Why He Stopped Filming Other People to Focus on His Own Riding

Christian Rigal is a professional mountain biker and filmmaker who runs Rigal Visuals. He came up riding BMX in the East Bay — the first trick he ever learned in the streets was a tree ride at a Burger King in Moraga — and spent roughly a decade as a pro, riding for United, earning X Games Real Street medals and filming video parts on both sides of the lens. Around 2018 Brandon Semenuk put him on a mountain bike and the whole thing opened back up. Twenty-five years after that first tree ride, he's still doing the same thing: driving around looking for cool trees to ride his bike on.

Being good at two things has a cost, and he's honest about it — riding and filming were always splitting his time, so five years ago he took a conscious step back from filming other people to put everything into his own riding. What he kept is the producer's brain: he and a crew built a public trail on the Oregon coast near Pacific City over thirty-six straight days of winter, six of them spent hand-placing moss and ferns so the trail looked like it belonged in the forest and the hillside wouldn't wash into it. Then he shot it, filmed it, premiered it in a room with actual people, printed the photos, and gave away tires and helmets like it was Christmas — because a project that only lives in a feed was never enough for him. He grew up on print magazines, DVDs, and backyard ramp jams, he stays firmly in his own lane rather than measuring himself against friends who've been on mountain bikes their whole lives, and he's on his third passion-driven career despite nobody with any influence ever rooting for him.

• A tree ride at a Burger King in Moraga — the first trick he learned, and the job description twenty-five years later
• Juggling athlete, filmer, and producer — and how doing all of it made him more valuable to brands
• Stepping back from filming other people, after realizing neither craft was ever as good as it could be
• Building a public trail near Pacific City: thirty-six days straight in winter, six of them placing moss and ferns by hand
• Premieres, printed photos, and handing out free tires — why he refuses to let a project die in a feed
• Staying in his lane instead of measuring himself against friends who've been mountain biking their whole lives
• Third passion-driven career, no regrets — and the teachers who told him he was screwing up by not going to college