The School of Greatness - 368 Travis Pastrana on the Fearless Mindset to Pursue Your Passion

Episode Date: August 17, 2016

"I'd rather try and fail than fail to try." - Travis Pastrana If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/368

This is episode number 368 with Travis Pastrana. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness podcast.

We've got a very special and fun interview with a legend in motorsports competition and stunt performances, Travis Pastrana in the house got a great guest for you today his name is travis pastrana and he is an american motorsports competitor and stunt performer who has won championships and x games gold medals in several events including supercross motocross freestyle motocross and rally racing He runs a show called Nitro Circus and previously competed in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for Roush Fenway Racing. He currently competes in the Global Rallycross Championship, driving the number 199 Subaru for Subaru Rally Team USA. He's been in a number of TV shows. He's been in a number of TV shows. He's been in a number of movies.

He's an incredible human being, and I'm so excited to have him on here to talk about how he became so great in so many areas of the extreme sports that he does. And some of the main things we talk about are how he gets past fear and jumps into flow, especially when there's so much danger at stake and all the injuries he's gone through. I think over 31 surgeries that he's gone through over the years. It's incredible that he continues to get past his fear and step into the flow and how you can recreate that as well.

Also, what Travis wants to teach his kids about career opportunities, why getting so many injuries and dealing with so much pain is well worth it for him, the value in messing up while trying something new, and how Travis and his wife handle each other's risk-taking since his wife is a skateboarder and doing more extreme sports as well. Loved this conversation. Loved this interview. Travis is a stand-up human being.

So much joy, so much passion for what he does, and he continues to step up and push the limits every single day and lift others up around him. So I know you're going to get a lot out of this one. Make sure to share this out with your friends right now, lewishouse.com slash 368, and spread the word about Travis. Check out the full show notes at lewishouse.com slash 368, the full video interview, all the other fun stuff that Travis does.

You can connect with him over at the show notes as well. And without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only Travis Pastrana. All right. Welcome, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast. Very excited about our guest today. His name is Travis Pastrana. Thanks for coming on, my man. Thank you for having me. I got to be careful.

Yeah, no, I was like, all right, let's get down. I want to grab you harder. Thank you. But you dislocated your shoulder recently, right? Yeah, last week. So it's always something with us, though. It's always something. Plus, getting old, falling apart, can't hang with the kids anymore. What's the longest you've gone without having a major injury?

You know, this last time was probably the longest. It's been a little over a year. It must be amazing. Two kids, so I'm kind of, you know. Taking it easier? Not intentionally. Only doing three backflips, not going for four? Exactly, exactly.

Yeah, yeah. Take it a little easier. Keep the basics. 100-foot jumps, not 200, right? Right. Well, I mean, it depends on the jump. You can still do 200. Maybe do an airbag, you know.

Exactly, exactly. I want, you know. Well, I mean, it depends on the jump. You can still do 200. Maybe do an airbag, you know. Exactly, exactly. I want to read your bio really quick. Travis Pastrana is an American motorsports competitor and stunt performer who has won championships and X-Game gold medals in several events, including Supercross, Motocross, Freestyle Motocross, and Rally Racing. He runs a show called Nitro Circus, which is where I connected with you and one of the guys on the team, Tripp, who was a listener of the podcast.

He previously competed in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for Roush Fenway Racing. Currently competes in the Global Rallycross Championship, driving number 199. Is that correct? That is correct. He has also appeared in films like X Games the Movie and many other

things, like Ridiculousness. Is X Games the movie? Is that considered a film? I guess. All right. There we go. We're moving on. Is this an accurate bio or did I miss something?

Yeah. It's all accurate, right? Yeah. Sounds good, man. Sounds good now. Cool. I don't even know really what I do for a living. But you've made a living doing something.

Yeah, something. And it's fascinating because more and more people are making a living around their passion or just their creative artistry, which is what I think you are. You're a creative athlete artist. Well, no, I appreciate that. And the coolest part, I mean, it was kind of an interesting upbringing with my dad, who was Marine, and then motocross, which was very strict as far as you work hard, you're running every day, you're cycling every hard, you're running every day,

you're cycling every day, you're riding every day, and then kind of transitioning into freestyle where it goes from you would knock your grandma down on the last turn to take the win to I was going against some metal militia and Brian Deegan, and I'm like 15 years old, and these guys are all tattooed up and hardcore and this and that. Mohawks. Yeah, like everything and piercings and whatever.

And Brian Deegan comes up. He's like, dude, that run was so awesome. Hey, Miss Pastrana, how are you doing? And I'm like, wait. The image and they were just like having fun. And I was like kind of these two worlds that kind of collided. I was like, wait. You can have fun and still like this is weird.

And was anyone making money when you started? Because you were really 15 when you came on the scene, is that right? Around that age when you kind of be 15 for, for action sports stuff. But so for me, motocross was always, I mean, racing's been around since, you know, since people could ride motorcycles, trying to race stuff, you know? Uh, but at the end of the day, like racing was where the money was. That's where the sponsors were. That's where my parents were, you know, encouraging me to go. That's what we had worked so hard. I mean, my dad and my mom, the house was paid off when I was four. And by the time I was eight, we had a mortgage on the house. My dad sold the boat, then he sold the Harley. Then we got our second mortgage on the

house and just to get to that racing and then all this- For you to pay for your stuff. To pay for my stuff. Because it's expensive, right? Well, yeah. I mean, my dad's construction works with four of his brothers. And they would actually take pay cuts to cover gas to get us from Maryland to Florida to race with the top guys. When I was 10, 11, 12, when most parents are complaining about driving across town, we're driving across country to hit the nationals and stuff. And it was awesome. But then freestyle came out. And I'm like, this is just,

this is so much more fun. Why would, why would I try to like stay low off the jumps when I can see how big I can go, what I can do. And, uh, it was an interesting dynamic, right. As it was kind of turning there, who was more influential for you growing up, your mom or your dad? Um, as far as education was my mom, as far as, um, my dad always said he was military.'s like look uh my uncle was or his brother my uncle was quarterback for denver broncos for two years he goes look he was by far and away

the best athlete that maryland has ever seen that annapolis has ever seen he did everything he made it almost all the way there he got knocked out by bumma smith and he didn't really make you know he made enough to to make it for those years then he came back working construction um with family. My dad's like, look, no matter how good you are at sports, you're always going to end up right back here with the family working construction. So he goes, you get your good grades. You work hard. He goes, I don't care if you're sick. I don't care what this is when I'm fourth, fifth grade. He goes, you, you get up and you run a mile. It's not a long time, not a long way. You run one mile before school every day. And I will drive to Florida on the weekends. You asked me to go practice every day after school and I'll drive to Florida on the

weekends. If you don't any day, I don't mind. I'll get the Harley back. I'll get the bike. I'll get the boat back and we're not going to Florida on the weekend. So you got up every morning and ran a mile. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's not my, it was just for him. It was just that, that motivation, like you show me you're motivated. Discipline, yeah. So instead of when most parents were like, oh, you have to do this, my dad was like, hey, slow down. Why are you doing those jumps? Don't – like just – you're not going to make it, kid.

But look, as long as you keep trying, I'll put in equal effort. And that was kind of how I made it to where I did was just having fun. Amazing. Did you play any other sports? Like traditional sports? Traditional sports, I mean, until I was probably eight, so nothing serious. What was basketball and baseball? Yeah, I mean, basketball, everyone on my team said don't shoot.

I couldn't. My hand coordination was bad. My uncle told me never get into football, so I never really knew how to throw or catch. You loved it with the pain you liked. Wrestling. Wrestling was my thing, man. But then I was just always wrestling people a lot older because I was always just so tall as a kid. So I don't know if you were tall as a kid. I was.

I was this tall when I was 11 or something. Yeah. It's not good for wrestling. It's the worst. Everyone would just dive in my legs. I'd be like, I'm Matt. And you're from Maryland, so you must be a big fan of Michael Phelps. He's been crushing it, yes.

It's unbelievable. I was just there last week, and I saw him in the semifinals for a race and it was just really cool to see his whole process from start to finish and how he executes. It's amazing.

I absolutely love how he goes out and he knows now what it takes to get there and everyone's like, oh, you're doing this wrong, you're doing that wrong,

you're not training hard enough and then he goes out there. He knows how to do it the last second, yeah. Yeah, it's like the deskie or whatever. She crushes it. So after three days – It's unbelievable.

Maryland had the second highest country count. I saw your Instagram. I was like, yes. The Maryland games. The Maryland games. Are you friends with both of them or – No, no. I mean I've seen Michael at a couple of different things.

Right, right. But no, for sure. It's just cool. I mean they're around the same area. And is – no, I might be – isn't anything that you're doing in the Olympics or is it happening? Are the events you're doing going to be coming in the Olympics? So right now, well, my wife's a skateboarder. So she's pretty excited because skateboarding just got announced for 2020.

Yeah, that's cool. So she's like – she's on the fence. She's like – She's getting a little older too, right? There's a lot of younger kids coming up. I mean, for skating, there's 13-, 14-year-old kids that are just crushing it. So my wife at 27, 28, she's like, I'm going to be in my 30s when the next Olympics comes. Right now, she's like, I'm still top five, but I could go back and maybe, like, I don't know.

It's going to be interesting. Are you going to try to go for anything? I guess it's only skateboarding, right? No, nothing with motors. I pretty much – yeah, I'm not like the rest of my family. I pretty much need a throttle or falling or something to – maybe diving. I don't know. I'm just not – I can't do handstands anymore though.

Right, right. Your shoulders are too messed up. It's funny. I play with the USA National Men's Hand, national men's handball team team. I don't know if you've ever seen that sport. I was watching it three days ago. It's amazing. Right.

Yes. And we are the only, um, uh, the USA is the only sport where we're not represented at is handball. So we're representing every other activity in sport except for handball. So it was unfortunate. We didn't qualify. We haven't qualified in like 20 years, but, uh, we'll see if in the next four years, if I want to keep doing it So it's unfortunate we didn't qualify. We haven't qualified in like 20 years. But we'll see in the next four years if I want to keep doing it.

It's just a lot of work. Now, I have to ask, this is way off subject, but, you know, so in Maryland lacrosse, that's our sport. I mean, actually. The Northeast is Maryland. Well, I mean, it's our state sport, that and jousting, which I think is pretty awesome. So it's a co-state sport.

But I just think it's interesting that field hockey is what the girls that don't want to get hit with lacrosse sticks do. And yet, field hockey was intense. It is intense, but it was in the Olympics. It is in the Olympics. Now, is lacrosse not? I don't think lacrosse is in the Olympics. I don't think it is. So why would they do the field hockey?

Field hockey is huge around the world, and I think that's why. I don't know if lacrosse is big around the world. No, pretty much just Colorado and East Coast. That's it, right? Yeah. So I know that a lot of other countries are big into field hockey. Are we represented in field hockey? I would think we have to have a team.

I didn't see a team there. I would feel like, man, if I was a lacrosse player, I'd be like, man, I don't know that I want to go field hockey right now. No. Those sticks are scary. I'd be like, man, I don't know that I want to go field hockey right now. No. Those sticks are scary. I don't know.

I wouldn't want to have my head down there when everyone's hitting you right in the face like that in field hockey. But I love the Olympics. Are you a big fan? I am a big fan. I'm a big fan of any sports. I love – I mean, I do a lot of sports, but I love watching them. I'm just a big sports fan. But the Olympics are tough because every time you're watching,

I want to see the sports. America does a great job of building up the athletes and the stories. My mom and everyone is so into it, but I'm like, I just go online and I just want to watch the events. I don't want to be told what... The stories. The stories are great. I know everyone

loves the stories, but I just like the sports. I hear you you what's the favorite sport for you to watch oh man um you know obviously with just phelps i yeah i always like to watch watch his events so i i guess i i i am i'm a sucker for personalities as well but gymnastics i think is uh is always cool especially yeah you know since uh since atlanta games in in 96, where the girls' team crushed it. You're like, all right. Yeah, it's cool. I got to watch them as well. It's a lot of fun.

I'm curious, because you are in such an extreme sport that you have a lot of friends who do the same things, but not all of them have made it, right? You've experienced some friends who have passed on. Is that correct? Without a doubt. How many friends would you say, like close friends, have not made it from different? Well, I mean, you know, Lusk was the X Games champion in moto, you know, and he went down. And there's a lot of, you know, you have a lot of friends that have serious injuries, whether they're paralyzed or can't do what they love to do. And it's a really interesting dynamic because everyone just assumes if you're in the X Games

or World Games or whatever, you're making all this money. But for the most part, it's like going to college. You've got to pay off that debt the first couple of years. And your family and everyone put everything into most of these riders. And a lot of them, their fallback, for the most part, I was very fortunate that my mom was very adamant about education and graduating high school early and everything before I could turn pro. But a lot of these guys, they're great athletes. They're amazingly intelligent. They're smart.

They're entrepreneurs. They're great. But when they lose what their whole life has been about, their whole passion, there's a really tough time to what do you do when all you did your entire life was ride dirt bikes and bicycles and run, and then you can't walk anymore. So that's – It's like their identity is gone. Yeah. And you got guys like David Bailey who went in. He was 1985, 86, Supercross champion, was right on top of his game, got paralyzed, went through some dark times, and then he came back and won Ironman. Wow.

Which is two and a half mile swim or whatever, 110 mile bicycle. But everything with David then was with his arms. Because he couldn't walk, so he was doing it all with his arms. Yeah, everything's – Biking and – Yeah, so it's interesting to see the transition of what these guys can make. And unfortunately, I think skydiving, base jumping. It's the worst, right?

So many guys every year. Because if you want to be the top at whatever you do, if you want to excel at whatever you do, you make mistakes. You're going to push yourself a little past. And even some things that aren't in your control. I mean, you might have a gust of wind or a burble or the chute. You might not have packed it just right or it opened a little funny or it had a little wind gust. And, uh, so the one thing my wife is really, um, you know, after Shane McConkie, um, who he had really slowed down a lot, um, you know, he was a free skier, a world champion, just amazing personality made a living

in something that no one said was possible to make a living, traveled the world, got married, had his daughter, and was just slowing down. So he only did a couple trips a year, not doing the gnarly stuff. And he was ski-based jumping, just fun jump with his friends. Ski with a parachute. Ski with a parachute. And the ski didn't – it froze. So it didn't – one ski came off, One ski didn't put him on his back.

And in base jumping, you don't get – you have a couple seconds before you hit. You don't have time to fix errors. So if you're pushing at all, if you're even taking any risk, it bites you. And when it bites you, there's not, oh, man, that was – One second chance. Yeah. Oh, I broke a leg. No, it's falling out of the sky.

So that's what my wife is – as crazy as she is and as much on the same page, yeah. Oh, I broke a leg. No, it's falling out of the sky. Um, so that's my wife is, uh, you know, as crazy as she is and as much on the same page, she's like, when you go skydive, skydive is pretty safe, but you know that we lost Eric Rohner last year and, um, which is, it was really, really tough. Um, you know, he's got two kids. Yeah. Um, he had slowed down so much and he was just, he was our safety guy. He was the guy that came on and was like, okay, nope, that's too, this is too windy. And he would pull everyone back. And there's so many times we're walking back down from mountains or, you know, climate week, you know, scoped out

buildings. There's hypothetically, not me, but other people, um, you know, to, to figure out how to get up to antennas and all this stuff. And he was always wanting, nope, it's too windy. No, we'll go back down. Hey, we might lose our parachutes. You might, you know, the cops are not going to be happy, but we can't jump right now because it's not worth the risk. And to have that guy, that mentality, someone that loved his family so much that would have done anything, you know, he was working so many different things to stay in the industry and the sport and he dies on a skydive, not even a base jump. And that really took our whole community back to say, okay, you know, you warm up with the backflip in the morning, but you're still 40 feet off the ground with a 220-pound motorcycle over your head. You know, make sure you turn the gas on.

It's the stupid stuff. It's like this is not – it's every day to us, but it's not – you know, nothing can be taken for granted. Even driving to work every morning, you know, you never know. That's just – pay attention. Yeah, of course. How does that, I mean, how do you navigate through that when something like that happens? What do you, do you just go out and continue riding and doing your thing? Do you re-evaluate? Do you say, I'm going to hold back a little bit, you know? Well, I'd rather try and fail than fail to try is kind of like the motto that I've, I've always grown up in. And, you know, I'd rather try and fail than fail to try is kind of like the motto that I've always grown up in. And I would rather live life and show my kids. They're like, how with kids can you ride dirt bikes? Can you do this stuff? I said, well, I want to show my daughters that when they grow up, they don't have to go to a nine to, but there are other options. You can follow your passion.

If you're, you know, even if you're not making as much money, even if you're working three times the hours, if you love what you do, you know, you'll never work a day in your life. And that's what I've been really fortunate that my parents allowed me to chase this dream of action sports before action sports was a thing. They said, well, you know, you're going to end up construction or whatever, but if you're happy, live every day. And you know, that if you can make it three days, make it three days. If you can make it a year,

make it a year. Any time that you can spend doing what you love is not wasted time. And, you know, I've been very fortunate that if you're, I found that most of the people I'm surrounded by are just been so passionate that they've found a way like yourself, you find a way to make what you love work. Yeah. So true. And it's something that we talk about. The school of greatness is really following the thing that you love the most and figuring out how to make a full-time income around that. And maybe you have to do some side jobs that you don't enjoy on that process until you figure out how to make more money. But I just believe like, what's the point of living if we're not doing what

we love? Like, what's the point if we're not following a dream? What are we just living to survive? It doesn't make sense to me. No, that's 100%. I mean you couldn't have said it better. It's just for me, what would kill me more – people are like you get injured all the time. Like right now I had a week off and I went and dislocated my shoulder and I had a rotator cuff surgery. It's like ah.

But they're like why do you keep hurting yourself? I said, well. You're not trying to hurt yourself. I'm definitely not trying to. But when I'm hurt, the thing that I hate most about being hurt is that I can't do what I love. So why would I stop doing what I love so I'm not hurt? Like I don't like being hurt. I don't like pain.

But it's better than waking up without a passion. Yeah. In my opinion. Yeah. Doing something you don't love or just to make money yeah survive man was there um was there ever a jump or stunt that you did that you're like i may not make it well hindsight is 2020 um or you were like in the air you're like this is the worst idea ever or um yeah every day of my life on that show circus like it's like all right i'm gonna flip a monster truck. This is going to be awesome.

Flip a monster truck? Yeah, well, now they do double flips. I mean, it was a Pioneer. It was one of those. So I had never driven a monster truck before. So I built this ramp. It's like 20 foot tall. I'm like, all right.

I'm like, yeah, that'll make it. And then the monster truck got there. The monster truck's huge. I was like, ah, my math was way off. Like, this is never going to work. Like, the ramp needs to be twice as big. You know, I felt like that guy in Zoolander. It's at least five times bigger.

So I got in the truck and I'm like, it's not going to work. And my head is like two inches from the top. I'm like, I'm going to land directly upside down. And yeah, I've got a roll cage and everything. But I've got two inches of – I'm strapped in. I can't – I'm going to break every bone in my body. And they're like, and action. What'd you do? I went for it. I was like, oh, I'm strapped in. Like I can't – I'm going to break every bone in my body. And they're like, and action. What did you do?

I went for it. I was like – that's one thing my dad always said. Hey, if you say you're going to do something, don't open your mouth because if you say you're going to do it, back it up. Yeah. And there's actually – I'd say all of the moments in my life that I've been the dumbest moments in my life have all been because I followed that thing that my dad said. He goes, if you open your mouth, you got to do it. So I'm a hero. First time I did something really stupid. I told my hero, Guy Cooper, I was at a national championship event. All the sponsors there, everything. My parents spent the last time to get there. And in practice, right before I went

out, I was like, hey, hey, Mr. Cooper. I was like, yeah. He's like, do you see that big jump over there? I was like, can you do it? He's like, no, I don't know if, yeah. He's like, do you see that big jump over there? I was like, can you do it? He's like, no, I don't know if I can. He was like, can you do it? I was like, yeah. Yeah, I can do it. He's like, I'll be watching. I looked at him.

My dad's like, you know you can't. The bike physically won't make this. I'm like 10, 11 years old, whatever, on an ADCC. Only the 250 guys were doing it. One guy on the 250s. So I came last lap. And I was like, well, I said I was going to do it. Went as fast as I could. I knew 200 foot before the was like, well, I said I was going to do it.

One as fast as I could. I knew 200 foot before the jump, it wasn't going to work. Oh my gosh. Took off, flew, you know, 10,

11 years old. I'm flying 150 feet through the air land. And thank goodness the bike pretty much disintegrated on land. So the, all the spokes on the tire broke, the forks hit the ground. They went, the handlebars completely bent. And it was the softest.

I got like two black eyes. But my dad was like, what do we do now? That was like $2,000. Oh, my gosh. It's completely disintegrated. So you landed. I didn't make the jump. So if this is the takeoff and this is the landing, I landed right where I thought I was going to.

Gotcha. Short. Yeah. So I landed on an uphill, basically, instead of the downhill. Oh, okay. But it kind of exploded in a place where you – The whole bike just caved in. So not only did I get the foot of travel from the motorcycle, but I got the half a foot from the wheel and then the forks and the handlebars.

It wasn't great. But at the end of the day, I didn't break anything. You didn't die. Yeah, I didn't die. Amazing. Wow. But those are the worst when you call yourself out like at X Games or something. You're like, I got this.

And then maybe the trick was pretty close when you said you committed to it, and then it didn't get any closer. Would you ever call yourself out in a trick where you could potentially die? Like skydiving or something like that, you know? 100%. But there's a different mentality of being 10, 11, 12, 15, 22, trying to make a name for yourself, trying to be like – risk-reward is always changing. For me, if everyone goes, oh, haha, you backed out. Oh, you're lame. I'm like –

I'm alive. I'm alive. I've got two kids, family. I like my life. We're good. But when you're 15, it's different. When you're 15 – and not to say that you're going to take huge risk, but you're going to say, okay, you know what?

I might not make this, but if I do, it's worth it. So for me, I think the closest I ever came to death was probably I went in the base jumping, went in the Grand Canyon, did a double backflip, jumped off, did a front flip, and I was like, oh, I still have time. So I did another double backflip, jumped off, did a front flip, and I was like, oh, I still have time. So I did another front flip. But when I did it, I noticed the bike was over me because it had kind of flown and I had dropped faster. So at that point, I looked back up and was like, okay, we're clear. And I looked down and the chute opens in about a second.

But I was just about a second above the ground. So I threw the parachute and it was where time stopped. And I'm falling and there's nothing because if you look, the wind burble actually takes and rotates the chute. And I'd already thrown it. So I'm just staring at the ground. I'm staring at it because on a motorcycle or every other time in my life, what makes a great athlete in our sports is being able to jump off the bike and be like, all right, if I don't jump off, I'm going to break my neck. But if I jump off and do this, this, and this and tumble like this, I'll only break my ankle. And you have to be – most people can't say – they just freeze.

They're like, worst case – best case scenario still sucks where we're always thinking, what's the best case? Like a quarterback. I can't throw there. I can't throw there. What if I throw here? Then you step with the balls of your body and you go as falling and I had nothing to do. I can't throw there. What if I throw here? Then you step with the balls, your body and it was falling and I had nothing to do. I was just like,

I have to stay in this perfect position. And I really hope that shoot opens the next half a second. Wow. And it did kind of, it half open. And then I tumbled down and broke my foot and got some cactus in my butt, but it was all right. That was it.

Huh? Yeah. I landed on a really steep cliff. Wow. Yeah. That's some scary stuff. How do you approach, um, or actually, is there ever a ever a stunt you did where you're like i don't know if i'm going to make this but you pulled it off

beautifully where you're like i can't believe that just happened double backflip x games um you know it's funny because now a double backflip isn't that big of a deal but 2006 no one you know flips had just been yeah kind of out for not very long um so it's kind of one of those things where i really wanted to switch to rally i was racing calm mccray and i was a tenth of a second behind like one of the greatest rally drivers of all time the first chance that i had to win a rally i'm factory subaru all of my teams there and that final like because we did all the, like the, the stages up to the final had all happened. And I'm like, my career in rally depends on me not

messing myself up right now. Like everyone's there. And that was the only thing that I'm like, you know what? I hate those guys that go, you know, Monday, I got to go to work. So I would do that. But you know, I, I got to work on Monday and I'm like, you know what? I got to work. So I would do that, but I got to work on Monday. And I'm like, you know what? I got to work tomorrow too, but let's pull this off. I said I could do it, I could do it. And it worked. And you practiced it many times in a pit, I'm assuming? I did 50 a day for the two months before, but out of

the 50, I was 8 of 10. It's not bad. If the lotto was 8 out of 10, you'd take it every day, but when it's your body and when the other ones you'd come down and maybe broken neck, maybe worse. So I convinced myself instead of being scared, I was like, all right, are you going to do it? I said, yes. So you committed to it in your mind first. I completely committed to it.

And I was like, well, I'm going to make the best of whatever happens. I'm going to pull like hell. I'm going to do everything that I can. I'm going to try to spot the landing the best that I can. If anything goes wrong, we'll try to – and I was just – I was like, you know what? I'm probably going to crash and I'm okay with that. And I dropped in thinking, do whatever you can and it worked. It worked.

Wow. Maybe because you said like the worst case scenario could happen and I'm probably going to crash. So let's just make sure I do whatever I can to not crash now I guess. I don't know. Yeah. But like I was – i had to be okay with crashing before uh-huh you'd accept what could happen it was uh what's that that movie uh number um was it number six or no it was the uh who's in it that's a man you know what i'm drawing blanks here drawing blanks forget i even said that sports movie no no we no. Some guy with a mask. Basically, they were futuristic. Came out maybe 10, 12 years ago. And the guy

was experimented on for the surgery. And he had to accept that he was going to die before he could make it anyway. Okay. Cool. Yeah, never mind. And then I found $10. All right. Makes every story better. Yeah, I like it. Concussions? I don't know. What's your thought process going into a big stunt that's something that no one's ever done?

Maybe you'll take months to plan, I'm assuming, right? You'll take months to plan. You did the longest jump in a car. Is that right? That's correct, yeah. Is that still the record? Still the record for cars, yes. For cars.

So how long does something like that take to prepare, to calculate? How many people are on the team? And then what's your mental process getting ready for a big stunt? Well, it's kind of similar. Like by the time you're doing something in front of the masses, you've already – you've got a pretty good understanding, at least I hope, of what your capabilities are, what the car capabilities are, what the bike, what the – like even watching the guy a couple weeks ago jump from the plane into the net. You know, he knew what... I didn't see it exactly, but I saw kind of like it was happening.

I can't believe the guy landed. Yeah, well... Without a parachute, right? Is that what happened? Yes. What happened? He landed in a net. It was good.

No parachute? No parachute. Straight to the net. From the sky? Yes, sir. That's insane, isn't it? Completely insane. Would you ever consider that?

100 by 100. Well, it was interesting because there was a lot of us considering it, but there was a difference in considering it and doing it. And we were thinking 300 by 300, where he said 100 by 100. I was like, oh, that's a completely different stunt. But he's good. He knew what it would take. So for me, like the Red Bull New Year No Limits, every year they go to all their athletes and they say, okay, what can we do that will help your sport? And I went to him and said, look, we got beat last year in the championship because our car, um, wouldn't take the hits that, uh, that Ken Block was,

was doing. He was jumping further. He was just, he was out performing us in areas that we physically are, was, we weren't capable of doing. We would break the car. So I said, we need a stronger car and I'd like to do a big jump. And they said, okay, well, what's his world record? It's 141 feet. I said, okay, let's try to double it, which we were like 10 feet to our doubling. So we were basically like, okay, what can we do that's going to make these cars better, that's also going to be entertaining, that's going to help you in the future?

And we won the next four straight rally America championships with Subaru. And a lot of it was because, you know, because of that, that foundation, which is kind of cool to do more than one thing at a time. And that's what nitro is always trying to do now as well as, you know,

kind of step up to say, all right, how can help me help you? How you want to do four flips. All right. What do we need? We need bigger ramps. We need better safety.

We need landing ramps that have airbags. And then we take the airbags off and we use resi. And then if you want to do a world record, it's probably got to be without resi. So make sure you have it dialed on that and then we'll take it off for one time. You get that world record and let's do it safe. Wow. Tell us something about Nitro Circus. How did that get started and what's your involvement and where is it headed? All great questions. Nitro Circus kind of started when I got hurt.

I was hurt quite a bit racing motocross. Which year? Every year? Every year. But this was, you know, 2002, 2001, 2002. And Greg Godfrey, who was from Mormon, from Salt Lake City, he went off to California. He was a key grip on Touched by an Angel. He's like, I love movies, but I love motorcycles. I want to make movies about motorcycles.

And I was like, that makes sense. But he couldn't get the riders. So I was like, well, there's guys. I have the first ever phone pit. There's guys at my house all the time. In Maryland. Learning new tricks, trying stuff that's never been tried. So he sent me a camera. i didn't know anything about filming but you know since sony

2000 the balance white balance was never said nothing like the the footage quality was horrible but the the footage content was just pure and real and it was before youtube really took off and everything so people were just got this huge following and then uh you know it was really cool. Cause Johnny Knoxville had called me up and when evil cable passed away and said, look, we are doing a 24 hour takeover of MTV. And he said, come up with a few stunts. So I wrote up down a list of about 5,000 stunts and he goes, can you do any of them? I said, I don't know. We'll try them all. Two weeks later, he got us a show on MTV. And then, uh, we started with a live show and then we started traveling the world, finding more crazy people just like us. I mean, it's not that new for rednecks and farmers and people who build ramps.

You put your two-by-four and your plywood, and you jump your bikes and your cars, and it just evolves. But as this evolved, we found that we could actually – people liked to watch it. People that didn't like to do it liked to watch it. People that liked to do it joined us. And we just got this huge crew traveling the world, having a good time with all our friends and families. And now we're at a point where it's really cool because Nitro can, you know, we just did world games, which was, you know, like a world championship event.

It's kind of like your version of X Games or what is this? Exactly. But it's only the, it's pretty much the big air. So instead of going around and saying okay what's the most technical we say who can go the biggest and do something that's never been done the most dangerous but then no contest before i'd ever used um airbag landings or i mean i'm talking small like not you know like you land in a pillow um you know you can still get hurt but we had not one single broken bone and we had, I think, over 50

worlds first. So tricks that no one had ever done before. So the safest games. It was the safest games with the most innovation that had ever been done, which for us was a huge step. And we caught a little flack from some of the guys to be like, hey, look, you can't have

an official world record to something that's not wood or dirt or whatnot. But at the end of the day, these guys could try it. If you land it, you land it. If you don't land it, you can get back up. And you might not be happy about it. You might be wind knocked out yourself. I just look at my shoulder to a resi.

Like, it's not full proof. What's a resi? Just so I'm more understanding. Oh, sorry. A resi is either foam, like, say, a foot or two foot of foam. On a ramp. On a ramp. On a down ramp. On a down ramp with, like say a foot or two foot of foam. On a ramp. On a ramp. On a down ramp.

On a down ramp with like a small sheet of plastic over the top. So you can still land it and keep going is what you're saying. Land and ride out. Gotcha. But usually you slide. So if you land without the bike, without the rubber tires, as long as your shoes aren't that exact same compound, your feet, everything slides out. So you don't usually break stuff. Gotcha.

Still was a little bit tough with concussions. So we started for the motorcycle side, actually covering that with, um, a little bit of carpet as well, which just takes that, that, you know, after all the NFL stuff. And then with Dave Mira, um, you know, definitely something that my job is actually safety now, I guess for me at nitro circus, which is scary. Uh, but also at the same time, you know, I've been there, I understand what kind of works. Circus, which is scary, but also at the same time, you know, I've been there. I understand what kind of works. And when someone says they want to do something that's never been done, you got to take a step back and say, okay, it can be done. But how can we do this without killing somebody?

Yes. Josh Sheehan did a triple backflip on a dirt bike, 44 foot tall takeoff, 65 foot tall landing, 100 feet in the air. He broke a couple ribs, was pissing blood for a little bit on one of the things but no real injuries so he didn't die oh my gosh I think and we learned a lot about the safety bags

and everything so you know that we used for world games so you're constantly innovating the sport and what's possible

for the human body exactly and what's not possible if you go too high you need to have safer landings and if you have safer landings

you can go higher so it's kind of a so when did this start when you were traveling the world with this If you go too high, you need to have safer landings. Then if you have safer landings, you can go higher. So it's kind of a constant war. So when did this start when you were traveling the world with this? This was 2009, 2010. Okay. Do you know that, Greg? 2010.

2010 is a tour. Gotcha. So Nitro Circus officially started in 2010. Well, the Nitro Circus Live. Live. So Nitro Circus, the DVDs, started in 2002. 2002. Yeah.

Okay, interesting. And it's just been evolving ever since. So you're one of the original founders, members. There was two of us. Yeah, Greg Godfrey, who knew something about film, and myself, who knew something about riding dirt bikes. And then- That's it.

That's it. And it just keeps growing. And now it's just this mega business as well that you guys have continued to build. It's a wild thing because I don't like business. I don't like – I feel like if you're passionate enough, you'll find a way. But my job is to be at that table and to make sure that everyone at that table is smarter than I am. Of course.

And if that is the case, I feel like I've done my job. Of course, yeah. You can be the most talented. There we go. I'll work on the ramps. I'll work on this niche. So the company has gone bigger. Definitely the riders guide it.

But at the end of the day, there's a lot of stuff that's – a lot of the riders know about the – especially the younger guys, the scooter kids. Sorry, scooter kids. They're coming up. They're crushing it, by the way. They know a lot about the social media and they all film their own stuff. What do you mean by scooters? Scooters, like pretty much proto-scooters, razor scooters.

Razors. Yeah, like little... Those guys are freaks. I've seen some of those guys on Instagram just do crazy tricks. You know, they've been made fun of their whole lives and in... But now they're starting to take off a little, right?

And they are taking over Action Sports. They're making money. They are. These little 16-year-olds. One of these guys follows me. I forget his name. He's got, I don't know, like a half a million followers on Instagram, and he's just throwing

camps where hundreds of kids are coming to. And they're doing – so we got our – It's crazy. Our biggest athlete on Nitro Circus is Ryan Williams, our Willie. And everyone gave him such a hard time for – he was so amazing, but on a scooter. So he borrows someone's – He's a scooter. Scooter kid.

Scooter guy. He's the biggest athlete at your – He's the most well-known athlete on Nitro Circus. Maybe Sheehan with his triple backflip and stuff. But he's the first one there to sign autographs. He's the last one there that leaves. He gives away a scooter at almost every single stop. He does all his own video editing.

He does all his own filming. So he's basically... He's his own... Brand. He is complete brand. How old is he? Right now, he's his own brand. He is complete brand. How old is he? Right now he's 21 years old. And the amazing part is everyone gave him a hard time for riding a scooter.

So he goes and wins the world championships on BMX. And then pretty much sets it aside and goes, okay, now. I'm going to go back to my scooter thing. Now go back to the scooters. He won the world championships. Yeah, he won Nitro World Games. I mean, not even close. Dominated.

Big air. The biggest tricks. I mean, he's the. Dominated. Big air. The biggest tricks. I mean, he's the only one to triple front flip a bicycling. He does like every week. Kid's amazing. Wow. 1080 front flips, like three full twists and a flip on a BMX bike. It's not even – they don't even have this in video games.

Really? Yeah. They don't? I mean, we're working on that. Wow, wow. Okay, so what would you say Nitro Circus is right now for people to understand it? It's a live tour and what else? Well, Nitro Circus started from a bunch of kids, guys, having fun, pushing the limits in action sports.

But right now it is the best in the world of action sports, trying to find a way for the top guys in sport to be able to travel the world, follow their passion with the live shows in pretty much every country around the world. And then also- You guys are on TV as well, right? So we have NBC sports, and then we have two specials a year on NBC. And then we just put together basically a world championship event for the big air type stuff.

And that was recently, right? That was, yeah, recently. It had over like 5 million viewers live. So that was plus the internet stuff, which is actually, it's amazing. The internet, you get more views through that than you do on, you know, even like an NBC or a huge network. Now it's, um, it's, it's a wild thing, but NBC has been such a great partner for us because that allowed us to take these sports that were kind of a younger audience and take it to the masses to where anyone could really watch it. Who's the most talented athlete in your minds in the natural circus? It's hands down R. Willie. Really? Yeah. I mean, he's just,

he's, he's a freak of nature on trampolines on, he's just got so much air awareness and he rides when he wakes up in the morning, six o'clock he's at the skate park and he's either on bicycles or scooters or he's parkour, he's a trampolines, he's diving boards. If there's a, there's a bridge somewhere, he's flipping off of it. Like he just loves being in the area, loves pushing himself. He loves trying stuff. So people are always like, oh, he's so naturally talented. I'm like, maybe, but if you were doing whatever your sport was 15 hours a day, you'd probably be pretty good at it too. He lives it.

I mean, he's disciplined. That's it. If he's not doing that, he's editing. He's shooting it or he's got a team filming and then he's editing it. Wow. Well, the beauty of Nitro Circus now is that we have not only with our in-house camera guys, but we have all the riders now. Brandon Schmidt, they film each other. They really put their stuff together.

Woodward is an action sports. Woodward is a great camp, right? Yeah, very good. Woodward is an action sports camp. They actually have a camp now as well. While these kids are learning how to ride bicycles and skateboards, they have editing and social media. Really? At the camp? That's cool. Some of the guys

cross transfer over, but a lot of the guys that we're hiring now a night show are coming out of that that camp for just their editing that's cool so that's pretty neat wow i mean this video has done an incredible thing for all sports really but for action sports when you guys are able to get it out there so many people become it becomes so much more popular right well that Well, it's harder, I guess, to monetize where everyone is doing awesome stuff, which is awesome. Yeah. But I think that the beauty is there's no one that can't be a big name quick. People are like, how do I get on Nitro Circus? I'm like, simple.

You do something that no one else has ever done. Where do I put it? I'm like, you put it anywhere. If no one else has ever done it. People will see it. People will see it. It will get out there. It will go.

I mean, you know, I really got like 50, 60 million views on the clip that he just put out. It's like, you know, and obviously he's got more of a following. But like at the end of the day, this is, it's, I shouldn't say easy. You have to be an amazing athlete. But the thing is you can't make a living now just on, yeah, I was good in the day. No, there's so many other kids coming up and they all have an outlet there. So it's awesome. If there's a 13-year-old kid who's into this sport or any of these sports,

in the action sports, and wants to follow their passion, and this could be any type of kid really, but if you're in the action sports and they want to make six figures a year, what would you say would be the path that they need to take in order to make a good living? Maybe they're never going to be the best or the most extreme, but like, hey, you can still make $100,000 a year doing the sport by doing what actions? What's interesting with action sports, especially with how the internet's gone, if your goal is to make money or your

goal, maybe as you're getting older, is to stay relevant, you're already not relevant or you will never make money. There is no amount of money in the world worth putting your body through the risks that these guys... I mean, people are always like, oh, if I got paid six, seven figures, I would do that. No, you wouldn't. Actually, you probably wouldn't. And you wouldn't... Maybe you'd try it, but you wouldn't put the time and the effort

and the injuries into getting there. You've got to fully love it. So on that aspect, you have to really love it. But at a certain point, if you make it and you're good enough and you're still passionate about it when you get there, because that's another thing. I mean, a lot of kids, they finally make it and they're there. They're like, you know what?

I just, I'm just burnt out, which is awesome. And so they're not awesome. Yeah. I don't want to be hurt anymore. I don't want, and,

but the amount of sacrifice and dedication and the hard work they put in, the guys that make it even for a year, even for whatever in action sports have been able to then make it like business. That point is easy. Yeah, it is. Um,

you know, I'm not saying business is easy, but it's something that, especially now they have a little bit of credibility. It's like my friend is Navy SEAL. You know, went into the SEALs, didn't have anything when he went in, came out. And for him, like things that stress out most people, like even me, I'm like, I got this.

He's like, he's just laughing. This is nothing. He's like, dude, yeah, whatever, man. And he's able to take what he's learned and the effort and the work and the pain. You know real pain. Of course. You know real risk. And that level always changes depending on what job you take.

But to take that back into a normal environment, you're then successful or can be successful. Yeah. I mean, as an athlete, I feel like I had an advantage learning business. Like, yes, it was challenging to get started and I had no clue what I was doing. But compared to three days in the heat in Ohio, you know, 110 degrees and just getting beaten the head over and over and constant injuries, like figuring out how to market something wasn't that hard. You know what i mean my last year of supercross um i was only 18 years old i just i was on the way to the test track and you know we get to the suzuki test track out just corona california not too far from here and we'd get there around eight o'clock and we'd leave at six whenever it got dark and it was just it was hot it was miserable you just you i i'd never had any skin on my arms. I was always hurt. I was always sore. And on the way, there was a big crash just on the freeway. And I was sitting there and I was so happy. I was like, oh, thank goodness. I'm going to be like, you know, putting in laps on super cross track. But at the same time, like when that makes something that most people are like, so frustrated at just so much better that, you know, when you're putting in three days,

anything to get you out of that, you know, and, but if you're going to make it, obviously you're looking forward to those three days. You're like, I'm going to do bigger. I'm gonna do better. I'm going to, I'm going to push it. If I'm hurting, I'm going to make sure that everyone else on the field is passed out. If I'm almost passed out, they're passed out. Exactly. How do you get into flow when fear creeps in? Because obviously, I'm assuming you're not immune to fear. When you try something new, there's got to be some uncertainty for you. Even when you try something you've already done, there might be some fear in doing three backflips in a row at any moment. So how do you get into flow and overcome

fear? Repetition and practice. And the more bad experiences you're in, the more bad experiences that you will get in that you know how to get out of, if that makes any sense. So like when you're in the air and everything's going wrong, but you've been in a similar situation, you know, either it worked or it didn't work, but you already have, you're not relying on thinking, you're just doing it. And I feel like when you drop in and do something you've never done before, you already have an idea. You know what the takeoff feels like. You know what the pull feels like. You've tried it into a foam pit or an airbag or something. So for me, flow is simply repetition. It's being, it's knowing every part of my motorcycle or bicycle so in and out that no matter what happens, I'm not that concerned about it because I know how to get out of

it. And that's why guys like R. Willie do so great because every time they mess up one trick, they might invent another trick because they realize what spins or how that, you know, so it's that, that mentally going, whatever this stunt, this trick, this jump, this day throws at me, I've got it covered because I've put in the work. The only time that I feel like I'm really out of flow is when I'm thrown in a different element. Like, um, people are like, Hey, here's some skis. I'm like, Oh God. Like I can't ski at all. But going down a hill, as soon as I get in the air, oh, all right. Here we go. Back lay out.

There we go. Let's do some spins. Okay. And then I land back on the skis and I'm like, oh, gosh. Here we go. So for me, flow is repetition. That's cool. I like that.

How many times do you think you've gone off a ramp on anything? Oh, my gosh. I mean, pretty much it was every day of my life for 10 years. Um, you know, 300 times a day. It's never great at math. It's the only major in college. I kind of skipped around that. Sure. Sure. Okay. Thousands of times. Yes. Okay. Hundreds of thousands, millions. And do you have a daily routine or meditation practice or habits that are non-negotiable for you every single day? For me, the hardest part is with travel and with family and with everything. It does get more challenging, but give me an hour on my road bicycle every day.

And I don't care if we get to bed at 3 o'clock and we have to get up at 5. I'd rather not sleep and just get that time for me. That's, I was never good at sitting on a couch or sitting anywhere and just meditate still. But on a road bike, I feel like, especially like around my house in Maryland, like it could be hot, it could be cold, it could be whatever. And just, um, just going out and, you know, there's not a lot of cars on the roads around the house and there's some good bike trails and, you know, just to put your music in and just have that time that's it's kind of alone and you can you know the first little bit you kind of wind down and then you have that little bit of

that that piece where you're just kind of riding and you might be thinking about what's going on and then you have that that bit at the end where if you want to push it you want to go a little hard you want to see what you're made of again. Every day, you're like, you promise you won't do it the next time, but you want to see if you can beat that record. That's funny. So for me, that kind of covers all three of my bases. So every day you ride the bike or you try to ride the bike every day? That is my goal.

I mean, it used to be like try to get in 60 miles a day and now it's like 60 miles a week, but you do what you can. You do what you can. That's cool. I like that. That's your meditation. And your wife, you say your wife, uh, she's fully supports everything you do now. I mean, obviously you have, you have two kids, correct? Yes. Do anything, does anything change for you when approaching the sport and,

you know, going big? No. Well, what's interesting. And we were just hanging out with, um, a lot of our friends and family this, this last week, uh, Nitro Circus, and most of us have kids now. And they were doing stuff that – I mean like child protective services probably would go, hey, that's dangerous. But when you're with this crew, like Tony Hawk got so much trouble for riding with one of his kids on a skateboard. trouble for riding with his, you know, one of his kids on a skateboard. But for Tony, like, I would think his kid was way more safe on his skateboard than probably with one of his in-laws driving, you know, to McDonald's in a car seat. I don't know his in-laws at all. Sorry. But, you know, that's just, you know, with four wheelers, motorcycles, what we know, this is what we do. Like it's, it's, it's like my wife always trust me, um, you know, with the kids, with myself,

because she knows that I'm not a careless person. I don't take a lot of risk. I more with myself than anything else, just because I like to win one offsmanship. But of course, at the end of the day, it's, I'm not going to do that with, with base jumping, with skydiving, with stuff that I don't not particularly, um, not in flow with don't have the practice in the time. But my wife is probably the one that she is the one that scares me more than I scare her. Um, not necessarily with her on a skateboard, but now she's getting into motorcycles and car

racing and all this stuff and motors bring in a whole different, all different speeds and jumps. And she's like, this is so easy easy. I'm like, just be careful. You don't know how close you are getting. You haven't experienced that many crashes. Doug Henry, my greatest hero of all time growing up, his son won the National Jump Rope Championship. It was interesting. I was like, Doug, and Doug's paralyzed now,

did a backflip, paralyzed. He had a broken back. They said he'd never ride again. I was like, Doug, and Doug's paralyzed now, did a backflip, paralyzed. He had a broken back. They said he'd never ride again. His wife found a doctor and did some stuff, and they figured out a way. So he came back, won two national championships. This guy's been through everything. But he goes, look, I didn't ever get my kids involved with this because I know how many times I had to mess up before I understood what was going to work and what wasn't.

He goes, I still ended up in a chair. He goes, I have no regrets. I love my life. But at the same time, it's a hard thing. Like Lindsay knows skating. I don't know skating. If I get on a skateboard, I'm going to fall and break myself off. I can't even go off curb.

So the kids are on a skateboard. I can barely go straight on a street. Yeah, exactly. They're with my wife and they're with the motorcycle. They're with me. But it's an interesting dynamic how they see this stuff. My daughter, she sees doubles,

backflips, triple backflip. And, oh, that's Sheeny. That's like, it's normal. So I'm a little nervous on that end

to when she's going to be like, oh, yeah, it's a hundred foot jump. Yeah, I got that at like six. Six, right. And what still drives you today after you've created so much, you've achieved so much,

you've won everything, broken all the records? Waking up with a passion. Yeah. Just waking up with that smile on your face, having something that you really want to do that day. And some days it's just not traveling. It's staying home with the family. And then you do that for enough days and it's no longer, you're like, okay, this has been good, but what can I do? Like,

where can we take Nitro Circus? You know, how can we provide a place where guys like me can have, that are passionate, that love what they do, can make a living traveling around the world with their best friends. Like I've had the very fortunate, you know, life to be able to do that. And can we keep action sports growing and keep... I shouldn't say keep kids off of video games. Video games are great, but it's like action sports were conventional sports

and then you had action sports in my generation and now you have video games. It's fine. And Pokemon Go. Yeah. I almost got run out. I was at a stop sign. A guy came and just almost ran to me. He's like, I'm sorry. What are you doing? Get your Pokemon. Yeah. I almost got like running. I was at a stop sign. I came and just like almost ran to me. He's like, Oh, I'm sorry. What are you doing? Yeah, seriously. Anyway. But so that's for me, I just want my kids to be active and I want them to be passionate. And that's, I don't know. That's

what I base my life around. So, right. Is there any thing, is there any boundary that you have or is there any limits that you don't think you'd be able to break in the next five to 10 years with technology and with how much you're seeing other guys do things and what they're able to do with their bodies and bikes and things like that? Is there anything that you're like, you know, maybe one day I'll be able to do that, but. Well, it's really hard to say. Cause the first time I did a double backflip, I said, you know, I'll never do a double backflip again. That was the craziest thing ever. And now, honestly, kids are warming up. Not kids, but there's a 20-year-old Harry Bink. And he just looked at the jump.

He hadn't even hit it before. Double backs it. Really? On a dirt bike. And I was like, you little punk. And you were the first one to do it? Yeah, in 2006. But I'm just saying, things evolve.

It's crazy now. So it's with evolution, ramps evolve. So my job is to continually evolve these sports and make it as safe as we can while we're doing it so my backyard in maryland is basically this huge like playland of just bags and it's cool because i can still try these new tricks and try everything and work on all this stuff and i do it to a bag and then when someone goes hey you're gonna take it to take it to dirt? I'm like, no. I'm old. That's your job.

Good luck. Okay. So you'll do it to a bag, but you may not do it to a ramp. Yeah, unless it's something that I really feel like it's – You get a 10 out of 10. It's every time. And if it's worth – if it's something huge and it's something that I can do every time, then – Sure.

Yeah. I'm not saying I'm never going to do something crazy again. Like this last tour, I had worked on all these ramps in my house and one of the guys got hurt and one of the guys didn't come on tour because he was practicing for world games and X games and all this stuff. And I was the only one in the world that could actually do the tricks that I'd set up. And I'm like, duh, got it. So I had to do the whole tour and it was the best tour of my life. But my wife is like, because every night I'm like so scared. I'm going out there.

I'm trying. So when you do a thing one night, that's one thing. But on tour, you got to do it night after night. It's scary. So I crashed one night real bad. And I'm just bruised. My legs are purple. I could hardly breathe.

I bruised ribs, shoulder sore. And I'm like, all right. And tomorrow night, too. I'm always like, you're not really going to get up. I'm like, I got to. That's what, I'm always like, you're not really going to get up. I'm like, I got to. That's what they pay to see. Give the people what they want. So my goal is to always be that guy

that can have six or seven other guys that can learn what he's doing. Yeah. And do it better. That's cool. A few final questions for you and I appreciate everything you've shared so far. This has been awesome.

Personal question, what are you most grateful for in your life recently? Oh, recently. You know, what are you most grateful for in your life recently? Oh, recently? You know, that's a really, really tough question. You know, I'd say the thing that I'm most grateful for is that my wife, even though she's in these sports, has been so good as a mother. I'm almost crying as I say that. It's just weird. Cause you know,

you get older, you get tears and it's just weird stuff. But the, um, so as I travel around a lot, it's difficult traveling with, with kids, different time zones. One of them sleeping, one of them's not my wife who always loved her sleep. Like she didn't get less than 10 hours of sleep ever when we were dating. Um, you know, which is not like realistic for, yeah. If she's lucky, um, you know, and that's, and she's been able to adapt to that and really embrace that. And still, she still skates. She still goes out and goes in the show. Um, you know, not every night, but she just, she went to world games and she's like, you know what? I want to skate today. And she ran practice and she's such a badass, but you never know it from her Instagram

or anything. She never even puts anything of her. It's all just, you know, kids and just, she just loves being a mom. And I love being a father, but if I didn't have someone that was that good as a mom, I, I would probably have a mental breakdown. So that's, I appreciate that part. It's a lot to be grateful for. Yeah. So I know it was was a lot, but my wife has adapted to being a mom so well, I think. That's amazing. No, that's beautiful. This is a question that I ask everyone at the end. It's called the three truths.

It's called the three truths. So imagine it's many, many years from now. You've lived an incredible life, long life, and it's the last day for you, and everyone's there. All the people you care about, your friends, family, it's a celebration. But for whatever reason, all the videos you've shot of all the things you've said, this podcast isn't around anymore, all the stunts you've done have been erased from online. So no one can see what you've created anymore for whatever reason.

But they give you a piece of paper and a pen and they say, we want you to write down the three things you know to be true about all the experiences in your life that you'd pass on to all of us. So what would you say are your three truths? Number one is passion. If you're passionate enough about something, even if it's not exactly how you want it to be,

you'll find a way to make it work. I don't know. I feel like, I don't know if what goes around comes around, um, is something, but I guess kind of stick with it because like, I feel like there's a lot of people that get a lot of luck or get a lot of

people that get a lot of bad luck. And a lot of people with a lot of luck kind of change who they are. And a lot of people with a lot of bad luck quit. And I'd say what goes around comes around if you just don't quit because so many times i have so many friends that were just something was just about to come through and they gave up you know which is which is fine that's what they want to do but it's like i feel like what goes around comes around if you can just stick with it if you can go through enough bad you know know, so kind of along the same lines. Okay.

And then, I don't know, I think respect. I think respect is something that, you know, is earned over a lifetime. But if you can always respect other people and, you know, try to keep their respect, I think you're doing all right. I like that. And I'm not saying internet respect, you know, I'm saying like the people, the people that are like, you know, really well. Sure. Sure. Uh, before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Travis, for your incredible joy and your incredible love and passion for what you do and bringing the sport to life and making it so well known for so many people around the world. Also your commitment to your passion, because there are not a lot of

people that I think are willing to do what you do for the love of their passion. They don't want to risk enough. And you're an incredible example of what's possible in the world for all of us. You're an incredible example in your sports as a human being from just our small interaction here, limited time. And to know that you can thrive in your sport and have a loving wife and loving kids and have an incredible family and have it all and the business, it's such an inspiration. So I want to acknowledge you for just who you are in the world, man. It's amazing.

Thanks for having these podcasts, man. Yeah, of course. Of course. Before I ask the final question, where can we follow you online? Where do you hang out the most? Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, where are you at? What should we follow? Nitrocircus.com. What can we do right now to support you? Oh man, basically just, uh, just Nitro Circus and their, their athletes. I mean, you go on a Nitro Circus, Facebook, I'm more of an Instagram. I know they're all Snapchats coming around, but I'm Instagram stories, man. Yeah. There you Facebook. I'm more of an Instagram. I know they're all Snapchats coming around.

Instagram stories, man. Yeah, there you go. Instagram stories get big. You know, I just finally switched over. I'm still Facebook, but I just found like the – I have a hard time with Facebook in that every time you post something, it's just mostly just – like if you're riding two feet with your kid

and you're not putting a helmet on, I know I should always wear a helmet, but like, you know, it's just a lot of, a lot of people that are just angry feedback. Yeah. Very negative.

So this, I feel like Instagram is a more supportive, a little, not even supportive, just my, my people. Yeah, sure.

So I've been sticking with that for now, but no nitro circus.com and just, uh, you know, be sure to check out nitro circus. And if you want to see like, honestly come to a show, every, every parent just, uh, you know, be sure to check out nitro circus. And if you want to see, like, honestly come to a show, every, every parent goes, um, you know, I came from my kids and then halfway through I was standing up and cheering and I haven't felt like that in so long.

Thank you. A mom said the, sorry, not to take up too much time, but no, go ahead. The thing that I think made me smile the most in this last year was a mom came up to me and like, grab me a little violently at the end. Like, come over here. I was like, all right. She goes, I just want to thank the crew down here, all the guys, all the riders. And she says, I was afraid to have my kid ride a skateboard. I didn't like the image.

I didn't like what I had seen. Yeah. It's like, you know, staying out late going, um, you know, not vandalism, but that's just how she kind of viewed everything. And,

you know, with skating down parks or streets or something like that. And she goes, what I saw here was a bunch of friends having an awesome time. And if my kid can ever find a group that embraces him, that loves him, that is as half as supportive as this crew, then I have done a good job as a parent. So thank you for bringing this crew together. So I think for Nitro Circus, I think that beyond anything, like the world's first or not world's first, people, I think, especially the parents, relate to just a bunch of good people having a good time.

And do you guys tour all over the world, over the U.S.? There's a schedule online, right? Yeah, online. They have all the schedules. But tour all over the world, over the U.S.? There's a schedule online, right? Yeah, online. They have all the schedules. But basically, we'll go all over the U.S. We'll do a regional tour, hit some of the smaller cities, and then a bigger tour. The bigger tours have all the top guys. The regional tours sometimes are split up a little bit, but definitely always a lot of fun.

So all the information is at NitroCircus.com, right? Greg, what do we do? NitroCircus on social media, NitroCircus.com. He's on, what do we do? Nitrosircus on social media, nitrosircus.com. He's on it. He's got it. Awesome. Final question for you. This has been a great time. I really love connecting with you. And if there's anything I can do personally to support, just let me know. The final question is, what is your definition of greatness? Ah, I see you got all these just, just, just very deep, deep questions. So,

I mean, right off the top of my head, I think greatness is being able to have the confidence to do what you love to do

and to do it well enough that you have the people around you that you love that still want to do it with

you. Travis, you're the man. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Oh, yes. There you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode with the legendary Travis Pastrana. Again, the guy has done so many incredible things, broken so many world records, broken the physical limitations so many times with the human body many world records, broken the physical limitations so many times with the human body. And he's just an incredible human as well. So I'm so grateful for Travis for coming on. So thank you, Travis and the whole team over at Nitro Circus for getting him on here.

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We've got some incredible interviews coming up. And I want to know what you want to hear, what you want to learn about, what topics interest you more. So, again, take that quiz and get ready for some incredible greatness coming your way soon. You guys know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music