He may have recently ridden his BMX in a skatepark suspended 2,000ft in the sky for a feature length project entitled Don’t Look Down, but Kriss Kyle is only looking up when it comes to his sport.
Having got his first BMX for his tenth birthday, Kyle admits to being the ‘token little brother’ who would follow his elder sibling and his friends to the local skatepark and it was these experiences that gave him the sense of freedom that he would carry into adulthood.
The 32-year-old Scot is now widely recognised as one of the most innovative riders in the world, and whilst he admits that these stunts give him a buzz that he’s never felt through anything else, there’s more to riding his BMX than just thrills and, of course, spills.
‘It’s a dream come true,’ he says. ‘I do these videos that get millions of views and stuff but jumping out of helicopters in Dubai or riding my bike 2,000ft up in the air, it’s all to try and inspire people.
‘The more people that see these videos, the more people that can get into bikes and enjoy the freedom and the feel that we get through it.
‘Getting more eyes on it can get more skateparks and things into rural areas. What gets me stoked is when I do a video, I can be anywhere in the world and a kid will come up to me and tell me it’s my video that got them into BMX.
Kriss Kyle got his first BMX at the age of 10 after being inspired by his elder brother
Now 32, Kyle is backed by Red Bull and travels the world performing hair-raising stunts
Kyle performs his routine of tricks on a floating skatepark high above the Cotswolds
‘I’ll look at them, see that they’re really good and it’s crazy to think that you can have that inspiration on kids. They can have a career out of this. I never thought it could happen and here I am now, living my dream.
‘It’s unbelievable, only good things can come of it. It keeps kids off the streets, it keeps them busy, especially if they have some issues.
‘If I’m ever having a s*** day, I can just get on my bike, I can go ride and all that matters at that time is what I’m doing on the bike. You’re out, fresh air, nothing beats it.
‘The more people that get on bikes, it’s better for the whole world.’
Growing up in Stranraer, Kyle admits to never having expected his life to turn out the way it has.
Having been on his bike for over 20 years now, however, he admits that being able to visualise his goals has been instrumental in getting to where he is now.
‘For me, I’m such a strong believer that as long as you’re passionate about something and you believe that you can do it. I’ll pretty much lie to myself,’ he reveals.
‘Going around Dubai, they were showing me all these spots, asking if I could do anything in these spots. They took me on top of the Burj Al Arab, and I said: “Build me a landing ramp on top of this helipad and I’ll jump out a helicopter, over it and on to a red carpet”. It was a joke but I flew home and it got signed off and found out I was jumping out of a helicopter in November!
The Scot admits he dreams up new tricks in his head and then visualises completing them
Kyle’s tricks are a huge hit on YouTube and he insists his motivation is to inspire people
‘I just kept thinking about it, visualising it over and over. Sure enough, as long as you visualise, you can turn it into reality.
‘I just go into autopilot. I just shut off, know that I’m going. Everything is built, everything is ready. I am not stepping out of it, I am f****** landing this.
‘There is a big risk, a massive risk with some of it, but the feeling I get when I get away with it, to know that I’ve not died, that buzz is what keeps me going back.
‘Sure, I get hurt and stuff. That’s the price you pay. But a lot of the time you win and it’s a bloody good feeling.’
From starting out in the local skatepark with his older brother and his friends, Kyle travels the world finding unique spots to perform and create videos which generate millions of views on social media.
It’s been quite the journey from a nine-year-old kid in Stranraer, then to Unit 23 in Dumbarton — where Kyle was able to hone his skills and learn new stunts — to now performing in every corner of the globe.
‘I can remember going in (to Unit 23) for the first time and it was unbelievable,’ he says. ‘It was like a dream; ramps everywhere, massive, so many people there with the same passion for what we were doing. It opened my eyes.
‘As I got on the bike, the freedom I felt, there was nothing like it. I’d played football and things like that before but what drew me into BMX was that there was no rules. It’s freestyle BMX for a reason, you can express yourself on the bike however you wanted.
Kyle gets airborne deep in a Welsh forest for another video production
Kyle says his passion took him to unimaginable heights and now he gets paid for the privilege
‘I got sponsored by Nike when I was 14, which was crazy. There were so many shoes getting sent to my house. Going back to school and everyone wanted me to get them shoes, football boots and so on. It was unbelievable.
‘They were just hooking me up and paying for me to travel the world — they weren’t actually paying me, so it wasn’t a proper job.
‘For that, I’d need to move to America. I was from such a small town, stuff like that just doesn’t happen to us. But the passion and determination was there; it was the only thing I ever wanted to do, so I just kept travelling and kept riding, getting better and better then started to get paid when I was 16.
‘Red Bull started taking care of me when I was 19, so I’m super fortunate now to be able to think of these ideas that I’m passionate about and send them off to Red Bull, see if they’re into it. I’m quite lucky as a lot of the time they are — and then we get stuck into it.’
Having such backing from Red Bull has certainly helped Kyle realise his dreams and give him the platform to make his visions come to life.
Without them, the Scot may never have been able to perform his Drop in Dubai, Kaleidoscope film or, indeed, 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 Champions Cup winner with Exeter, Nowell — or indeed rugby — may not seem an obvious choice to fuse BMX with. Kyle, however, sees the bigger picture.
‘I was at the Formula One at Silverstone with Jack (Nowell), hanging around with him all weekend, so I came up with the idea that there was loads of things we could do,’ he says. ‘So I sketched up some little ideas, sent them to him and Red Bull and Jack told me to fly over, bring the family and we’d get it done.
Kyle was picked up by Nike at the age of 14 and was blown away by his sponsors’ generosity
England rugby star Jack Nowell was the latest sports star to link up with Kyle’s BMX mission
‘So I flew over to La Rochelle, filmed the video in two hours or so, just because his training schedule is flat out and he only had a short amount of time. But if we had longer, I think we could have got a lot more trickshots and used the bike.
‘BMX is such a small sport, so I’m trying to push it out there to different eyes. Floating the skatepark 2,000ft up, 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 over the festive season… it’s probably the most dangerous one I’ve ever done. It involves a Formula One car, driving towards me pretty damn fast and I’m going to bunny hop it.
‘I’ll be standing still, no ramp, nothing. I’ll just hop and hopefully the car is going that fast and clear the car. It’s just timings. It’s gonna be tough. The cars are high and long.
‘I love these videos, I love these challenges. It’s my passion. The amount of effort that goes into them, you watch it back at the end and it’s 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 getting through and I’m sure there’s plenty more to come.’
