“I dream up things that I would love to watch and then I think, yeah, I'll try that. But then it begins to become reality and I start thinking ’s**t, am I really going to do this?’”
Kriss Kyle’s resume boasts a lengthy list of stunts that seem impossible, until he tries them.
The Stranraer native has been riding his BMX since the age of ten and for the past decade, has been trying, and almost always succeeding, in completing some of the most outrageous stunts imaginable on a bike.
His latest challenge is a world first, with Kyle becoming the first person ever to jump over a moving Formula 1 car on his bike.
It’s an extraordinary challenge but given Kyle’s previous exploits, which include tethering his bike to the underside of a hot air balloon and riding 2000ft in the sky, as well as jumping, on his bike, from a helicopter onto the roof of a 700 foot-high hotel in Dubai, it’s entirely in-keeping with the style of challenges to which Kyle has become so accustomed.
This most-recent stunt, which took place at Goodwood Race Track, involved Kyle catapulting himself and his BMX bike into the air courtesy of a small ramp as an F1 car sped towards him. The aim was to hang in the air long enough for the car to pass below him, before landing on two wheels on the track.
This was, says Kyle, his “scariest” challenge to date, which is quite a statement considering his past record. The Scot’s pre-stunt nerves were, though, entirely justified given that even the tiniest of mistakes when executing the stunt could have had catastrophic consequences.
“If I'd clipped the car, I could have died,” says Kyle, bluntly.
“There was no room at all for error. It’s a horrible feeling knowing that it could go very, very badly. You know that if you hit the car, you're not going to get back up and you're definitely not walking away from it. So that’s definitely scary.”
Kyle had spent seven months preparing for this challenge, which was organised and supported by his sponsor, Red Bull.
It’s a long lead-in for something that lasted only a few seconds, and Kyle admits that he did have an occasional wobble as the date of the challenge approached when he considered pulling the plug. But the doubts were only fleeting and, gratifyingly for Kyle, he can remember every second of the stunt itself, and the feelings that washed over him when he successfully completed it.
“Initially, I thought it was going to be an easy challenge, but that's because I hadn't thought about the timings which, to make it work, had to be within 0.2 of a second, which is faster than the blink of an eye. There was no room for error whatsoever, and that was the hardest thing,” the 33-year-old said ahead of today’s premiere of the film of his stunt.
“The car is so loud, it sounded like a jet - that alone was enough to put me off. When the car is coming towards you, your mind is screaming at you to move out of the way because the car is like a razor blade, it’s so sharp.
“Your body and your mind are telling you don't do this, get the hell out of the way.
“So I had to just try and stay calm. I had to try and breathe and focus on what I had been training to do. I knew that if I could get my part right, I wasn't going to die.
“When my tyres landed on the ground, I just was like, ‘wow, I've done it’. It's definitely similar emotions to competitive sport because everyone’s chasing that feeling of, 'yes, I've done it’. “Completing something that started off as a sketch and then finally became reality is quite a feeling and if you'd told me when I was a kid I would be doing this type of thing, I just wouldn't have believed you.”
Kyle’s celebrations began almost immediately - his first glass of champagne was drunk as early as 10am on the day he successfully complete the stunt - but it wasn’t long before his mind started wandering towards what he could take on next.
“We finished pretty early in the morning and had a really big party because there's so many people involved in making these challenges happen,” says Kyle.
“For a day or two, it didn't feel like I'd actually done it but then really quickly, I was thinking about what's next.
“I've already pitched about 20 ideas to Red Bull and some of them involve planes and other crazy stuff, so hopefully one or two of the ideas get through.
“It's the same as when I was a little kid - I started off with two little bricks and a piece of wood and my ramp would get bigger and bigger and I'm still chasing that same feeling now. You're always chasing what's better than the last stunt, and it's always about going after that buzz. It's just that my stunts have got bigger now.
“I still have plenty more in the tank and I really want to smash the life out of this while I can.”
