There’s no room for fear in Nitro Circus, a daredevil action sports collective descending this month on the Georgia Dome. Founding members Jeremy Rawle, Gregg Godfrey, and Travis Pastrana started filming stunts in Pastrana’s backyard in 2003 and landed a short-lived MTV reality series in 2009. Today their crew includes more than 40 performers, who execute choreographed stunts with skateboards, tandem bikes, and even shopping carts—many launched from a 50-foot-high A-ramp. “There’s no shortage of creativity or people willing to try things that have a high probability of failure,” Pastrana says. His favorite trick of the show: The Scorpion Double Backflip (seen above), performed by rider Ethen Roberts.
Start (at left)
1 Roberts races down the ramp and then, just before take off, pulls up hard on the handlebars to maximize the bike’s rotation.
2 As soon as his wheels are in the air, Roberts jumps as high as he can off the bike’s foot pegs.
3 Roberts throws the bike over his head. “When I watch it on camera, it looks unreal, like I’m in a video game,” he says.
4 Next, he spins a half flip with the bike over his head. Just before he begins to descend, Roberts pulls his body back to the bike.
5 Once his feet hit the pegs, the flip speeds up again, and Roberts completes another rotation.
On the calendar: Dirt bike devil Travis Pastrana and his crew hit the Dome with high-flying tricks at Nitro Circus Live on May 10.
This article originally appeared in our May 2015 issue under the headline “Catch Air.”
