(Photo: Brandon Means)

1) Chad Kerley: 15 months ago on Road Fools Chad got added to the Premium pro team (obligatory ridiculous introductory web video and all). At the time, he was overwhelmingly talented but not yet a huge name in BMX. Someone as good as Chad was not meant to toil in obscurity for long however, and 2011 was Chad’s year. Insane skatepark edits? Yeah he had those (over and over and over and over and over and over and over). He sonned Jeremiah Smith not once, but twice. He won the Vital game of B-I-K-E. His team won Nike’s The Pool contest. He picked up numerous desirable sponsors in the form of Arnette, Dans Comp and Vitamin Water (and oh yeah, Nike). And as if that wasn’t enough he put out 2 of the craziest sections of the year in the form of his Nike welcome edit and his winning Hunt section. He even rocked a crowd of thousands with Catfish in Estonia, although let’s hope he doesn’t go the TK route just yet (we’re still waiting on that split edit with Theotis). Going into 2012 the question isn’t what Chad will accomplish, but what he won’t.