Freeride mountain biking is experiencing an exciting renaissance. After enduring a period of identity crisis, the discipline has finally found its footing. More freeride-specific competitions are filling up the international calendar, and brands are once again investing in high-quality long and short-form creative content to promote their athletes and products.

Not to mention, there’s currently a strong focus on inclusion and a move towards equal opportunity for female athletes that is pushing us even closer to equality within the sport. Vinny Armstrong exemplifies what it means to be a freeride athlete and, in this ever-evolving landscape, continues to define her own unique style on and off the bike. Utilising not only her distinct riding style but also her all-round creative perspective, to further inspire and propel an increasingly expanding female freeride community.

Vinny Armstrong stands out as one of the most recognisable female athletes in the scene. Her signature aerial maneuvers have earned her numerous victories in Crankworx Whip-Off competitions worldwide. She has also showcased her impressive technical skills with strong performances at events like Red Bull Formation. Vinny has had a fruitful start to 2024, managing to find an ideal balance between her personal and professional life.

“It was honestly the best New Zealand summer I’ve ever had. I feel like I’ve learned how to become an athlete over the past year” says Vinny, having taken a holistic approach to her training over the summer. She’s chosen to limit her time on the bike to avoid burnout, with her new-found love of hiking allowing her to discover new parts of the beautiful New Zealand backcountry, whilst giving her a chance to reset and keep her career aspirations in perspective. A weekend mission away with friends serves as the perfect way to detach from the pressure of upcoming events. From an outside perspective, the life of a pro mountain biker might seem like an endless holiday, however, mastering the ability to train and peak skills in time for events is an art in itself. Not to mention the substantial effort needed to secure the support and backing required to participate in these events in the first place. Managing her career on a day-to-day basis presents its own set of challenges, however, focusing on her personal health and well-being is integral to Vinny’s professional success.

Vinny has been able to thrive, while standing out in a predominantly male-dominated discipline, becoming one of the leading faces of the female freeride movement. This movement focuses on increasing inclusion, opportunity, and competition in the sport, demonstrating that female riders are not only capable of tackling the same features and terrain as male riders but can also carve out their own legacy through their riding. The movement has made significant progress, but more still needs to be done for female riding to reach its full potential. Female participation at premiere competitions is no longer a novelty, it is now the standard moving forward. In fact, the impressive and inspiring riding is not only captivating for spectators and fellow riders, but also for a new generation aspiring to emulate these female pioneers. Vinny exemplifies this perfectly, as her huge whips consistently electrify a crowd, rivaling even the top performers in the men’s category. However, some outlets have been slow to evolve their approach when covering female riding, often sticking to repetitive questioning styles when interviewing female athletes. Instead of focusing on the specific riding they are witnessing, they focus on the overall concept of female progression. While this approach is well-intentioned, there’s a concern that it might inadvertently diminish the achievements of female athletes and impede further strides toward gender equality in mountain biking. Nevertheless, women’s freeride has consistently achieved significant milestones in recent years. Evident by the success of the first-ever female FMB diamond event held at the recent Crankworx Rotorua. Not only was this an opportunity to showcase female riding to the crowds packing the banks of the Rotorua hillside, but it was also a chance to demonstrate to the world that contests like this are imperative to continue giving female riders a platform to learn and grow from – not just as riders, but as well-rounded athletes.

Originally from Auckland, Vinny has made the mountain biking mecca of Queenstown her home for the past six years. The opportunities presented by the Queenstown scene made this a no-brainer decision for Vinny, who credits a lot of her success to the move. The constantly improving world-class trails and facilities serve as the perfect training environment and came as a natural progression to her home riding spot at the Woodhill Bike Park. Whilst she bid farewell to her family in the north, Vinny has been able to build a new family amongst the Southern Alps. The local community’s emphasis on strong family values resonates deeply, especially within the frequent influx of seasonal nomads who come and go. This is a classic case of ‘come for the riding, stay for the people’. The inclusive culture of the town has also attracted high-profile female riders like Robin Goomes, Harriet Burbidge- Smith and Martha Gill, to make it their base during the northern hemisphere off-season. The constant presence of other skilled female riders provides the perfect motivation and chance to feed off each other to progress personal skills during the long New Zealand summer.

While time on the bike is crucial when preparing for an event, the quality of that time is even more important. When preparing for an event like DarkFest, Vinny strives to emulate the distinctive big air style of riding that the mountainous slopes of South Africa are renowned for. Basing herself in Queenstown has provided her with the perfect training facility for this style of riding, enabling her to fully utilise the Wynyard Jump Park and access some of the world’s largest public jumps, all right at her doorstep. Vinny also uses a specifically set-up Forbidden Dreadnought, tailored for this style of riding. This eliminates the faff of continuously adjusting settings for various riding scenarios, allowing Vinny to concentrate more on her riding.

This year’s DarkFest event presented its own share of unforeseen challenges. Vinny was among the riders affected by an illness circulating within the group. To compound matters, persistent high winds on most event days greatly reduced riding time. Despite these obstacles, Vinny managed to rally and clinch the best whip in the female category. While grateful for her achievement, she feels she has unfinished business and has set her sights on a goal of completing a full top-to-bottom lap of the course in the coming years.

Vinny is gearing up for another busy northern hemisphere season. Kicking off her European leg of the trip, she’s prioritising personal riding progression over what can be a hectic event schedule. This will let her focus on her own skills while staying flexible around a busy event calendar. Through her hard work, she’s now in a position where she doesn’t need to pursue every opportunity that comes her way and can focus on what is best for her career. She will base herself out of the UK, to make the most of the growing and improving freeride scene in the area. One of the events she’s looking forward to the most is Vero Sandler’s Backyard Battle in Wales, a new event to the calendar where riders like Vinny can showcase their skills in a more relaxed environment. Relaxed jam-styled formats are always a rider favorite, as you are normally flexible to work with the weather and it lets you enjoy the riding as a collective rather than as individuals. For Vinny, it’s an excellent chance to reconnect with many of her freeride friends who don’t typically make the trip down to NZ in the winter months.