BMX Rider
Garrett Reynolds
Garrett Reynolds is an American BMX street rider from New Jersey, regarded as the most dominant contest street rider ever and the founder of Fiend BMX.
Updated 4 min read916 words
Garrett Reynolds is an American street rider from Toms River, New Jersey. He is widely regarded as the most dominant contest street rider BMX has produced, with a run of X Games Street gold medals that stretches across more than a decade. He is also the founder of Fiend BMX and remains one of the most influential technical riders of his generation.
Early life and background
Reynolds was born in 1990 and grew up in Toms River on the New Jersey shore. He started riding BMX as a child and came up through the East Coast street scene, filming at local spots and skateparks. By his mid teens he was already appearing in web edits and small video projects, and his rail riding stood out even among older riders.
He turned professional while still a teenager. His early support came from parts and frame companies in the street world, and he was associated with Fit Bike Co during part of his early career before launching his own brand.
Career
Reynolds' contest career took off when the X Games added a dedicated BMX Street event in 2008. He won the first edition and then kept winning. Over the following years he collected gold after gold, with only a handful of other riders ever taking the title from him. The total now sits well into double figures and is the longest streak of dominance in any X Games BMX discipline.
He has also won at the Dew Tour and other major contests, and he has been named Street Rider of the Year at the NORA Cup awards on multiple occasions. Rider-voted awards like NORA Cup matter in BMX, and Reynolds' repeated wins show that his peers rate him as highly as the judges do.
In the early 2010s Reynolds founded Fiend BMX, a frame and components brand. Fiend started with a small range of frames and parts built around Reynolds' own setup and grew into a full brand with a team of street riders. Running his own company gave him control over his signature products and let him back riders he believed in.
Reynolds has continued to compete and film into his thirties. He has stayed near the top of the contest scene well past the age when most street riders step back, and he has done so while riding at a level of technical difficulty that most competitors cannot match.
Riding style
Reynolds rides brakeless and uses pegs on both sides, which lets him grind in either direction. His riding is built on rails and ledges. He links grinds such as the feeble grind, double peg grind, icepick grind and smith grind with rotations and bar tricks in and out of the grind.
Where he changed the sport was in combining those elements. Barspins into and out of grinds, 180s and 360s onto rails, and truck drivers over gaps and down stair sets became part of his standard contest vocabulary. Tricks that other riders treated as a single hammer became links in his lines.
He is also known for being extremely dialled. In a contest format where one fall can cost the title, his ability to put down difficult runs cleanly is a large part of why he has won so often. He rides fast, keeps his movements small and controlled, and rarely looks like he is at the edge of his ability even when he is.
Video parts and notable moments
Reynolds has produced video parts for his sponsors and for Fiend throughout his career. His sections in street DVDs and online projects are known for the same technical density as his contest runs, but with the harder, bigger versions of tricks that he would not risk in a timed run.
Notable moments in his career include:
- Winning the first ever X Games BMX Street contest in 2008 and defending the title for years afterwards.
- Repeated NORA Cup Street Rider of the Year awards voted by fellow riders.
- Launching Fiend BMX and building it into a respected street brand with its own team and video output.
- Long-form video parts that introduced new grind and rotation combinations which later became standard tricks for the next generation.
He has also shared contest podiums for years with fellow street riders such as Dennis Enarson and Chad Kerley, who were among the few to beat him at the X Games.
Legacy and influence
Reynolds sits at the centre of modern street riding. Before him, contest street was often judged on big single tricks. He showed that technical rail and ledge riding could be scored at the highest level, and that a street rider could dominate the X Games the way vert and park riders had in earlier eras.
His approach to grinds has been copied across the sport. Many riders now learn to combine barspins with grinds, or spin onto and off rails, because Reynolds made those tricks look achievable. He also helped move contest street closer to the way riders actually ride on the street, with real rails and ledges rather than just ramps and boxes.
Through Fiend he has given back to the scene by supporting new street riders and producing videos. His longevity, with a career still active well over fifteen years after his first X Games win, has set a new expectation for how long a street rider can stay at the top.
Related
Frequently asked questions about Garrett Reynolds
How many X Games gold medals does Garrett Reynolds have?
He has won well over ten X Games BMX Street gold medals since the event was introduced in 2008, more than any other rider in the discipline. The exact total depends on the year you check.
What bike brand does Garrett Reynolds own?
He founded Fiend BMX, a frame and parts brand, in the early 2010s. He rides his own Fiend frames and signature parts.
What is Garrett Reynolds known for?
Highly technical rail and ledge riding, consistency in contests, and combining grinds with spins and barspins in ways that were considered impossible before he did them.
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