From flat track to downhill racing, Bell’s long lineage of winners and wildcards spans across a mass array of two-wheeled verticals. While we celebrate the champions of today, our long-time mission is to lift up the rippers of tomorrow. Continuing down this trajectory, we’re stoked to welcome 11-year-old BMX rider and YouTube celebrity, Caiden Cernius to the Bell fam. With an impressive fanbase of over 1 million YouTube subscribers, this young grom has redefined what is possible in the world of BMX. We sat down with the Cernius family to learn more about his journey on two-wheels, the gnarliest stunt he’s ever pulled off, and the moment that peaked his interest in recording it all for the world to see.
Tell us a little bit about yourself, and how you got into riding.
I started racing motocross on a PW 50cc at a young age, and realized that in between races there’s a ton of sitting around. To help fill time, my friends and I would grab our bikes and from that I started spending more and more time on my BMX. Then, my mom and dad started taking me to skateparks and it quickly became my main passion! I do still race motocross to this day and love it, but only a select few races per year. I’m currently on a KTM 65cc, and my goal with it is just to have fun and make the podium at local events!
Do you remember the first trick you ever landed? What was it?
I was doing a lot of drops and ledges, and think I got my first bunny hop around 3 years old. The first real, difficult trick was a 360 over a box at 5 years old! It took me probably 5-600 tries, but the day I finally got it I did about 56 in a row and finally stuck it! Every day since then I’ve had them locked in :)
What has been the gnarliest trick/stunt you’ve ever done?
I did my first double backflip at age 9, and now a triple backflip is in my trick list but there’s a lot more that goes into pulling a triple. It doesn’t sound like it would be that much harder, but it really is! I’ll get it though! I think there’s only a handful of people in the world doing them now and my goal is to be one doing it consistently very soon.
What was the moment that made you decide to compete seriously in BMX?
It was when I first realized there’s so much more opportunity in it. For about the same price of driving down to a motocross race in SoCal, we throw my bike in a gear bag and fly to England as a family and check out the whole country, meet new people, and soak up the experience! It takes us to parts of states and countries we would never see otherwise, and I love it. Motocross might be one of the coolest sports out there, but like Formula 1, my chances of being the next Ryan Villopoto or Mick Schumacher is a gamble, where in BMX I truly believe with hard work I can be one of the greats! I’m happy to help spread the message to the world that there’s a good chance there’s a top notch skatepark in your town and you can get into the sport relatively quickly! I want to see families start spending time there just like at the motocross track, this sport has so much potential and is financially accessible to anyone! I live in a town of 18,000, and Tony Hawks foundation put in an incredible city park 5 miles down the street (battleground skatepark in Washington).
Were there any challenges you experienced when you first got serious about competing? Tell us a little bit about it.
I think coming from moto I had a little advantage because there’s not much that’s more hardcore, so crashing at 15 miles an hour for instance was no biggie to me. I don’t want to say it was easy, you have to be very precise but you put in the time mainly just riding with friends for fun and all the bike control will come with time and practice. Not to mention some of the most fun days I’ve had have just been playing around on a curb or a 2-4 set of stairs. You can have fun a million different ways, you just need to get out there and start!
You’ve got an incredible YouTube channel featuring everything from stunts to challenges. What made you first decide to create your page?
My mom first got a camera to keep a digital journal of our road trips and cool moments. Our first video wasn’t one we thought was going to blow up, it was opening a new fat tire mini bike and it stayed there for months, then somehow caught the algorithm. 12k views in a few hours turned into 24k views, and now that same video has 14 million views! Once we recognized that the three of us jumped on the opportunity and instantly started putting out fun, creative videos. Now it’s turned into a bigger budget machine but is still tons of fun and has opened some serious doors for me. The best part is it’s a perfect excuse to do completely silly things I wouldn’t normally do, like put helium balloons on my bike and ride.
Do you have any mentors you look up to? Who were they and what major lessons have you walked away with?
I love hanging with the all the current pros, over the years I’ve spent time watching them and then just try to go out and do things my own way. It drives my dad nuts, but I usually just figure it out on my own with a little trial and error. It’s so cool to call people like Daniel Sandoval, Ryan Williams, Travis Pastrana and the Nitro Circus crew, and the Deegans my friends. I love that my parents get to meet some of their heroes too! I’ve learned that there’s no one right or wrong way to do a particular trick, everyone has their own style and it’s so much fun for me to watch all the tricks that people learned before me, put my own flare on them, and also try to progress the sport with new tricks of my own!
What’s something you hope to achieve in the future with your career in the sport?
Right now I want to keep pushing myself to learn new, harder tricks, all while dominating competitively in Freestyle BMX, Racing, and Motocross. I would love to compete in the Olympics one day and hope to have more opportunities outside of sports as well. It would be really fun to host a TV Show and continue to showcase my skills across the board on 4 or 2 Wheels! I spend a lot of time in my shifter kart and am building a RZR 1000, we put in pedal extensions and are now fabricating the seat mounts closer and higher to the steering wheel.
And finally, what is some advice you’d give a kid hoping to follow in your bike tracks?
Just get out and ride, it’s that simple! Find a curb and start going, there’s so many bike control tricks you can learn on that alone. Double tire ride it, pretend there’s a cliff on both sides so you have to stay on, nose bonk it, manual off it! Set a goal, whether that’s a 180 off in 6 days or 6 months! Save up for a decent bike that fits you the right way and a good helmet (seriously, you will likely hit your head, but Bell has you covered there). Just try to get out there for an hour a day, it won’t seem like your progressing daily but if you can keep it up I guarantee there’s opportunity and room for everyone in this sport, you just have to want it! That’s the only way, push yourself to try something new and you never know, you might end up loving it! Good luck and thank you to everyone who reads this or takes any advice, I appreciate and love helping the kids that you can tell really want it!
