Aussie star 'RWilly' enjoys his time in Twin Cities for X games

Ryan Williams suffered a painful back injury when he visited Minneapolis last summer. He returned last week and found love.

He really digs our Lime scooters.

"I rode it all around the city," he said. "Me and my girlfriend just cruise around. It's the best way to see a city. Unless you've got a convertible."

Williams isn't your average scooter novice who looks wobbly navigating city streets. He's considered one of the best — if not the best — scooter riders in the world.

He's not bad on a BMX bike either.

Williams won his third consecutive X Games gold medal in the Big Air event Friday night at U.S. Bank Stadium. His winning run was a showstopper that included the first-ever backflip on his drop-in on the mega ramp. Google it and watch in slow-motion to fully appreciate it.

"I put so much pressure on myself," he said. "I knew I was going to make history if I could do it."

The Australian star earned fame in the action sports world as a daredevil on his kick scooter — the self-propelled kind that kids everywhere ride in their driveways and cul-de-sacs.

Williams used to be one of those kids. He got his first scooter at age 12. He learned to do cool tricks and, in the modern form of show-and-tell, he made videos and posted them on YouTube.

One of his videos went viral, certain people took notice, an audition turned into a $1 million contract with a touring company, Williams amassed a gigantic social media following, and voila, he's become an X Games sensation.

He finished sixth in his X Games debut in Minneapolis last summer, in part because of a back injury suffered in practice. He got his redemption Friday.

Williams grew up on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. He raced BMX bikes as a kid because his mom was an accomplished BMX racer in her youth. Williams' career didn't take off because he kept performing tricks during races.

He was a natural on a scooter, honing his tricks at a local skate park. At age 14, he flew to the United States for a contest. Nitro Circus — an action sports touring show — ultimately signed him to a three-year contract to perform tricks on his scooter and bike.

Now 25, the guy known as RWilly has six sponsorship deals, his own scooter model sold commercially, 1.15 million subscribers to his YouTube channel and 1.3 million Instagram followers.

Williams is known for inventing new tricks. He became the first person to land a triple front flip on a BMX bike, and the first to stick a triple backflip on a scooter.

"I find more satisfaction out of trying a trick that no one has ever done before, even if it takes me 100 tries," he said.

He estimates that some tricks required 600 attempts before he perfected them, which, if you do the math, equates to a lot of spills.

"After 13 years of riding, I'm kind of like a professional crasher," he said.

Williams' occupation requires a healthy dose of courage — or craziness — as he zooms down a steep ramp, launches into the air and starts doing flips and twists and movements with his body that defy logic. He performs all over the world with Nitro Circus, splitting time evenly between his bike and his scooter. He made his name on the scooter.

"[Fans] see me and are like, 'What is this kid doing?' " he said. "Obviously on a scooter I can do a lot more than what I can do on a bike because it's a little bit smaller."

Which brings us to an important question: What tricks did he try on our lovely scooters while cruising downtown?

"I can't talk about it," he said. "Nah, I'm joking."

Anyway, our scooters aren't exactly the same thing as his scooter.

"My scooter doesn't have a motor," he said. "My motor is gravity. And it's a bit more sturdy than a Lime scooter."

So no damage done, eh?

"Actually, the bars don't turn fully around so I can't even do any tricks," he said.

He got a kick out of riding them though.

"I think I've spent $20," he said.

Chip Scoggins • chip.scoggins@startribune.com