My First BMX Freestyle Show

This clip is sketchy, old, Super 8 footage of a BMX Action Trick Team show in 1984.  These days it's hard to explain how new and amazing freestyle seemed in those days.  Although I later worked and rode with R.L. Osborn,  I never actually saw a BMX Action Trick Team show with R.L. and Mike Buff. 

In the spring of 1984 I was a dork in my senior year at Boise High School in Boise, Idaho.  My passion was BMX, and at that time I was a mediocre racer, track designer, jumper, and interested in trick riding.  On a trip to Bob's Bikes (and Lawnmower Repair) I saw a flyer that changed the course of my life.  Bob showed me a flyer for a trick show that was happening in the nearby town of Meridian.  I wrote the date on my calendar and counted down the days.  I couldn't believe it, there was actually a trick team in Idaho! 

On the appointed Saturday, I drove to the bike shop parking lot in Meridian and watched as a couple of freestylers, along with their parents set up a quaterpipe and wedge ramp.  The ramp looked HUGE.  It stood six feet tall and eight feet wide.  What was funny was that the ramp broke into two, four foot wide sections, and they stacked the two sections on the back of a pick-up truck to transport the ramp to the show.  On the way, they hit a bump and the top section of the ramp bounced off of the truck and into the road.  It got scraped up, but wasn't seriously damaged.  They laughed about the accident, and set up the ramps. 

The riders that day were Justin "Jay" Bickel, who was about 14 then, and Wayne Moore, who was 17.  The first show started and I was blown away.  They did a bunch of flatland tricks that I had only seen in the magazines, and then kick turns on the wedge ramp, and finally airs on the quarterpipe.  I was so stoked.  They were getting two or three feet out of the ramp, doing variations, and that blew my mind. 

After the first show ended, I started talking to Jay's mom, and showed her a trick I had just learned, which happened to be a trick Jay did in the show.  She was psyched, and walked me over and introduced me to Jay and Wayne.  We talked about BMX and trick riding for quite a while, until it was time for the next show.  I watched that show, and then got Jay's number.  His mom, Cindy, said I should come over and ride with Jay and Wayne sometime.  From then on I started losing interest in racing, and I became a BMX freestyler.  I made the trip over to Jay's house to ride the ramps every chance I could.  That changed the whole course of my life.  I owe a great debt to Jay, and his parents, Dwight and Cindy.  They became my "freestyle parents,"  and I joined the trick team a couple months later when Wayne "retired" from riding, at the ripe old age of 17.  Like so many other riders in the early and mid 1980's, it was seeing a trick team perform live that really got me into freestyle.