Burnt Wax.
Dig, ride, repeat.
Nils Heiniger is something of a rider of reference in New Zealand, but you wouldn’t know it from talking to him. Born in Graubünden but raised in Christchurch, NZ from age seven, he's come out the other side with an easy, outdoorsy energy that makes everything he does – on or off a bike – look like the most natural thing in the world. We hit him up for our latest shoot and obviously had to get into his world.
Riders: Nils Heiniger / Louis Reboul / Matteo Iniguez
The crew
Nils rolls with Vale Inc. – a tight crew of riders he grew up with that’s become more like family. They ride, jump, dig and film together, showing their vision of mountain biking through the way they build and ride their lines – approachable, relatable, and properly put together.
That’s where the digging comes in. It’s half the game. Shape the line, figure it out, then it ride. The filming comes naturally after that.
But what Nils, Billy, Matt and Hunter make doesn’t sit comfortably under the word “content.” Trails, videos, sessions, dig days – there’s weight to all of it. Multiple lines, different riders, everyone all-in, everyone welcome. Watch their footage and it makes sense: they’re not performing for the camera because they’d be doing this anyway.
The riding
Queenstown is the obvious one; it’s hard to ignore when it offers pretty much everything. Big mountain lines, bike parks, natural terrain, all stacked in one place. That’s exactly what brought us here for this photoshoot.
Middle Hill Bike Park is where Nils really comes alive though. Family-run by Genevieve and Morgz, low-key and personal in the best way, with a couple of Landcruisers on shuttle duty, trails that go off time after time. Vale Inc. put serious hours into their Vale Ave line here, and it shows. The coastal location means you can surf in the morning and be covered in dust by the afternoon. The Kānuka and Mānuka native plants turn the landscape into something that’s dense, wild, and unlike anything in Europe, which makes it even more special.
Craigieburn, an hour out of Christchurch, is the one for trail riding. Beech forest but nothing like the European version. Different spacing, different light, different flow. It’s fast, loose, and there’s no hand-holding.
The building
That connection between terrain and trail is what keeps Nils coming back with a shovel. Fresh off a heavy run of builds (Natural Selection, Christchurch Slopestyle, Crankworx Rotorua – all the major ones) and he’s already back building on jump lines. He loves the whole process and the way a well-built line just carries you.
He’s as particular about tools as he is about bikes. His pre-2017 Atlas Type 2 shovel isn’t going anywhere – they changed the head design after that and it never felt right again. It’s worn in, dialled, does exactly what he needs it to do.
The real payoff though? Watching someone else hit something you built and find the line perfectly. When it clicks for them the way it clicked in your head. That’s the one.
Riding it yourself goes pretty hard too, obviously.
What’s next
This summer, he’s heading back to Europe, based in Innsbruck, with plans to work on some trails at a smaller nearby bike park, putting more fresh life in old dirt.
Same approach as always: dig, ride, repeat.
