Ryan Williams On Nitro Circus’ New Traveling Show, ‘Good, Bad & Rad,’ And The Future Of Extreme Sports

When the general public thinks of “extreme sports,” the images that come to mind are likely the following: Tony Hawk nailing his 900 on a skateboard, Travis Pastrana doing a double backflip on a dirt bike at X Games, Shaun White sailing over a halfpipe wall on his snowboard or even the recent debuts of skateboarding and BMX freestyle in the Tokyo Olympics.

And while those household names have brought their disciplines to the mainstream, for almost 20 years, Nitro Circus has been redefining just what the word extreme can encompass—all the while reaching a wider and wider audience.

Formed in 2003 by Moto X legend Travis Pastrana and friends, Nitro Circus has reimagined what action sports can look like. The Nitro Circus crew’s exploits make “typical” extreme sports look tame by comparison.

The mainstream public got a taste of that earlier this year when the troop performed on America’s Got Talent: Extreme.

Ryan Williams, Dusty Wygle, Todd Meyn, Josh Roberts and Kurtis Downs, under the moniker The Contraption Kings, wowed the judges (including Pastrana, who abstained from voting) with their daring jumps off the mega ramp on increasingly ridiculous objects—from the standard BMX bike and scooter to a tricycle, a jet ski and a rocking horse.

Though they were eliminated in the Superfan vote, The Contraption Kings introduced new audiences to the thrill of extreme sports. And, yes, technically, riding a rocking horse is not an extreme sport, but behind the headline-generating antics of the stunt group is a collection of driven and highly successful athletes.

Williams (better known as RWilly) is a three-time X Games gold medalist in BMX big air; Downs owns an X Games bronze medal in the same discipline. Wygle and Meyn travel the globe performing with Nitro Circus, and Roberts’ BMX video parts are legendary.

But extreme sports aren’t meant to be watched on TV; they should be experienced from as close a vantage point as (safely) possible, providing an adrenaline rush like few other sports can.

To that end, Nitro Circus has launched a new summer tour, “Nitro Circus: Good, Bad & Rad presented by A SHOC Energy,” which puts The Contraption Kings on the road with 26 stops in outdoor venues across North America.

The tour kicked off on June 2 in South Bend, Indiana, and runs until September 10. The full schedule and tickets can be found here.

Joining Williams, Wygle, Meyn, Roberts and Downs on the tour are other familiar names in extreme wheelchair athlete and Paralympian Aaron “Wheelz” Fotheringham, freestyle motocross legend Adam Jones, Australian FMX stars Blake “Bilko” Williams and Jarryd McNeil, female FMX athlete Kassie Boone and skateboarding pro Beaver Fleming.

Good, Bad & Rad marks Nitro Circus parent company Thrill One’s first touring news following its major partnership announcement with performance energy drink company A SHOC.

The eight-figure, multi-year agreement is the largest ever in action sports, bringing together Thrill One brands Nitro Circus, Street League Skateboarding and Nitro Rallycross and A SHOC’s Keurig Dr Pepper and celebrity investor backing.

Williams, 27, also became an A SHOC-sponsored athlete in February. Energy drink sponsors are among the most crucial for action sports athletes, often supporting athletes’ travel for contests and their passion projects, from building training facilities to filming video parts.

Williams had always been envious of his action sports counterparts who had Monster or Red Bull backing their projects, but traditional energy drinks were never a good fit for his lifestyle. A SHOC’s products have zero sugar and contain BCAAs, which Williams was already using as part of his regimen.

“I was stoked to get on A SHOC. They’re very fitness oriented,” Williams told me. “Now the level of riding is so high that if you want to be the best in your sport, you have to be eating properly, you have to be going to the gym. When I was 13 I could just go to the skatepark and flip around and not worry about my health. Now that I’m in my twenties it’s a very important part. I see benefits from being healthier.”

Williams has become synonymous with Nitro Circus for his prowess on both a BMX bike and a scooter. It might sound strange to call him an elder statesman of the sport at 27, but he’s been growing into that role.

While he’s always trying to progress his own riding and his own career, he’s also focused on making action sports more accessible for the next generation and doing his part to help other riders train and develop.

In 2019, he debuted RWilly Land, an action sports training facility, at his home in Australia, financing it 100 percent himself. Now, he’s opened it to action sports athletes around the world.

The facility is modeled somewhat after Pastrana’s Maryland compound, Pastranaland, but while Pastrana’s complex is more motorbike-oriented, Williams’ is more skatepark-oriented.

“It’s kind of a place where I can dream up new tricks and bring them to the world, but also it’s become this place where I’ve been able to give an opportunity to my friends, to other riders all around the world,” Williams said. “They can ride the ramp that’s at Nitro World Games and unlock so many tricks. I always thought anyone could do what I do, but not everyone had the opportunity, so now I’ve built it at my house so people can have the opportunity.”

The timing seems to be right, as well. The release of Jackass Forever earlier this year proved there’s still an appetite for outrageous stunts performed by entertainers with a heart of gold. The Nitro Circus gang are world-class athletes, but they also have a touch of that Jackass zaniness.

Both Jackass and action sports feel like they exist through a lens of nostalgia, when the appetite for stunts and extreme sports reached its apex in the early 2000s. But there’s more than nostalgia at play here, Williams insists. The sky-high ratings on America’s Got Talent: Extreme prove that.

“I feel like maybe action sports is coming back, and hopefully in the next few years great things can happen and some new superstars can rise from action sports,” Williams said. “It’s just an awesome thing to see people’s eyes be opened to action sports. It’s the most important thing in my life right now trying to reach as many eyes as I can.”

During the pandemic, Williams has been honing dozens of “world-first” tricks that he plans to debut on the road this summer with Good, Bad & Rad. The crew will unveil multiple new contraptions, from a flying lawn mower to a tandem pit bike.

“If you sit in your lounge room or garage and look around and see an object, we’ll put wheels on it and jump it 40 feet,” Williams said with a laugh.

“I like to call it controlled chaos. It’s chaos and it’s dangerous and we somehow control it and bottle it up and put it in a show.”