CLEVELAND — Huck Kurinsky is your typical 10-year-old boy. The fourth-grader at Westerly Elementary School goes to class, is on the soccer team, and spends time playing with his friends outside. He does all of the things you'd expect from a kid his age.
When Huck hops on his Huffy bike, however, he's far from typical.
Huck started riding bikes when he was three years old. Born with a natural gift and inspired by watching other BMXers like fellow Northeast Ohioan Brent Moore on YouTube, Huck has impressed everyone who has seen him ride. Especially on the ramps inside Ray's Indoor Bike Park in Cleveland. Huck has been riding at the largest indoor bike park in the country for several years. All of the riders know him, and for good reason.
"He's an absolute mutant in a good way," said Paul Radosevich, general manager of Ray's Indoor Bike Park. "Very few people I've seen that have been riding as well and as powerful as he has at his age, it's wild."
Huck is easy to spot. He's the kid whipping around the park, hitting tailwhips, bar spins—and, of course, backflips. Huck was six years old when he hit his first backflip, and it was a moment he'll never forget.
"I was doing backflips into the foam pit really clean and good...we put a wood piece into the foam pit and I landed on it. But that day I didn't do it because I was scared. And then like two months after that a competition came and they had resi and foam pit...I finally did it to resi and it felt really cool," Huck said. "When I did the backflip, I rode down the ramp and I started to cry," Huck said.
That moment didn't just mark a new trick landed by Huck—it set a world record. Huck became the youngest person to hit a backflip in BMX.
From there, Huck has only continued to climb. He's won three consecutive USA BMX Freestyle National Championships, his latest secured at the US Cycling Olympic Training Center in South Jordan, Utah, at the end of October.
While training for his latest championship, Huck made history again.
"The day before the championships I won, my friend took me out to this facility that pros train at for Nitro Circus. When I did the backflip out there I over-rotated a lot so then I said, 'I'm doing a double backflip.' And then like 10 more tries later I landed it," he said.
Huck is now one of the youngest people to ever hit a double backflip. But he's not done yet. He has big goals.
"Triple backflip. At 12," Huck predicted.
In the meantime, Huck will continue going to school with his friends in Bay Village. He'll continue to play soccer and spend time outside with friends.
But the typical 10-year-old is anything but. His riding skills have landed him a sponsorship with Huffy Bicycles as their first Global Youth Ambassador. He works with the Ronald McDonald House, donating bikes and scooters to local families. Huck represents the Ohio American Academy of Pediatrics helmet safety program "Put A Lid on It" and has distributed over 1,000 free helmets to kids across Ohio this year. He rides the Cleveland Clinic's VeloSano Bike to Cure event to raise money for cancer research in memory of his grandma, Susan.
Huck might be the coolest kid around. And he plans to keep getting cooler.
"I want to go to the Olympics when I grow up and I want to be first place in the Olympics and X games," Huck said. "And I want to be a professional soccer player."
