Video: Aussie teen on BMX bike does world's first front flip, forward bike flip

Australian teenager Ryan Williams has become the first person ever to land what’s being billed as a frontflip, front bikeflip on a BMX bike – no mean achievement for someone better known for his skills performing stunts on a scooter.

The 18-year-old pulled off the trick last month in Lille during the Nitro Circus European Tour, which also featured UK dates in London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester.

Despite his youth, Williams is a crowd favourite at Nitro Circus events through the stunts he does on his scooter – the push-along type, rather than the motorised kind favoured by Mods or prospective London cabbies doing The Knowledge.

Nicknamed R-Willy, Nitro Circus says the youngster has a dozen world firsts to his name, including his trademark trick, the Silly Willy – a twisting, 360-degree double frontflip on a scooter.

World firsts at the London event at a sold-out Earls Court last year included Gavin Godfrey doing  an a double back-flip on a tricycle, and wheelchair athlete Aaron Fotheringham landing a frontflip.