He may have recently ridden his BMX in a skatepark suspended 2,000 feet in the sky for a feature film project titled Don’t look downbut Kriss Kyle only looks up when it comes to his sport.
Having acquired his first BMX for his 10th birthday, Kyle admits to being the “token little brother” who would follow his older brother and his friends to the local skatepark and it was these experiences that gave him the sense of freedom he would take with him. adulthood.
The 32-year-old Scot is now widely recognized as one of the world’s most innovative riders and, while he admits these stunts give him a thrill he’s never felt anywhere else, riding his BMX is about so much more than just a thrill. and, of course, spills.
“It’s a dream come true,” he says. “I make these videos that get millions of views and stuff, but jumping out of helicopters in Dubai or riding a bike 2,000 feet up, it’s all to try and inspire people.
‘The more people watch these videos, the more people will be able to get on the bike and enjoy the freedom and feeling of riding through it.
‘Gaining more attention can bring more skate parks and such to rural areas. What excites me is that when I make a video, I can be anywhere in the world and a kid comes up to me and tells me that it was my video that got them into BMX.
Kriss Kyle got his first BMX at the age of 10 after being inspired by his older brother.
Kyle, now 32, is backed by Red Bull and travels the world performing hair-raising stunts.
Kyle performs his trick routine on a floating skatepark high above the Cotswolds.
“I look at them, I see they’re really good and it’s crazy to think you can have that inspiration in kids.” They can have a career out of this. I never thought this could happen and here I am now, living my dream.
‘It’s incredible, only good things can come from it. It keeps the kids off the streets, it keeps them busy, especially if they have some problems.
“If I’m ever having a bad day, I can get on my bike, I can go for a ride and the only thing that matters at that moment is what I’m doing on the bike.” You’re outside, fresh air, nothing better than that.
“The more people get on bikes, the better for the whole world.”
Growing up in Stranraer, Kyle admits he never expected his life to turn out the way it did.
However, after more than 20 years of cycling, he admits that being able to visualize his goals has been essential to getting where he is now.
‘For me, I’m a big believer that as long as you’re passionate about something and believe you can do it. I will practically lie to myself,” he reveals.
‘While touring Dubai, they showed me all these places and asked me if I could do something in them. They took me to the top of the Burj Al Arab and I said, “Build me a landing ramp on top of this helipad and I’ll jump out of a helicopter, fly over it and land on a red carpet.” It was a joke, but I flew home, they approved it, and I found out I was jumping out of a helicopter in November.
The Scot admits that he invents new tricks in his head and then visualizes himself completing them
Kyle’s tricks are a big hit on YouTube and he insists his motivation is to inspire people.
‘I kept thinking about it, visualizing it over and over again. Indeed, as long as you visualize it, you can make it a reality.
‘I just go on autopilot. I just turn off, I know I’m leaving. Everything is built, everything is ready. I’m not getting out of this, I’m fucking landing in this.
“There’s a big risk, a huge risk in some things, but the feeling I get when I get my way, of knowing I haven’t died, that buzz is what keeps me coming back.”
‘Sure, I got hurt and stuff. That’s the price you pay. But many times you win and it is a very good feeling.”
From his beginnings at the local skatepark with his older brother and friends, Kyle travels the world looking for unique places to perform and create videos that generate millions of views on social media.
It’s been quite a journey from when he was a nine-year-old boy in Stranraer, then to Unit 23 in Dumbarton, where Kyle was able to hone his skills and learn new stunts, to performing in all corners of the world.
“I remember walking into (Unit 23) for the first time and it was amazing,” he says. ‘It was like a dream; ramps everywhere, huge, so many people there with the same passion for what we were doing. It opened my eyes.
‘When I got on the bike, I felt freedom, there was nothing like it. I had played soccer and stuff before, but what attracted me to BMX was that there were no rules. It’s freestyle BMX for a reason: you can express yourself on the bike however you want.
Kyle flies deep into a Welsh forest for another video production
Kyle says his passion took him to unimaginable heights and now he gets paid for that privilege.
“Nike sponsored me when I was 14, which was crazy. They sent so many shoes to my house. I went back to school and everyone wanted me to buy them shoes, soccer boots, etc. It was incredible.
‘They were just hooking me up and paying me to travel the world; I wasn’t actually getting paid, so it wasn’t a proper job.
‘For that, I would need to move to the United States. I was from such a small town, things like that don’t happen to us. But the passion and determination were there; It was the only thing I ever wanted to do, so I kept traveling and riding, getting better and better, and then I started getting paid when I was 16.
“Red Bull started looking after me when I was 19, so now I’m very lucky to be able to think of these ideas that I’m passionate about and send them to Red Bull, to see if they’re interested.” I’m very lucky, like most of the time they are, and then we get stuck in that.
Having that backing from Red Bull has certainly helped Kyle make his dreams come true and given him the platform to make his visions a reality.
Without them, it is possible that the Scot would never have been able to perform his film Drop in Dubai, Kaleidoscope or even the Don’t look down documentary.
For his latest series, he teamed up with La Rochelle’s Jack Nowell. A Six Nations winner with England and a Champions Cup winner with Exeter, Nowell (or even rugby) may not seem like an obvious choice to merge with BMX. Kyle, however, sees the bigger picture.
“I was at Formula One at Silverstone with Jack (Nowell), I was with him all weekend, so the idea came to me that there were a lot of things we could do,” he says. “So I sketched out some little ideas, sent them to them and Red Bull and Jack told me to fly out, bring the family and we’d do it.”
Kyle was picked up by Nike at the age of 14 and was impressed by the generosity of his sponsors.
England rugby star Jack Nowell was the latest sports star to join Kyle’s BMX mission.
“So I flew to La Rochelle and filmed the video in about two hours, simply because their training program is so comprehensive and I was short on time. But if we had more time, I think we could have done a lot more tricks and used the bike.
‘BMX is a very small sport, so I’m trying to introduce it to other eyes. Floating the skatepark at 2000 feet in the air, that goes beyond the BMX community. It’s just about putting it in a different light, trying to be different. It’s about pushing the limit of where we can take the bike, so I thought why not take it to the rugby field.
‘I’m working on a really scary project for the holiday season… it’s probably the most dangerous one I’ve ever done. This is a Formula One car heading towards me pretty fast and I’m going to jump on it.
‘I’ll stay still, no ramp, nothing. I’ll just jump in and hopefully the car will go as fast and overtake it. They are just times. It’s going to be hard. The cars are tall and long.
‘I love these videos, I love these challenges. It’s my passion. The amount of effort that is put into them, you see in the end and it is worth it.
‘Where is the limit? As soon as you finish one, it’s: “what’s next?” I’ve got a booklet full of ideas that I’m slowly reading through and I’m sure there will be many more to come.’