Pinkbike Rider Profile: Stephanie Nychka

In a sport where serious riders are clad in biking gear from full-face helmets to gloves and pads, most mountain-bikers’ identities are hidden from view. During rides of their own where there is no race number to distinguish an exact rider, it is then through the distinct style and form of each rider that defines them among fellow riders.

With a style all her own, Stephanie Nychka differentiates herself from the pack, partly due to one reason which she has no control over. "I hate to say it, but Steph stands out because she rides harder and bigger than 90 per cent of the male free-ride population," said Mike Porter of PinkBike.com. After meeting on some urban rides around the city, Porter has known Nychka for over a year now. He found her to be fearless of failure and said she "gets back on when she falls", a characteristic most important in this sport of many jumps and falls.


Originally from Beaverlodge, Alberta, Nychka has grown up in sports, whether it was competitive swimming or volleyball—which she attended the University of Alberta to play. Despite being cut from the volleyball team earlier this year, Nychka is in high spirits and optimistic of her athletic future in mountain biking.


Nychka takes a sip of her grande Starbucks latte and smiles as she reminisces about her past. Ironically, this bike-enthusiast says she hardly rode a bike when she was younger. "A lot of my friends kind of grew up just riding around, even if it wasn’t hardcore riding in the trails or whatever—but I never (rode)," said Nychka. Her first and favorite bike was a silver BMX from her parents at Christmas but Nychka remembers it came and went in the blink of an eye. After parking it at the swim pool where she would go to practice, she came out and found it gone.


Although the theft of her first bike left her devastated, Nychka doesn’t have to worry about a shortage of bikes to choose from anymore. She has gone through her fair share of mountain bikes and used to borrow them from friends until that became impossible to go on. "I was making such good progress from wanting to go out, but I kept on breaking my friend’s bikes," said a bashful Nychka.


She ended up purchasing a bike at the end of Christmas 2000 right before the spring after realizing no one wanted to lend their bikes to have them broken by her anymore. With the help of some friends, she purchased a blood-red Kona Roast mountain bike—a color appropriately chosen for Nychka since she currently sports many scars the same shade from her extreme rides. From Drumheller to Vancouver, Nychka has been to the most remote and populated areas, simply to ride to her heart’s content.


She loves to free-ride and does drops along with anything else that challenges her, but says she races downhill majority of the time. She has participated in many races at COP, held and sponsored by local bike shops and even finished fourth in the Mount 7 Psychosis race in Golden, BC with a broken hand and bike difficulties. She also placed in ninth place in the Canadian Nationals.


Having picked up the sport very quickly, a very determined Nychka entered her first race in the expert category. Perhaps it was setting standards like those that pushed her to ride better as she continued to push her own limits and not other riders. However, despite her headstrong attitude, it was not a smooth ride to where she is now.


After first coming out onto the biking scene, she was ridiculed and doubted by the skeptical few—some from guys who rode and had heard about her through PinkBike.com. "I got all this attention, but I didn’t even really want it—it really embarrassed me," she said. "When I first began, I thought maybe I’m not that good—maybe it was just luck or whatever." Nychka said. "But now, I know I can do it all." This confidence that she exuberates is something that Porter, who manages events and product testing on PinkBike.com, says is part of her everyday personality. He described her in a few words as outgoing—yet humble and very goal driven. "I think Steph is a great role model for female riders," he said. "She is proof that women can ride every bit as good as and even better than men." But without some of those men, Nychka wouldn’t have been as hard of a rider that she is now.


As she sits and talks about her passion, the curly blonde-haired girl with the silver nose ring smiles a very contagious grin and speaks worlds of the support she’s received from her friends and family. Nychka said that if it wasn’t for her friends being so dedicated to biking, she probably would’ve never gotten this far. "It’s definitely the adrenaline you get when you’re on your bike, but at the same time, it’s also all the people you meet—I’ve never met so many people I like," she said.


Within the biking community, there are groups of close friends who ride but that group continues to extend out forever, said Nychka. Riding with good bikers and having them constantly challenge her as well as themselves means Nychka is constantly on the edge of her seat pushed to execute more impressive stunts. "To improve, you have to be challenged; you have to be with people who are better than you so you can see what they’re doing and try to imitate it," she said. While she is referring to her free-riding where she does drops off heights ranging from 4-6 feet high or higher, and anything else that allows her to drive her bike to its physical limit, she says there are many other areas of biking to excel in. "The progress you can make on a mountain bike—it’s incredible," said Nychka. "If you’re the kind of person who really needs to see yourself improving in order to keep up with the sport, then mountain biking is definitely it."


Each ride is a new experience and Nychka says it brings new tricks and constant gratifications with improvements so clearly visible. "I don’t think you could every reach your personal limit—well, unless you’re damn good and you spend a lot of time at it—but I think you keep on improving forever." That improvement is something she strives for academically too. While studying kinesiology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Nychka finds she loves Calgary too much to be visiting just on short spurts. She is currently house-hunting and plans to finish her last semester at the University of Calgary.


There is a focus in Nychka that shows in everything she does and she is even feeding off one of her other passions by starting a company—sewing downhill jerseys and pants. She laughs as she says she loves to sew because it is such a dramatic change from her other hobbies but the eccentric girl inside feels it all comes down to her being happy. Living on the edge and riding that edge is not the same thing and Nychka knows for a fact this is true.

For this mountain biker, riding that edge means doing her own thing and enjoying the challenging sport without being corporately sponsored. Although she says she probably wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to get paid for doing what she loves, Nychka is in her moment and feels content just riding for the sake of riding. When asked how long she intends to ride and mountain-bike, she replied: "I’d like to say forever." Whether it is trials of life or just trial riding, Nychka’s ride will follow the ups and downs of her ride but in the end, one thing is certain: she’ll still be on her bike. "I want to be one of those grandmas who get on their bikes every day but that’s probably really far-fetched."

Editor's Note:

Look for this tall blonde and the rest of the (healthy) Pinkbike race team at a Canada Cup podium near you next season. Steph will be ripping it up on her Balfa BB7 for her first full season in the Pro ranks. If she stays healthy, I'll wager a guess she finishes in the top five Nationally.

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Interviews Stephanie Nychka