Back down to Earth for Kriss Kyle's new BSD video, and back to Unit23 where it all began. With his limitless creativity on the bike, the new lines at Kriss' home park just keep on coming ... This is Kriss Kyle, '23'.
By now a lot of you will have seen my new Red Bull video 'Don't Look Down' This was one hell of a project! By far the hardest and biggest project I've ever worked on. It was incredible to work alongside Red Bull Racing for this one. This bowl is unreal!
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.
“Imagine riding a floating skatepark up in the sky.” When BMX pro Kriss Kyle first dreamed up his Don’t Look Down project, little did he know the level of aeronautical engineering that would be required to turn his fantasy into a reality. Don't Look Down sees Kyle wearing a parachute and riding his bike in a Formula One-engineered BMX bowl suspended 2,000 feet in the air under a colossal hot air balloon.By joining forces with Red Bull Advanced Technologies, Kyle is challenging conventional BMX boundaries by elevating the sport to staggering heights and aspiring to motivate up-and-coming generations to embrace BMX riding by demonstrating the sport's endless possibilities. Here's what you need to know:
Limits do not exist for BMX rider and Red Bull athlete Kriss Kyle who has achieved something seemingly impossible. With a skatepark suspended from one of the world’s largest hot-air balloons, Kriss Kyle floats over 2,000 feet above ground, showcasing an array of tricks suspended in mid-air for his latest pioneering BMX film.
We drove 4 hours to ride this beast of a spot! Unfortunately the weather was against us yet again! We had sun the whole way until about 3 miles away from the spot. As usual though we cracked on. I would have to say this is probably the worst conditions I've rode my BMX in yet haha. This thing was inanely slick. I probably shouldn't of even tried to ride it if I'm honest.
Since you guys seem to like it when I ride weird/cool stuff I decided to ride this remote dam in Scotland. This thing is so rad! The scenery is breathtaking and it's a pretty savage spot.
I've wanted to ride this spot for years. I recently heard it's getting knocked down real soon, so we decided to pack the van up and head down to tick it off the list. On the way down we picked up my good mate Harry Walker, he has actually rode this thing a few times, but in dryer conditions haha! As usual the weather was horrendous. It seems to be an ongoing thing on this channel at the minute.
I finally got round to riding this insane roundabout. This one has been on the list for a long time. Honestly I can't believe this is even a spot. Shoutout to whoever designed this thing. I was so stoked to finally get a blast of this thing, even the weather couldn't stop me! Unfortunately with wet feet and tyres it made it pretty hard to do some tricks. I tried my best as always. Keen to go back when the weather is better too for a proper ride of this thing. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this one. Remember to like, subscribe and hit that notification button to make sure you don't miss a video.
Hey guys, I'm coming at you with new videos every week and I couldn't be anymore hyped about this! These videos will be dropping every Thursday. So make sure you subscribe and hit that notifications button!
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.