Stunt-biking champ turns heads with daredevil act

Perched atop a 150cc bike, the rider lets go of the handles. The next moment, he stands on the bike. In the blink of an eye, he’s balancing the bike on its rear wheels. In the minutes that follow, he does wheelies, plenty of them, so effortlessly as though he is having a walk in the park, while the crowds hold their heart in their mouth. After obliging to a few requests for an encore, he finishes with a perfect somersault off the speeding machine. That’s Aras Gibieza for you, 27-year-old stunt-riding champion. Watching the Lithuania resident perform is like witnessing a scene straight out of a Hollywood action film. 

As he settles down for a conversation with us, there is no sign of exhaustion of having pulled off gravity-defying stunts. It is also perhaps testimony to his years of practice as his fascination for extreme sports began when he was as young as 10. Recalling his first tryst with the bike, he says, “I rode my first scooter when I was 10 and started doing wheelies around the same time. In 2008, I got my first stunt bike. I started preparing for stunt biking competitions and won the European Stunt riding competition in 2012. There has been no looking back since. ” 

But making a childhood obsession a career wouldn’t have been easy considering the risk involved. “I have had my share of injuries, but that is a part and parcel of what I do. The bruises have fueled my desire to perform better which has surged my passion for the sport. Having said that, as much as I love taking risks, I am also a stickler for safety. I always attach protective gear to most parts of my body as I ride. This helps me in pushing myself to the limit but also makes sure that I don’t go beyond. There is a lot of skill involved in doing it safely because you also need to consider the safety of those watching you at the end of the day,” says Gibieza, who was in the city for the launch of Suzuki Gixxer 2017 Series.

He is no stranger to the Indian soil. This is Gibieza’s fourth time in the city. He toured India twice in 2015 entertaining audiences in nearly a dozen cities. Owing to the roaring success and adulation that he received during those trips, he returned once again in 2016 for the Gixxer Day tour. “The Indian crowd is one of the best crowds that I have encountered as the atmosphere is always charged with excitement and energy. I was welcomed with the same enthusiasm in each visiting city during my previous tour in India. This year, the excitement level was even better. The loud, energetic response that I get from the crowd gives me an unassailable adrenaline rush and I look forward to coming back. This time, I also got to ride on Chennai roads. It was quite different and interesting, but the traffic has been slightly overwhelming,” he adds with a smile. Having ridden across 25 countries, Gibieza says Italy, Austria and Germany are where he enjoys riding the most, as the roads are excellent. 

As Gibieza says, there is indeed a lot of enthusiasm and interest with respect to stunt riding. However, it is still not considered a sport in a lot of countries. Gibieza, who has also been organising camps for young stunt riders in Europe for over four years now says, “The reception that I received from the spectators this time around indicates the ability of the sport to thrill, enthuse and entertain. It can be mainstreamed by organising camps across cities for budding riders, to make the sport accessible to more people. The sport also requires sponsorships which can be used by riders for training and for participating in world championships. The idea is to change it from an attention-seeking cultural fad to a mainstream competitive sport.”