The Circus is coming to town. Nitro Circus stopped in Arnhem. By BdJ

Dec 13, 2013

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 4949 times

We've all had it happen to us when a stranger walks by and tells you to join the circus. You just think he's got no idea what he's talking about and continue with what you were doing. The circus isn't BMX, but people actually do go to the circus to see things done that only a few people can do.

In the past riders like Zach Shaw, Mike Canning, Jason Ellis and Shaun Scarfe actually traveled Europe doing shows inside a circus tent. Conditions were sketchy, but the life experience is there.

Rob Alton still does BMX shows in a traveling circus today, but a different crew arrived in Arnhem: The Nitro Circus Live posse.

No elephants, horses, juggling acts, or tigers showed up to put on a show but 40 of the world's best action sports athletes. Among them a few that are competely nuts so thousands of people bought tickets to see the show. The 15 meter high Giganta ramp had a 12 and a 15 meter gap.

Right next to it the FMX riders did their thing. Next to bicycles and motorcycles, tricks were done on snowscooters, quads, ski's, mountain boards, skateboards and tons of crazy contraptions that were not made to go down a big ramp at speed. The Lazy chair being one of them, or a wheel barrow pushed by an inline skater. The high bike was crazy as was the flip on the Dutch bike. What about dropping in on a kids car or a trike? Consider those the clown tricks for the crazy "athletes" on the show.

The main thing is to entertain the crowd. The light show and fireworks helped with that. Even if you do know what's going on in BMX (trick-wise), you don't get to see a cashroll (Brandon Loupos) on the giganta ramp every day, or a double backflip tailwhip (Jed Mildon) or a flip triple whip (Jaie Toohey), or a flip in a wheelchair ("Wheels"). When it starts to look like daily business, the clips on the big screens will remind the people in the crowd that things can go wrong, terribly wrong.

One of the biggest highlights of the show is James Fosters' triple backflip. James had changed the ramp set up 4 times during the European tour to get things right. That means there were some crashes involved. Crashing triple backflips is never fun. Seeing him pull it clean in Arnhem got the crowd on their feet and was a perfect show ender. More fireworks, lights, music, dancing athletes and a cheering crowd. Another show down, what town is next?
BdJ