BMX Rider
Chad Kerley
Chad Kerley is an American BMX street rider from San Diego known for fast, technical riding, two X Games Street golds and his part in the Markit video Zero.
Updated 4 min read793 words
Chad Kerley is an American street rider from San Diego, California. He is known for fast, technical street riding that combines grinds, rotations and bar tricks at speed, and for winning X Games Street gold in 2013 and 2018, both times ahead of Garrett Reynolds. His video parts, including his section in the Markit crew's video Zero, have been widely influential.
Early life and background
Kerley was born in 1994 and grew up in San Diego. He started riding young and was filmed early, with web edits of his riding circulating while he was still a child. By his early teens he was already recognised as one of the most promising street riders in the United States, with a level of technical ability that was unusual for his age.
His first major support came from Premium Products, a parts and frame brand connected to Haro. He was long associated with Premium through his teenage years and had signature parts there before moving across to Haro itself, where he went on to have signature frames. He has also been associated with other sponsors over the years, and his sponsor list has changed as his career has progressed.
Career
Kerley turned professional as a teenager and quickly became a regular in major street contests. He competed at the Dew Tour and the X Games, where the street field was dominated by Garrett Reynolds. At X Games Los Angeles in 2013, Kerley won the BMX Street gold medal, one of only a handful of times anyone other than Reynolds has held the title. He won gold again at X Games Minneapolis in 2018.
That win confirmed what video watchers already knew: Kerley belonged at the very top of street riding. He continued to compete in the following years, finishing on podiums and in finals against riders such as Reynolds and Dennis Enarson.
Outside contests, Kerley's career has been defined by video. He is part of Markit, a crew of Southern California street riders, and had a major part in the crew's 2013 full-length video Zero. His sections are known for their difficulty and for the sheer number of tricks packed into each one.
He has continued to film and release parts into his late twenties and beyond, with each new section showing new combinations and a continued willingness to ride at full speed.
Riding style
Kerley's defining trait is speed. Where many technical riders slow down to set up grinds, he approaches rails and ledges fast and keeps that speed through the trick and out the other side. This lets him link tricks into long lines and makes even standard grinds look different.
His trick selection is heavily technical. He rides rails in both directions, mixes feeble grinds, smith grinds and icepick grinds with barspins and 180s in and out, and uses crankflips and truck drivers over gaps and down stairs. He has a strong switch and oppo repertoire, so his lines are hard to predict.
He rides brakeless, in keeping with almost all modern street riders. His posture on the bike is low and compact, and his tricks are done with a minimum of extra movement. Riders often describe him as looking relaxed even when doing the hardest trick in a contest.
Video parts and notable moments
Kerley's output includes both contest highlights and long-form video parts:
- Early web edits as a young teenager that spread quickly through the BMX internet and made his name before he turned professional.
- BMX Street gold medals at X Games Los Angeles 2013 and X Games Minneapolis 2018.
- Repeated finals appearances at the X Games and the Dew Tour through the 2010s.
- A major part in Markit's 2013 video Zero, a technically demanding street section.
- Signature frames and parts with Premium and later Haro.
Legacy and influence
Kerley arrived as part of a generation that grew up watching web edits rather than DVDs, and he helped define what that generation's riding looked like: fast, technical and dense with tricks. His parts set a standard for how many hard tricks a rider could fit into one section without padding it with filler.
His X Games wins in 2013 and 2018 also mattered for the contest side of the sport. It showed that the street title was not out of reach for riders other than Reynolds, and it reinforced that contest street was being decided on genuine technical rail riding rather than on ramp tricks.
For younger riders, Kerley is one of the clearest models of a modern street professional: a career built on video parts and respect from peers, with contest success as a supporting part rather than the whole story.
Related
Frequently asked questions about Chad Kerley
Has Chad Kerley won the X Games?
Yes. He won X Games BMX Street gold twice, in Los Angeles in 2013 and in Minneapolis in 2018, beating Garrett Reynolds into second both times.
What brands has Chad Kerley ridden for?
He was long associated with Premium Products as a young rider and later moved to Haro, where he had signature frames. He is also part of the Markit crew and rode in its 2013 video Zero.
What is Chad Kerley's riding style?
Fast and technical. He combines rail and ledge tricks with spins and bar tricks at high speed, and his lines are known for linking several hard tricks in a row.
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