When BMX freestyler Kriss Kyle was out on a walk with his dogs during the pandemic, he looked up to the sky and saw a giant playground of potential for another of his daring deeds.
The Scotsman has become well known for performing death-defying stunts and this one would be no different.
“I thought I’d use the downtime [of the pandemic] to think of what is next and what has no one done before,” explains the Red Bull athlete.
“I was actually out walking my dogs and remember just daydreaming looking out at the sky and I was like, ‘Oh my God, imagine just a floating skate park in the sky.’”
Despite how crazy it sounds, crazy is what Kyle does and the wheels were set in motion for his most incredible challenge yet – performing BMX tricks on a skatepark hovering 2,000 feet above the ground.
The idea took three years from its inception to become a reality and Kyle describes the process as being “a lot harder than what [he] could ever [have] expected.”
Kyle was to be fitted with a parachute which weighed 10% of his body weight and the 31-year-old had to think of new ways to prepare for his ride in the sky.
“I had to start working out with my weighted vest on, lifting weights, a lot of stuff that I would never, ever do, you know, stuff that I’m not used to.”
Laughing, Kyle adds: “With this one, I actually had to gain muscle and actually sort my legs out because they were like little sticks.”
To make matters worse, the bowl he was riding in was not stationary like it would have been on terra firma – the flying skate park was “swinging around, four feet at a time.”
It made for a challenging experience from start to finish and Kyle candidly touched on this.
“There are so many times I nearly threw the towel in and I was like, ‘This is not working, this is not going to happen. It’s not possible,’” Kyle admits. “But we persevered. And we pushed through, we always do, and we always make it happen.”
Kyle remained coy on what’s coming up but did say he will be swapping out his BMX for a mountain bike ahead of his next stunt.
Watch the video above to see Kyle’s full story.
