An eight-year-old BMX athlete from Abbotsford, B.C., has become an online sensation and won an award from the camera company GoPro for a video he made of himself riding a bike.
In the 90 second video, the GoPro camera faces Rex Johnson’s face as he provides a running commentary of a ride with his friend Jack, capturing his open-mouthed and wide-eyed facial expressions as he barrels down the track and tackles jumps.
“We’re about to do a cool run,” he says in the award-winning video. “Doesn’t it feel a little weird when you first start riding a bike?”
Johnson, who has been riding BMX bikes for two years, told CTV Vancouver that he has wanted to win a GoPro award ever since he first saw their videos. He’s submitted several of his own for consideration in the past.
“They get edited really well,” he said. “The people that are doing them are really good at the sport they do.”
Johnson says that he rides with his dad, Jules Johnson, every day and travels to races on weekends.
“I had the idea to put the camera facing him so that you could see his face and get his reactions while he was doing the jumps,” Jules told CTV Vancouver. “Because of the GoPro video, he’s pretty excited because he got up to 80 subscribers now. So we’ll keep making videos.”
Rex’s prize pack from GoPro includes the company’s latest camera, the GoPro Hero 6.
The company will also be sending a film crew to capture him in action for a promotional video later this year.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Ben Miljure
