The Fabio Wibmer interview - living life on, and over the edge

Austrian freeride and street trails sensation Fabio Wibmer has had many on the edges of their saddles over the years as we watch his insanely unimaginable feats on YouTube, and we thought it was time we chased him down for a chat.

off.road.cc staff

Sep 10 2024

Feature

[Words by Steve Thomas]

A fair few years ago I was doing a photoshoot with Danny MacAskill and his Drop and Roll performing trials tour in Germany, which is when I first came across a lanky teenager who was part of the show. He was relatively unknown back then – but, oh how that would soon change.

His name was Fabio Wibmer, who was a young and aspiring downhill racer and street trials rider, a man who was soon set to blow the doors off the internet with his inconceivable, and often death-defying skills on a bike.

Needless to say, he soon garnered some big-league attention, and has for some time been sponsored by Red Bull, Canyon, and his own clothing brand – SICK. His YouTube channel currently has more than 7.8 million subscribers and 1.5 billion views, with his most successful film so far, Wibmer’s Law, scoring 260 million of those views.

As Canyon released their 4th incarnation of the Fabio Wibmer signature edition Torque we managed to get Fabio to keep his wheels on terra firma long enough to answer a few questions for us.

ORCC: Where exactly are you from in Austria? Is that still home, and how and when did you start cycling?

FW: I grew in a very small mountain village in East Tyrol, nearby the Großglockner mountain.

Initially I rode motocross, but when I saw Danny’s (MacAskill) famous Inspired Bicycles video I started riding bikes properly.

ORCC: With so many great trails, bike parks and ski resorts close by your home, did that inspire you into riding and the trials and downhill side of the sport?

FW: Sure, the area I grew up had a big impact on my riding in general.

ORCC: You were the Austrian downhill national champion a few years ago, and also doing street trails, was there ever a moment when you thought to go all in for DH racing?

FW: I rode some races, and the results were quite decent, and I surely thought about focusing on racing only. But my love for making videos (luckily) was stronger, and so I decided to focus on that, which turned out to be the right decision for sure. However, watching the DH racers nowadays is gnarly, these guys are so fast!

ORCC: You were with Danny MacAskill's Drop and Roll Tour years back (and still do perform with this), how did that come about, and did being around him help to lead more deeply into the YouTube side of things?

FW: Danny generally had a big impact on my career, and still is a big inspiration for me.
I took part in a riding camp of his in Munich, and then a while after that he invited me to do the shows with him. It was a big boost for me, and being as I always loved his videos, that´s what I wanted to do as well.

ORCC: You've been posting videos since your teens, and when it started out the whole YouTube scene was still pretty new for this stuff, what was your plan, and how did you evolve it over time? Was there a crunch point when you realised it could be so huge and important for you?

FW: I didn´t really have a plan for it when I started. I did it because it was fun for me, and also, I improved my riding with it. It´s crazy to look back now and to realise how it all happened, but I never would´ve thought it could get that big.

When I got my first sponsorships and my videos suddenly were watched by millions of people, then I realised I could actually make a living out of it, even though it was never the initial goal. I´m super grateful for it!

ORCC: When you film and travel on projects what is the set up – the crew, basic infrastructure and process?

FW: I always travel and work with my own crew, which is one main videographer, one photo guy and my manager. Of course, we have to add more people depending on the projects, but I like to keep the crew as small as possible so as to stay efficient.
Me and my crew work on all projects together from start to finish, we do the brainstorming, the filming, and the post-production. Of course, we get help from some of my partners, like Red Bull for example, but also their people know me quite well and we align really good on all things and creativeness generally.

ORCC: You've made some amazing films, and had some pretty nasty accidents too, how to you balance the risk over return, and has that changed – as in, have eased back on risk taking at times?

FW: I´m trying to limit down the risk factors to a minimum with every single trick and stunt I do. I do train every trick in a safe environment with the same scales (foam pits, airbags etc) and I try to prepare my body as well as I can.

Naturally, there´s always a certain risk still. I would never do a trick where I´m not 100% sure I can land it. If I can´t envision it in my head before, I step back and won´t do it. I did this in the past already.

And yes, I surely matured with it over the years as well, but I wouldn´t say that my tricks nowadays are less risky, I´m just better prepared and more experienced.

ORCC: You were robbed in Chile, and a lot of gear was taken, can you tell us a bit about it?

FW: We were still on location scouting that day, and luckily, we hadn´t filmed any riding then. We parked the car in what was supposed to be a safe area, but it turned out it wasn´t. We left the car for 30 minutes, and when we came back the one backpack that we left in the car was gone.

People tried to rob us again in Chile, but our guys saw it in time and could stop the thieves, and our security guys actually caught the thief, and they get picked up by the police straight away.

ORCC: The recent Streif was a fantastic and scary film, which took a lot to get done. You have a long history of doing stuff on snow - has this become something of a signature style, and do the snow films get more attention than others?

FW: My first bigger video on snow was a huge success already. I just like to try new and different stuff, and big bike riding on snow was one of them. I´m used to the snow as we had tons of it when I was a kid, and so I had to ride on it.

The Streif skiing race is one of the most iconic sports events here, and it´s happening just an hour from my hometown, and so I always dreamed of riding down the course. I´m really happy with what we captured, and it was a big honor for me.

ORCC: Your own clothing brand – how has that developed and evolved, and how reliant is it on your status is success?

FW: I actually run two clothing brands, SICK and Nineyard. SICK Is a bit more orientated towards my community and most of the stuff is related to my videos, my bikes, and so on.

Nineyard is a full-on fashion brand targeted towards bike riders and action sports enthusiasts who still want to look stylish.

I was always into fashion, and I love to work on something else while I´m not on my bike, it keeps my mind fresh. Surely the brands have also had a big impact on my career as well, but I still want to grow them both big time and me and the team are working towards it.

ORCC: Which of your films means the most to you?

FW: Tough question, I don´t have that one single favorite actually. Both of the Fabiolous Escape films have been the biggest boosts for my career at those times, but then seeing that Wibmer’s Law has been watched by more than 260 million people still blows my mind as well.

ORCC: YouTube content, riding styles, extremes and the numbers of people making a living from it has changed a lot, where would and do you expect to take your own career from here?

FW: Honestly, I do go with the flow. We do what we love and are fortunate that we can live a great life by doing that. I don´t see myself stopping doing this anytime soon. Naturally, we do have goals, ambitions, and ideas for the future, and we are already working on another really big video project.

Aside of the riding and the videos, I´m keen on working more and more with my brands and other businesses.

off-road.cc

The Fabio Wibmer interview - living life on, and over the edge

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