NIGEL SYLVESTER: The world from beyond my handlebars

is such a unique position.

It moves faster.

It's more intense.

I'm forced to think faster.

I feel more comfortable riding my bike sometimes than walking.

LAURA LING: When I watch you ride, I am just transfixed.

How did you get into BMX?

NIGEL SYLVESTER: Like most kids in my neighborhood,

just riding bicycles around was the thing to do.

It was a natural thing for us.

It was fun.

It was a way to get to where ever we wanted to go.

And it was that first point of like, I felt freedom from home.

And a lot of years passed in between

until I finally seen BMX riding for the first time on TV.

And that's what really changed everything for me.

And once I seen that, I was like, wow,

this is what I really want to do in my life.

Because of my neighborhood and because of my environment,

riding BMX on a professional level

and dreaming to be a professional BMX rider

wasn't common.

People would sometimes call me a white boy

because they didn't understand the sport

and because they associated BMX riding

with only young white men from middle America

or places like that.

But it was something that I had for a very long.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I'm a kid from Queens.

And I would have never imagined in a million years

that I would have the opportunity

to ride my bicycle around the world.

It's incredible.

LAURA LING: Did you get pressure at home from your family

to follow that traditional route and go to school

and get a good job?

NIGEL SYLVESTER: Of course.

My family, my mom and dad, came to America

to pursue better opportunities.

It was very rigid growing up, which was fine.

It taught me a lot of valuable life lessons

that I would later carry on into my career.

LAURA LING: Like what?

NIGEL SYLVESTER: Hard work.

I learned hard work and dedication

and sacrifice at home from my family.

And those are things that I use every single day.

It's like, how much are you willing to sacrifice?

How hard are you willing to work to go achieve

your goals and your dreams?

LAURA LING: How hard do you work?

NIGEL SYLVESTER: I work every single day.

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm thinking about bike riding,

I'm thinking about a project every single second of the day.

And when it comes to the actual bike riding,

sometimes it may take one try to land a trick.

Other times, it may take one day.

It make take a week.

It may be something you have to leave and come

back and try again.

LAURA LING: You're not just a professional BMX rider.

You really are a BMX artist and filmmaker.

You make these really incredible videos

riding around different cities.

What are you trying to accomplish through your videos?

NIGEL SYLVESTER: For me, it's about sharing my point of view

with the world.

Not many people can get on a bike and go blast on a bridge

or bomb a hill in SF or blast through Shibuya Crossing.

I want to share that with people.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

For me, I never really embraced riding contests.

It's always been about content.

I just want to deliver people an amazing experience.

I want them to watch my videos and just be in awe

and be amazed and learn something and be inspired.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

LAURA LING: Would you say that BMX riding

is THE ritual of your life?

NIGEL SYLVESTER: It's something I do almost every single day.

And if I'm not doing it, I'm thinking about it.

You know, it's always around me, all the time.

It's one of those conflicts in my life.

The feeling of landing a trick is like nothing else

and it never gets old.

It's such an adrenaline rush.

It's such a feeling of a self-accomplishment.

It's more than just doing a bike trick.

It's about making it look good, about making it beautiful.

The majority of people in your life

have ridden a bicycle before.

They know the feeling.

They know that feeling of cruising down a block

and how joyful that is, that level of independence.

Once you find that sweet spot and you find it

all on your own, you're able to just soar.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

LAURA LING: Click here to see Nigel blast through Shibuya

Crossing, dodge flying fish at Tokyo's famous fish market,

and brace to get sumo-ed in his latest episode of "Go."