Pro BMXer and X Games champion Ryan Nyquist talks apps

What’s on your phone, Ryan Nyquist?

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A four-time X Games champion in the Dirt and Park disciplines, Ryan Nyquist is a BMX legend known for both trick innovation and old school guts. These days, though, his biggest trick is distracting his kids with a well curated folder of apps.

What app do you rely on most?

My Calendars5 app, linked to my Google calendar. That is my everyday, schedule, appointments, kid’s schedules, all that. If I didn’t have that, I would probably miss every single appointment I’ve ever made.

If that’s your organizational thing, what’s your go-to for entertainment?

That’s a tough one. I don’t play a lot of the games on my phone. Probably something social media-based. I’ll choose Instagram … no, Facebook. I probably spend more time on Facebook because it kind of encompasses everything. Photo, video, and it seems like more of my friends are on it. So probably Facebook, just for entertainment.

So you talk more to your friends than your fans when your on social media?

Yeah, exactly.

What about the love, though – all those people who might not be paying attention to Ryan Nyquist every single moment if you’re not on Instagram or Twitter?

Trust me, I’m on Instagram and Twitter as much as I can be [Ed. note: Nyquist has 16,000 Instagram and 21,897 Twitter followers]. But for my own personal entertainment, where I’m not posting on Ryan Nyquist’s behalf, I probably spend more time on Facebook, just perusing through it. It’s such an easy on to get on when you have five minutes to kill.

You also have your app on your phone – how did that happen?

Our app is called Showboatr. It’s a collaborative effort; I have two brothers, one older and one younger. It’s kind of the brainchild of my younger brother, and my older brother is in graphic design and app development. He knew how to put the app together – how to make all the interfaces up for it, and the creative part of it. Then I came in helping out with the challenges and basically trying to use my contacts and sources to kind of push it out there.

It’s a video challenge app. We’ve designed over 200 challenges ranging from super easy things like videotaping yourself making a funny face to one of my favorites, which is the human wheel. You get a buddy, they hold onto your ankles, then you grab their ankles, and you basically jump over them and pull each other in this circle, and videotape yourselves rolling around in the grass doing this human wheel. It’s so much fun. I used to do it all the time. If you’re in a horrible mood, you can do that and it instantly puts a smile on your face.

There are a whole bunch of challenges that fit everybody. You can challenge your friends, post the videos on all your social media, cool videos you find, you can share them. It’s been a wild ride developing it – It’s not exactly bike riding anymore.

What’s your most recent app download?

Hold on … I’m trying to find it. My phone is cluttered with all my kids’ stuff.

You have stuff on there for the kids?

I have a folder that’s pretty much completely full of lot of learning stuff. The most recent one I downloaded for them was Intro to Letters. It allows them to trace letters and practice writing. So if we’re at a restaurant or whatever instead of just watching a video or something like that, they can work on actually learning. I really enjoy that part of it. Kids know how to use iPhones, so I’d rather have them using it constructively.”

But I guess the most recent one I downloaded [for myself] was PicPlayPost. It’s basically a collage app, but you can insert video in there as well, and do some really creative stuff with it as far as posting through social media.

You gravitate toward the creative stuff?

Yeah, I’m not so much a gamer. I do have one game that, you know, if I’m at the airport or something and I’m not emailing or doing something else. It’s called Solipskier – wherever you touch the screen the skier moves on this hill you create. You create jumps, gain speed for him and he goes up in the air and does jumps. Basically, the idea is to see how long you can keep him skiing for, and how fast you can keep him going.

Last question: What’s one app on your phone that people would be surprised to learn is there?

Probably an app called Sketches. It’s another thing I’ll do on a plane – these little doodle drawing things. I bought this little stylus pen for, like, five bucks at Walgreen’s. I just draw, and you can send them to friends or my kids. I’m not super good at drawing, but it’s kind of fun sometimes. I can add some funny text to a picture, or draw something from scratch. It’s a nice little outlet.

Lead image courtesy of ca.rockstarenergy.com

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