Cover image: Mike Hoder, courtesy of Animal.
After the video of 10 Crazy Wallrides did so well yesterday I thought it’d be pretty sick to look back on the original video sections these crazy clips came from, plus maybe jog a few memories in the process! I also got a couple of questions in with Stefan Lantschner & Drew Bezanson who were more than happy to talk to us about their insane curved wallrides.
Keep scrolling for the FULL SECTIONS from the vids we featured…
Kriss Kyle amazed me when he uploaded this clip of him hitting a beauty of a curved wallride back in Israel last year. It’s just so clean, the table out of the second clip was a favourite for sure… In fact, the whole BSD ‘In The Streets of Israel’ edit was incredible, if you want to refresh your memory it’s just below. I’m just too good to you guys! haha
I remember the first time I saw Stefan Lantschner‘s Carhartt edit back in 2011 (seems like such a long time ago now…) the riding in this is so dialled, so smooth, stylish and incredibly burly! He does a few quality wallrides in this vid, there’s a lush one at the start but the one that obviously stood out was the curved wallride ender.
I HAD to find out what was going through Stefan’s mind at this moment in time, so I asked him earlier today…
How long had you been wanting to hit that curved wall? Did you ever think about the drop, or did you just try to ignore it?
“The stairset underneath the wallride has a disabled ramp where we used to jump out when I first started riding. I always said to my friends imagine this wallride on the ground would be so perfect!! I remember joking to them to ride it up there… With the years passing by I kept on thinking about it until Woozy came to my town and I thought this would be the perfect time to go for it! I don’t like building ramps on street stuff but there was just no other way to do it, just like Ruben’s wallride, with no landing he couldn’t have done it but it’s still the most badass wallride in bmx after you have seen the bridge in real life! Back to my wallride, I think it took me over 50 runups until I actually went for it.. I had a mattress on the stairs cause I was scared to not make it back out, it’s hard to judge how the tight wallride reacts at the high speed run up… Even doing a regular 180 curved wallride it’s hard to judge speed and lean when you first hit it, but on this one there were just too many things that can go wrong… First try I didn’t lean enough into it and slid of straight down, but at that time I knew I could do it! I went back up and did it but landed front tire all loose. I moved the mattress from the stairs, gave the helmet to olaf who took the photo underneath and did, it felt so easy and was for sure one of the best feelings I’ve had on my bike!!!”
Mike Hoder is an absolute powerhouse. This guy genuinely scares me, on and off the bike. Animal Bikes – QSS6 has been a favourite of mine for some time and this wallride Hoder sent was no joke at all… Busy motorway, massive gap over a fence, nailed it! It took some working out though…
What can I say about this Red Bull edit? Drew Bezanson is absolutely nuts! Constantly proving that he pushes himself to the limit Drew Bezanson sent one of the maddest curved wallrides I’ve seen. Sure there’s a kicker into it but for me, I’d have to say screw that! The drop is not worth thinking about…
I asked Drew if he could give us a few words and he was happy to oblige.
“The curved wall ride in Uncontainable was definitely the gnarliest wall ride I’ve ever done. It might not have been the hardest one I’ve done but it had the most consequence to it. It was something I had thought about doing for years so there wasn’t a chance I wasn’t going to give it a try!”
Easily one of my favourite sections of all time. Taj Mihelich‘s riding is timeless… This video part from Etnies – Forward is an absolute classic, from that picnic bench manny starter with his dog to the ender clip of the curved wallride to table we featured in the compilation vid, it’s so damn awesome.
This has gone down in history as one of the best BMX sections of all time. Ruben Alcantara is on another level, and has been for many years. The way he rides cannot be imitated or duplicated, he truly is one of a kind and it was only right to feature two of his clips, although there were a few more I would have liked to use. Keep your eyes peeled for Part 2…
Monster Energy‘s Above/Below was an incredible DVD. Watching it in a historic venue rammed with BMXers at the premiere at the Prince Charles Cinema in LDN was definitely an experience I’ll never forget. This wallride was at the very start of Dakota Roche‘s section and it got one hell of a reaction, rightly so… It’s so completely insane! I think the reaction of the locals calling the police just added so much more to the weight of the clip.
Seeing Matt Beringer do a flip to chainring in his Little Devil – Criminal Mischief part was one of the craziest things I can recall seeing in my younger days, I never thought something like that was possible… Then the flip to wallride clip came later in his part and my mind was blown. Yeah, a few may say it doesn’t count as wallride, but as Matt said himself:
Back then this was a groundbreaking trick and blew the minds of BMXers everywhere. Beringer is one of the best riders to ever pick up a BMX in my opinion, hands down.
I don’t know what’s more crazy about this wallride. The fact that it’s the most extreme way to travel down a spiral staircase or the fact that Luc Legrand & Erik Elstran hit this thing as a train run. Such a mental clip to finish their Lumia Pureviews edit with.
Here’s a behind the scenes video from Hadrien Picard and DIG.
This ender from Etnies Grounded was one for the history books for sure. Ruben had to construct his own landing after checking this spot out numerous times, then on one sunny day he decided to send one of the craziest wallrides ever. I can only imagine what the woman walking up the walkway with her bike was thinking as Ruben sailed over her head and into the road. Incredible! Ruben is the master of wallrides.
A perfect example of going to warmer climates with some mates and riding bikes
Find about the original roots of BMX in Hastings and the Backyard Videos
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