Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
DRAPER — A Utah man and his family have become famous for their high-risk stunts and now travels the world performing in the sold-out show known as Nitro Circus Live.
Nitro Circus Live is a show with action sports athletes, including X-Games gold medalist Travis Pastrana, that perform tricks and stunts on anything with wheels. The show was started by Draper native, Gregg Godfrey.
"I had to come up with an excuse of how to make money and justify my lifestyle," Godfrey said.
He grew up on motorcycles and after graduating film school went to work at Disney, but he said it just wasn't the right fit.
"I hated all that studio stuff — it just wasn't me," he said.
Godfrey gravitated towards motorcycles again, and began making films about his adventures, using Utah as a backdrop. He said that he wanted to get an audience involved.
"It's just like a concert," he said. "It's one thing to listen to a song on the radio, but it's a whole other experience to go to the concert and see the artist perform and do all their stuff."
Godfrey said he no longer performs in the show, but his family does.
"Basically, we were raised here in this playground," said family member, Josh Roberts. "Every weekend we would come here and do some fun activity and started to develop talents with biking, Motorcross."
In 2012, the family had seven broken collar bones among the group.
Chanler Godfrey has built a lot of the ramps in the family's backyard so they can practice for the show. The tallest ramp sits at 30 feet tall.
"I build it and they all test it out for me and then when I feel comfortable, I follow after them," Chanler said.
However, along with having fun together, the family has also had their share of bad accidents with the show. In 2007, then 18-year-old Tanner Godfrey was paralyzed in a motocross crash while going 50 miles per hour. He has since re-learned to walk and even ride again.
"It definitely spooked us, but you can't live life in fear," Roberts said. "You can play your cards right and be safe."
On Jan. 17, 2014, Nitro Circus Live will perform in Utah for the very first time. It's the show the Godfrey Clan say they have been waiting for for years.
"Salt Lake is going to be a blood bath because these kids are going to throw down everything they have because it's their home town," Gregg said.
