground for like humans and Mother Nature.
That's what I feel like.
Just to see how it mixes.
I feel like it helps.
It must be in the blood because I feel like a lot of us have a few screws loose.
And that's why you see us in action sport.
It's like just sending it.
Yeah.
Oh, there's a different level.
Yeah.
Australians have a different thing inside of them.
And I don't know if it's a science.
Do they know if it's a scientific thing?
you think like if it's like a...
I don't know.
I wonder if there's like that rebellious thing because...
They put them there, right?
Yeah, yeah.
So there was like convicts and they shipped them over because they're like, oh, we're going to free up some space here.
So send them off to the mainland.
We need a little more bandwidth over here at the prison.
So we're going to send a couple a couple of bad boys over there.
Yeah, dude.
I love Australia, man.
I had a great time.
So your world is mostly like, take me through how you kind of got started, man, because I know you and I just met on IG.
I love all your tricks, and it seems so extreme.
And I get nervous being at high speeds and stuff so when i see somebody like you i'm like damn this guy you know he's really able to level up like in this um you know this guy seems like a real like a you know uh just like a real energy drink of a kind of guy you know i felt like yeah um i don't know i guess it started like where the action sports started was i watched the x games and like there was a movie called the ultimate x and it had like guys like travis vestrana tony hawk and
like i seen that and i think all i had at the time were like rollerblades because my mom took me to the roller drone you know so i was like i want to go to the skate park now what do i have rollerblades so i just like went to the skate park on my rollerblades and fell on my butt like 500 times and then pretty much from then on i was just like the skate park rat right you know skate park kid and so at skate parks over there are people doing drugs and stuff or is it mostly just skating um you could probably find drugs at the skate park but i like there's certain skate parks
like the skate park i mainly go to it's got a fence around it so you don't just go chill there and do drugs you kind of like pay to go in and you're not going to pay twice to do drugs yeah yeah it's true yeah yeah if you do your drugs and then you go in there it'd be yeah you want to save that money i think and just do your drugs outside probably yeah um so when you started like did you find that you were good at it in the in the beginning because sometimes i wonder how much of a um to be like an extreme sports
person yeah how much like how much like um is it in you and then how much is it that you can learn like oh yeah i've always felt like something like that is not in me dude like yeah you know i'll even like even you know sometimes people like when the car stops real fast people will put their hand over the person yeah yeah i will make people put their hand over me even if we're just kind of cruising along yeah i guess um i would say i guess it is built in a little bit like you kind of have to be a little bit wild because you've got to get over the hill you know you're going to crash
you are going to crash there's like no way not to really if you want to push to that upper level but i guess it is something you can definitely learn like obviously i started i started just for fun and i was just like all my homies were like down the skate park and then that's why i jumped on a scooter because i was like the only rollerblade kid just all like the lonely rollerblader basically down the skate park and all my mates rode scooters and i was like man i want to ride with i want to learn with everybody else so i end up like i had to borrow like their scooter and their shoes because obviously i
rollerbladed i didn't need shoes you can't rollerblade on the scooter yet no well you can't if you try hard enough but uh yeah pretty much just oh it was all fun at the start and then you like build up and just i don't know you slowly progress but i guess at the start you obviously have to be able to get hurt and not like cry about it kind of thing you have to like get pick yourself up and keep going and if you see somebody with a like were you helmeted in the beginning or people in helmets or not yeah yeah helmeted and is it well received by others if you wear a helmet or is it kind of it's a it's um it depends
what you're doing like you're not going to go out there and do a triple back with no helmet on because you if you crash then you're not going to be doing any more flips after that you're like you know like you can get seriously hurt but definitely like the skateboarding realm is like yeah if you don't you're not wearing if you're wearing a helmet like only in a stair set they're like what are you doing yeah but it's kind of well received in scooter and bmx to wear the helmet because a lot of people have gotten hurt even with a helmet on and like can't ride anymore so it's like if everyone wasn't wearing a helmet then
there'd be way less bmx riders because i think that oh it's dangerous it gets that dangerous huh it definitely does get dangerous and it's just like why not have a helmet on and just protect your noggin yeah i just always i would never want my kids i don't think to see me in a helmet you know if i'm a dad you know yeah like that's such a yeah i don't know yeah i guess you might not suit a helmet i don't think i've ever seen a picture of you in a helmet so yeah and there's probably a reason for that yeah probably a reason for it yeah but i think yeah if a kid sees their dad in a helmet i think it just does something to a kid that it's
just hard to like you guys' helmets is different because they're more like cool looking helmets i feel like but if you're in like one of like if you're like on a bicycle like in the neighborhood and you were and your dad drives up the driveway in the bike and he has on a helmet i feel like it just i don't know i would feel so sad for my dad and then i would feel so sad for me i think yeah i guess like if you're wearing a cyclist helmet the worst ones i think i don't know if you have like birds that swoop you here like we have magpies in australia and they like swoop you so you see cyclists they'll they'll have like
a cycling helmet and then they'll have zip ties like pointing up in the air to keep the birds from swooping their heads that's crazy dude yeah i used to paint this this uh i used to paint fences on this man's property and i used to do it with this big uh kind of urban gentleman and he died actually but he was alive at this point and we used to he also used to cut grass this dude johnny was his name big johnny and he wore these he had like it was big he had like real dark skin and he had a big chest hair and he would have these jewel like a lot of gold
and stuff and yeah silver choice chains and stuff in it and he was a homosexual guy actually i didn't know that at the time but people said he was later but anyway he um the birds would come he and i would paint these fences and the birds would swoop down because he had a big afro so the birds would swoop down to get into his hair yeah so at one point my only responsibility was to have this like badminton racket and just fucking swat away all like these uh i want to say it was nightingales but it might have been something else
they'll try to like nest yeah they'd come in and try to nest at him he's like you got my back i'd be like i got you bud so i'm just sitting there all day just fucking just uh just love love with mother nature you know um but but anyway yeah so because yeah i think sometimes if i had that helmet it would make me if i saw my dad on a regular bicycle but in your sport you guys need the helmet yeah yeah i'd suggest wearing a helmet just because you could like not even be trying anything crazy and just like fall over and just hit your head and
there's like a there's a lot of guys that like have had brain injuries and then they can't ride and it's like if they and there's be people that get hurt not wearing a helmet and can't ride so it's like may as well just wear one but i i get where you're coming from but i'll stick to wearing a helmet i think yeah yeah um so what about this so you get going you get now was it frowned upon that you're in there with the uh rollerblades was that kind of like a yeah well yeah it was because i i rollerblade for like four years but it was kind of like that's all i had you know right i was
just my i was uh grew up with a single mom and she was like, that's all we could afford with you.
We just had the rollerblades, and then it's like, I was like, sweet.
And then once I started, I was like, man, this is fun.
Like, this is so fun.
I'm just going to rollerblade because it's so fun.
It's the only thing I had tried.
So I did that for like four years.
I can't imagine rollerblading for four years, man.
It's not straight.
Like, on and off.
On and off, yeah.
Oh, thank God, man.
And so then you get up to the scooter.
So is that where you start to like make your, like, where do you start to kind of make your climb into like this fucking like astrophysicist on a scooter?
Like, you're like this, like, you're like a bullet kind of, like, where do you start to make your climb then?
I would say, like, I jump on a scooter.
I think I rode for like maybe three or four years and then kind of got sponsored.
And then once I got sponsored, we did like a trip to the USA.
And that was like when I was like, what?
Like, I'm riding a scooter and like they're flying me over to the USA to just ride skate parks.
This is like kind of like mind-blowing.
This is crazy.
So where were you riding when you're riding before you're still at these skate parks locally?
Yeah, all just the skate parks.
And then for about so yeah, for about five, five or six years, it was just the skate park stuff.
And then that's like after that, NitroSo could see me on YouTube.
Right.
And they were like, oh, let's give this guy go on this 40-foot jump and then see what he can do.
And I was like, let's go.
I was 17 years old.
Just like.
Ready to send it?
He didn't want it.
So you didn't have any.
So like, yeah, was there a lot of fear or anything?
Like, what goes, what starts to go away?
Does the fear start to go away?
Or take me through some of that process?
Because you're, let's see if we can pull up one of your just pull up one of, I just want to cut you to kind of take me through what some of this is when you like.
Because now you do some pretty, you're on like some pretty intense ramps, huh?
Yeah.
Probably like just a single trick going to the triple front flip.
That's a good one.
That's probably my hottest one.
I screwed up.
Okay, let's look for that one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nah, nah, down one.
Yeah.
I'm probably just skipping a little bit, but.
This one was crazy because it was like they built this jump just for me to do this trick.
Wow.
And like, the thing is, I'm always scared.
Like, I'm always scared.
The fear is always there.
It's just the confidence is built up.
You know, I've gained confidence in my abilities, in myself.
Hey, hold on.
We can hear that in here.
It's too loud in here.
Sorry.
Yeah, I don't even think we need the audio of it if we can.
We can probably just look at the video.
Okay, so right here.
So they're building this.
They built this ramp.
So this was at Travis Ostrana's house.
So is this once you get over here to the U.S.?
Yeah, yeah.
On that tour?
Nah, not that first tour.
This is like after I've been on Nitro Circus, and then I'm like, this is when I'm kind of really starting my career.
Wow.
Yeah, but this is...
Yeah.
You look like a second moment from the middle of the day.
I don't know.
I don't know what look I was going for there.
But yeah, they built this ramp just for this trick.
And I was so scared because no one had ever landed a triple front flip on BMX.
And it's still like one of the hardest tricks I've ever done, even though this is like, I don't know, seven years ago.
Dude, now, did these guys think you could do it?
Are guys like psyched for each other?
Is it like a lot of camaraderie?
Yeah, that's the thing about action sports is that like we know that if the other guy doesn't land it, like he can get really hurt.
So it's all just like, we're all homies.
Everyone's cheering everyone on.
No one wants anyone to fail.
We want everyone to win.
Right.
And this is my homie.
I was actually racing him to do the first one, and he got to do the first attempt.
And yeah, you'll see.
It's just explosion.
Jesus.
Yeah.
And is that a children's bike?
I mean, kind of.
It's a full man bike.
Okay.
Yeah.
A kid could ride it, though.
Yeah, it was not.
It was wild.
Wow.
So when you're going up this, like, what speed are you going whenever you hit this, whenever you go up this ramp?
I think we had a speedometer and it was like 35 miles per hour.
35, 40. Yeah.
And so, so you get on this bike.
I just like, what I do is kind of like you can close your eyes.
You know, you can close your eyes and you can write your name, you know?
Right.
You know, so it's like that.
I've rode a BMX so long that I can like picture it in my head before I even do it.
So it's like I just close my eyes and I like have like a simulator in my brain that I've created over like 15 years of riding action sports and I can just play that trick out boom boom in my head 30 times before I drop in and then I drop in and it's like, okay, this is what I have to do.
I'm doing it.
And then as I'm doing it, I'm like calculating, okay, is this what was meant to be happening?
Is this what I imagined was going to be happening?
And if it is, I'm like, sweet, stay on.
And if I'm looking and I'm seeing something else, I'm like, all right, how am I not, how do I not land on my head right now?
Right.
So at a certain point, it's just you realize it's kind of survival.
Like if it's, if something feels a little bit off or something, you realize at that point, I just need to land.
I need to land safely and redo it.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So like I'm a professional crasher, I would say as well.
To be a professional active sports athlete, you have to be a professional crasher because if you if you can't crash, then you can't get back up and try again.
Manscaped has been busy and just launched the redefined body wash and two-in-one shampoo plus conditioner.
They have everything you need to take care of your body and keep your hair tidy.
Damn it.
Do well.
Look decent.
It's your crotch, Christ.
You know, that new lawnmower 4.0 trimmer from Manscaped.
God, it really does.
If you want that male landing strip, if you want to put them buck antlers above your wiener or that antenna, that old TV antenna like your grandfather used to have and watch the ball games, you can do it well for your own dick and crotch and female crotch area.
You can do it, manscaped.
manscaped.com is where you want to go to get it.
Slash Theo.
The performance package includes that weed whacker.
Do your edge your garden.
Edge your cut.
Dude, if your friend's in a coma, trim his crotch up while he's out.
Next thing you know, he wakes up in February, March or something.
Early summer, he wakes up and damn, his damn crotch looks better.
Get that Christmas package to take care of your package.
You can do it.
Get 20% off in free shipping by going to manscaped.com slash T-H-E-O.
That's 20% off in free shipping.
I'm in a basement right now in Vermont.
So I'm doing, I've probably been doing better.
Godspeed.
You know, cashback cards are so 20-20.
You buy this, you buy a thing of Skittles, you get half a cent back.
You buy $50 worth of damn corn and you get a, uh, they send you a mitten or something, one mitten.
You got to keep high-fiving people with your cold hand to keep it warm.
The shit has to stop.
Well, whether you're a crypto pro or a total beginner, you can finally earn Bitcoin the easy way with the world's first Bitcoin rewards credit card from BlockFi.
Yep, you can earn unlimited Bitcoin in every qualifying purchase you make.
If you're interested in buying Bitcoin but don't know where to start, BlockFi has the world's first Bitcoin rewards card card.
So you can earn Bitcoin the easiest way possible with every qualifying purchase.
Yep.
The BlockFi rewards visa signature card.
That's right.
You can earn 1.5% back in Bitcoin on all qualifying purchases.
Now's the time to start or ramp up your Bitcoin portfolio.
Our listeners can get a bonus of $25 in crypto after you make your first purchase with the credit card when you sign up at blockphi.com slash Theo.
That's $25 bonus encrypted deposited right into your account after you make your first purchase.
Go to B-L-O-C-K-F-I.com slash T-H-E-O.
Yep.
Not all will be eligible.
Geographic regulatory and underwriting restrictions apply.
Fees and terms are subject to Shonge.
Additional terms of service at blockfi.com.
BlockFi is a financial technology company.
Banking services provided by Evolve Bank and Trust member FDIC.
Start earning Bitcoin back on all your qualifying purchase today.
BlockFi.com slash Theo.
Okay, so on that trick right there that you're doing, what is that trick called?
That was a triple front flip on BMX.
Okay.
And it's never been done before?
No.
In human, by human, by anybody?
I don't think by anyone.
Maybe.
Yeah, I haven't seen any animals do it either.
So if you, when you're going up that ramp, how do you then get your bike to flip frontward?
Because it would seem like you're going to go back.
Have you ever done a flip?
I've done a flip on a trampoline, yeah.
And it's kind of similar to that, but it's like obviously wheels, different inertia.
But it's like, so what I do, the way I do it is I would ride up, right?
And then I initiate the front flip by throwing my upper body over the front of the bike, right?
And then it's going to tip the bike up.
When do you do that?
Like, do you know when to do it?
Yeah, I have to do it a little bit early on that triple front flip because obviously it's three flips, not one.
Like one flip, you can be like, like, just chill, and it comes around.
Two flips, then you have to give it more.
Three flips is like, okay, I just have to put everything into it.
And I actually like nose manual, which is like where you go on the front wheel.
So I'll be going on one wheel up the ramp before I'm even off the top.
And then that's what just flicks me.
Wow.
So when you leave the ramp, you're only on that front wheel.
Yeah, on that trick.
Wow.
Because I have to just give it everything.
Can you feel that front wheel catch the edge of that ramp at all or no?
Yeah, it hits that trick.
The funny thing is I had bruises on my legs because the bike would like press against my legs so hard because I would throw so hard that the handlebars would hit me in the legs.
And that's how I knew I was spinning fast because I was like, oh yeah, I felt that.
And then you feel the flick and you just kind of like hold on for the ride.
And so at that point, do you just hope that you land at the exact right kind of timing?
Or is the ramp built so that you could kind of, as long as you're coming, you can come in at a lot of different angles and lengths?
Yeah, so it's kind of you like, obviously the ramp is like 50% of the trick, you know, because it's like you got to have the same, the right trajectory.
If you're coming into a flat surface, you're just going to explode.
So you need to like, it's almost like a plane.
You know, it comes into line just smooth like that.
So it's like when we land, we want to be landing in the trajectory of the landing so that it's like smoother.
But it's still a hard landing.
So all the places where you land, usually it has to be at an angle so that because you couldn't just do it flat.
Nah, not safely.
There is like a certain level.
And once you pass that level, your bones can't do it.
Yeah.
That's a fucking homemade Halloween, baby, you know?
Damn, bro.
That's crazy, man.
So, okay, so take me through some of this.
So you start to get, are you in school at this point?
Yeah, so I start.
So whenever you kind of get going, you get on the scooter, right?
Yeah, the scooter.
And is scooter frowned upon?
I mean, scooter, like you see somebody on a scooter, like, you don't think, like, oh, look at this guy.
Yeah.
And that's kind of a cool thing when I'm doing these Notch Liggers tours because like, especially here in America, they're like, are you going to take that scooter down that ramp?
And I'm like, bro, I'm going to do way more than just take it down the ramp.
But yeah, when I first started, obviously scootering was like, it was just, it was just fun, man.
And we did get, it was like skateboarders would be like, why are you riding a scooter?
You're not going to get anywhere riding a scooter, dude.
And I'm like, well, I'm just having fun, man.
I'm not really trying to get anywhere.
I'm just trying to get to the skate park and do some stunts.
But yeah, I got heaps of grief for that, like bullied, obviously.
But was there a lot of people scootering?
Were more people starting to do it?
Yeah, yeah.
And it was like blowing up.
And I was like on the forefront of that.
And then it's kind of like, that's why I got to catch this wave of like new age scooter dudes, right?
And these tricks weren't created yet.
So I was like in the forefront and I could create tricks because like the tricks that I was doing 10 years ago, like 10,000 kids can do it now.
Whereas it was like a world's first 10 years ago, it was like being at the front of like, it was like buying Bitcoin, you know?
It was like being at the forefront.
Like people were like, why are you going to buy Bitcoin, and then like the dudes that did were like, yeah, now.
So it's like, that's what I'm doing.
It's like, I got in that first wave of scooters, and then now I'm here, like, yeah.
Crazy.
Okay, I see, man.
Wow.
Did you, um, and did you just feel like, did you try skateboarding as well?
Did you try other things in the beginning and you just felt most capable with the scooter?
Or what makes you stay with that?
Yeah, I think that the biggest thing was just my mates did it, you know, and I just wanted to hang out with all my friends.
And like, if all my mates skateboarded, I probably would have been a skateboarder.
I probably would have went that direction.
Because I did have a skateboard and I would skateboard when my mates skateboarded.
I would ride a BMX where my mates rode a BMX.
And that was kind of the thing.
I would go to the skate park.
I was like, I don't know, I was like a treasure trove of action sports.
I would just bring like everything I could to the skate park just in case like more people were doing that.
I'd be like, okay, it's time for the skateboard today.
And then I would just do that.
And that's kind of like why I picked up scootering so much is just because, dude, my mates are doing it.
It was just the coolest vibe to go down the skate park, have your mates, learn new tricks, Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
So that's why I stick with the scooter, even though I got a lot of grief for it.
And at school, so it was just, were you an only child?
Yeah.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
And so, and you're, was your mom like supportive of you doing this kind of stuff?
Or did she think it was dangerous?
Or was she kind of a rebel?
What was she like?
My mom, so I did, I race BMX like on the dirt track, like just racing, like when I was like younger than when I rollbaited or at the same time, because my mom was like best in Queensland at racing BMX.
When she was young, she was like number one in Queensland, and then she started when I started again when she was like 30, and then she was number one again.
Really?
Yeah, my mum's crazy.
Bring up a picture of her again.
What's her name?
Oh, I got the best one.
You do?
I got a best video.
Search mother versus Mega Rant.
Mum versus Mega Ramp.
I got my mom to hit my Mega Rant.
No way.
Yeah, I swear.
I don't know what a Mega Ramp is, but I believe you.
I believe you.
I want to know more about it.
Just type in Mum.
Oh, yeah, that one.
It's that one there.
And then you're going to have to skip in a little bit, though.
Yeah, yeah.
Go back.
That's it.
Go back.
No, no, no.
A little bit further.
What actually, mom?
What's your name?
Back back, sorry.
My mum's name's Donna.
You can see her here.
Look, here we go.
See, she doesn't look that bad in a helmet.
Who's on the back?
No, she's dimed up.
That's my mate, Gekko.
Look at her go.
Donna, going.
She's had three beers, too, brother.
That Australian breakfast, dude.
Yeah.
Crazy.
See, you could do that.
Legend.
Oh, I could do that.
Definitely, dude.
I could definitely do that.
Yeah, Donna's throwing up fucking signs, dude.
The best thing is, she did it again.
She was like, that was it.
But she was like, oh, I didn't go fast enough.
I want to go higher.
Yeah.
So this is in your backyard at home?
Yeah, yeah.
I just bought this land.
It's called R-Willy Land.
It's like an action sports paradise for myself.
And I've just been building ramps and just progressing action sports.
Now, how, so, okay, a couple of things here.
So how, um, how how how big is this our willy land?
It's 40 acres.
Okay.
But it used, because it used to be a mango farm.
Oh, yeah.
They still got mangoes out there?
Yeah.
And they just fall off a tree.
Like, I'll be walking up to go to a tree.
A mango would just fall off and I'll just pick it up.
Oh, Australia.
God, it sounds good.
So good.
Oh, come for the freaking dangerous animals.
Stay for the free fruit, man.
So you got this park, and now how much does this park kind of cost to that kind of space?
Yeah, so I mean, the land's like over half a million for the land, but that's like that everywhere.
So it's like, that's general.
But the ramp is like $5,000.
And then for that big airbag thing, like it's a bag jump.
And that thing's like cost me like close to 50 grand.
Wow.
Yeah, but then I've got another one that's like a landing.
So like you switch, you go from that, that is what I practice my tricks on.
And like you can land on like your head and be kind of all right.
And then once you get your trick dialed, you switch it to the landing and then you can like fully land the trick, you know, like claim the new trick, you know?
Okay, so you would then move that out of that space and put the ramp in that you know you can land on.
Exactly.
Wow.
Is that a crazy day?
Oh man, it is like it's I've had it for like a year and a half now and it's just insane because the best thing is I have my mates from the skate park.
Obviously I got great opportunity with Nitro Circus.
You know, I got to ride these ramps and go to these places and like progress myself.
But my mates obviously stuck at home.
They didn't have anything like that.
So now it's so funny to see the mates that I grew up with like 10 years ago that were just riding the skate park.
Now they're riding like this mega ramp of mine and doing tricks that like no one else has done as well.
So they're progressing and becoming the best rider they can be because I've got it.
And it's a trick as well because I get like young scooter kids, like 10 year old kids coming in and doing double backflips.
And I'm like, what is even going on?
I was like, I don't even know what I was doing when I was 10. You're going to see, yeah, like they're passing.
It's like, oh, yeah.
Yeah, it's like, I'm sure it's interesting to be a part of the kind of the movement in a way.
Okay, so you get to this Nitrous Circuit.
Let's go back in time a little.
So you get onto this thing where you're going, now you're going to go tour in America.
Yeah.
So first.
You got signed the video.
You had some videos that got out and you got signed by Nitrous Circus.
Yeah.
So I did, I got signed by Nitro Circus, and the first one was actually in Australia.
And it was just like some company, Scooter Heart, they had paid to do advertising there.
And then Nitro Circus was like, oh, who are some scooter kids, like up-and-coming scooter kids that can come jump this ramp?
And I was one of them.
And I just, on my first show, I did like a world's first double front flip on scooter.
And then from then on, it was like, I was just on.
And it was just, it was mind-blowing.
I was like, holy, like, this is insane.
did you so at this point do you have like a girlfriend already at this point I was, because I was in school and that, and yeah, and it was like, obviously traveling and stuff, it was hard.
But this is like when I'm 17. So it was like a school girlfriend, you know?
Right.
And were you like, were you, were you becoming like a lot of pretty popular in your area and stuff like that?
Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely at the skate park.
And like at school, people knew I was like flying.
I literally was doing school Monday to Friday and then flying out and doing a Nitro Circus show and then flying home.
Damn.
And doing school.
So it was like a trip.
But yeah, I was kind of a nerd in school too.
So I finished school and got into university, but I didn't choose to do that.
You know, in Australia, do you have to go to university or you don't have to?
No, you can like drop out.
You can drop out early.
I could have already been out of school when I was doing Nitro Circus and just being like a laborer.
Right.
But you can go to, yeah.
It's pretty, it's like pretty.
Wow, West Eve is sick.
Yeah.
It's so good, man.
Okay, so then you get on this tour and you guys start to come to America.
Is your mom like stoked for you?
Is she disappointed?
Like, is she bummed that you're leaving?
Like, what are some of her thoughts?
Yeah.
She was like, obviously she was worried at the start.
You know, it's like, I'm risking my life kind of, and like, I could get really hurt.
Yeah, you're fucking around on a scooter.
No, I'm saying to me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There's always, until you make it and it's really professional.
Yeah.
Whatever any child I think is doing for their parents, the parents are always like, you're fucked.
What the fuck?
You know, you're fucking around.
You know, I want you to do well, but you're fucking around here.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Until you really start to do well.
And then she like gains, she obviously gained confidence in myself.
And I was pretty lucky with injury and just like being calculated and not just like throwing myself out there.
Because that's always been the biggest thing.
It's like, we're not dead evil.
It's like we are in a way, but we're all, I'm like calculating the risk.
It's like, is it worth doing this?
Is the reward worth it?
Yes.
Okay.
Send it.
Oops.
Broke my leg.
But it was worth it.
Yeah.
But yeah.
So I got a nut circus and then that's kind of when things started to really blow up for me.
And that's like when I started to really get a name.
And then that just made me more stoked to be writing and like do better because I was like, man, me having fun doing these tricks that I love doing is like progressing me through life.
This is like a trip.
Yeah.
It is crazy when like your dream or something that you're really putting energy into that the world kind of meets that like like starts to like kind of push that forward.
You're like, what?
This is crazy.
Like why me?
Like why do I get to have this like this?
Why do I get to be met this way by the flow of life?
I think honestly a huge thing for me too was the fact that you did get like I did get grief for riding a scooter.
You know I got bullied for riding a scooter by like other people.
Oh, probably, dude, if I drove by, I yelled something.
But then that was like, that's like sick.
Like whatever.
I just took it right on the chin and was like, I'm going to be so good that you can't not be impressed.
That was like, that was it.
That's like, was my driving force, like my fire in my belly.
It was like, all right, so you think that this is so bad that you can't be cool.
Well, I'm going to be so good that you start to think it's cool.
Right.
That you can't help but think it's good.
Yeah, there's something nice about that.
Wow, that's crazy.
You have that desire to be fucking undeniable, that desire to like prove people wrong, even if it's just a general, not even an exact person, but a general people.
And so, and what about your mom?
Did she get remarried?
She got to man or no?
Yeah, yeah, she is now, but that was a while into it.
It's funny.
So my mom worked at Australia Zoo.
I don't know if you've ever heard of Australia Zoo.
Yeah, I might have been over there.
I can't remember.
The one where you get to hold the koala?
Yeah, the koalas and everything.
They got all the birds.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, they got a gang, gang bird over there, actually.
Yeah, so she worked there and then met the tiger, the tiger handler.
She's really, yeah.
And then now she's married to the tiger handler.
Damn.
He's petting that cat, boy.
That's insane, dude.
Sorry, I know that your mom.
No, no, it's chilling.
But that's, you know, that's how it works.
That's really, that's God, bro.
She actually lives at my house, too.
She does?
Yeah.
So it's pretty cool.
Yeah, well, because so what happened was I was growing when I was growing up, obviously it was hard for my mom.
And your dad was just gone?
He just was.
No, he wasn't gone.
He was like...
And it was just like, I thought it was actually kind of cool because I didn't really know what was going on.
I was so young.
It was like, cool.
I get to go on holidays.
I get to go down there and ride different skate parks.
Sick.
So, yeah.
So that wasn't like, it was fun.
And I see my dad here and there.
And my dad actually lives at the land now.
So my dad lives at the land where, and because he's an excavator driver, so I like employed him basically to be the groundskeeper Willie.
Right.
And then my mom lives at my house that I live in.
That's crazy.
That's a trip.
So now they're almost all back on the same area.
Yeah, kind of, yeah.
My mom stays away from him.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, well, she got what she needed out of him.
True.
Okay, so once you get on some of these tours, right?
So you get on, are you on the tours when you start to get onto some of these Nitra circus, right?
Yeah.
Is that, who's on these types of tours?
What types of people is it?
Oh, yeah.
Is it like a carnival kind of, like, does it have that vibe?
At that time, what was the vibe like of it?
It was pretty gnarly.
When I first got on, it was like, I don't know if you've ever heard of the Metal Militia.
Yeah, that's...
Yeah, Brian Deegan, yeah.
Yeah, I spoke to them yesterday, actually.
No way.
Yeah, actually, I called him.
I was like, hey, tell me about this R Willie guy.
I was like, you know, just let me know a little bit more.
But he said a lot of nice things, man.
Yeah, so they were like, back in the day, they were like pretty gnarly.
So when I got on, they were going straight from like metal militia.
There was a few metal militia guys on Nitro Circus, but Nitro Circus was like steered towards, it also had that like gnarliness, but it also had like the family vibe.
Like we had funny like contraptions.
Like we would literally, we still have it.
It's like we would have this with wheels on it and it jumps the ramp.
Oh, that's cool.
So it was like there was that kid vibe as well, like the family vibe.
So there really is like a circus vibe to it in a way.
Yeah, yeah, kind of like a family circus like action sports vibe.
Thanks, bro.
Yeah, because the circ when I was a kid, you know, what came to town sometime was the circus, Barnum's and Bailey.
Two men.
I think one of them was a black dude.
I don't know.
You never saw the men, but one of them had like a whip or something.
But they came to town and they would have like the tent, you know.
And they'd have the guy who would swing and, you know, he would do a flip and then catch the other bar and like then he would light him on fire or something, swing him back.
They'd have an elephant, somebody do a back flip off an elephant.
So you had like, that was like a circus, you know, that was like a circus that came to town.
They didn't have like the crazy trick.
But it was like a row.
Ours is like a rowdy circus because it was like these guys are just like mischiefs.
A lot of them were like just mischiefs.
And then like now we're in the limelight.
When I first got on, it was pretty crazy.
Like the after parties were pretty narrow.
And I'm 17 years old.
Damn.
So were you going to these places?
Is this some of the first time you drank and stuff?
You've been drinking with your mates and stuff back there.
I drank a little bit like in Australia we drink pretty young which is kind of like yeah yeah When you guys die, when you guys die, you're like, I've done it.
Yeah, I've done it.
Yeah, for sure.
You guys get the most out of the world, it seems like.
Yeah, for sure.
But so, yeah, it was pretty wild.
So can you drink and stuff at these parties afterwards?
Are you like, it's pretty chill?
Yeah, it was chill.
Like, and because it was Nitro Circus, like, I would be able to drink and go out, and it was cool.
And it was just like wild because these dudes were like superstars.
And I was just like the scooter kid.
It was actually kind of funny.
When I first got on, Nitro Circus, they were like, we want him out of our skate parks.
We're going to let him jump the ramp.
Hopefully he crashes and like hurts himself kind of deal.
Like they wanted me, I was like a sideshow at the start.
I was like the sideshow.
So it was like, but I didn't care.
I was 17 years old.
Like, oh my God, this is crazy.
And are you guys, you guys, you're going on tour buses?
What are you guys on?
We would fly, but we also would do a tour buses sometime.
But that was like when we did Europe tour.
So that was a little bit later, maybe two or three years into doing the touring.
Okay.
That's when we got on the buses.
So you guys pull into like a venue and it's like, is it outdoors?
Is it in stadiums?
Or what kind of venues are we talking about?
What is it?
We've done both.
So we did like a Staple Center.
done Madison Square Gardens and that's Yeah, that is wild.
That's when we do like a bus tour.
And it's a trip because you do this massive show in front of 10,000 plus people.
You party, go to sleep on the bus, wake up in a different state, and then do it again.
Yeah.
Like three, sometimes three nights in a row.
Damn, bro.
Yeah.
Yeah, I just got a, we just got a tour bus.
We're getting our first one starting this week, next week or something.
Yeah.
So I'm excited to have like a little bit of a change of pace.
But yeah, that thing where you like leave late at night and you just wake up and you're somewhere else.
That's pretty cool.
It's a trip.
Especially in Europe, it's like a trip because wake up in a different country and it's like totally different.
You're like, what is going on?
It's like you had a weird dream and now you're time traveled.
So had you finished school?
So you're out doing this thing?
Are you graduated or no?
Yeah, so I just passed schooling, like primary, high schooling, right?
Chris Lilly.
You know, he's like, Miss.
We're looking at the show.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Summer Heights High.
Yeah, Summer Heights High.
Is it really like that over there?
You know what?
It kind of is.
It's not even a bad representation.
Yeah, it's awesome.
Yeah.
I love that, dude.
That was one of the best things when I tour in Australia.
I got to meet Chris Lilly, and that was pretty cool.
Yeah, he's a legend.
Oh, dude.
Unprecedented.
That show over in Australia, that's like one of the best shows.
Everyone knows it.
A lot of people here still don't know.
Chris, have you ever seen Summer Heights High?
Wow.
You got to watch it.
Bro, when somebody hasn't seen it, I get so jealous because their life's going to be so much better.
It'll change.
Bro, if your relationship's bad, sit down and watch that together.
I'll watch it.
There you go.
That is it.
That's perfect.
Very, very, very.
Good answer there.
Okay, so you're on this tour.
You guys are doing this tour.
You're like going to different cities and stuff, and that's in the U.S., right?
It's your first time in the U.S. U.S. and Europe.
I did do like a little scooter trip when I was really young for the U.S. But the biggest like the actual tours and the full-on experiencing the USA, yeah, was on Nitro Circus tours on a bus and flying a lot.
Has anybody ever paid you to do like a private party or something like that?
I've done like cool camps for kids and like done like in Canada I went to this all-in skate park and like just spent a week with kids and taught them.
It was pretty crazy actually.
I was filming YouTube videos and these kids were just so stoked that I would like get so much content because these kids would just send themselves and like I got some wild clips of these kids just sending it, you know?
Really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Is this, are there times where you do you ever meet a kid and you're like, oh, that kid's going to die, you know?
Yeah.
There's a few, there's a few like, I'm like, oh, I think I'm wild, but these, these kids, dude.
You got to get a mark and put a little star on their shoulder or something.
You know what I'm saying?
Just to watch out.
Keep tabs.
Yeah.
All right.
So once you really get, so once you like, at this point, your career is going, like, are you, are they paying you?
Like, what is that whole process like?
Yeah, so obviously when I first got on Nitro, it was like, I was 17 years old.
So I was, it was great money for then.
Right.
Happy to be there.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
They give you a thousand bucks a week.
You're like, this is amazing.
But then I think about three years in, that's when I was like making a living, you know?
Or not even that, actually, probably, probably a year after starting with Nitro, then I was like, okay, I can literally do this for a job.
Wow.
Yeah.
And then eventually, like, I bought my first house when I was 21. Damn.
And then, yeah.
And then just kept going from there.
Like, crazy to ride a scooter and then like to make such a good living.
It's just, it's a trip.
Yeah.
One thing I noticed about you, even in watching some of your own podcast clips and stuff, is just like your enthusiasm and like your kind of like, just your excitement that this is your life.
You know, like sometimes I embrace that stuff like kind of cautiously.
Like I'm almost not ashamed of my life, but sometimes I get embarrassed that I make money or embarrassed that I, you know, have like, you know, you seem to just kind of wear it, just kind of more like excited.
Like, I can't believe I get to do this and this is it.
Yeah, well, I always just want to be out of like, I want to show, like, I want to, I want people to see that Like, you can be a 12-year-old scooter kid down the skate path.
Like, literally, you can be that kid and then make a living out of it when no one really, like, ever thought you would.
So, it's like you can pave your own path.
It doesn't matter if the path isn't there yet.
You can make your own path.
And then, like, that's why I'm so stoked.
I'm like, dude, I'm here with you on your podcast.
And I've watched you for so long.
Yeah.
And then now I'm here.
And the reason I'm here is just because I'm so stoked to be riding a scooter.
And I literally am here because I didn't listen to the person that told me that I couldn't do anything riding a scooter.
You know, if I listened to that person and go, mate, you're not going to do anything riding a scooter.
Or the thousands of people that told me that actually, if I listened to even one of those people, I wouldn't be sitting here today so stoked with my life.
So it's like, I just want to inspire people to just keep pushing on and believing in whatever you're doing.
It doesn't matter.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, that's a unique gift you have, man.
Because, yeah, it's like, you make me more stoked to be here today.
I like Joe Doggin.
And I was like excited, you know, because I'm a fan and I wanted to learn.
I want to learn about, you know, what you do and what goes into it and stuff.
But then when I see you, it's like you're so excited.
I'm like, fuck, now I have to be more excited because I have to meet you at a certain level of excitement.
Where do you get that from?
Do you think you get that from one of your folks, actually?
Yeah, I don't know, actually.
The people around me.
Like, Travis Fostrana was a huge inspiration to me.
And it wasn't just because of the things that he's done.
And he's done things that other people could maybe do now.
But the thing is that inspires me about Travis Restrana is the fact that he can bring the best out of the people around him.
Oh, wow.
The funniest thing, we're on tour right now with Nitro Circus, and we're doing the show, and he's not at the shows.
And then he turned up for one show, and that show was like the best show we did because of the energy that he brings and just the level.
He just lifts you to a new level, like just with his presence.
And like, that's what inspires me.
That's what I'm trying to reach now.
It's like, can I be that guy that when the scooter kids, like when the scooter kids around me, BMX kids around me, they just get that little extra like boost, you know?
Like, oh, let's see what we can do.
He's here.
Yeah.
How can I be that guy?
That is the cool.
I think that is like the coolest thing about Travis Ostrana.
And that's like what inspires me to just be stoked.
Yeah.
For many people in the U.S. of America concerned about the cost of health insurance, there are no good options.
There's none.
Zilto.
But CrowdHealth is a community of people who are tired of paying for a broken system.
Yep.
It's a place where you can get a simple, flexible, and affordable way to pay for your health care.
CrowdHealth is able to offer amazing prices because of its community of health-conscious members.
For a limited time, our listeners get their first month free.
And after you've been a member, CrowdHealth will include a fitness wearable.
That's 30 days to try risk-free plus the fitness wearable.
Just go to crowdhealth.com slash fit and enter code Theo at sign up.
Enter that code, baby.
You want to get that crowd health.
You want everybody helping you breathing into your lungs.
You want that CPR.
You want that damn Heimlich.
You want it all.
And that's crowdhealth.com slash fit.
Promo code Theo.
Yep, crowd health is not health insurance.
It's a community-powered alternative.
Terms and conditions apply.
If you're sick of big health insurance and the BS that goes with it, go to CrowdHealth.
Go to joincrowdhealth.com slash fit and enter code Theo.
Learn about it.
Crowdhealth.
Look, it's tough when you're looking for insurance online.
It's aggravating.
You don't want to do it.
It feels overwhelming a lot of times.
It feels like too much.
That's what I've noticed.
Well, times have changed.
Thanks to the zebra.
The zebra is that striped, sneaky, prison-looking animal.
Yep.
You can compare car and home insurance quotes from every major insurance company in under five minutes, giving you all the facts you need to make the right decision.
In fact, the zebra saves people an average of $922 a year on home and auto combined.
It's a lot of money.
It's an extra G. Get yourself a swing set or get something for the children.
Get a teeter-totter for your daddy.
Yep, the zebra's helped me.
It can help you.
Compare quotes for free at thezebra.com slash T-H-E-O and support the podcast.
That's at thezebra.com slash Theo.
Save time and money in minutes on your home and auto insurance.
What gifts is, what does Pastrano have that makes him, that gives him that ability, you think?
Or what is it about him?
The thing is, it's how great he is, right?
The accomplishments that he's done.
Right, so he has his work that he's, yeah.
Yeah, but he's, so he's so good.
He is like up there.
You know, like, he's a, everyone kind of knows him.
It's like, he's like a Tony Hawk as well.
Like, he's that level.
And you like think, okay, he's that level.
Like, he probably doesn't have that much time, but he does for everybody.
He's like everyone's best friend.
And that was the trippiest thing for me when I got on Nitric was the first show on this scooter kid and I do this well first.
And I remember after I did it, I was like so stoked.
But the biggest thing I remember from that day is writing back to the start rant and Travis high-fived me and going, dude, that was sick.
Like that was so cool.
And I was like, I was like, wow, like this is insane that this guy that I hold up like this, like I've held up, inspired me to even start for him to just give me that.
It was like a year's worth of excitement in one second.
Wow.
Yeah, it's so amazing, man, when you have like somebody that you really idolize or you really put on a pedestal and they have a little bit of time for you or they have like an encouragement that really helps, you know?
Man, the power of that is almost unprecedented, really, I think.
I think that, And I always keep that in mind because we obviously do these Nitro Sega shows, and it's like there's thousands of people there, and like kids will want to come get a photo, take a picture, get an autograph.
It's like, and that's why I always remember.
I always remember like five seconds of Travis Festrana's time was like a year's worth of just excitement for me.
So it's like, if I can give a kid five seconds of my time and that it means that much to him, I'm going to give that kid that five seconds every single time.
Yeah.
It keeps you stoked.
And so y'all's show, so you said you hit a first trick and that was on one of the Nitresses, on one of the.
Yeah, yeah.
So it was just a double front flip on scooter and like no one had ever tried it.
And what you did, we saw earlier was a triple.
Triple, yeah.
So that evolved, obviously, into that triple.
And did you start to, when you got on the tour, prepping for that trick, you'd already done it in practice?
I had tried, so when I first got on the show, I tried it in practice and crashed it twice.
Okay.
So that's what made the moment so special is that like it was my first show.
I'm obviously like so excited like and so nervous.
But to ace that trick, it was like it was like something happened.
Like it was like the trajectory of my life just went.
And I was like, okay, I'm doing it.
Wow.
Damn.
You must feel like there's like a higher power or something that has a hand in that when you, because it just the science and everything to like flip off of something and just have it be perfect in a moment where it's like in a real show.
Yeah.
Well, that's, I think that that's where I've done really well.
Like I never think that I'm someone that is physically built better or like wired better than anybody else.
I think I just managed to like succeed when it's most important.
It's like at X Games, it's like I need to do land this trick now and then I'll just land it.
But I obviously do the preparation, but for some reason it's just sick to in moments of when I need to do it, I got it done.
And I think that's the main reason why I got to where I am today.
And it's like it's wild.
It's a gift.
I mean, it's, yeah, it almost feels like you're favored in some sense.
Yeah.
Obviously, and I just thank whatever the driving force is, thank you.
And I try to thank it every day.
And I try to give back like my positivity to the people around me because maybe that'll turn their trajectory.
You know, maybe that'll, you know, that one moment might change their life and they might do something better and be better in the end.
Yeah.
No, man, it's inspired.
Even sitting with you makes me feel a little bit better than when I wasn't sitting with you.
Thanks, Anne.
To be honest, you've got to give yourself some appreciation, too.
I think that you, I mean, you probably realize, like, I'm sure a lot of people like write in and tell you how happy you make their lives.
And I'm sure you make people's days so like much better just by listening to you talk.
And I think that's amazing.
And I think that's why you deserve to be paid for what you do.
And you work hard.
So it's like you deserve it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's funny.
Sometimes I have a tough time thinking that I deserve things, you know?
And I don't know where that comes from.
I think it comes from.
I don't know.
Trying to find it.
You just got to find it.
Yeah.
And sometimes I'll try to, it takes a while sometimes to find things like that when you're really trying to figure out where they're from, you know?
Yeah, for sure.
But yeah, I've always struggled feeling like I deserve stuff, you know.
But that's okay.
I hope to be able to figure it out, and I'm sure that I will.
Yeah.
So you get in.
So when do you get into like at some point you win, you won a couple of competitions, right?
I know I read this, and Deegan was talking with me about it.
So what happened?
Like that was kind of like another thing that changed.
Yeah, so the shows are huge.
And then they had a thing called Nitro World Games, and it was like a competition now.
So they changed the show, changed it to a competition.
And it was obviously the X Games.
And that was a huge one that I wanted to do.
But obviously, I was like a scooter rider and a BMX rider at a certain point.
It's a funny story, actually.
So I rode BMX at the skate park here and there, but it wasn't like my profession, right?
And then at Nitro Circus, I was doing tricks on a scooter that had never been done on a BMX bike.
Wait, hold on.
So you're doing tricks on a scooter that's never been done on a BMX bike?
Yeah, yeah.
You can do the same tricks.
Obviously, just a different vehicle.
So I was doing tricks that I could do on a scooter that no one had never done on BMX.
And so did someone challenge you to do it on the BMX?
That's it.
They were like, the only reason you can do this is because you're on a scooter.
And I was like, you know what?
I reckon that's not true.
And I ended up borrowing one of their bikes, like one of the other guys on tour.
I borrowed their bike and I did the trick.
I think that was like first try.
I did it.
And then that's when I was like, here we go.
X-Games Dream.
I can reach it.
All I have to do is bring these scooter tricks over to the BMX world because no one's doing it for some reason because they think it's lame or something.
And I'm like, oh, well, I don't mind.
I'll just do the lame tricks then and win.
I'll just be the lame legend.
Sorry, if you need me, I'll be in lame land up here, drinking lame, baby.
Up there, dog.
Damn.
That's beautiful, dude.
So now at that point, did you win that thing?
Yeah, so I won the Nitro World Games.
The first year it happened, I actually lost the Scooter competition and won the BMX competition, which is kind of hilarious.
And then came back the next year and I won Scooter and BMX.
And then I think it was like the year after I finally got on X Games.
And then, yeah, I've won three X Games golds now.
Has anybody won three X Games golds or no?
So, yeah, people have won.
Like, Travis has won so many.
I think he's got like some of the most, but like, they're after in the 20s, you know?
But that, I think, so I did accomplish something recently.
I won, I was the first person to do three golds in a row on the mega ramp.
So for some reason, for 20 years, it had never happened that a person had consecutively won three gold medals in a row on the mega ramp.
And it made me so nervous.
Really?
Because I was coming into the third one, like, oh, here we go.
Like, time just kept repeating itself.
I think, like, five people before me had won it twice, and then they lost the third time.
So I was like, here we go.
So the third time, is there a video there?
You go X Games, Ryan Williams X Games, 2018, I think.
Try.
I'll tell you straight away.
No, no, Go 19. Not that one.
The real cost big yeah, but it's a full broadcast.
Go, go the second, go to the next one now.
Yeah, try that one real quick.
So this isn't a winning run, but you'll see like if I crash, it's not it.
No, that was just keep skipping in, sorry.
Oh, hang on.
This is going to play all of them.
This is good.
This is good, actually.
So keep it rolling.
So that was, this was the first time I won, and this was in Australia.
So my first time I ever won X Games was in Australia.
My whole family there, I paid for everyone to fly down and stay there.
And it was like so incredible because that was like my dream achieved, you know?
A gold medal at the X Games.
Oh, man, it's not this one, though.
Go back to the search.
A little bit, honestly.
At that point, dude.
I know.
I had to dial it back, dude.
I don't know what I was doing.
You were going big, dude, but you had a total.
It was like a real Karen kind of haircut, I feel like, at that point.
It's hard to.
Beautiful, though.
Very nice.
Try the second one.
I really want to show you this one because this is.
This is it.
This is it.
I had to do the craziest thing at the start.
This was the gnarliest thing I've ever done.
I've never done a backflip drop in.
Wow.
Yes.
And then I nearly missed up the rant.
I wrote up like, oh, fuck.
The tiniest part of the rant.
And then I'm like, here, I'm like, oh, gosh, I got to land this, got to land this, got to land, this, got to land this, got to land this.
Did it.
Oh, man.
And it was, it was such a trip because everyone was doing so well.
Yeah, I was stoked.
Wow, bro.
Man, I was so stoked.
Can we go back one day?
It'll be a slow-mo replay, I think it will.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, look how stoked you are.
Man, you got to carry your own bike down?
Well, do you think someone's going to run up and just bring it down at that point?
Yeah.
Some sort of concierge here, you can see.
So you've never done that before.
And what made you do that?
Can we just pause it right there?
I wanted to win the third in a row, dude.
I have to.
Oh, so you're thinking, what can I do that'll be different?
I need to do it.
Yeah, no, like, guys are doing tricks into it.
Morgan Wade, he, like, did a double tail whip into it, and, like, guys are 360 into it.
So they were stepping it up, and I knew that I had to do something that had never been done before to get the win.
Like, they weren't going to give it to me easily.
So I was just like, I have to just do this.
Did you feel like you had extra pressure to try and get the win?
Like, they were going to judge you even more harsh because you already had two in a row.
Like, it's a little bit tougher to get the third one.
Yeah, I had to send it.
Like, I wasn't holding back.
And I would have just done it anyway.
Like, even if I, like, in the moment, it was for Dave, Dave Mira.
So he, he passed away recently.
And, yeah, and he actually was the first guy I ever seen do a backflip drop in.
So I was like, when I'm at the top, I'm actually like, this is for you, Dave.
This is for you, Mira, as I'm at the top.
And then I just hawked it, man.
And it was crazy.
Like, it's like moments like this.
The moments like this is the, it just trips me out.
And then I nearly rode off the side of the ramp going, like, this is obviously one of my, it was one of my signature tricks that I brought from the scooter world, right?
Wow.
So there you go.
And what's that trick called?
That's called a nothing front bike flip.
Of course it is.
Or until we twist the inside joke on tour, but.
And then here, so you lean that energy forward kind of, but not all the way through.
No, I have to be really light, though.
Right.
Because that ramp's 27 and a half foot tall.
So it's like if you come off at all, like you are hurting yourself real bad.
Yeah, so it's a trip, man.
So what, and where do they measure the ramps from?
Where do they measure that 27 feet?
Where do they start that?
So from the, where it starts to go up.
So from the bottom of the ramp to the coping, which is the metal like part across, that's like 27 and a half foot.
And I think it's like there's some two foot of vert or something.
So vert is just straight up.
Okay.
And so when you get to like the peak of the ramp, right?
You have to be careful not to drift forward.
Well, literally, you don't, yeah, you don't want to go forward.
It's harder to go into the ramp than it is.
It's easy to come out.
Like the thing is, that's the scariest part about that ramp is you're going so fast that literally if I went like this, if I went like that, I would go 16, I would go so far up to flat that I would break my legs.
Jesus.
Damn, bro.
So that's why in that moment, man, I am like, that is the most wide I've ever been in my life is when I'm doing that.
I'm like, if I don't do the right thing right now, I am going to get really, really hurt.
Okay, so you're going up, you're heading up the ramp.
What is the right thing at that point?
Like what's the right amount of...
It's just, it's kind of like, it's like the writing with your eyes closed.
It gets built into you, right?
Yeah.
Like, I know that this will do this, right?
So it's like, I remember I just, I remembered that I'd done, I'd landed that trick before, the front flip one.
So I knew, okay, this is what I have to do.
I'm going really fast, but I just got to like chill.
It's almost like I just float off the ramp.
So I rode up and I just got to like, I don't, I don't want to initiate.
It's not like the triple front flip.
Total opposite to the front flip.
Right, you're not trying to just initiate a lot of I'm like this, like literally, I'll pretend I'm doing it right now.
I'm going up and I'll go like this.
Like that, like that much.
And then you just and then you just hold on, baby.
You're on the roller coaster with no, you're not strapped in.
Is your eyes open or not?
Yeah, eyes are wide open.
But you don't, at the start, it's kind of blind because I'm looking at the sky, you know, I'm not looking at the ground.
And then I'll be looking at the ground.
That's kind of the scariest part of that trick.
Okay, as well.
Because for a second, I'm like, am I out?
Am I on top of the ramp?
Or am I perfectly transitioned into coming in?
And I like, look, you can see, so I go, ooh, and then I, see, I'm blind.
See, I'm like looking at, I was looking at the roof For a bit, and then all of a sudden, as I'm coming down, I look.
Okay, now I'm coming in.
I'm not landing flat, I'm not hitting the top of the ramp, I'm coming in smooth.
That would be the moment when you're like, I'm gonna land it.
Sweet.
Wow.
Yeah.
Because I've already played it through the simulator, right?
And I'm like, this is what I'm expecting to see.
And then that moment I've seen that, there we go.
Let's roll away.
Damn, bro.
That's fire.
Wow.
I wish I knew how to do something like that.
Whenever I come to Queensland, dude, I'm going to have to go to R. Willie Land and go on and do something.
Do the truck.
I'll keep the truck spare for you.
My mom's truck.
No, I need something better than that.
Oh, yeah?
Okay.
I think so, dude.
Look, the trike, look, all respect to your mom.
All respect to Donna, man.
She obviously fucking has done her work, you know, but I think what's next up from a trike, you think?
A BMX bike?
Could someone handle that or not?
Is that a bad thing?
Yeah, like a mountain bike is kind of pretty sturdy.
Okay.
And you just go off it really?
You heard a bike?
Huh?
That's what I was going to ask you.
Have you ever done an extreme sport?
Like skateboarding or anything, like roll around?
No, they didn't have a lot.
A lot of skateboarders' bus just really were just doing drugs.
They owned the boards, but they was mostly just for setting their drugs on while they would roll them up.
But we didn't have a lot of, I'm trying to think if we had extreme sports bus.
We had these guys that used to shoot these potato guns, like they had like a rest area bus.
I don't know if they have it on, and maybe in Australia, your whole country is like a rest area, actually, but it's like a rest area is like a place where you stop on the side of the interstate when you're driving.
Yeah, yeah.
And people like get out to use a restroom and drink water, change the baby, you know, usually have a cigarette and then get back in the van and keep going, you know, sometimes beat the kids or whatever.
But if they've been bad.
Yeah, yeah.
But not, but anyway, by us, there was one of those, and behind it, they had a river.
And a lot of gay men would meet up at these places because it was like a, you know, it was like on the outskirts of town and stuff.
So gay men would meet up over there and, you know, do drugs and make out and stuff.
And across the river, that's where I lived.
So a lot of men over there, some of them would, not a lot, but they had these two guys that would make like these potato gun launchers.
And if like a lot of like real high men were making out of something, they would shoot potatoes over near them.
Oh, no way.
Pretty messed up.
I mean, they weren't trying to endanger them or anything.
I think they just didn't want to.
Yeah, I think they just didn't want them doing a lot of drugs and making out in the water.
They didn't want anybody to drown because some men had drowned.
So it was almost like lifeguarding a little bit.
But that was like the most extreme sport I ever saw was people with these potato guns, you know?
Yeah.
I think anyway.
You rode a bike?
Yeah, I rode a bike, yeah.
But I never really thought much of it.
We used to build the ramp, you know.
Somebody always liked the ramp was a poorly built, and this part would come out, and then somebody, the handlebar would turn and went into some guy's body one time, I remember.
Yeah.
But pretty shit.
We were pretty shit X gamers.
Well, that's right.
But I think I could probably get out there.
I would love to get out there and try something.
That would be sick.
I could teach you safely to do it too.
Yeah.
We could get you flying.
Yeah, I think I'd be willing to.
So what is the future of this whole sport kind of look like?
What is a mechanism, like not the bike or the scooter?
What's something that came out that people thought was going to be like the next thing that people were going to use for tricks that kind of didn't make it?
Have there been?
Rollblades kind of died off now.
Rollerblades were pretty big.
Back when I started doing it, it was kind of like still around, still in the X games.
But then rollerblading has dropped off a fair bit.
But there's still insane dudes doing the rollerblades.
Maybe like a ripstick?
I don't know.
You know what a ripstick is?
The one where people go like this?
To get speed?
It's like one wheel and it goes like that.
Let's see that.
Can we pull that up?
A ripstick.
It's kind of like the weird.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
You seen that thing?
I think I've seen that.
I think that you might find this a bit like even worse than rollerblading.
Yeah.
I love it all.
If you want to ride a ripstick, man, ride a ripstick.
Yeah.
Actually, it looks pretty fun, actually.
I think, yeah, I'm trying to think.
We had a place called Roller Kingdom Bus where we'd have all our birthday parties.
And, dude, this one kid, this kid Jeremy, who we were buddies with, at the birthday parties, he would go and get all the gum from like under the tables and make a huge, like, and by the end of the birthday party, he would be chewing the biggest gum, dude.
He was twisted, bro.
That's crazy.
Oh, he was so twisted, dude.
And he did it every fucking time, bro.
He just had this ultimate thing of gum, dude.
And nobody would even, his parents, I guess, weren't paying attention to him because when they came to pick him, they wouldn't even ask him.
He couldn't even open his mouth one day.
He had so much fucking gum in it.
He's just breathing through his nose.
And his mom's like, you're doing great, Jeremy, you know?
So, fucking, that's an X game right now.
Yeah, that's pretty extreme.
Yeah, so that's the kind of extreme sports that we had, I feel like.
Nice.
A bit more like that.
What about the motorized thing that I see with the one wheel in the middle?
Yeah, that thing's wild.
I've seen some people lately doing some pretty crazy jumps on that.
I think things just keep evolving.
And there's so many crazy sports.
People ride a pogo stick professionally.
Yeah.
And I kind of think that's like, I can't say anything.
I just appreciate it.
Like, whatever.
If you find it fun, man, just do it.
But it's pretty wild that you can be a professional pogo sticker.
Yeah, yeah.
I wonder if they could do a pogo stick with a wheel on it.
I wonder if they could do...
You know, Heelys?
Oh, yeah.
They dropped off.
Yeah, they did drop off.
You know, there was one, there used to be soap shoes, they're called.
And people literally would have grind plates on their shoes and they would just run and jump and grind downstairs.
That's one that's 100% dropped off, but people were doing it.
Soap?
Soap shoes.
S-O-A-P?
S-O-U-P, yeah.
I think.
That's soup.
Soap.
S-O-A-P.
Yeah, that's soap or shoes.
You see any Chris?
I think I've seen some dudes do some pretty gnarly rails on it.
Yeah.
So that's mostly for rail slides and stuff like that.
This is a full movie.
Look at this.
I think I've seen part of this.
It's hilarious.
Sober die.
Ryan.
What?
Damn.
You didn't even know that.
Yeah, you go to like there.
That'd be right.
Ryan's CUK.
And here he is.
Here, look.
This is it.
See?
On the rail, man.
Ah, so the shoes have just like a place in the middle.
Prime plate.
Wow.
Yeah, this is one that didn't take off.
Well, it like, I guess it had a time for like a year, and then I don't know now.
I guess because once you land, you can't like then.
You just run.
I don't know.
I get it.
I think they like run off.
It's like that free running, you know?
Yeah, parkour.
Yeah, and that's.
That never really took off.
But people still do it, and that's just kind of like just running around.
Yeah.
Like, it's like practicing running away from like something.
Yeah, like I'm going to trick the cops or something.
It's almost like athletic.
A lot of parkour people, I think, are athletic graffiti people.
It's like a little, it seems like a side, like a side muscle.
Yeah, for graffiti people.
Like, I'm going to paint this later, but watch first.
I'm going to run, you know, I feel like.
That could actually be pretty cool if that free running incorporated with graffiti.
Like, they do the graffiti on the run.
Yeah, I wonder if there's a way where they, as they went up, like, say they go up a ramp, right?
Or a vert, what is that called?
Just a ramp.
A ramp.
Yeah.
So then if they had a wall while they're up there and like each time they went up, they had to paint something.
And then by the end of like, you know, after six times of going up, then they had like a piece of art up there.
I'm just trying to think, do you see something as being like the next thing?
Because something always kind of comes along.
Like you're saying, it's like, you know, a new mode of transportation comes along.
And then that's what.
I don't know.
Like the thing is.
Unicycle is or unicycling?
Yeah, people literally do tricks on that.
I think it's crazy.
These days, anything can just become something.
You know, it's like TikTok is now huge when five years ago, I didn't even know what that was.
Yeah.
You know, it's just like the niche.
It's just something happens and then it just sticks.
They're just throwing shit at the wall and then it just sticks.
Oh, everyone's like, fuck, I want to throw shit at that shit at the wall too.
Yeah.
Why do Australians, why are you guys such a practice facility for insane shit?
It's out of you guys in New Zealanders.
It always is, I feel like.
Yeah, I don't know.
I guess it's in our heritage.
But I guess we've just all, we're always just being that kind of loose cannon vibe.
And then it's just stuck.
Like, I'm super proud to be Australian.
And when I think of an Australian, I think of like someone that's just like outgoing, gonna try something like crazy.
Yeah.
You know, just for no, I don't even know why.
We just do it.
It's like just built into us.
Yeah, is Blockovic?
Is he New Zealand?
Blockovich?
No, he's.
He's a UFC guy?
You know what I'm talking about?
Yeah, yeah.
Dan Blockovich.
Isn't he European?
He's a European, I think.
He was New Zealand.
I thought he was.
There's Israel Adasania.
Yeah, there's Izzy.
There's Dan Hooker, who I love.
Yeah, funny man.
Robert Whitaker, Australian.
Oh, really?
Ty to Ivasa, the guy that's the shoes?
Yeah, dude.
I almost got to meet him at the Fourier fight.
Yeah, sick.
Yeah, he's a freaking...
Those guys are great.
Is there...
Do you ever feel like you've kind of achieved all that you can?
Or what do you think?
Yeah, that kind of looks sometimes.
Actually, that's one thing that kind of gets to me sometimes is that like, why am I doing this?
You know, you like look around and you see like people that have a job that is care, like you care, that cares for someone or they look out for someone and you're like, wow, that really matters.
Like you're a doctor that really, really helps someone.
And then sometimes I'm like, well, I'm just here just spinning around doing circles.
And people like to watch it, but what am I really bringing?
And sometimes that gets to me because I'm like, why am I risking it myself to just do these stunts when like, what are they really achieving?
But they do it.
People are inspired by it to do anything.
They might even just be inspired to go harder in their own life in whatever they're doing.
So it's like.
And I'm sure you see kids that remind you of yourself probably.
Yeah, 100%.
And that's why I am always pushing.
And the craziest thing is the tricks I'm doing, I was doing 10 years ago, everyone's doing now.
So it's like, I think the same way.
Whatever I'm doing now, whatever I do to push the limits here today, that's just going to make action sports even crazier in the long run.
It's just going to level up action sports.
So the harder I can go, the harder it's going to, like, the crazier it's going to be in the future.
Is there a chance?
So you see sometimes you would see like that man drops in from outer space or something with the Red Bull stuff, you know, the guy, you know, Danny, whatever his name is, he jumps off of something and lands.
Is there a way that you could do like a drop into a ramp, but from like an insanely high place, like off of a building and then still hit the like land it?
Yeah.
Yeah, come in at a certain place on the ramp where you could still then go do something?
Is something like that?
That's crazy.
Like I'd love to do something like that.
I've always imagined like maybe doing a trick, like a world's first or something new across two buildings or something like that.
But Robbie Madison is a guy that did.
He jumped onto the luge, I think, or something.
Like, I think it was just the one in Vegas, though.
Like, it's like the building with the archway.
He jumped up it and then turned around and then jumped off into a ramp.
Wow.
Yeah, Robbie Madison.
Did he really?
Can we look at that real quick?
Yeah, it was wild.
I don't know.
I feel like there'd be a lot of Vietnamese kids doing this.
Is there like a lot of Asian kids that do this sport?
Do you notice?
BMX is popping off in Japan because they just had the Olympics.
And shout out to Logan Martin.
He won the Olympic gold medal, the first ever BMX, Olympic gold medal.
Oh, because it was the first time they ever had BMX in the thing.
First time they had BMX, first time they had skateboarding.
Yeah, this is it.
So he jumps up, right?
Yeah.
Which is gnarly.
So gnarly.
And then he turns around.
He almost goes too far.
There's his.
Yeah.
Hopefully it's his girl.
Yeah.
Tripping out.
If not, somebody definitely's going to try and get child support out of him, that's for sure.
Just make it in the video.
Wow, could you imagine looking down from here, bro?
Look at that.
Oh, my God.
That makes my freaking penis just go inside of my body, dog.
Dude, that's funny that you say that.
Sometimes I'm rotting.
If I'm really concentrating, I can feel my dick shrinking.
Oh, that's cool, bro.
I think it's like a defense mechanism.
Oh, yeah, your dick's like, you might be doing this.
I'm not.
Oh, yeah, they got her really, really scared.
They got, oh, he's up there looming.
Now, do you feel like he's totally confident at this point?
He's just kind of, this is for show.
I mean, it's just, he's just got to do it.
You got to be confident.
If you're not confident, it's like, that's where you're going to go.
It's going to go wrong.
You have to have 100% belief in yourself.
Jesus, I could never do that.
I've never done that in my whole life, dude.
Yeah, he's got it.
He goes too far, too.
He nearly dies.
Yeah, you see?
Like, just catching the very bottom.
Bro, that was lucky.
That was really close.
Do you think he made it that close on purpose or not?
That was an accident.
He did not want to do that.
He didn't want to go far.
Because, like, if he went a meter more.
Oh, yeah, that's bad news, bears.
Yeah.
Like, you're saying you got to come in where there's enough of that crazy.
Because if you don't catch the transition, then you're pancaking.
Yeah.
Do you feel pretty proud of yourself a lot of times?
Are you able to feel that kind of stuff?
Yeah, when I achieve something that I've really wanted to do for a long time, I'll feel that.
But that's just like, that's one problem that I have is just it's like onto the next.
It's like it's hard to sit and smell the roses when you just, I'm just so passionate about it.
And it's like, why stop when I don't have to?
Or when I am able to just keep going?
It's hard for me to sit back and go, whoa, sick.
I'm rad.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, and maybe because I think at some point in some ways, there's not a ton of value in it.
I think there's value in like having appreciation for what you're doing and like recognizing it.
But yeah, to sit there and just smell the roses, you know, you got to keep watering them too.
So it's like, I'll just always find that kind of interesting.
Is there a trick or something you have your eyes kind of set on?
Is there like a new template or a new like mode or something that you see yourself maybe being able to like a new type of ramp?
Is there things that you think of sometimes that you well, obviously it'd be so cool to do something like that, like something out there and just different, not just a new variation of a trick, you know?
But there's tricks that I have that are on my trick list that I want to do that are like going to be that really next level.
Like I want to do, I really want to do a triple backflip 360.
So like, so three flips with a spin in it.
Now, when, okay, so say you're doing that, when do you start to incorporate the spin?
So about, I would nearly do it at the very start, but it's going to be, so I would do like a flip with a 180 turn and then a flip with a 180 turn and then the last one would just be straight.
Ah, I see.
So you would do a flip and then...
Ah, interesting.
Yeah.
When you guys go out on some of these tours, is the partying pretty good?
Who parties better?
Like people on the Nitro Circus tour or Australians in general, do you think?
Probably, I mean, Australians party so hard, but I feel like everywhere parties pretty hard.
Like America, you get pretty wild.
Like you reach a point where you just go mad.
But I think on tour, it's so insane because we're all like super passionate.
Everyone is like at the pinnacle of their sport, action sport.
So they're like, you know, they're like the boss skate.
Like if you went to a skate park, there's that one kid that's like insane.
And then if you handpick the best ones, join them into a group, like a circus, and that's what you get.
Like we all are like, can't have ADHD, I guess.
And we're all just super passionate.
So is there a lot of partying as much as, or do you hear stories that there used to be more parting?
Because with comedy, you always hear stories like people were doing cocaine right here.
And now people are doing their taxes.
You know what I'm saying?
It's just like gotten hella fucking lame, dude.
Yeah, it's changed a lot for us, too, because I'm the youngest on tour.
So, and I'm 27. But it used to be like everyone else's 20s, like in their 20s, in their 30s, but now they all have families and like kids.
So it's like mellowed out a lot.
But in a way, that's a good thing and a bad thing because we're all like smarter, wiser, making the right decisions.
You know, you're not getting drunk and then potentially riding the next day hungover and hurting yourself.
But there's guys on tour that literally will just drink into oblivion, then wake up and just triple back for it.
And like it's nothing.
You have the rock star dudes still doing that.
And at moments, the rock star is still there.
A few drinks here and everyone's kind of a rock star again.
Is that your vibe really or no?
Yeah, yes and no.
I definitely love to have fun, go out and like party.
And I had a few drinks at the Laugh Factory last night.
But it would have been weird for me to go party and then go do a show because I have a younger following too, and I want to be 100%.
When I do a show, I feel like a lot of people, I'm representing scootering.
I'm representing action sports to families and kids.
Just the term I'm representing scootering is so insane.
It's so great though, man.
It's so great to think of something that, yeah, you would see some, like, yeah, you see some kid on it.
You're like, oh, fuck this kid.
You know, 10 years ago, he was like, well, that's it.
And now I'm sitting here enamored by this kid, you know?
So it's really interesting, man.
And that was like my goal.
Ever since the start, man, I was like, what can I do?
Like, scootering literally gave me my life.
Like, this amazing life.
So I'll give my life to scootering.
Like, what could I do to stop that kid at the skate park getting grief like I did?
Yeah.
So he can just enjoy it, you know, and just even though it was probably a good thing for me.
That's the thing that I always wonder.
It's like we want to stop all the bullying, but fuck, dude.
If I didn't get bullied some, dude, I would not.
That's how you even get any guns.
100%.
Yeah, so it's interesting, but I know what you're saying.
You want them to know that there's an outlet.
You want to be available for inspiration.
And they're always, everyone's always, it's always going to be there.
Bullying's always going to be around.
It's just, you just got to harden yourself.
I got it so bad in school, like, and then I got it so bad at the skate park, and it almost built this hard shell around my body that it was like, I don't, like, it bounces off me.
Right.
Everything bounces off me.
Oh, dude, I'll drive any playground I drive by, dude.
If I'm by myself, I roll down the window and yell a damn little slur or something.
You know what I'm saying?
To get somebody fired up.
Yeah, harden them up.
Harden them away.
Something.
Where if somebody's out there that is like, what are this?
Was that about me?
Oh, I better get my shit together.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
You got to drop a little something.
What is the next, so say you took a scooter and you made it cool.
What is something else that's kind of shitty that you could take and make it fucking awesome, bro?
And if you guys have ideas in there too, Chris, let us know.
What is the next thing that Ryan could take that is like a challenge?
Hypothetically, not shitty, and I shouldn't have said that, man.
That's kind of an offensive way to say it, but something that people would see, I couldn't see this being a mode to become amazing.
Yeah.
Wonder what else is out there?
It's kind of like video gaming as well.
That was kind of like a lot, like people are like, what?
Professional video game players?
Oh, yes.
Dude, that travel.
What is that thing called?
I have no clue.
Chris, what is that thing?
Suitcase scooter.
Oh, yeah.
Bro, if you could do something on that and then open it and take something out, maybe, I mean, I'm just thinking, what if you do that thing where, like, sometimes people want to be cool when they're handicapped and they get that little like knee thing, that little.
Oh, yeah, yeah, when they have a cast on.
Yeah, it's like, just use crutches, you pussy, man.
Use some crutches, man.
I'm going to have to get that.
That'd be perfect for the airport, just cruising around.
Oh, dude, especially to see you on it.
It would be legendary.
Like, what did that guy just do?
Did that dude just fucking do a 670 through TSA?
Yeah, what other, can you pull that back up?
That thing's pretty, that was pretty great, actually.
Oh, that thing.
We talked about that.
Yeah, you see these things around.
What about the lime scooters?
Like, they're everywhere now.
And people are hurting themselves.
Everybody gets real bad fast on limes.
Oh, look at this.
What is going on?
Oh, that's definitely a Poland.
They'll do anything over there.
What is going on?
The thing is, this thing doesn't turn or twist.
You could only just spin it.
Like, this guy's doing, like, swirls, but...
Yeah, boy.
That's it.
Yeah, that looks pricey.
people are taking these things They dropped off, I guess, because they were like, why do we have handlebars?
We can just have the bottom part.
Yeah.
Like hoverboards.
Remember those came in for ages?
And then Mike Tyson got like dropped.
Wait, is that the one that Justin was pushing?
Probably.
There was like a video of Mike Tyson on one.
Dude, he falls so hard.
You gotta watch it.
Mike Tyson on a hoverboard.
And he's looking alright.
And yeah, he gets dropped.
Yeah, watch.
Like one of those solid falls, too.
Oh, yeah, the sweet, dude.
You got it.
Oh!
Damn, I've never seen that, bro.
You know, your sport is one interesting thing that guys like, you know, I was doing this, you know, guys, like, people can't just come into your sport and do it.
Yeah, to a certain extent.
That's why a lot of, that's why scooters actually got grief from people because it's, it's so accessible.
Like, you can, you could jump on a scooter right now.
I could get you to the skate park.
You could drop in.
Like, a kid can do it so easily.
So it's just so accessible that like little kids just grab it and they go.
You know, they have no direction.
So they're at the skate park dropping in and just like getting in the way because they're just there by themselves.
That's all they know.
They don't know what to do.
They don't know the rules.
And that's kind of like where we get the bad rep is because it's so accessible and kids can just do it instantly and be in the road and not be like looking out having skate park etiquette.
And that's kind of gave us a bad rap.
But it's like you could do the same thing if a kid only had a skateboard and he would do the same thing.
Like just roll around.
But it's super hard.
It's not easy to just get a skateboard and drop in.
Like it takes you a few weeks to get comfortable to do something.
And in those weeks, you get told by your friends, hey, don't do this.
Don't do that.
You've got to wait for this person.
It's like an intersection in it.
Yeah.
Do you see yourself getting into anything motorized?
Do you ever feel like that vibe?
Yeah, but it's just so dangerous, man.
I've flipped a motorbike though at Travis Restrana's, but it's gnarly, dude.
They're so heavy and it's so wild.
I've seen, we just had last weekend, our mate, Bo Bamberg, we've done like 20 shows and he fell once, broke his collarbone in one crash.
So it's just like instantly, if you fall off a motorbike, it's like you're done.
You're like going to break something.
Whereas I can fall off, get up, go try again, like 100 times, motorbike crash once.
Have you broken a lot?
I've been so lucky.
Like compared to the guys on tour, I'm super lucky.
Haven't had a surgery yet.
Only fractured my ankle, both wrists, separated my shoulders, smashed my teeth out, fractured my skull twice.
Oh, yeah.
Some of that's just being Australian.
Yeah, yeah, true.
50% is probably just being Australian.
Did you watch Love on the Spectrum?
No.
The Australian show, The Autism Show.
Oh, I've heard about that.
No, I haven't seen it yet.
Makes me want autism, man.
It makes one to be Australian.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a good mix.
Yeah, and it's a very neck and neck mix as well.
Yeah.
But it's such a good show, man.
I'm trying to think of any other questions that I could think of that I really wanted to ask you about.
Yeah, what do you feel like is like...
How much babes is out there?
Do they have a lot of like kind of like do a lot of the guys end up marrying girls that they meet at the track?
Is it that kind of a universe?
It seems like kind of a like, I know it's a big world, but I know it seems like a very specific group.
It takes a certain person to like want to be with like an action sports athlete.
It's like kind of like you're going to be risking it with them.
Like I'm sure you'd be nervous.
Like I couldn't do it.
A chick that's into action sports, like I'm sure I could, but I would be like freaking out, man.
I can't watch a chick.
That's one thing.
I could watch a dude slam all day, laugh at it.
But a chick falling over, I'm like, no, stop.
Please don't do that.
So I can imagine it'd be hard, but yeah, you get chicks coming out.
I think it's more the confidence thing.
We're just so confident in our ability.
It doesn't matter if I'm riding a scooter.
They're just like, this guy really likes riding his scooter and he doesn't care.
So that's it.
Yeah, I think it's confidence of anything.
You'd be playing a damn kazoo, dude.
You know, if you're Louis Armstrong on that bitch, then the ladies will show up.
Where are the better ladies, do you think, in the U.S. or Australia be found?
Or do you have a hard question?
It is a hard question, but do you have a type of woman, you think, or that you like one of the other American or Australian?
No, no type.
It's just like, it's like whoever is just cool, you know?
Australian women are a bit, like, obviously we're a bit crazy, so maybe I gel better with the crazier.
Yeah.
I love Australian women, man.
I always dreamed of maybe going to Australia, finding me a little wife or something.
A little quokka, you know, a couple quokkas.
I don't know if, did we, I feel like we covered a lot.
Do you feel like that, Ryan?
Yeah, I think it was, I think, I've just been constantly talking, so it's sick.
Yeah, good.
Pump, dude.
Yeah, I'm glad I don't have to speak.
It's good.
Oh, Dalia got up.
You saw Dalia get up.
That was cool.
Was that a surprise?
Did you know?
Yeah, no, I had no clue.
And I had been talking to him because we obviously have Nitro Circus in San Bernardino.
And I was like, oh, dude, get your tickets.
And he was like, I don't know what my one-year-old's going to do.
Is he going to just not even understand?
I was like, just get him head.
Like, you've got to get the headphones because the bike's pretty loud.
But it'd be sick to have him out.
It was sick to see him doing some stand-up.
Yeah, it's cool.
And congratulations on your special, dude.
Oh, thanks, sir.
It's pretty sick.
Yeah, it's pretty, I'm definitely excited about it.
Somebody just sent me a picture of that at Billboard in Times Square.
That was pretty crazy.
Yeah, that's sick.
Yeah, it's exciting, man.
I want to go tour back over in Australia.
I just got to get some more jokes.
I just got to get a few more stories going.
I love it.
It's pretty hard to get there though, right now.
Yeah, that's the last thing I was going to ask you is, how ridiculous is it over there?
Oh, man, it sucks so bad.
And the craziest thing is, when I was there, I was like, oh, yeah, this makes sense.
Like, everyone's doing it.
That's the thing.
When you're blinded, when you only see what's happening in the country, you're like, oh, it's okay, we're all together.
We're doing this together for a reason.
And then they're like, oh, America's so bad.
There's so many cases.
Like, just be careful over there.
And then I literally got here.
I got outside.
It's like totally normal.
And it's like, maybe they make you wear a mask here and there, but I don't have to quarantine for two weeks in a hotel room by myself to get into the country.
That's crazy.
Did you have to do that when you left?
No.
So I just had to get the test, right, to get on the plane.
Got here, sweet.
All good.
Go into the world, sir.
Yeah, because Jim Jeffries just had a tour scheduled in Australia, right?
His home country, right?
He goes back for two weeks.
He's in his hotel.
Yeah.
And on the last day, he's going to start his tour right after that.
All the tickets are sold.
They came to him.
They said three people down the block had just gotten COVID and he has to go back to America now and his tour was canceled.
Could you fucking...
That would make me kill someone way more.
Man, they've opened up a little bit in certain states, so I'm going to just go chill there because I'm not.
It's like a prison.
Oh, I can only, yeah.
I mean, even when you go to like, if you go to like other parts of America, it's even more than just totally normal.
And you're like, even coming to Los Angeles seems really, really...
Oh, yeah.
It was so sick.
So, you guys outdoors there?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So this two have been doing baseball stadiums all outdoors.
It's actually funny because the motor ramp, we can't do that motor ramp indoors because they'll hit the roof.
Damn.
Fuck.
What's the highest ramp that's built right now for you guys to be able to use?
So the ramp that the guy did the quad backflip off, I think it's like 20 foot.
That's to go forward.
That's not like the air to come back down.
It's like a quad flip ramp.
What's the safest ramp that you can technically use right now?
The one that we use on tour is about 16 foot off the ground.
Could they build a 30-foot ramp if you wanted, or you wouldn't be able to get to the top of it?
You'd have to just go so fast.
But they could do it.
And if someone wants to do five flips, that's how it goes.
Like, if you want to do more things in the air, even though it sounds like crazier to have that big ramp, it's just going to give you that more time to get the trick done.
Yeah.
Because it's like right now, you just pushed for time in the air.
Oh, I see.
So do you want more time up there, you think?
Yeah.
You do?
Yeah, I'll just stay up there.
Yeah, dude.
Well, when you come back down, make sure to come back to the podcast, man.
Yeah, for sure.
All right, Ryan Williams, man.
You guys can check him out.
We'll put all of his links and everything.
Bruv, thanks so much, dude.
Thanks so much for having me.
This is like being a dream.
I've watched this podcast for so, so long.
I think like four or five years ago.
I know you and I've been communicating for years, man.
So it's really, really cool, man.
Yeah.
I appreciate it.
I love Australia, man.
And I think you might be our first Australian guest.
Oh, no, except for Chris Lilly.
Yeah, yeah, chillin'.
But fucking pretty sweet to be.
Good.
I'm pumped on that.
Thank you so much.
Cheers, man.
Cheers.
Now I'm just floating on the breeze.
And I feel I'm falling like these leaves.
I must be cornered.
Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this piece of mind I found I can feel it in my bones.
But it's gonna take a little time for me to sell that parking break and let myself hold on shine that light on me.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Jonathan Kite and welcome to Kite Club, a podcast where I'll be sharing thoughts on things like current events, stand-up stories, and seven ways to pleasure your partner.
The answer may shock you.
Sometimes I'll interview my friends, sometimes I won't.
And as always, I'll be joined by the voices in my head.
You have three new voice messages.
A lot of people are talking about Kite Club.
I've been talking about Kite Club for so long, longer than anybody else.
So great.
Hi, Suiar.
Is it there?
Anyone who doesn't listen to Kite Club is a dodgy bloody wanker.
Jamain.
Hi, I'll take a quarter potter with cheese and a McFlurry.
Sorry, sir, but our ice cream machine is broken.
I think Tom Hanks just butt-dialed me.
Anyway, first rule of Kite Club is tell everyone about Kite Club.
Second rule of Kite Club is tell everyone about Kite Club.
Third rule, like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts or watch us on YouTube, yeah?
