Kyle Warner and April Zastrow
Kyle and April share how-to videos on YouTube where Kyle uses his professional knowledge to thoughtfully coach April as a newer MTB rider. Kyle’s ability to transfer his extensive skills in an easily digestible manner along with April’s progression that is both inspiring and attainable by the vast majority of viewers makes an enjoyable dynamic. “Our main goal with our channel is to create a healthy outlet for people while making riding bikes safer and more fun for everyone!”
Over the past year they have have been building their Ride MTB headquarters to expand their channel past their how-to videos and provide more lifestyle, podcast and maintenance videos. Their commitment to growing and connecting with the MTB community is the driving forces to keep us entertained with their fun content.
Personal website: www.ridemtb.com
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/KyleAprilRideMtb
What is your greatest cycling accomplishment?
My biggest accomplishment so far has been winning the North American Enduro Championship in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Each one of those years was so challenging in its own ways and they were a huge learning experience. It feels so good to set a goal at the beginning of the year and accomplish it.
What is your proudest non-cycling accomplishment?
The biggest accomplishment off the bike was reaching out to the local recreation district in my home town of Chico, California and convincing them that we needed a free public pump track park where kids and adults could go ride without any worry of being hassled. I helped them design, fundraise, and construct the tracks and it has turned into one of the cities most well used parks even 5 years later. It was the first fully legal, free place you could ride a bmx bike or dirt jumper in the area.
When did you first start cycling?
I started riding bikes after I had a bad experience with a football coach in my sophmore year of high school. I was going through a lot at home and then getting yelled at every day by an angry, out of shape dude everyday didn't really work for me, ha ha! I bailed on football, and started riding dirtjumps and street bmx at a very low level when I was 15. I found mountain bikes at age 16 and never really looked back.
If you could ride anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
If i could ride anywhere in the world I would choose, maybe Moab, Utah or Sedona, Arizona. The unique red rocks that they have in both places offer so many different line choices and opportunities to be creative. It reminds me of my old bmx street riding days, ha ha!
Baggies or Spandex?
I have always been a baggies guy, ha ha! No judgement though, my hairy legs and tall socks look funny in spandex!
Who is your celebrity role model (or crush?)
I would say my celebrity role model would be Richard Branson. I love the fact that he comes from nothing, failed out of school because he was dyslexic, and went on to be one of the most influential and successful people in the world, all while just being a big kid. Plus I like the fact he uses his money for good, with so many donations overseeing various disaster relief efforts and is also trying to launch commercial space flights. He just seems like a very cool passionate guy.
What would you like people to know about you that they can't see from your social profiles?
I guess I wish they could see all of the back end work that goes into "being a pro". Just because I wish up and coming kids had a better blueprint to follow. I think people now just assume that you need to be a good rider and post videos to get sponsored and while that is true in some cases, to actually make a living doing this requires a lot of work in various fields. I have 18 brands that I am working with this season and each one of those relationships takes a completely different approach and thought process for me to bring value to the table. I spend a ton of time providing current product feedback, helping develop prototype parts, working on marketing and sales campaigns, coordinating travel logistics for myself throughout the year, registering for events, traveling, writing event recap emails, consolidating media assets for my sponsors to use, negotiating contracts, doing social media, and trying to connect the dots with OEM accounts whenever possible. Just like any job there is a lot that goes into it that is unseen and I wish kids could see more of that, so they know how to present themselves. Maybe I just need to do a better job of talking about that stuff and showing people what they could do to help their chances of making this a career..
