BMX Rider
Kriss Kyle
Kriss Kyle is a Scottish BMX rider known for ambitious video projects, including Don't Look Down, in which he rode a bowl hanging beneath a hot air balloon.
Updated 4 min read881 words
Kriss Kyle is a Scottish BMX rider known for creative riding and ambitious, one-off video projects. His best-known work is Don't Look Down (2023), a Red Bull film in which he rode a custom bowl suspended beneath a hot air balloon, often described as the first floating skatepark. Before that he built a reputation through park and street riding, wallride edits and a Dubai video that included a drop from a helicopter.
Early life
Kyle was born on 25 March 1992 in Dumbarton, according to his Red Bull athlete profile, and he grew up in Stranraer, a small town in south-west Scotland. He started riding BMX at around the age of ten and spent his early years riding around his hometown and wherever he could find ramps and spots.
Scotland is not a large BMX market, and riders there often travel to England and further afield for parks, contests and filming. Kyle's progress from a small-town scene to an international career followed that pattern.
Career
Early contests
Kyle's first major contest win is commonly given as the Transgression Skatepark Jam in 2008, when he was still a teenager. Contest and jam results like that helped him get noticed by UK brands and media, and he spent the following years riding contests, filming and travelling.
Creative edits
As his career developed, Kyle moved towards video projects rather than contest results. He became known for web edits built around an idea rather than a standard sequence of spots, including wallride edits and films shot in unusual locations. Several of these have drawn millions of views on YouTube, reaching far beyond the core BMX audience.
Dubai and the helicopter drop
In January 2019 Red Bull released a video of Kyle riding in Dubai, filmed in late 2018. The film shows him riding around some of the city's best-known landmarks, including the Burj Khalifa and the slides at the Wild Wadi waterpark, and includes a drop of roughly 14 feet from a hovering helicopter onto the helipad on top of the Burj Al Arab hotel, more than 700 feet above the ground. The helicopter jump had little room for error, and the project became one of his most widely shared.
Don't Look Down
Don't Look Down was released in April 2023. Kyle has said the idea came to him during the COVID-19 lockdowns, partly inspired by the Dubai helicopter drop, and the project took close to a year of planning.
The key elements were:
- The bowl. An early wooden prototype was far too heavy. Red Bull Advanced Technologies, the engineering arm linked to the Red Bull Formula One team, redesigned it in carbon fibre to cut the weight to a level the balloon could carry. Reported weights for the final bowl vary between sources.
- The balloon. A very large hot air balloon built by Cameron Balloons lifted the bowl, with the structure hanging beneath the basket.
- The flight. The balloon took off from Charlton Park Estate in Wiltshire, England, and travelled about 30 miles over the Cotswolds. Kyle rode the bowl at more than 2,000 feet above the ground.
The film was covered widely in mainstream media in the UK and overseas, and the Scottish Parliament lodged a motion recognising the achievement.
Riding style
Kyle's riding mixes park and transition skills with a street rider's interest in finding new ways to use a spot. On ramps he rides with speed and height, including big airs and backflips. In his projects the emphasis is on the concept: riding something nobody has ridden before, in a setting that makes the clip memorable.
That approach means many of his best-known moments are not single difficult tricks but whole set pieces, planned and engineered over months. It is a different route to a career from contests or traditional video parts, and it puts him alongside riders such as Matthias Dandois who have used Red Bull backed films to reach audiences outside BMX.
Video parts and notable moments
Commonly cited highlights include:
| Year | Project or event | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Transgression Skatepark Jam | First major contest win (reported) |
| 2019 | Red Bull Dubai video | Helicopter drop onto the Burj Al Arab helipad |
| 2023 | Don't Look Down | Bowl suspended beneath a hot air balloon |
Legacy
Kyle is one of the best-known Scottish BMX riders and one of the clearest examples of a rider whose career has been built on large-scale creative projects. Don't Look Down in particular showed how far a BMX film can go with engineering support and a strong idea, and it reached an audience that rarely watches BMX at all.
For riders in the UK, and in smaller scenes generally, his path from Stranraer to international projects is often held up as proof that a rider does not need to come from a major BMX city to build a career.
Sponsors
Kyle has been a long-time Red Bull athlete, and Red Bull produced his best-known films. His main bike sponsor has been the Scottish brand BSD, which has made signature frames for him, including the Passenger and the Freedom (first released in 2019). He rode a BSD Freedom frame in Don't Look Down. Other sponsors have changed over the years, so check his current profiles for an up-to-date list.
Related
Frequently asked questions about Kriss Kyle
What is Kriss Kyle's floating skatepark?
It is the bowl from his 2023 Red Bull film Don't Look Down. A carbon fibre bowl was hung beneath a large hot air balloon, and Kyle rode it while the balloon flew over the Cotswolds in England, more than 2,000 feet above the ground.
Where is Kriss Kyle from?
He is Scottish and grew up in Stranraer in south-west Scotland, where he started riding BMX at around the age of ten. Red Bull lists his birthplace as Dumbarton.
What else is Kriss Kyle known for?
Before the balloon project he was known for creative park and street riding, wallride edits and a 2019 Red Bull video in Dubai that included a drop from a helicopter onto the helipad on top of the Burj Al Arab hotel.
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