From wall rides to heli-drops, to a skatepark that's an optical illusion, Kriss Kyle's blockbuster BMX edits have pushed the boundaries of what's possible on a bike. But for his latest project, Don't Look Down, he's taken the sport to new heights (and pushed the boundaries of aeronautical engineering in the process).
The impossible dream.
I was mountain biking up this horrible hill behind my house. It was a beautiful day – blue sky and pure sun. A thought popped into my head – ’imagine riding a skatepark up in the air’. I first thought you could hang it under a Chinook helicopter, but when I dropped out of a much smaller helicopter in Dubai it was like jumping into a tornado.
My next thought was ‘what can you fly that gives off no wind?’. It had to be a hot air balloon. I was visualising it as I was pedalling up and quickly put it down in my notes on my phone before continuing on my ride. When I got home, I sketched up a hot air balloon with a bowl and a stickman underneath it.
Enter Oracle Red Bull Racing
I trust my build crew with my life. I wanted to cram as many BMX park features as we could into the bowl, but it’s okay because I like riding tight, weird stuff. They built me a prototype out of wood which ticked all the boxes, but it weighed six tonnes.
Bringing the heat to South Africa! Monster Energy congratulates their BMX riders on a full podium sweep at the Converse Ult.X 2023 BMX competition in Cape Town at V&A’s Battery Park this weekend. French phenom Anthony Jeanjean clenches first place, and teammates Daniel Sandoval (USA), and Mike Varga (Canada) earn second and third place. In the elite action sports contest recognized as the official African BMX championships, the Monster Energy athletes rose to the top three podium spots in an elite field of freestyle BMX riders.
Started in 2008, ULT.X is Africa’s biggest action sports festival, held annually with thousands in attendance. Presented by Monster Energy, the event took place at the iconic V&A Waterfront’s Battery
Best known as the ‘Super Bowl of Flatland BMX’, Red Bull Circle of Balance returned for the fifth iteration of the event after a 10-year hiatus. The global roster of athletes took their talents to the floor at New Orleans’ iconic Mardi Gras World; a venue as artistic and eclectic as the sport itself. Sixteen hand-selected athletes from nine countries went head-to-head in the bracket-style competition as viewers around the world tuned in live on Red Bull TV.
Flatland BMX is best described as break dancing on a bike. Athletes control their bikes with their bodies in a dance-like rhythm of spins and twists. Over 500 spectators lined the competition floor and surrounding stands as riders battled it out in one heated round after the next.
And the 2022 Freedom BMX awards go to.....
NEWCOMER: MARIUS STOLL
LIFE'S WORK: ZIESCHLA & MAGGA
INTERNATIONAL RIDER: LEWIS MILLS
VIDEOPART: „CHECK“ VON KILIAN ROTH & RICH FORNE
TRAILS RIDER: PAUL THÖLEN
FLATLANDER: KEVIN NIKULSKI
PARK RIDER: PAUL THÖLEN
FEMALE RIDER: LINDA GRABNER
STREET RIDER: FELIX PRANGENBERG
READER'S CHOICE: FELIX PRANGENBERG
In the darkness of my garage, the outline of an old familiar friend brings a collection of memories to the forefront of my mind. “Four years,” I mutter, as the sight of its two flat tires instills an unexpected sadness over me. My finger draws a line through the dust on the cross bar until finding the pair of Shadow Conspiracy grips. “How has it been four years?” Freedom, the road, friendship, empty wallets, and moments of agony, all now collecting cobwebs under the cover of a bulbless light. Whether it was out of curiosity or the guilt of bad ownership, I lifted my bike from the pile of lawnmower bits, fishing rods, and gardening utensils and gave it some TLC. With its spokes tightened, tiers pumped up, cranks and stem bolts checked, I decided to ride up the street -
C1 Results USA BMX Freestyle National Series Grand Final Tehachapi, CA, United States. 9 October 2021.
Men Park:
1 Daniel SANDOVAL 200 UCI points
2 Ryan NYQUIST 160
3 Jeremy MALOTT 130
4 Wesley HARK 110
5 Bryce TRYON 90
6 Kaden STONE 70
7 Jacob LEIVA 50
8 Brady BAKER 30
9 Joseph NIX 20
10 Andrew MEIER 10
11 Gabriel CHAVES ARG
12 Tucker SMITH
After the first 2021 stop in Le Havre, the French Urban Sports tour will make a stop in Canet-en-Roussillon on September 18th and 19th for BMX and Roller Freestyle Park competitions. Completed with BMX Flatland demonstrations, this free and open to all event (on presentation of a health pass) promises to bring together all generations for a weekend full of Action Sports.
French, Argentina and UK fill the podium for BMX Freestyle Park
From the start of this Sunday, the level of some young riders in the U17 category and the top of the amateurs' ranking could have justified their participation in Pro, and each contest seems to illustrate a new stage in their progression.
The 2021 Eurobike bicycle trade show also had to deal with the corona virus. The show was smaller than usual but with two BMX shows doing several demos per day it sure gave us a good reason to drive down to the Lake of Konstanz in the very south of Germany. The flatland demos were done by the Deep BMX crew and included the 2019 UCI Flatland World Champion Dom Nekolny as well as Martin Drazil. On the Braun the sessions were heating up with a bunch of solid riders including Tom van den Bogaard, Evan Brandes, Tobias Freigang, Dean Florian, Sikharin Supanmart, Jan Mihaly, Timo Schulze and Paul Thölen.
With fitting music and a good MC, the people who took a break on checking out the 2022 bicycles got to see the latest in BMX tricks. The Braun Spine Mini proved its value and offered a challenging ramp for spine tricks and the extension was there for the daredevils to step it up. With two days of sunshine and perfect weather for good miniramp sessions the crowd was treated with flair whips (Schulze), triple barspin 540's (Sikharin), whip to footjam whip to footjam whip (Florian), double downside whips (Tom) and brakeless barspin tailtaps on the extension to fakie by Paul Thoelen. Shows like these where riders naturally get pushed to 'one-up' each other can explode pretty quickly. Doing improvised runs together on the spine mini at the same time did the job for the Eurobike public. Good stuff people, good stuff.
It literally gets no better! Monster Energy congratulates its team of BMX athletes on a podium-perfect performance on day one of X Games 2021. In a field of the world’s best freestyle BMX riders, the team claimed every single medal awarded across four BMX disciplines at the private Dream Yard facility in Riverside, California, on Wednesday: Four gold, two silver, and two bronze medals. In the highly competitive BMX Dirt competition, 27-year-old Monster Energy BMX team rider Pat Casey took the gold medal, a career-first X Games gold, on his home turf. The gold medal run continued in BMX Dirt Best Trick with 31-year-old Andy Buckworth from Lake Haven, Australia, claiming the top spot with a spectacular double backflip no-hander. In the BMX Park event on Dream Yard’s sprawling