Hannah interviews Brage Vestavik, freeride’s wildest Norseman.
Words as told to Hannah, photography by Ale Di Lullo
With his name conveniently morphing into B-Rage, a Viking-like appearance, a penchant for heavy metal, and a reputation for videos featuring some of the gnarliest riding going, it’s perhaps just as well Brage Vestavik is a Red Bull-sponsored freerider from Norway. And not a librarian. Or a kitten breeder.
I have to admit that I’m a bit of a fan. I was especially disappointed when his Red Bull Rampage debut in 2021 was cut short when he crashed hard. His loose line seemed to be barely scratched into the ground and was a contrast to the relatively groomed lips and landers we tend to see there these days. In his videos, it always looks like he’s having a lot of fun. They’re high energy, and there’s a raw edge to them that reminds me of the early days of mountain biking videos. He does some dizzying things on log skinnies, but it’s his more natural line riding that I like best – when he carves his way through terrain where it seems barely plausible that there is a line.
It’s this type of raw, big mountain riding that features in his latest video release, ‘Planet Alaska’ – an image from which adorns the cover of this issue. Looking ant-like in the vastness, Brage steers his way down shifting scree and rocks, to a guitar soundtrack as heavy as the consequences of a crash.
I did my best to set my fandom aside. And my mum-instinct to worry about his welfare. Heavy metal might be a racket to some, but it takes a lot of control and skill to make music instead of noise. I suspect that being a freeride Viking is much the same, and I want to understand what goes into what we see, and who Brage is. I start at the very beginning.
What was your first bike?
BV: My very first bike was a small three-wheeler with two wheels in the back and one in the front. When I was a kid, I had so much energy I was struggling to sleep and stuff. My mom and dad would put me on this three-wheeler, and I would ride around in the house in the winter, constantly in circles, until I got tired.
Around the time I started riding on the three-wheeler, our house burned down and we moved into my grandpa’s place. I started riding more there, on a bike with training wheels. [My grandpa] made me some small cardboard jumps and stuff outside. I would have, like, a plank and he would put like a few cardboard sheets on it and that would be my first jump. I was three years old, getting into it.
Then when we moved back into the new house after the fire, the house was done, but not the garden. [At the same time] I got my first mountain bike DVDs… I was five, six, maybe. And I would watch the DVDs and go out in the yard where there was still a bunch of dirt piles and planks, and try to, like, replicate what they did in the movies… building came in kind of around the same time as riding.
Finding my own stuff to ride, that’s always been a part of my riding. It’s not really been a separate thing. To me, it’s always been natural to find my own things to ride and build, or just look for new things.
If you’re hoping to get your own kids to get on out there, the movies that inspired the young Brage were Roam by Anthill, New World Disorder 7 by Freeride Entertainment, and Make It Work by a Norwegian crew. But it’s not just TV that inspired him – his dad also had a big role to play.
BV: My dad was working with youth that was troubled in school, maybe couldn’t live at home, or had ADHD and stuff. He would take these kids out on the weekends for skiing, motocross and biking. So my dad was already heavily into all those things.
He was the one that brought me to the bike shops and got me the DVDs. He never pushed me, he just always supported what I [said I] was going to do.
He’s still a huge part of everything that happens. When I’m back in Norway, we all live in the same house, and when I’m travelling or working on projects, he’s always heavily involved and he helps me with a lot of ideas.
Does Brage ever just go for a ‘normal’ trail ride, I wonder?
BV: Yeah, for sure! A bunch. When I’m home, I have a hardtail. I ride a lot on a hardtail trail bike. I love all kinds of riding. I feel like I can have fun on a big mountain or I can have fun on the kerb. I can get caught up in trying a jib and just get lost in that feeling.
I think that’s what’s so cool about biking. It doesn’t have to be the craziest thing all the time. I know ‘Alaska’ is helicopters and big mountains and the biggest lines. But I hope we can show that it’s also about just riding and getting lost in that moment, too. It doesn’t always have to be the gnarliest. I love to turn it down or ride my hardtail trail bike at home on my local trails – the same trails I rode when I was ten – and I still have a lot of fun on them.
Between the riding and the heavy metal, life looks quite intense. He says riding chills him out. Perhaps we have different ideas about ‘chilling’ – but what else does he do to relax?
BV: Music is a huge part of part of my life. I have something in my ears, like, almost all the time. It’s not just heavy metal. I’m honestly into all kinds of music. And I love nerding out on music, too. If there’s like an album or something that I like, if I have time, I’ll sit down and watch documentaries about how it was made, and then I find something about the guitarist and I start seeing a documentary about him, or I read about why they play the song like they did. I think to me [with music], as influential to me is not just the sound, but also the story of the music. Knowing the time it came from, knowing how it must have been to release music like that back in the ’70s etc. I feel like that plays as big of a role in why I like the music.
I’m constantly writing down ideas on my phone. I always have a notebook with me. So I’m filling out quite a few notebooks through the year, just with ideas and thoughts and all kinds of stuff.
And I spend a lot of my time editing. For the Planet Alaska project, we had the editing set up in my living room – I was there for all the editing. I’m sort of the co-director, too, on all of what me and Blur Media are doing. When you get into that, that can take the whole day sometimes, or the whole night as well. And some of the filmers are my best friends.
What comes first – the line he wants to ride, or the look he wants to shoot?
BV: Both, but it’s not about how it can look good, it’s more about capturing it the way I want. It’s not doing it for the sake of making it look good, but I want to capture that feeling, you know?
I think I can be pretty annoying sometimes to the filmers. If I build something out in the woods and we’re getting ready to shoot it, sometimes I’ll be like, ‘OK, you’re over there with a 50mm lens, Herman, you’re there with this lens and Oscar, you’re there with that lens and it needs to be shot like this and we’re shooting it at this time for this light’. And that’s how we do it. They trust me on that. And sometimes I want them to do their thing as well. But I do go really nuts about exactly how it’s going to look.
I’m not really nerding out on the cameras, but how it’s being captured. The gear we have is pretty old, but it works. It does the job. And we probably could have spent more money on the equipment, but we end up spending it on diggers and tools and plane tickets instead!
He’s made a few big mountain videos recently, but in the past, he’s done some technical built stuff, with sky-high skinnies. I wonder, are his interests evolving or does it all stay part of the mix? As it turns out, he’s been working on a big project in the woods for the last three years, and it took up a big part of his 2024.
BV: It just hasn’t been shown anywhere yet, because it’s a bigger, bigger project I’m working on, which hopefully will be done for spring 2026. I’ve actually done way more [in the woods] than I’ve done before, I just haven’t shown any of it. A big part of my last year has been up in the trees, chainsawing. [Alaska] is kind of my spare time. I’ve been escaping to the mountains!
Keeping things free and flexible is something Brage still values, which is part of the reason he’s been more focused on videos and less on events. There’s also been recovery from injury – but even then Brage has steered away from constraining or rigid rehab plans. Downtime for injury has had some surprise benefits too.
BV: What I find so fun and refreshing for me right now is not really planning too much… I like keeping it open and riding what’s interesting to me at the moment. If Red Bull Hardline interests me in two years, then of course I’ll go. But I just love keeping it open… I feel I have different types of bikes, there’s so many different types of terrain, it’s open. You can just ride whatever you want to ride.
And I feel like – not that I want to be injured – but it’s during those periods that I’m able to have time to work on new projects and plan because that takes a lot of time. There’s a lot of meetings, a lot of planning on the computer, and it’s been working out pretty good, like that balance between getting a lot of that stuff done when I’m injured and then getting a lot of the writing and filming done when I’m good. When you go on filming trips and when you’re writing and filming, you don’t really have time for anything else. So to me, that balance is actually kind of good.
I remember years ago when I got injured, I would get stuck in being negative and feel almost depressed at times… Over the years, I’ve been trying to use the time positively and always finding a way to move forward with something. I feel like over my last injury, I’ve just gotten into so many cool things that I wouldn’t have gotten into if I wasn’t injured. Maybe that’s something that needs to change in my life if I’m going to slow down in the future!
But at the same time, so many cool things have happened over the last months. Just getting a girlfriend, for example. That’s been really cool. I have a girlfriend from Canada, which I never thought could happen! I’ve been over there a bunch. We’ve gone and looked at a lot of cool things I never thought I would see, like art stuff and music.
It’s good to hear that there are some positives coming from his injuries – though I’d love it if he could find downtime without smashing himself up first! We turn to talk about his latest videos. I wonder if it’s an illusion that he’s riding down some completely untouched line, or if there’s a bunch of unseen preparation and building before they ride?
BV: It depends where it’s possible to land [the chopper], how much time we have and how long the line is on some of the lines. [In] South America, things were happening faster with prep and scouting… it was with another crew; it was a bit more strict on time, and it was new to us. To me, the approach was a bit too rushed in a way. Knowing how dangerous it is and knowing how little we knew on a lot of those lines. So, in Alaska, I was really trying to spend time double-checking stuff more, just because it’s so new.
There’s still so much to learn about riding than that stuff. And that’s also why it’s so fun and refreshing, because some of those days, it feels like when you start riding for the first time! On the lines where there were features and drops, we landed on the top or, if it was possible, in the middle, walked in and checked it and then walked back. If it was outruns that looked really rough, we landed in the bottom and just checked how big the rocks were.
But there’s a lot of thinking too on a lot of those lines. A lot of looking and a lot of trying to recognise [features], especially when we went for the approach of just riding lines once. But I felt that put me in a really good mindset too, because then you didn’t really have any second chances. You had to hit the right spots. I felt that kept me more ‘on it’. It’s a really cool way of riding because you really have to act in the moment, which interests me as well. You see in the line, but it’s still kind of unknown in a way. You just have to trust yourself and that you know what you’re doing. But at the same time, you’ve also got to be open for anything to happen. It’s a pretty exciting space to be in.
He does have a guide watching him ride, who can shout directions into the walkie-talkie, or warn Brage if there are big rocks heading his way. But Brage confesses that he’s so focused he doesn’t actually remember if he hears or follows any of this chatter – the GoPro says it happened, but he doesn’t remember hearing it.
It was quite a different experience between the Planet Alaska video – where he was in control of everything – and the Anytime segment in Chile, where he and Kade Edwards were the ‘talent’ in someone else’s film. I recall Kade telling me that the cost of the helicopter added pressure to the shoot – knowing that a second take would cost so many thousands more.
BV: Alaska happened really fast and I mostly self-funded the project to start, pulling together some media budgets from my contracts to get us going and the rest my own money. It was a big risk, and it took some time after filming, but Red Bull joining really helped the project. I honestly didn’t know if we’d sell the project and get more support, and we didn’t really know what we were going to find out there. While we were in Alaska I was sometimes in that [cash watching] mindset too. I was trying to not think about it! After the first week, we kept pushing the trip longer and it was in my mind a few times for sure. You know that when the heli is in the air, money is just [being spent]. I was trying to shut it out, but I knew I was going to have to deal with it afterwards. It’s a really expensive thing to play with! It’s something that me and my crew [have] more to learn about. For the next one, [we’ll be] planning a lot more to make the heli time more efficient.
There’s no magic tech trick to riding these lines, and Brage kept his bike set up pretty similar to how he has it at home, just swapping the tyres to a slightly skinnier set. Testing in a sandpit at home, he’d found that some Michelin Downhill 22s – an older model with narrower 2.4in width that might otherwise be considered a bit dated – had cut into the ground better. With no inserts but really hard sidewalls and 27 psi front and 31 psi in the back, these gave him the traction he was hoping for on the loose Alaskan mountainsides. As usual, he ran a harder tune from Marzocchi, air shock in the back and an air fork up front.
BV: If my bike is too soft and too plush, I feel like I don’t have the same feeling with my body… When it’s stiffer, my body adjusts easier to the ground rather than not feeling the ground too well. I like to feel a lot of the bumps… knowing what I’m going to do with my body instead of letting the bike just swallow it up and not really knowing how to move my body.
Shimano Saints, big rotors – and a few changes of rotors and pads through the shoot – helped provide stopping power. Helpfully, most of the riding you see in the video only uses little taps on the brakes – the prolonged hauling on them that can cook them only happens at the ends of the runs. Here, the footage isn’t so dramatic, so it doesn’t make the cut anyway. Up top, he’s controlling his speed by using those skinnier tyres to cut into the ground and carve across the mountain.
BV: During the lines, it’s a lot of tapping, sometimes locking. It’s really at the end of the lines, trying to stop in the bottom before it gets too chunky or too rowdy where they really get worn out because then it’s sometimes half a minute of trying to stop.
When the ground is soft, I feel like it’s easier to slow down by carving and moving into the terrain rather than locking your brake. Because when you lock your wheel, if the ground’s moving, you’ll end up moving with the ground, and go even faster… when you get up to a certain speed, you just can’t slow down.
One of the main things I’m thinking about as I’m riding is speed management. A lot of the time you want to go faster, but you know that further down, there’s these big boulders and you just can’t [let go], because if you get up to speed and you can’t stop then, yeah… It’s a little bit frustrating sometimes because you would love to go faster on the top, but you need to keep in mind that you’re working with something way bigger than you. There’s not a few berms down there to catch you. It’s boulders or cliffs!
Being in the moment, feeling what he’s riding, having all senses on alert… these are the things that float Brage’s boat. He wants a bike that works, but the tech doesn’t seem to interest him much.
BV: When I go to the bike park, I like to use really old tyres because then more stuff is happening. I feel like if I’m riding a new downhill bike, it’s all dead. Like I’ve got to go as fast as I can to feel something. I find it really fun to ride worn-out tyres, a lot of pressure, medium frame, because then everything is exciting! You don’t have to go as fast. You can just cruise and have fun with it because then you actually feel something. A weird thing I find with mountain biking is I feel the new trend is to feel as little as possible. I don’t really understand the whole point of building this crazy good downhill bike and going to the bike park and be like, ‘Oh, there’s brake bumps’. Why do you even ride a mountain bike? Isn’t it to actually feel something? And that’s why I’m riding. Why would I go to the mountains if I didn’t want to feel it? I’m riding for that feeling. And if I’m taking that feeling away, then I might as well just be on a road bike on the road.
I confess that the mum in me really wants him to wear elbow pads or at least a long-sleeved shirt. But now I realise that his T-shirt, bare arms and bare hands are part of ‘feeling it’.
BV: A hundred per cent. It’s because it makes me feel alive and I just love the feeling of the air on my hands. In a way, I feel more confident and safe that way. I just love the feeling of dropping in and feeling the wind on my hands.
I rarely change wheels.
I rarely change parts.
I rarely break stuff.
I’m surprised to hear that he’s not especially hard on his gear.
BV: Over the years, I really found a set-up that lasts. I find the stiffer I run my bike, the longer the stuff lasts. I have a lot of friends that ride similar things, and some of them ride it really soft. I think when you ride your bike soft, the bike has to work a lot more in the travel. If you stay all the time in the suspension, I feel like it’s more, a little bit on the suspension and on the body. But when you [run it soft and] really bottom out… then it goes on the frame and on the wheels and other parts. Sometimes I ride the same wheels on my bike the whole season. I rarely change wheels. I rarely change parts. I rarely break stuff. What I change out sometimes is maybe the brake oil and my pads and discs. I changed the rear tyre once in Alaska. The stuff I’m riding lasts really long. People think that I break things all the time, but I really don’t.
This seems like a very good advert for GT, his bike sponsor until the entire brand was ‘paused’ in late 2024. It doesn’t seem like he’s in a hurry to sign a new deal with anyone, perhaps especially as he already has long-term filming projects on the go.
BV: I mean, everything I’ve shot already is on a GT. I had the contract for some years, and I’m still with GT now, working with the remaining crew. I don’t really know more, to be honest, I’m not stressing that. To me, riding for a brand is about working closely with the people. The relationship is important as the bike itself. I feel I could ride any type of bike, so it’s really about the people. I loved the vibe of GT and the whole ‘good times’ thing and having bikes that are affordable for everyone. I’m not jumping to the next brand just to get a sponsor. It’s more about getting to know the people, the whole relationship part of it. If I could ride GT forever, I’d love to, but things change. I love the brand and everything it’s done over the years. So, we’ll see what happens – I’m going to focus on riding.
He started out building things in the garden, partly inspired by videos that he watched back then. So who’s inspiring him now?
BV: A lot of skiers and snowboarders; new up-and-coming snowboarders and skiers, skaters. A few new bands coming up. Jim Morrison [of The Doors]. He’s been inspiring me a lot lately. The way he was creating and moving back then. Older Tanner Hall stuff, he’s a skier. Robbie Bourdon, the biker, still inspires me a lot – his vision of mountain biking back in the mid-2000s. Ben Boyko and his builds back then.
I wonder if in his notebooks of ideas he’s got any dream projects that he especially wants to make happen? The answer is more literal than I could ever have expected.
BV: I am keeping that notebook by my bedside because a lot of my ideas and how I want to ride, I dream about. So I’ll wake up and just write it all down and then keep dreaming. Even though I said that I like to keep it really open and stuff, I think a lot of the things that have come out lately is stuff I thought about maybe three years prior. A lot of things start with an idea years before. The same with features. I want to build features. I want to ride places. It all starts with a thought and then I write it down, keep it, and then it just keeps evolving.
It seems like fun is important to Brage, and I wonder how he finds the balance between fear and fun.
BV: I like being scared. Being scared is fun for me. If I didn’t like being scared, I wouldn’t seek those situations. I think if I wasn’t scared, I wouldn’t really be able to ride the way I want to ride. I love the feeling of being scared. It turns all my senses on, you move in your own time and you react quicker, you see better, you smell better, you taste better. It’s like you’re just more turned on. I think it’s a way of survival that comes maybe from way, way back. I just like being in that space… You almost turn into an animal. But I think being scared for me is a good feeling, but being anxious is another thing – that I don’t like, that’s a different thing. If I feel I’m anxious, I just don’t do it. If something feels wrong, biking-wise, I don’t do it.
What’s the difference between fear and anxiety?
BV: Fear is knowing that you’re about to do something really dangerous, but you’re trusting your body and you’re committed to doing it. You know that you’re in a situation that has a lot of dangerous factors and high impact. To me, fear is almost like being more focused, more in the moment. Anxious is to me, talking in front of a lot of people or being in a lot of social spaces – that makes me anxious. If I felt that way riding, then I wouldn’t do it.
That’s a really interesting distinction that I hadn’t really thought about in the context of riding. Next time I find myself out on the trail, I might see if I can tell the difference between the two. Fear as Brage describes it sounds like something that can be channelled. Certainly, it seems to be working for him.
We started the interview with his first bike. I suggest we fast forward to a very old Brage in his rocking chair with a grey beard. What would he like to be able to look back on and think, ‘Yeah, I did that’?
BV: If I got old right now, I would be pretty stoked on everything that has happened. I feel like in the last years I’ve been able to do things I couldn’t even imagine as a kid… I want to do a lot more things, but it’s almost just a bonus because I feel like I’ve lived and done so many cool things that I could never have imagined doing. I always wanted to ride, but being able to fly helicopters around Alaska, have my best friends as filmers and being able to create whatever I want to create… it’s just insane. So I think if I got old right now and just looked back at everything that has happened already, I would be really stoked.
If you asked me a year ago if I would consider moving somewhere or living with a girlfriend – that was never really a thing for me. I even thought that would be hard for me to do. But now that’s a thing I would be proud of and want to look back at too. I’m with my girlfriend now and moving forward with that. That’s really cool and, in a way, it’s a thing that excites me for the future.
That sounds like a pretty fantastic place to be in life. It’s been a pleasure discovering that there’s more to Brage Vestavik than meets the eye. He seems creative and curious about the world and stoked to be in it. From the heavy metal Viking persona, I never expected to find someone who was quite so… sweet? Maybe kitten breeder wouldn’t be such a bad alternative job after all.
