BMX UNION

Red Bull dropped a new video, along with some photos and words from a trip to Western Ukraine that Vasya Lukyanenko took to explore some untapped spots! Hit play on the video to check out what he got into, then check out a story from the trip below!

“A few words about our trip. The idea come up in the beginning of the year, when I watched the video, which shows attractions of Ukraine, what can be proud of our country. I thought it would be interesting to do a project that combine significant places of Ukraine and riding BMX. I put together a list of 8 places, where no one has ever ridden in Ukraine. In this list were 4 Castle, a monument to the dead loop Nesterov, Radio Locations station Pamir, arch-bridge in the village of Plebanovka. All the spots and the idea of ​​riding on them initially showed the photographer Sergey Ilyin, he enjoyed it, and we started preparation. As partners, we have attracted Winner Automotive company and brand that they represent – Jaguar. We were given a car Jaguar F-Pace, and covered the transportation costs.

For hedging, in case of “not ridebly” spots I decided to build a small kicker, which would allow to ride on the flat, or even wider use different spots. We built it together with Sergei at his home a few days before departure. Departure day long delayed for various reasons and we went on 25 October.

I was the best route, which was the best of all the places to visit. We went to the first location, which was near the quarry Korostyshiv. There are places for skiing, we have not found and decided to move on.

Second dispute became the city Novograd Volyn and local landmark – the remains of the fortress Zvyagel. Spot was there not particularly rich in possibilities. We took a few tricks on the rails and leave this spot. Then rain started and we had to go further.

We moved in the direction of the city of Rivne. After spending the night on the highway in the morning we decided to call on the basalt quarry, which has offered Sergey. The weather was too cloudy and the road was a little rain. We arrived at the place, it struck us of size and beauty. With this quarry would make a great park, not worse than the American Grand Canyon!

We have traveled all career in that area, and stopped at the first, which hit. We only had a few hours before browning and we took a few good shots.

The main problem or difficulty we had is that we did not check locations before filming and we did not know will allow us to spots to ride on them. And so it happened, a lot of time spent on searching for spots and the road to them. But it was also a plus, because we did not know what awaits us at the locations. Radar Pamir we postponed for later, because it was quite far from our target cities. After the quarry, we went in the direction of Lviv, where we spent the night. In the morning we went to the Loop. At this spot we went to work, we tried to dig a huge pit that is not allowed to drive up to it. We spent two hours digging the ditch and left this venture. Spot the one hand a very interesting and unusual, and on the other – are not allowed to get up to speed, that would do tricks on it. We squeeze out of it what we could, got one action and lifestyle shots and drove on.

Next was an abandoned castle Pidhirtsi. There we were shooting in the dark.

Before filming had to run, explore location, entrances to them and what they can do.
After we moved to the next target, which was an arched bridge in the village of Plebanovka. But the villages with the same name in Ukraine as it turned three and we missed our village at 280 km or 4 hours and drive by there the roads. Bridge, we also decided to leave the next project in the spring we will go for it!

Next was Kamenetz-Podolsk and the local fortress. The weather was great and we took further action shots of a beautiful castle.

A lot of time was spent on the placement of the equipment, collecting, moving and shooting itself usually takes up to an hour – two times. The next day we went in the side of Kiev and stopped on the way to another arch bridge in Novograd Volynsk but have not found it possible to ride, as well as in another private castle – Radomysl.

Total we had 5 days, 5 spots, 2,200 km, 3 people, 1 bmx, large amount of equipment. At other locations on our list we could not get any action photos.

Huge thanks to Red Bull for making this happened and all people who was involved and helped us with organization. Full article with more photos and backstage video will run soon! Stay tuned!”