Nina Buitrago is perhaps the best known and most respected female BMX rider in ‘our’ wide world of bike riding. Earlier this year Snakebite’s Shad Johnson sat down with her in Austin and talked about pretty much everything, starting with those early days of growing up on Long Island and being mentored up by Manmade’s Daren Meenan and street legend Vic Ayala.

We follow that with a chat about Nina’s midwest days spending time riding the original Chenga and working at Ray’s MTB park, and in there somewhere we pretty much talk about everywhere she’s lived and all the scenes she’s been a part of. We also talk to her about the growth of the girl BMX scene and her endless search for other girl riders in the early days, not to mention travelling, living in NYC during 9/11, getting into fist fights in Paris, and so much more. Nina has not only done a lot for female BMXers but has contributed so much more to BMX in general by keeping the spirit alive of finding new riders and making new friends. Enjoy!

Editors note: At one point Nina chats about the first time she heard her now adopted nickname (Nina Burrito) at the Brighton Backyard Jam from who she thought was our legendary DIG photographer Ricky Adam. Turns out it was his video making farting brother, Peter Adam (DIG, Still United etc). The DIG influence runs deep for all the important stuff eh.

Produced in collaboration with: www.snakebitebmx.com/