When Red Bull calls someone a prodigy, it's safe to say that athlete is going to be a sure thing — a fearless big wave surfer, a lung-busting ultrarunner or a Spiderman-esque speed climber. In the case of Brandon Semenuk, his prodigious calling was to become one of the best freeride mountain bikers to ever live. And, boy, did he live up to the expectations.
Hailing from Whistler, British Columbia, Semenuk was practically born to be a mountain biker. The terrain in coastal Canada is known as some of the best in the world for all mountain biking disciplines, but especially for downhill and freeriding. 10 years on from Red Bull declaring him the future of freeride, Semenuk has proven that Red Bull's crystal ball was right: he's one of the best, if not the best, to ever do it.
Thanks to a combination of skill, style and what is probably an unhealthy amount of fearlessness, the 32-year-old has climbed (er, descended?) to the top of the professional freeride circuit, winning contests with an incredible array of tricks and creativity. Not only is he one of the winningest free riders in the world — he's won Red Bull Rampage four times, more than any other athlete — but he's now racing rally cars for Subaru alongside Travis Pastrana. Rally is no mere side project, though; in 2022, he was the American Rally Association National Champion.
Recently, though, he's been back on the bike filming Array, his latest video partnership with SRAM, celebrating the launch of the brand's innovative new drivetrain system dubbed SRAM Eagle Transmission. The Transmission eschews the derailleur hanger, mounting the derailleur directly on the bike, which allows for unprecedented oneness between the rider and their gearing. The Transmission has been a hit among free riders, cross country racers and can already be found on gravel bikes. Essentially, if rough terrain is in the mix, the new Transmission drivetrain is the go-to option for pros and amateurs, alike.
Last week we caught up with Semenuk to talk about the creative process for shooting new video parts, how he mixes rally with riding and what he thinks of SRAM's Eagle Transmission drivetrain system. Check out Array below and read on to see what he had to say.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Let's start with the reason we're here. What do you think about the new SRAM Eagle Transmission drivetrains?
It's been quite cool. I tried it for the first time we did a project in the winter, right before we were doing this project. I was really thrown into it. I put it on myself and it went on easily. It wasn't way different than drive trains I've I've assembled in the past. It was really intuitive and clever with some of the steps that they had [to install it]. As far as function, it's worked really well. We absolutely smashed on these things, especially at this Montana project; I had one instance where I landed on the derailleur — I was literally standing on it, and the thing was fine. It was good to see that this thing's more durable than the last stuff. They had given me the whole rundown, but to actually experience it was awesome.
The chains are much better and the shifting is much more positive. On my trail bike, there's a noticeable improvement. But we also have e-bikes for trail building and stuff like that. So now [on an e-bike], you're loading the drive train under power thanks to pedal assist. But you can stand up and hard crank on an e-bike and just shift up the gears. And it's just... bang, bang, bang, right through the gears, right where it needs to be. There's no skipping, there are no hard hard shifts. So I would say that's where I see the big performance, especially if you're a downhill racer or cross-country racer, you don't have to be light on your feet anymore. As long as everything's set up well, you can just go for it.
Can't wait to try it myself. What was the most exciting thing about shooting Array? What got you fired up about it?
Originally, the idea kind of spawned from a couple of buddies that went down to this bike park down in Montana. One of my friends moved within a few hours of it, and he's like,"Hey, this park's really cool." So we scouted it last September and thought the place had some pretty cool potential. The [owners] were super fun, allowing us to kind of move around the land and not just within the bike park. So it seemed like a no-brainer as far as its potential to build and the opportunity to support an up-and-coming bike park. It was just something that we had in our back pockets. And then in springtime, there was a window with a crew of the guys that originally came for the scouting trip, and myself and a couple of other builders. We knew we really wanted to play with the light. As this was already late May, [we] kind of get pigeonholed into this really short window of shooting, where we film at sunrise and sunset, but also play with the blue hour and some night stuff. That's where we had the idea to hang some lights off the drones and just get kind of weird with it.
When you're planning one of these video parts, how do you get that process started? Is it based on the land and features you're working with? Or do you have progressions and new stuff you're working on that you want to mix in?
It's really all the above. Sometimes, like a project spawned by a trick I want to do and I gotta go build the feature and we need to film it to really get it out there. So then you kind of build off that. Okay, well, I've got this trick. And then that made room for this and this and this and these things that I want to shoot as well. Sometimes it's just a concept or a visual. And then you just work around it to figure out where the best location is and what kind of riding suits the area. What could the build look like? What bike is it going to be? In this scenario, it was a little bit of high desert with some forests and existing bike park features and trails, so we used some of that and built off that. We will also sprinkle in some weird tricks or find a different approach to features that people may not think of. So the idea was to go for big tricks and focus on raw energy, high-pace riding, and sprinkle in a couple of weird things that I've been having fun with.
I definitely think the moments where you like kicking up dirt and stuff are just as exciting as seeing a huge backflip — it's fun to see how the mix of huge tricks and raw energy come together. How do you prepare mentally for a video like this one versus prepping for Red Bull Rampage or another big contest?
It's super different. Obviously, you would practice the tricks the same you would for an event — you would have an outline of what you think you can do, except with a project like this, sometimes I don't have these features to actually practice on, [so] the first time I'm doing it is before we shoot it. Whereas with an event, you're like, okay, the jumps look like this, the drops look like that, I've got these tricks. It's a little bit more of a formula. You gotta be a lot more willing to just be more malleable during these projects [like Array] in order to really capitalize on what it could be. You might get to a setup or build this setup that you thought you had one idea for and it doesn't work for that. Or maybe it's so good that you're trying a whole new trick that's better than the last one.
And then in contests, we don't worry about when we'll drop in — we're told to drop in. But the video, it's a lot of small windows. The sun would come up and you want that special moment when the sun is just up and the light is golden, but it doesn't peak too far. So I'm still put in those situations where I need to do this trick I've never done in a five-minute window when the light is good. If not, we're waking up at 4:30 in the morning to get out there and do it again.
Do you prefer the competition side of things or would you rather only shoot video parts?
I mean, I competed for about a dozen years. So obviously, over time, it became really repetitive. Whereas with content, I can continuously be creative. I can always adjust how something looks or how we approach it.
You're not only biking now, you've taken up racing cars on the American Rally Association circuit, as well. How do you balance your time on the bike and time behind the wheel?
This year the team has built a new car, so there's a bunch of development time, which hasn't been the case since I started rally. Typically, a season of races is about eight races. So it's eight weekends out of my year — it's fairly manageable. This year, there's been a little bit more with the testing. So it's made it a bit busier. But for the most part, I'm riding flat out all the time, jumping from project to project, so it's kind of nice to step away for a weekend in the car. I'm obviously working hard, focusing on the race, but when I'm just sitting down, I can let the body recover. It's a good mental recovery to just focus on something else and separate myself from mountain bike and all that because, you know, it's easy to get a bit obsessive when you're like trying to figure out a project or work towards an event — so it's good to step away for a minute and come back with like a fresh mind. So it's been good. That's always been the case for me and rally is a good way for me to escape. Not that I don't like mountain biking, I love it. But sometimes you just need to do something different for a minute.
Do you like to get out and mountain bike just for fun? Or do you feel like you pretty much only have time to practice tricks and plan for new content?
I'd say they're one and the same. I'm so fortunate that my two biggest passions are my career. So, if I'm working towards a project or an event, there's an objective. I need to learn this trick or practice this trick, or I need to ride this type of terrain. But I would say a true day off for me has none of that. If it's a day off, I have no specific objective. I'm just gonna go ride. What do I feel like? Okay, it rained last night, the trails are great. So I'm gonna ride trails. Or I've been wanting to go and try and learn this trick that I know might take me the entire day. And I might not even learn it. But I'll waste a day on it because I've got nothing better to do. Mountain biking is as much of a hobby as it is my career and all my best friends do it. And the environment for me is really special. So that's cool.
Just a couple more practical questions for the mountain bike homies out there. Is there anything unexpected or non-traditional in your cycling kit that you always have with you when you go out to ride?
It's a good question, actually. I mean, I always have a camera with me. I don't know if that's really weird, and it's not like I'm gonna film myself, it's just a photo camera. I like to be able to shoot something even though the objective is to go riding. So that's something that always seems to stay in my bag, which comes in handy more often than not. And then basic tools, like as you'd expect. I always have some like zip ties and tape and things like that, a tube and whatnot. Nothing too crazy. I always have snacks, too.
You've got to have snacks. Is photography something you really like to do? Or is it just sort of a 'you're out in nature, so you might as well' type of thing?
I really enjoy photography. Sometimes we're on shoots and I just have my camera as more of a backup. If the cinematographer has an issue, I have our Plan B. And then it also kind of lives with me everywhere else I go. I find myself pulling it out and using it for personal use, maybe getting a random clip or if I'm in a really cool place like Kentucky and I want to go walk around the streets and shoot some weird stuff.
What's the biggest mistake you see beginning mountain bikers make? Or, do you have a piece of advice for people getting into it, whether they're dirt jumping or riding cross-country or anything in between?
I'd say there are a few different things. You see a lot of people jump on a full downhill bike and go to the bike park. That's where they learn their skills. It could go vice versa as well. You see people that start off with a hardtail and they only go to the dirt jumps. But I love mountain biking because it's so versatile. You're not really confined to one location and one environment or one bike. So I'd say the biggest thing I see is people going to one extreme or the other.. They get themselves into positions where maybe they're so used to the bike handling the elements for them that when they put themselves in a situation that really requires physical skill, they go over their limit. Same with the dirt jump skill — they never really leave smooth terrain, so when they get on a downhill bike or something and the confidence is high because the bike's doing a lot of the work. Then they get caught out by stupid little things — a route that was exposed or, or a wet rock — because they haven't put themselves in that position to try these things yet. I think new riders should be trying to experience a bit of everything: trail riding, dirt jumps, bike parks. Whatever it is, just go slowly and gain the skills required to be well-rounded.
Okay, actually, I thought of one more thing that I need to know. Where is your favorite place in the world to ride?
I'm super fortunate. I grew up in Whistler, British Columbia, which is a mecca for mountain biking. You know, it's got the famous bike park, and they've got hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of trail, especially when I was a kid growing up. Then I would say all of the west coast of British Columbia — even the interior has really good riding, but I would say the west coast specifically is a hub for mountain biking. I also really enjoy riding in New Zealand, going there in the wintertime when it's their summer. They have some incredible bike parks popping up and existing bike parks that rule and you know, it's a really cool area to visit as well. So I'd say those are in my top three, for sure. A couple of others probably compete for that third spot.
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