Intro/Interview: Effraim
Photos: Jason Halayko & Rutger Pauw / Red Bull Content Pool

Quite an achievement took place this past weekend in Kyoto, Japan. Viki Gomez won his 3rd Red Bull Circle of Balance title, with wins in 2002, 2007, and 2012! That is spanning over ten years at the top of the sport! Quite incredible. I wanted to catch up with Viki to see how he was feeling about this epic win! I am still buzzing from the contest, I can’t even imagine how he is feeling… Read on….

So Viki, firstly Congrats on an epic win this past weekend in Kyoto, japan! You must be over the moon right now?
Yeah man I can’t believe it! It’s definitely the happiest time ever of my flatland career!

You appeared so calm and collected during the whole contest, your level of composure was evident to see. How did you focus under such crazy conditions?
I guess for the first time in my life I wasn’t stressed and I just wanted to ride good and clean. For once I was just thinking about myself and my tricks with out paying to much attention to what the other riders were doing, so I didn’t get disturbed in my mind.

The steam kickflip to halfpacker line was one of the best combos I have seen in a contest for a long time, how long did it take to get that ready for a contest?
Kickflips is a trick that you only can pull when you are relaxed, and I can pull them most of the time during training when I am alone in my spot. The moment before to pull this kick flip combo I told to my self:
“I am in my spot, alone, let s pull this combo as I always do” and then I made it! I was so stoked and happy to show this part of my style in my final run!

Photo: rutgerpauw.com/Red Bull Content Pool

For all your fans and up and comers looking at you as a rolemodel, give us some idea how much practise went into winning this event? Cause you were ready!
A lot of practice and open mind to try new tricks everyday! I am pretty stoked every day when I learn or pull some new combo! It makes every session super exiting and you look forward to come back to ride! This way the motivation keeps alive!

Three times Red Bull COB Champion, how do you feel about that achievement? And was this best victory?
Definitely this has been the best victory of my life! Thanks to the first COB I got sponsored by Red Bull and winning it again 10 years after and for the third time is a goal that makes me the happiest in my life! I gave 17 years of my mind, body and soul to Flatland in all the ways! Riding, contests, bike company, videos and I guess all the effort paid back. Now I feel relieved and I definitely have another vision for my future! My goal now is to show new tricks in every contest! I have nothing to prove anymore and I just want to focus in freestyle! I just feel free right now!

Any final shoutouts?
I am going to remove my front break and try how it feels for the next 6 months and see what I can come up with. It s a challenge that I wanted to do since long time but I was afraid to loose some of my signature tricks with breaks, but this tricks are in the videos so lets move on to the next level!
I want to thank everybody at the COB, from Organizers, riders, media, Red Bull and everyone! It was an amazing weekend where we all had so much fun! I feel that Flatland is going to be back so strong now and we ALL need to me united and strong! Ride on!

Thanks Effraim!

Thanks a lot Viki! It was a real treat watching you bust out! Much respect!

If you missed the livefeed heres the link to watch it again:

http://live.redbull.tv/events/117/rb-circle-of-balance-kyoto/