THUNDER BAY - Adrenaline junkies and thrill seekers in Thunder Bay were treated to the high-flying antics of Nitro Circus Live, which made its first stop ever in the city this weekend.
As part of a North American tour, Nitro Circus Live took over the Port Arthur Stadium and thrilled over 5,000 spectators with motocross and BMX jumps, flips, supermans, and even a flying couch.
Ricky Melnik, athlete and performer manager with Nitro Circus, said that 30 athletes would be performing during the Thunder Bay show, including several X-Games gold medalists and World Games champions.
“We also have Bruce cook, a Canadian and local hero,” Melnik said. “Unfortunately he took a pretty bad fall at one of our shows last year. Since then, he’s come back and he’s rehabilitated. He’s paralyzed from the waist down, but he still gets on the bike.”
Cook was on his bike on Sunday, performing a backflip with a modified motocross bike with an extended back bar.
For eight-year-old, Sawyer Smith, seeing Cook perform the stunt was his favourite part of the show.
“I really liked that,” he said. “I really like the BMX riders, too.”
Even though Smith is no stranger to motocross, owning and racing his own dirt bike, he said that you probably won’t see him out on the Nitro Circus circuit anytime soon, partly because he’s too busy competing in the Superior Dirt Races.
“It looks a little too dangerous,” he said. “I like winning. That’s all I do.”
Brandon Schmidt, a professional snowboarder and BMX rider with Nitro Circus Live, knows firsthand how dangerous it can be participating in extreme sports.
Schmidt said that he has experienced 12 broken bones, collapsed lungs, and concussions, but it’s always been his style to get back in the game as soon as he can.
“If I’m going to try a new trick and break my arm and I’m out for six weeks, the first thing I think of is: shoot, I can’t try that trick again,” Schmidt said. “It’s just the love, the passion, and wanting to progress. When you have your idea of what you want to do, you are going to do whatever it takes to make it happen.”
At 23-years-old, Schmidt has been performing with Nitro Circus Live for four years, but the show on Sunday was his first performance in North America.
As a long-time fan before joining the team, Schmidt said that Nitro Circus appeals to fans so much because there is just no way of knowing what will happen next.
“For me, I’m around it every day, and still the things that happen blow my mind,” he said. “So I know that for someone who doesn’t quite understand how it quite works will be ten times more mind blown, because it doesn’t make sense how bikes flip and rotate around in the air. So that is what I think it is, people want to come out and see what’s never been done.”
The show was scheduled for Saturday evening, but rain forced organizers to move the show to Sunday. That didn’t stop the thousands of fans from lining up on both days.
Randi Wick was one of those fans and she didn’t mind coming back a second day to catch the show.
“We were okay about it,” she said. “We weren’t that mad. It got us off the couch yesterday. And the show is so awesome. We’ve already watched Nitro Circus on TV a hundred times, so to bring it to life like this has been awesome.”
Ryan Siman travelled all the way from Dryden to catch the high-flying show. On Saturday, he said that he was excited to see some of the best athletes in the world perform.
“I’ve been dirt biking for years,” he said. “I’ve been following them, watching videos and buying the videos. I wish I could do that, but can’t. It’s just straight up adrenaline, nothing beats it.”
