Brage Vestavik’s journey to the forefront of freeride filmmaking began at home, but not in the way you might imagine. Growing up in the small town of Mysen, an hour southeast of Oslo in his native Norway, Vestavik and his family were forced from their house after an electrical fire burned it to the ground. It took a full three years before they were able to move back in, and even then, much work remained.
“When we came back, there were still a bunch of dirt piles, planks, and materials laying around,” recalls Vestavik, now 25, of the ongoing construction site residing outside his partially rebuilt childhood home.
But Vestavik saw something else in his yard. He saw potential. Already enamored with all things biking, he started building jumps and features with those planks and dirt piles. And instead of chasing him off, his parents offered encouragement, promising their ever-enthusiastic son new piles of dirt in exchange for success at school. With that, a fire was lit. Vestavik’s been building—and progressing—ever since.
“That’s really how the whole thing started,” he says of what’s become his place among the world's best and most creative freeride mountain bikers. “It’s always just been natural for me to build the things I ride.”
Initially, though, there was limited riding around his home zone. Instead, he spent weekends chasing his dad, Arnebjørn Vestavik, around the trails near Oslo.
“My dad is the main reason why things have turned out the way they have,” adds Vestavik. “He’s my hero. My inspiration from Day 1. I always tried to ride like him, wanted to be him in a way. And he never pushed me. He was always fully open for me to choose what I wanted to do. I’m so thankful for that.”
Soon, the father-son duo, plus a group of close friends, were spending weekends at the races. Vestavik was a natural between the tape, quickly catching the eye of the Devinci pro team. That led the junior rider to the World Cup downhill circuit, where, under the tutelage of Steve Smith and others, he got his first taste of the sport's highest level.
“It was a smack in the face," Vestavik recalls. "Suddenly, I realized there were lots of other people riding pretty hard. That was a big learning curve but also really good years. I learned a lot."
Racing, it turned out, was not his calling. But building was. Dismayed by the lack of mountain bike community back in Mysen, Vestavik decided to create one. Inspired by scenes from the many freeride films he’d watched over the years, he and a tight-knit band of friends ventured into the woods and went to work.
The results are now legendary. Edits such as his X Games Real MTB 2021 entry that won the Fan Favorite Award and his jaw-dropping Red Bull Sound of Speed compilation rank as some of the sport’s most watched videos, illuminating a mix of daring creativity, relentless work ethic, precision talent, and a raw and powerful riding style that’s uniquely his own.
“It’s crazy now to look back at the old [model trail features] I made out of paper when I was younger,” he says of a collection of homemade dioramas depicting scenes that could easily have been lifted straight from the North Shore. “It’s basically the thing I am doing now, building the features I dreamt of as a kid.”
Vestavik also imagined a greater mountain bike community, something missing from his youth. Then he helped build it. For ten years now, he and his dad have been running Mysen’s local bike club.
“It doesn’t matter how old or young you are. Or what level you are,” he says. “Everyone is just riding and having fun. It’s something me and my dad dreamt about but we could have never imagined seeing so many new kids coming in and wanting to ride, especially knowing those kids are from our town.”
This combined commitment to creation and community are what defines this budding star. His best days are spent building, filming, and riding with friends. For Brage Vestavik, This is Home.
