Pastrana’s dad also said: ‘Run it until the wheels fall off.’ “Luckily I’m still at a point where the wheels haven’t fallen off,” he adds with a chuckle.

But there’s more to the Travis Pastrana story than supportive, if strict parenting and very obvious talent. He’s the product of a series of perfect storms.

“I had a lot of competition growing up. Older cousins, younger cousins, they were all athletes. But I couldn’t throw, I couldn’t catch, I couldn’t tackle…,” laughs Travis. “Bikes were my outlet. It was the only thing where I didn’t have to be stronger. I could twist the throttle, I could take more risks, and I realised I was extremely durable.”

“I always wanted to win every event, but you can’t make it through a season and [win all the time]. You’re going to get a fifth. I was always horrible with that.” It’s something that anybody that’s launched a Monopoly board across a room will be able to relate to.

Again, racing’s loss was freestyle’s gain as Pastrana went on to set up Nitro Circus, the high-octane, action sports spectacular that showcases how high, how fast, and how far humans can push themselves on boards and bikes.

Nitro Circus is now such a phenomenon it’s eclipsed even Pastrana himself. Yet, maybe unsurprisingly, given his past, the whole thing started because of a chance meeting, bad luck, and freak occurrences.

“I’d lost my way. It was the first time I was ever really depressed.”

“At 18 years old, I’d had a lot of concussions right in a row. I just tried to train through the concussions but got myself extremely sick, and in no condition to do anything. I started getting into cars, but got in a big crash and really hurt a friend who was a mechanic for one of the guys.”

The man hurt was 20-year-old former Moto X rider Matthew Bigos. The incident left Bigos paralysed from the waist down, although he’s now made a recovery.

“It was the first time I was ever really depressed,” admits Pastrana. “I’d lost my way. The only thing I wanted to do was ride, and I was just…” Travis pauses but remains upbeat and fast paced while recounting what must have been a dark time in his life. “Physically I just didn’t know if I could.”

It would have been easy for Pastrana to sit on his laurels but he immediately makes it clear that’s not going to be the case. He already has the future mapped out.

“I’m working on Nitro World Games,” he says. “When you used to go to X Games, you would do your biggest trick. [But] now, at X Games, a double backflip is a big deal, but they’re doing quad backflips at my house.”

“Triple backflip full twists. We had a snowboarder do a triple backflip on a BMX! The third person in the world on a BMX bike. We’ve got two mountain bikers – the only two in the world to do a triple backflip – and they’re doing triple backflips with Kiss Of Deaths in them!”

“We needed an event that captured that spirit again. That spirit of ‘I want to see something that’s never been done’.” Pastrana’s eyes widen, like a child’s at Christmas confronted by a pile of presents.

The premise for the World Games sounds simple. So simple, that’s it’s amazing no one has done it already. “What if we have a World Championships that’s open to the world? Everyone’s says: ‘Oh, I should have been in X Games, but the politics…’ So, let’s take the politics out and make it more entertaining!”

Travis maybe remembers himself for a second, and quickly adds “I’m not trying to down X Games, but they’ve taken out FMX, they’ve taken out Best Trick … and it’s for safety reasons, but let’s have Best Trick, but to a resi’ [softer] landing. Let’s encourage people to try stuff and get back up and try it again. So, it’s a different philosophy. Hopefully we’ll progress action sports, but also make it safer.”

Safety is a theme that Pastrana continues to come back to. Now a father in his thirties, the assumption that he takes on a more paternal role within Nitro Circus is an easy one to make.

“My job at Nitro is to try to make sure that everyone’s prepared. If you tell me you can do something, I want to know that if it goes wrong, you’re going to be okay. Or that you’ve got it dialled enough that it’s not going to go wrong.”

While Nitro Circus pushes the boundaries, Pastrana is all too aware of the perils of doing so, a point he illustrates when he mentions his close friend Bruce Cook. Cook was paralysed after damaging his spinal chord during at attempt to land a double front flip on his bike at a Nitro Circus show in Canada in 2014.

“When you’re doing a triple backflip, suddenly a single backflip doesn’t seem like a big deal, but you’re still flying 40mph upside down.”

“Bruce was eight for ten on a double front flip, and you’d think ‘Yeah, that’s pretty good [odds]’. But think of how high he’s coming in. And if it’s nine or ten?” Travis stops for a beat. “That’s how he ended up paralysed. He wanted to [do it], and he could…” again a pause. “We’ve got to do it every night. And for that, we’ve got to build our landing safer.”

While Nitro Circus is almost wholly received with good grace wherever it goes, it’s not without its detractors, and the landings they use – which are softer, and more spongy than the hard take-off ramps – are a familiar target. “People say, ‘Oh, your ramps aren’t real landings.’ But they still did the trick! They still landed it! If you crash on our landing, you get back up. Yes, it’s not a real landing, but our job is to do stuff that’s never been done. To do it higher and bigger but safely.”

But does the show still force action sports in a dangerous direction?

“No one works as hard. He said before the tour started, ‘I’m going to do a Word’s First’ on every single stop’. I’ve probably done eight or nine world first’s in my life. He’s talking about 24 stops where he wants to do world’s firsts. And he got seven!”

Travis’ fatherly enthusiasm is infectious. Sitting in his presence, and listening to him talk, it’s impossible not to feel excited about what lies ahead for Williams, for Nitro Circus and, of course, for Pastrana himself. With this man at the handlebars, I think as I say goodbye, the future of action sports is in safe hands.

The Nitro Circus World Games tour hits the UK on 2^nd February taking in dates in Manchester, Glasgow and London. For more information, and to buy tickets, see www.nitrocircus.com

Read the rest of The Future Issue by Mpora here

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