History Lesson

Oddly, I can't find a video clip with BMX Action magazine in it.  But here's a bunch of classic BMX Action photos of R.L. Osborn and Mike Buff in the early BMX Action Trick Team days.  In true Gork fashion, it's all set to Metallica.  Off to never, never land...

On the last day in July in 1986, I got on a plane in San Jose, California with much of my bike in an odd-sized box, a suitcase (with my wheels in it so I wouldn't have to pay the airline bike fee) and $80.  I was so nervous about taking the job at Wizard Publications, that I had developed a serious case of the hives.  Not knowing any better, I laid out in the sun one day, making the hives even worse.  I wore a long sleeve, button-up shirt for the fist two weeks at the job.  The whole time my arms, chest, and legs were in red blotches.  On one hand I was stoked at the amazing opportunity of working at the magazines.  On the other hand, I had more hang-ups than Kim Kardashian's closet, more issues than the National Geographic magazine warehouse, and I was afraid I'd screw up the job somehow.

I made the short flight to LAX, where I was met by Andy Jenkins, Mark "Lew" Lewman, and Gork.  We threw my stuff into Gork's van, and instead of heading to the apartment I'd be sharing with Lew and Gork, we headed straight to the Wizard Publications office for an evening session at work.  By some weird quirk of fate, the BMX Action magazine 10 year anniversary party was that weekend.  So while Andy and Lew went to their offices to work on FREESTYLIN' magazine, Gork asked me to help him out.  Following his lead, I climbed up on the warehouse shelves, and we started digging through a bike box full of old slides.  Back then, in the olden days, the color photos for magazines were printed as slides.  Each roll of film (remember film?) ended up as a little yellow box with of slides of each photo.  Gork and I had the job of going through this huge box of slides and finding the best ones for a slide show that would play at the anniversary party.

The crazy thing was, I only got into racing in 1982, and hadn't seen a single copy of BMX Action until late 1983.  Only BMX Plus was on the newsstands in Boise, Idaho back then.  It was only when I started hanging out at Bob's Bike Shop (and Lawnmower Repair) did I see my first issue of BMX Action.  So I was clueless about the history of BMX.  Gork, as I quickly found out, wasn't.  He'd been racing since the late 70's, I think.  So as I checked out slides, I'd show him the interesting ones, and he'd fill me in on who the riders were, what their story was, and where they fit in the BMX history.

I seriously couldn't have had a better introduction to working at the home of BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines.  In a few hours that first night, I got an overview of the history of BMX, something I didn't know anything about.  Of all the slides, the standouts in my mind were early skatepark rider (and later MTB hero) Tinker Juarez.  He was blasting big jumps out of early bowls that blew my mind.  The other one I remember most was Trash Can Morgan.  This kid was testing bikes, jumping them while riding old school leather combat boots, and doing these crazy kicked out cross-ups three-four-five feet off the ground, which was huge then.  He earned the nickname "Trash Can" because that's where most of the bikes ended up after he was done with them.

Like all kids who came out of obscure places, (Boise, Idaho is where I got into BMX), I thought I was a better rider than I actually was, and I thought I knew a lot about BMX.  Gork's informal history lesson that first night really opened up the early years of the sport to me.  In the weeks that followed, I didn't have a lot to do at first, so I just started digging out old issues of BMX Action and reading article after article... and getting paid to do it.  Jealous?  You should be.

Each one of us plays a little role in a bigger timeline, and that first night at Wizard really made that clear to me.  Thanks Gork.