Brian Foster Documentary

I'm way out of the loop of the BMX scene these days.  But I saw a Facebook post about a Brian Foster documentary called BF-it the other day.  I was a roommate to both Alan and Brian Foster at the P.O.W. BMX House in the early 90's, so I was anxious to check it out.  I followed the link to watch it.  Unfortunately, I have Fred Flintstone's old laptop, and my computer froze up sixteen minutes and 47 seconds into the video.  Crap.  Tonight I managed to watch the whole thing, and I dig it. 

Oddly, the first memory of Brian that popped into my head wasn't riding.  One night we were sitting around the P.O.W. House living room.  The guys who had some money all had $5 pizzas from What-a-Lotta-Pizza.  Those of us who didn't have much money that night were eating ramen or microwave burritos.  Brian finished his pizza, but left the crusts.  He held his box up and said, "Pizza bones!" offering the leftovers to us human roaches.  I grabbed the box and scarfed down the crusts.  It was a treat in those ramen days. 

Then the other memories popped into my head.  Riding the backyard ramps with Brian.  Watching him tear it up at Sheep Hills and other local trails.  The craziest memory I have of Brian from those days was shooting video of several riders jumping the insane gap jump at Dover.  Years later, doing a magazine interview, I asked Brian what the craziest thing he ever jumped was, and he said it was that jump at Dover.  I don't know what nutcase had the idea to build that jump, but it would still be big by today's standards.  The riders would sprint across the field, and drop in a near vertical roll-in at first straight speed.  It went down about fifteen feet, then curved up in to a seven foot high kicker.  I actually stepped off and measured the gap, and it was 25 feet, though it looked much bigger.  The insane part was that it was a flat landing... eight feet higher than the takeoff.  Mid jump, riders were about 30 feet above a brush filled ravine.  As luck would have it, one of my shots of Brian jumping there is in this documentary. 

I didn't see Brian much after about '95, so a lot of what's included in the video is new to me.  For whatever reason, Brian had that timeless style when I first met him in the early 90's, and he has built upon that style in the many years since.  He's one of the great BMX riders of all time.  If you haven't seen BF-it, follow this link and check it out.