A consortium of urban-sport associations and event organisers from across Europe — together responsible for some of the continent's longest-running BMX and skate scenes.
Founded in Osijek in 2004 to give urban sport and culture a permanent home in eastern Croatia. Operates a public skate park, runs a licensed BMX cycling club, and is the project's coordinator.
Its annual event, the Pannonian Challenge, has run continuously for over 25 years — making it one of Europe's longest-running urban sport & culture events. Pannonian's team also assembles skate parks across the region and consults on park design.
"We've been doing this on plywood and concrete for two decades. The next two years are about doing it in the headset, too — and making sure both ways lift the same kids." — Pannonian, project lead
Organisers of Simple Session — for over two decades, one of the world's top action-sports events for BMX and skateboarding. Around 180 pro riders and skaters drop into each edition.
Their crew designs a new contest course every year, scanned and rebuilt to spec. The depth of course-design and rider-network expertise feeds directly into VR Freestyle's platform requirements and tester pool.
"We've spent twenty years finding out what a great course feels like under wheels. Now we get to test that exact thing in VR — and see whether riders pick up the same lines virtually before they ride them for real." — Simple Session, course design lead
A young association of urban-sport experts using BMX, skateboarding, parkour and more to keep youth engaged. Best known for putting on Street Sport Shows across Malta and coaching aspiring BMX riders from absolute beginner to competitive level.
On VR Freestyle, MSSA leads on coach training and certification — including the three-day intensive that produced the project's first 22 certified blended-method trainers.
"We've always had to be inventive — Malta is small, parks are limited, and the weather doesn't always cooperate. VR gives our coaches a way to keep training meaningful even when the kids can't get to the park." — MSSA, head of coaching
Founded twelve years ago in Cahors to promote urban sport — particularly BMX. Their Hope Center high-level training facility is part of the French Cycling Federation's Performance Plan, a feeder programme for the country's Olympic-track BMX athletes.
JB Ride contributes the project's elite-rider perspective: what does a contest-ready training week look like, and how does a VR pre-rehearsal of a contest course fit into it?
"When you're at the level where every contest is decided by half a trick, planning becomes 80% of training. VR gives our riders a way to plan a run without burning their legs ten times over." — JB Ride, head coach
Cultural association founded in Ljubljana in 2017. Runs the decade-old Urbano Dejanje Festival and works under the trademark Connecting Diversity, experimenting with immersive technologies — VR, robotics, film, advertising.
Foton owns the technical side of the VR platform: 3D scanning workflows, engine work, headset testing, and the dissemination of immersive content beyond the BMX scene.
"Sport projects rarely get an excuse to do real R&D on VR. This one gives us five real parks, five real rider groups, and a clear question: does this actually help them ride better?" — Foton, technical director
The VR Freestyle methodology, platform and curriculum are designed to be reused. If you run a youth BMX or urban-sport programme and want to pilot the toolkit in your local scene, we'd like to hear from you.
Get in touch ↘