LUXBMX riders spotlight #2 | Sunay Pabathi 

A segment interviewing up-and-coming Australian BMX riders.

Sunay's Instagram: @sunaypabathi

Photos: @jack.lp_

 

 

The Bmx scene in Brisbane features some of the heaviest hitters in the world, I met Sunay really early on in his bmx journey, he was this smartass Indian kid that had the heaviest abomination of a bike. From that point onwards he has progressed at a rapid rate, hitting every rail in his path and pedal grinding all the ledges located in North Brisbane. 2022 King of BNE was a big moment for sunay. The night before the jam I stayed at Sunay's house, he mentioned that he wanted to hit his first street rail. We had always joked with Sunay about him conquering the infamous botanical rail or locally known as Botang. He came with the plan of handling botanics rail, after many hard slams he got back up and stomped it. It’s been sick to see my good friend progress, he’s one of my favorite people to ride with as he says the dumbest shit and always has a smile on his face while riding. I'm excited to see where he ends up. I had a chat with him and asked a few questions, check them out below! - Will Fraser 

 

Will: Hey Sunay, tell us a bit about you, what's your age, and where do you live?

Sunay: Hey guys I’m Sunay Pabathi, I'm 14 and live in Brisbane Bray park.

 

Will: What’s the scene around there, who are your favorite riding homies?

Sunay: The scene around here is very immense, wherever you'll always see or meet someone, there's a good group of kids that ride around bracken ridge. I have a lot of people I ride with but the main 4 people I always end up with are Kai Hayes, Will Fraser, Kobi Rogerson, and Jack Le Page.

Will: How’d you get into BMX, and what made you want to continue riding after starting?
Sunay: When I lived in Wagga Wagga I lived down the road from a skatepark and every time I got bored I would go watch the bmxers ride the bowl there, then thought to myself that I wanted a bike. But ended up not getting one until my 13 birthday. What motivated me to ride was just going to explore new places with my friends to ride and overall just having a good time doing what I find fun.

 

 

Will: You’ve only been riding for only a year, what’s your biggest accomplishment so far?
Sunay: Umm hard question, I guess I don’t have an accomplishment as of yet but I'm proud of myself for being able to hit most street rails that I’ve wanted and my confidence with rails have gotten better.

Will: Hell yeah, What’s your current setup? Give us a bit of a breakdown

Sunay: Currently I'm running an Anthoney Perrin sig frame (20.75), Wethepeople 4 piece oversize bars, Demolition front wheel, Odyssey Thunderbolt 170 cranks, Cult 410 chain, Odyssey stage 2 RHD cassette wheel, and a fitbike.co seat. All the parts on my bike apart from my chain and rear wheel are all handowns from Will and Kai.

 

Will: You said you live in Bray Park, what’s your local skatepark?

Sunay: Hood Park haha, my local skatepark is bray park skatepark, it’s a sketchy bowl that’s next to a Hubba and a long flat ledge. There used to be tons of locals there when I first started riding but They all have full-time jobs now. I don’t really find myself going there anymore since it’s a little bit of a trek. But it’s still a fun little skatepark, old parks like this are becoming more scarce as all the new plazas are getting built.

Will: Who influences you in the BMX scene? 
Sunay: Hmmm, I love so many people in the BMX scene but probably the ones who I take the most influence from are Carraig troy, sean Gardner, Tim Storey and Jake Norris,
Watching them ride is awesome and they are such nice people off the bike.

Will: What’s your favorite thing to do when not riding your bike? 

Sunay: When I'm not riding my bike I'm normally just catching up with friends at school or just playing sports.

 

 

Will: You sent yourself down a pretty OG handrail in Brisbane at the king of BNE jam, the crew at LUX were talking heaps about it on the Monday after, tell us about that? 
Sunay: I remember pulling up to the rail and immediately wanted to do it so I got up there and took like 3 run ups had my number 1 supporter Josh Irvine! To cheer me on but I remember after my run up Norris said that if he did an over tooth I gotta pegs. In typical Norris style he did It on first try so I was like I gotta back him up just went fast and sent it I guess it took 4 tries to pegs a handrail which was a little embarrassing but I still did it as it was my first proper street rail.

 

Will: You’ve been pretty quiet lately, What have you been up to? 
Sunay: Haha I've been riding the same it's just I've kinda been learning different varieties of riding right now but I promise I'll try to post more in the future.

Will: What kind of music are you into? Tell us some of your favourite artists

Sunay: My music taste is very vast id like to say my music taste kinda differs on what I'm doing haha but I normally find my playlist filled with three six mafia, project pat, west side gunn, das efx, Elton John, the Fugees, mac miller, pink pantheress and Tyler the creator.

 

Will: What is the most important thing about BMX to you? 
Sunay: To me the most important thing about bmx to me just being able to get out and have a good time while learning new tricks with friends and exploring new places.

 

Thanks for having me on this Will and lux bmx and I wish the best of luck to LUX and the people that are reading this:)

Keep up with Sunay on Instagram @sunaypabathi and check him out in these videos