Ethen Godrey Roberts (born July 15, 1990), is a professional
Freeride Mountain Bike and
FMX rider known for his participation with the extreme sports show
Nitro Circus
''Nitro Circus'' is an "action sport collective" led by Travis Pastrana, featuring his friends and him traveling around the world riding dirtbikes, BASE jumping, and performing stunts. Co-founded in 2003 by Pastrana, Nitro Circus has become a m ...
. He's the first to land a triple backflip on a mountain bike and has since become a pioneer of big mountain bike tricks, like a tsunami double backflip (2013) and triple backflip (2014). He's a pioneer athlete in the Snow Bike Winter X Games event, eventually winning a bronze medal in the 2019 Snow-Bike Best Trick event. He's also the nephew of the legendary action sports pioneer
Gregg Godfrey
Gregg Godfrey (born May 26, 1969) is an American writer, producer and director. His first short film was ''Children of a Metal God'', and he is most noted for his work on Nitro Circus, a video series he created in his garage with motocross racer ...
who is the co-founder of Nitro Circus.
Personal
Ethen grew up in Salt Lake City, he grew up in a location prime for
action sports
Action sports, adventure sports or extreme sports are activities perceived as involving a high degree of risk. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly specialized gear. Extreme tourism overl ...
with an active family. His mother was a Professional Gymnast that had a career-ending injury from being on the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team. While his very close uncle is an action sports pioneer. Ethan states his family was "practically born backflipping dirtbikes and snowboards". Also stating “I was introduced to action sports by Gregg Godfrey, as soon as I was basically born,” Ethen says. He started racing motorcycles when he was 3 years old and eventually got into BMX racing too, but the freestyle eventually won him over in the end. “I loved racing, but I loved jumping more.”
At age 19, he left for Argentina for two years on a mission for his church, he spent those entire two years away from action sports completely. He didn't ride anything at all, just devoted himself to his mission until he was 21. He was one of the youngest kids to backflip a motorbike, doing so at the age of 14. On January 5, 2020, he and his wife Heather welcomed a boy, York, their second child.
Career
Ethen has adapted several tricks that he did first on a mountain bike that was adapted from FMX, like the scorpion double backflip and the backflip double grab superman. In 2013, he started competing and had his first viral moment with the tsunami double backflip. Over the years he quietly became world-class on a mountain bike, cementing that status in 2014 when he and Gavin landed the first-ever MTB triple backflips. Later in 2014, Roberts landed the first-ever Superman Double Backflip, he was nominated for Outstanding New Limit,
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
Sport Science Newton Awards for the trick.
In 2017, He was in a Nitro Circus TV produced short-series ''Off the Grid'' with his brother and Godfrey clan where they featured various FMX and MTB tricks pushing the limits on the iconic
Red Bull Rampage
The Red Bull Rampage is an invitation-only freeride mountain bike competition held near Zion National Park in Virgin, Utah, United States, just to the north of Gooseberry Mesa. From 2001 till 2004, it was held off the Kolob Terrace Road, on the ...
mountain in
Virgin, Utah
Virgin is a town in Washington County, Utah, United States. The population was 596 at the 2010 census. The first settlement at Virgin was made in 1858. It is located along the Virgin River (for which it is named), and not far from Zion National ...
. Where he would later attempt to complete in the event, ultimately not qualifying for the Main Event.
In 2018, he competed in the first inaugural Snow Bike Best Trick event at X-Games Aspen 2018. He has been known for interchanging his style of Mountain Biking and FMX in competition.
In 2019, he was featured in a
Giant Bicycles
Giant Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (commonly known as Giant) is a Taiwanese bicycle manufacturer, recognized as the world's largest bicycle designer and manufacturer. Giant has manufacturing facilities in Taiwan, the Netherlands, China, and Hungary.
H ...
commercial where he attempted to caveman jump out of a helicopter with his mountain bike and continue riding down a mountain. The shorts gained attention throughout social media.
In 2020, Roberts shot several commercials, including one for
Zero Motorcycles. He also shot a commercial for
Toyota USA later that year.
In January of 2022, Roberts and the
Diesel Brothers collaborated on
Jake Paul
Jake Joseph Paul (born January 17, 1997) is an American media personality and professional boxer. He initially rose to fame on Vine, before playing the role of Dirk Mann on the Disney Channel series ''Bizaardvark'' for two seasons. Throughout ...
’s birthday. Roberts performs some impressive tricks on his
Snowbike at the party, as seen on their show.
References
External links
*https://www.malakye.com/news/6486/tv-espn-sport-science-newton-awards-nominees-categories-and-presenters-announced
*http://www.xgames.com/athletes/4292680/ethan-roberts
*https://nitrocircus.com/the-kicker/featured-rider/2016/03/25/ethen-roberts-is-a-high-flying-family-man/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Ethen
Living people
Freestyle motocross
1990 births
Freeride mountain bikers