I love the progression of Freestyle. It absolutely amazes me where these guys have taken the sport. Why is that a helmet is such a bad thing? Is the "brain bucket" style helmets so distracting or is it back to the "hardcore" attitude that grew in the late 80s as the sport got more and more commerical? I get it. Freestyle is HARDCORE bike riding. Wearing a helmet in this type of riding will do one simple thing for you, allow you to keep riding your bike HARDCORE.
Regret sucks. Wear a helmet to avoid this...or worse, being incapatitated or dead. Brian is lucky to get a second chance here. He also is speaking clearly, which is not common when your skull is fractured. Come on guys. Wear a helmet.
Of the millions of airs done on BMX bikes since the late 70s, is there "one" that you can really call perfect? What would the criteria be?
Height
Style
Difficulty
Flow
Smoothness
Landing
This is a clip of Joe Johnson in the late 80s while riding for GT. What is your criteria and what would be the perfect air?
Watch a few things in this clip:
Joe's body goes up almost on a vertical plane, without a bunch of gyrations or movement. This contributes to how smooth it looks overall, the overall flow and a smooth landing. You could also say this contributes to the style as well.
The height is outrageous even by today's standards. The ramp is estimated at 10' tall. The air is about 10 feet in my estimation. What may not be very well known is that typically a higher air is easier than a lower one. The higher arc of a bigger air slows everything down and allows the rider to position better for a smooth landing or whatever variations they are doing in the arc.
The difficulty of the air may not be obvious. At first glance, it is a one foot invert. Look close and it is a really special and stylish air by one of the sport's masters. It is the style that makes this so rad. Lots of riders can and did one foot inverts. I would argue that Joe's style, and degree to which he clicks this, makes it more difficult than many combo airs. One other thing to notice. Joe switches from his normal left foot forward to landing "goofy footed" or his right foot forward (for a rider who airs to the right). This adds a level of difficulty to a smooth finish. It doesn't seem to affect Joe here, but at that height, it would be a bit weird if you were not used to all the change that high.
In any sport, a tie-breaker can be one of the most dramatic and exciting parts of the competition. The competitors have to raise up their skill levels incredibly higher, the pressure of being perfect skyrockets and, most of all, the spotlight is on. The video below is from the 1987 AFA Masters event in Columbus, Ohio between Mark Eaton and Gary Pollack. Both riders were from Pennsylvania and some of the most innovative at the time. The styles were vastly different, but equally fun to watch. I was there to see in person and recently received a VHS tape of it from Kurt Schmidt. The atmosphere was one of the most intense of the day. The format is a winner-take-all 1 minute run off. This was for third place in a division with some of the top riders globally, including Karl Rothe and Joe Grutolla. Total entry count was 100 riders in this division alone (including yours-truly...I finished somewhere in the middle if memory serves correctly). Take a look.
About a year ago I recorded some really old school ramp tricks. These are the backbone of the sport and are still a ton of fun today. I love the high flying acrobatics of today's riding, but a good clean run with some technical tricks mixed in is still a pleasure to watch...or do.
I did not invent these tricks, but love them. Riders like Dennis Langlais, Jeff Larson, Mike Dominguez and Brian Blyther deserve the credit. Thank you!
When I opened my YouTube account a few years back I had a video that seemed kind of funny and maybe even a little unique. I was bored and was eager to get back on my bikes, but the New England Winter was still lingering on. I had heard it could be done, but didn't know anyone that had tried. I learned how to ride and do a few old freestyle tricks. This is the last of the three videos. Enjoy it, comment that I need to get a life and tell me whatever. I have heard the whole range of comments, but more than 50,000 people have watched it.
As a lifelong bike rider and BMX Freestyle nut in younger days, I find one of the bigger things I miss about it is that feeling of when it was all new. The feeling of experimenting on a bike and ramps. When your an expert or pro, you have allot figured out and it is easy...relatively speaking. Its a blast, but you don't have that complete mystery to figure out anymore. That was so fun to ride on the backyard ramps cobbled together with wood, nails and paint "collected" from your limited money, neighborhood construction "contributions" and mystery "deliveries". Unlocking that trick took hours sometimes and plenty of crash and burn. We loved it.
Years later when I have not ridden a half-pipe in about 20 years, I wanted to find that feeling again. We have ridden some skateparks with all smaller ramps. This was a good teaser, but the feeling popped up again in Rye, NH. They have a monster of a Halfpipe, larger than anything I have ridden before...way bigger.
It's 14' tall, 60' wide and has 2' of vert. This ramp is smooooooooooth and has no imperfections...unlike most ramps of the "old days". This ramp was smooth and perfect, kind of like the way we tend to remember things in our past. We forget the bumpy stuff and put a sugar coating on it for some reason.
As I rolled around it for the first few times, that feeling hit me! I was lost in the ramp, getting a little dizzy and just flowing through it. I never even got above the coping, but it was such a blast! Riding it more and more I was able to carve around more easily and not have that completely nervous feeling. My balance was pretty good, but each time I neared the top it was that feeling of "should I let myself get out on it or not". Next time for sure with my buddies. That turns into a "one-up-me" fest as usual.
A cool thing happened in front of me as I was resting a bit. A young kid walks up onto the deck of the ramp on a razor scooter and tells his buddies that he is going to roll down the roll in. This is another 5-6 feet higher than the ramp and sends you FLYING FAST down towards the opposite wall of the halfpipe. As he stood there it occurred to me that he has that feeling I was thinking of earlier, the experiment. He did it several times and eventually pulled it off. I caught his second attempt. Pretty gutsy! The funny thing is that he walked up to me on my way out and said "hey, your a great bike rider". Flattering, but I responded with "that was one of the gutsiest things I have ever seen on a ramp. Great job.".
So, yes there is a bit of a fountain of youth out there if you look in the right places. Be careful though, the fountain of youth is temporary thing. It can turn around and bite you back if you take it too far. Its awesome for sure. Just keep your good wits about yourself in the process.
There are number of great places to ride indoors locally in MA. Just search on skateparks and add a town nearby. Here are few that we found:
The foundation of today's BMX freestyle was set in the 1980s following the pioneer Bob Haro. What is being done today is simply amazing and the riders are incredibly talented, courageous and pioneers in their own right. Bob Haro, MIke Dominguez, RL Osborne, Eddie Fiola, Woody Itson, Dennis Langlais, Chris Lashua, Jeff Larson, Brian Blyther, Ron Wilkerson, Mat Hoffman, Martin Aparjo, Rick Moliterno, Joe Johnson and thousands of others created that foundation for the triple flair whips and 900's.
This set of videos will highlight some of the original tricks these pioneers invented and perfected for a generation of riders and generations to follow as a foundation for what would follow in the progression of tricks we see today on ESPN and other global media. Thanks to all the pioneers, all those that rode along and everyone that enjoyed watching these tricks and riders. What a ride we all take.
Thank you to Paulette Reed for shooting the video at Subliminal Skatepark in Shrewsbury, MA, USA.
Skateparks are an oasis in winter months. As the snow hits the ground the parks heat up. Riding year round has never been more fun with the abundance of parks nowadays.
Get out and find one. Subliminal in shrewsbury is a fun park in central massachusetts. Check it out. Check out some bike footage from 2010. Plenty of skate videos on YouTube as well.
Everyday something inspires me. More recently, its seeing people who can't do something that they love due to something out of their control: illness, family situation or life's many challenges. Specifically, cycling. I see so many people that have been stricken with an illness that keeps them from being active or simply enjoying riding a bike. I see people that have family situations that keep them away. I see people that just have lost that spirit to put away the bag of chips and the TV remote and dust off their bike or running/walking shoes. They all have legitimate reasons, none of which I would ever criticize.
What inspires me is that I CAN go out there and do it. I consider myself fortunate to be able to do that. Generally I ride a bike (or several of them actually) for me, not for anyone else, just me. The more I see of people that can't and those that need something to keep them going, the more I admire people that ride a bike to help. Take the folks that this past weekend rode in the PanMass Challenge, a bike ride that covers 190 miles over two days. It raised 31 million dollars for cancer related research. That inspires me. The Lance Armstrong Foundation inspires me with the tireless work done by so many to raise awareness and funds. People that post the cool stuff they are doing on Facebook and never raise a dime is inspiring to me because they are doing IT. They CAN do it.
So what am I doing about it? Not sure exactly yet, but I am riding my bike tirelessly to be ready for how I will get involved. I am already worn out from seven months of riding this year, but have loved every hill, berm, jump, ramp, road and obstacle...I guess I even enjoy the cars that want to mess with me in traffic. I enjoy outsmarting them or invoking my "pedestrian" status at times to take over the road.
What are you doing? I hope you find a way to do what you can and love. I smile when I see the stare on somebody's face as I fly by them, do something cool on a BMX bike or teach someone how to fly up or down a mountain bike trail. But even more special, is the feeling of knowing that in some way what I am gearing up for soon will help some people recover from whatever ails them, whether it is illness, chaos or flat out laziness. I am one person. I am not out to save the world, just have some fun and use some abilities in me to share it and make some waves.
I love this trick as much as almost anything on a bike. The one
exception could be just a simple HaaaUUUUge carve on a halfpipe back and
forth. That is a feeling you can't appreciate unless you've done it.
This trick is just so fluid and contorted that I love it because I don't
think I could do this with my body without a bicycle. Love it!
Brian Blyther made it famous. This guy is the king of both of these tricks.
