Winkelman posts biking videos on YouTube account

By India Pearman

Staff Writer

Costa sophomore Charlie Winkelman flips and kicks his way into the world of BMX while creating YouTube videos.

Since the summer of 2014, Winkelman has been teaching himself about BMXing, or bicycle motorcrossing. He has his own YouTube channel, CF3BMX, that focuses on tutorials, tricks and anything related to bikes. Winkleman currently has 17, 209 subscribers and has filmed, edited and created 196 videos. One of his most viewed videos is titled, “Mini BMX Bike,” which has received 554,073 views.

“I like to make ‘How To’ videos because biking is not something that can be self taught,” Winkelman said. “So if I can help someone learn some thing new, it motivates me to keep doing what I am doing.”

Photos: Winkelman posts biking videos on YouTube account

Winkelman sees BMX as a hobby as well as a part-time job because he gets paid from the ads featured in his videos. His favorite part is the communal aspect of meeting people at skate parks, competitions and gyms, he said.

“It’s not like a regular sport,” Winkelman said. “If you were to do volleyball here at Costa, you would meet a bunch of people at school, but for me it’s more spread out, and you get to meet a lot of people from different places all over. Because I have a big following, people ask me to ride certain skate parks with them and hang out.”

Winkelman spends approximately two to three hours filming and one hour editing to make each video, tailoring to what his subscribers seem to like and want to see most based on analytic data provided by YouTube. On his channel, the videos are concept-based and focus on one topic at a time to get the most views, Winkelman said. He also uploads vlogs, which are blogs in the form of videos. His vlogs are a compilation of different ideas about biking and his daily life. During the school week, he posts every three to four days but tends to post more often when he has free time, including time over various school breaks throughout the year.

“I spend a lot of time looking at the analytics on my channel and seeing what I could do better,” Winkelman said. “I make videos of stuff that I think people will want to watch, so there is definitely a payoff when I do get a lot of views or a lot of subscribers.”

Winkelman uses a Canon Vixia, a GoPro and his phone to film his videos. He says that he uses his iPhone most often due to its convenience and simplicity. Winkleman gets his video ideas from his personal life and from the things that he and his friends are interested in at the time, he said. Winkelman additionally creates “How To” videos of tricks that he has taught himself and learned throughout his years of skating.

“I know that he puts a lot of time into editing and that the work is always put in,” Winkelman’s friend, freshman Brett Swartzlander, said. “His videos are fun to make, and they are always really comedic and very entertaining.”

Visit Winkelman’s YouTube channel here.

In the future, Winkelman hopes to continue to post videos until he is in college, depending on how successful his channel becomes in the future. His goal is to eventually hit 100,000 subscribers, and he will continue to be an active YouTuber for as long as people continue to be interested in his videos. Winkelman also plans to transition into mountain biking as an activity for the future because his BMX bike will eventually become too small a thrill for him and will not offer him the large-scale excitement that he seeks when he participates in activities such as BMXing and biking, he said. Winkelman has tie-dyed shirts with his channel’s logo on them available for sale online on bigcartel.com, an online clothing shop, for $20.

“Originally, I would just post dumb videos that I made with my friends,” Winkelman said. “Now, it’s a good hobby, so this is my sport and my passion.”