Video stills from "Animals"- my 2001 BMX video nobody saw

Emmett Crooms, nothing at Sheep Hills, 1999, I think.

In 2000, after 5 years of riding on my own nearly every day, but being away from the BMX business, I bought a Hi-8 editiing system, and made a super low budget, fast paced, bike video.  I had been going to contests, and shooting random "lurktographer" footage, as well as going down to Sheep Hills once in a while.  The idea was to make a practice video out of  footage I had shot over the past few years, plus a bit from 1991.  Then get a bunch of the hot young riders of the day to want to go out and shoot some new footage for a much better video, to get back into the game.  

Chris Duncan, one handed tailwhip at a Core Tour event in Huntington Beach, 2000, I think.

That idea didn't work.  Just before Christmas, 2000, my driver's license got suspended, which turned out to be a clerical error at the DMV.  But since I was a taxi driver who had just gone Christmas shopping, that left me broke and unable to earn money.  No driver's license, notaxi driving, no income.  Plans screeched to a halt, and I wound up working a sketchy telemarketing job for a while.  I edited this video, Animals,  in 2001, and it sold about 10 VHS copies.  Most of those I sold to to A-1 Bike Shop in Westminster, the old POW House local shop.  I handed a few copies out.  The follow-up video never got made, and I wound up homeless for a while, and finally got my license, permit, and got back into taxi driving on Labor Day weekend 2003.  The taxi industry was going down the tubes, and so was my life.  So my return to making BMX videos failed.  

Alex Leech, wallride off the stage at Huntington Beach High, 1991.  

In 2008, fate forced me out of Southern California, and to North Carolina, where my family wound up living after I moved out.  I grew up in Ohio and Idaho, so I had no connection to NC, except my parents and sister's family.  What little I owned then was in a tiny, 5 foot by 5 foot storage unit.  I lost everything, including all my BMX master tapes, 18 years worth of raw footage, my bike (Dyno race bike), my whole BMX magazine collection going back to 1982, (including complete collection of FREESTYLIN' magazines), and all my videos and DVD's.  I went into a deep depression as soon as I landed in NC, which was November 2008, as the economy was collapsing.  Bad time to find a job anywhere.  

The Animals video was totally lost, until Alex Leech posted a couple of stills from it a year or so ago.  Somehow, one of the few copies wound up on BMX Movie Database, where you can watch today- link above (if you're really bored).  

Dave Mirra, one handed toothpick over the spine at speed.  X-Games qualifying comp in Anaheim, 2000.  

While things didn't go as planned 22 years ago, they never really do.  I was really stoked that this, my "lost" video, resurfaced.  A bunch of my lost footage was in this video, though there was about 35 more hours, shot from 1990 to 2008, that was never seen by anyone.  Through the rough years of the 2000's, I planned to someday make a BMX documentary from that footage.  

Two or three weeks after landing in North Carolina, after losing everything from my BMX days (except my Haro brake lever keychain), I started blogging about BMX.  All I had left was memories, so I started writing them down online, not sure if anyone would ever read them.  That's how my BMX memoir blogging career began.  At the time, there wasn't really any media in the Old School BMX community, just a lot of chatting on that new thing called social media.  Luckily for all of us who rode in the 1980's and 1990's, sonce then the OSBMXR, books, and podcasts sprang up, allowing a lot more people to tell their stories from those days, which I think is awesome.  

Bill Nitschke, one of the first Whoppers (bunnyhop tailwhip) to be captured on video.  The Spot in Redondo Beach, 1991.  

I captured all these stills, and a bunch more, several months ago, to do something with them on Pinterest, I think.  They've been sitting on my hard drive.  While they don't have the photo quality, or the age, of Bill Batchelor's great photos in his new book (Concrete and Smog), they are a few snippets of the BMX that happened in front of my video lense over the years.    

Big Island Mike, drawing on Mat Hoffman's arm with a Sharpie, with Steve Swope checking it out.  A hint at things to come, perhaps.  The X-Games in San Francisco, 1999.  Mat's bike and uniform got lost by the airlines, so he borrowed Rick Thorne's bike and gear.  With no sleeves, Mat decided he need some ink to do Rick's jersey justice. So Mike grabbed a Sharpie and gave him some right before riding.   

Dave Clymer, AA pro racer, dirt jumping pioneer, P.O.W. House O.G., and street rider with white boy dreads.  Huntington High in 1991.  

 

My thoughts on financial markets:

White Bear Investment Ideas

Dakota Roche- Native Land BMX street riding edit

This is my favorite of the Dakota Roche edits out there.  If you're into BMX street riding, you know Dakota has been killing it for a really long time.  Watch this video.  Then go ride.  

Way back in about 2002 (or so), I caught a ride with Barspinner Ryan, Freddy Chulo, Athene, and little Armando to a BMX event called the Nasty Jam.  Cory "Nasty" Nastazio had a BMX dirt jumping jam in conjunction with a mototcycle race, way the fuck up in Gorman.  If you aren't from Southern California, Gorman is a little town with big hills up near Magic Mountain amusement park.  If you are from Southern California, you probably still haven't heard of Gorman, it's up on the Grapevine, north of L.A. and the San Fernando Valley.  As California goes, it's the middle of freakin' nowhere.  The only other time I had been up there is to go target shooting with a friend in the early 90's, other than driving through on my way to NorCal.

It was a fun day watching some top dirt jumpers huck it over a single big jump, watching some motorcycle races, and a cool band that played at the end.  Then we all headed back in town to a really good burger place afterwards.  The woman who helped Cory put on the jam (sorry, forget her name) had a son.  He was 14 or 15, and was talking to the pro riders at the dinner as we all ate.  In the room were Cory Nastazio, Stephen Murray, Barpsinner Ryan Brennan, Freddy Chulo, Reuel Erickson, and several other top BMX jumpers.  The kid told all the riders he was going to be a big time pro, like them, someday.  All the riders were cool, and told him to go for it.  As you figured out by now, that kid was Dakota Roche.  

Obviously he kept riding, and got pretty buff along the way.  I saw him 3 or 4 times after the Nasty Jam, riding in Orange County, still a young up and comer, but definitely getting better every time I saw him.  He's been riding hard, pushing the limits, and innovating every since.  As an old Has Been BMX industry guy, and Never Was  rider, his video parts are some of my favorites to check out these days.  All his edit are worth checking out, but the combination of tricks, obstacles, editing, and music make this one my personal favorite.  So give it a watch, and then go ride.  

Van's Waffle Cup Best Trick Highlights 2022

This is an insane jam.  Highlights from the Van's Waffle Cup Best Trick Jam, a couple of days ago in Huntington Beach, CA, held in conjunction with the U.S. Open of Surfing contest, right on the beach.  This jam is a cool combo of street and park riding.  Man, I should have gone down to H.B. to watch.  My loss.  

I'll go with the rail nosewheelie as my pic for best trick.  It's all nuts.  I'm an Old School BMX freestylers who was doing nollies and half-Cabs and similar tricks when those were just dumb, not even considered tricks,  So all the on off stuff on the "lifeguard tower" roof here is my favorite stuff.  But it's all nuts.  Just watch.  

Steven Hamilton's section in the Animal Bikes video "Can I eat?"

This is one of my all time favorite BMX street sections.  There had been years of street videos which seemed to be 47 rail grinds per section in each video.  Sliding rails is nuts, but Steven Hamilton's section was this whole different take on street riding when this came out, about 2003 or 2004, I believe.  

When I made my first self-produced BMX video in 1990, I spent a lot of time thinking about what the point of a BMX video was.  At that time, videos were mostly to promote bike companies.  We hadn't morphed into the time when good video parts are what put riders on the map, or made their career.  When I got down to the point of it, I came to the conclusion that the point of a BMX video is to make you want to go out and ride.  This was one of those video parts for me.  

I just went to BMX movie database to see what year this video came out, and I got a "This site can't be reached" page.  Anybody know why?