6 Questions with Danny MacAskill - Sea Otter 2016

You probably know him from such films as The Ridge, Cascadia, and Imaginate, movies where he blows minds and makes us question whether gravity has the same effect on him that it does on us. Danny MacAskill is not immune to gravity's forces, even if it appears that way, but it turns out that he is fearless when it comes to being on his bike. I caught up with Danny in the middle of a hot and dusty day at Sea Otter, and we found some shade in the Magura booth to talk about being scared, the one stunt that he's most proud of, and whether he could take Chris Akrigg in a game of foot-down. He says he couldn't, by the way, but I don't believe him.



Mike Levy: What single move or stunt are you most proud of?

Danny MacAskill: Probably the bump-front-flip over the fence that I did on the Isle of Skye. It was something new on a mountain bike, and something that I wasn't quite sure if it was going to work out; it was a cool feeling. We actually didn't modify the setup; it was basically as we found it. We maybe pulled some grass out of the other side, but nothing else. Yeah, I was pretty pleased with that one.


Rasoulution photo

Levy: How did the idea of the bump-front-flip come about?

Danny: I'd been wanting to make a film on the Isle of Skye with my mountain bike for awhile, and I knew there'd be a lot of trail riding and I knew there'd be trails on the edges of cliffs. Mountain biking has had a lot of progression over the years, and it's not easy to come up with new things on them. Even from a trials side, Chris Akrigg has got that pretty tied up, so I was thinking 'what on earth can I do on my mountain bike that's going to be interesting and maybe relatable?' I've actually had a few run-ins with fences over the years... deer fences. People have warned me about it being down the trail, and I've not paid any attention and smashed into them.

When I was filming Imaginate, I was trying to come up with new moves; hitting my front wheel into things. That's where it initially came around, but then when we decided on The Ridge, I looked everywhere for the right kind of fence, and it was a nice way to end the film, with something new.


Rasoulution photo

Levy: Where and when was the last time you were genuinely scared, either on or off the bike?

Danny: Genuinely scared? [long pause] I really can't remember! I mean, it depends on what kind of level of scared you mean. What I class as scared, I think of fearing for your life, you know. Or that kind of feeling where you're like 'whoa, I'm really uncomfortable.' But when you're filming, of course you're uncomfortable. I've got loads of fear, but it just depends on what level we're talking about. I bring it on myself. Scared for my life? It's been a long time, but maybe when someone's not paying attention in a car, not when I'm on my bike. The fear that I experience throughout the year is usually brought on myself, so it's under my own control and not anyone else's.



Levy: We only see you doing this amazing moves on a very specialized bike, but does Danny MacAskill ever just go out for a normal mountain bike ride?

Danny: Often! I ride my mountain bike a lot in Scotland, especially through the winter. I suppose winter is meant to be more off-season, but I don't really have an off-season as such. I'm always going. I probably ride twice a week back home in Scotland; usually the wetter, more miserable, the windier the weather, the more likely I'll be out in the hills. I'm currently riding the Santa Cruz 5010. I had the Nomad, which is brilliant, but I've enjoyed going back to a slightly shorter travel bike. It makes me feel like I'm awesome at riding bikes - I can slide around all the corners. You just get a little more feel from the ground, you know? I'm enjoying that. A lot of my friends are ex-downhillers, current downhillers, or enduro racers, so I'm always playing catch-up with those guys.



Filmed and edited by Stu Thomson

Levy: Imaginate and Cascadia were amazing and I can't imagine how'd you'd top them. Can you give us a hint as to what you have planned next?

Danny: That is a tricky one. The way I look at the videos, you don't have to keep progressing. I usually like to come up with an idea, and I've kind of admitted to myself that the theme of the video, the idea of it, the concept, is almost more important than stepping up my riding ten notches. So, what I like to do is tell a story involving a place, or it could be a concept like Imaginate. Again, Cascadia was quite conceptual, being on the rooftops. Rather than doing something that compares to the last one, I want to go in a different direction. I like to think of a few new tricks that I'd like to do, where would I like to do them, and fit them into something that feels quite different than what I've done before. It's not easy to think up original stuff.



Levy: Who wins in a game of foot-down between you and Chris Akrigg?

Danny: I would probably say Chris. I'm not a competitive person, and it might work to my disadvantage when it comes to that sort of thing. I wouldn't give it to him, but with his aggression, he'd probably just take me out.