This clip is the outtake footage from Todd Lyons in his JNCO days, around 2000. If you watch the first couple of things he tries here, you'll get a good idea of what he looks at as possible on a BMX bike.
This is a bit after the P.O.W. House days, but it involves two of the House's craziest riders, Dave Clymer and Todd Lyons. I went with a group of the HB guys to watch a 1995 contest at the Moreno Valley Skatepark. In those days between the old concrete skateparks of the 70's, and the public ones built in the 90's and 2000's, Moreno Valley's wooden park was about all there was in Southern California. I think it was a 2-Hip comp, because most of the top riders were there. There was a small wooden pool off to one side, and I noticed Dave and Todd standing on the deck pointing to different parts of the park, conferring about something. I hopped up where they were to see what they were doing. Both guys had small pieces of paper and pens.
One of the other guys asked what they were doing. "We're comparing hoopty lists," one said, I think it was Todd. "You're doing what? "We're comparing our hoopty trick ideas, what we want to do to end our runs, making sure we don't try the same thing." The three or four of us there looked at the lists. "Dave, your list says 900... you can't do a 900." "Well," Dave side, "You know, I'll just spin 'til I hit the ground." We all started laughing.
I can't remember what Todd ended up doing. I think Dave launched off the side of the mini and into the baby bowl 15 or 20 feet away. Like airplane pilots, Dave had the attitude that any landing you walk away from is a good one. I think he completely missed the little bit of transition, and landed sideways in the middle of the bowl. Todd did something similar. But as I recall they both got out-hooptied by Mat Hoffman, who launched off the vert ramp deck and slid down the wooden handrail of the steps. Sort of. Everyone who rode limped away, a couple of them with a few hundreds bucks on a check.
Then we all headed to the S&M Bikes warehouse back in Santa Ana where some punk band played. Might have been Supernovice, I can't remember. In any case, someone found a bunch of inch thick foam padding in the dumpster from some other business. So we had a foam pit slam pit... but not that much foam. It was a damn good time, though.
Check out 32:00 in that clip above. What?
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Back in about 1989, four pro BMXers rented an apartment on Alabama Street in Huntington Beach. I believe the original four were Chris Moeller, Dave Clymer, John Paul Rogers, and Alan Foster (?). Realizing that you could have really cheap rent in Southern California by sharing bedrooms, the crew added some members and rented a four bedroom, two bathroom house on Iroquois Street in Westminster, CA. Over the course of about five years, 22 people were official residents, and well over 150 top riders from around the world crashed out on the couches or floors at one point or another. The riders dubbed themselves the Pros Of Westminster. The P.O.W. House, as it soon came to be known, was the first hardcore BMX rider house in the country, and a immensely influential BMX scene all by itself.
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I was the sole freestyler who was a resident, and the only video producer when I lived there. But I'd lost my equipment to edit, I was totally broke, and we never put out a P.O.W. House video. But the riders of that house have been in all kinds of videos. So here's my compilation, which is a big start and a work in progress. Enjoy.
Only 28 years in the making (give or take), here is it the official (more or less) video of the Pros of Westminster, the infamous P.O.W. House. Iroquois Street REPRESENT.
The P.O.W. House section from The Ultimate Weekend, the clip above, (1990-Steve Emig), :10-P.O.W. House backyard 1990, first time in a video, :26- John Paul Rogers, :31- Chris Moeller, :41- Dave Clymer, :47- Alan Foster, :51- Eric Millman, :56- Dave Clymer, 1:09- Dave Clymer, 1:12- Eric Millman, 2:00- Chris Moeller 2-Hip Ride Like a Man (1990-2-Hip/Eddie Roman), "2-Hip Street"- 1:50- Steve Emig, "Woodward"- 1:49- Dave Clymer, 2:12- Dave Clymer The Ultimate Weekend (1990- Steve Emig)- 27:33- Steve Emig (before living in the House), 28:28- Steve Emig, 33:50- P.O.W. House section (embedded above), 36:22- Steve Emig, 37:14- Steve Emig ABA Grands AA Pro Semis 1990- Dave Clymer
2-Hip Meet the Street '90 & '91- The Kings of Chromoly, 2014 web edit of old footage by Emil Chervatin, :19- Todd Lyons, :28- Dave Clymer, 1:17 Dave Clymer, 1:22- Todd Lyons, 2:22- Dave Clymer, 2:44- Dave Clymer, 3:03- Todd Lyons, 5:03 Todd Lyons, this is why you never use chipboard on the deck of a ramp. This might be footage I shot of these comps, I'm not sure. Chris Moeller in Feel My Leg Muscles, I'm a Racer (1991-Chris Moeller/Emig) Dave Clymer in Feel My Leg Muscles, I'm a Racer (1991-Moeller/Emig) Mission Trails 2-Hip King of Dirt in Leg Muscles (1991-Moeller/Emig), :07- Moeller, :38- Keith Treanor (friend of House), 1:15- Moeller, 1:20- Clymer, 1:27- Treanor, 1:37- Clymer, 1:57- Moeller 1991 ABA Grands AA Pro Mains- Dave Clymer 1991 UGP Flying Circus jump contest in Columbus, Ohio (contest starts at 17:39) Chris Moeller crash at Backyard Jam (93) 1993 NBL Grands Pro Open Main- Alan Foster, Brian Foster Chris Moeller- 1993 ABA Eugene, Oregon A Pro Mains S&M Bikes 44 Something (1993-Moeller/Emig) Intro-Chris Moeller, 1:26- Keith Treanor (friend of the House), 6:59-Lawan Cunningham, 8:36- John Paul Rogers, 11:50-Chris Moeller, 13:33- Mike Griffin, 14:15-Dave Clymer, 20:13-Todd Lyons, 20:39- Lawan Cunningham, 21:07- Alan Foster, 21:59- Brian Foster, 22:07- Todd Lyons, 22:14- Chris Moeller, 23:00- Chris Moeller S&M Bikes BMX Inferno (1994-Moeller/Dave Parrick) 5:20-Shaun Butler (Friend of House) in P.O.W. House backyard, 13:30- John Paul Rogers, 19:34- Mike Griffin, 22:20- Chris Moeller, 27:40- Brian Foster, 28:14- Todd Lyons, 30:02 John Paul Rogers American Gladiators (1994- Goldwyn Productions) freeze it at :24 and you can see me (Steve Emig) in the background on Wesley Barry's tower. Brian Foster Dirty Deeds (1995-Dave Parrick) Mike Griffin Dirty Deeds (1995- Dave Parrick) 1995 ABA Grands AA Pro Mains- Brian Foster Soil BMX (1996- Barspinner Ryan Brennan) 32:47- Brian Foster This crew, who came to be known as the Sheep Hills Locals (SHL!) were the direct descendants of the P.O.W. House and inheritors of Sheep Hills in the post-3 berms era. Props 21- (1997- Props)Bethlehem (PA) Scene report- 1:14- Jay Lonegran, 3:23- Jay Lonegran American Muscle BMX (1997- Schwinn/Chris Rye/Massei; John Paul Rogers was team manager), 1:48- Brian Foster, 11:25- Alan Foster, 21:32 montage Brian & Alan, 27:59- Alan & Brian, 29:31- Brian Foster Mike Griffin East Coast Destruction 4 (1999- ECD) Todd Lyons JNCO commercial (2000? JNCO) Todd Lyons JNCO raw footage/outtakes (2000-JNCO)- street, Sheep Hills (Check out Death Ride Dave at 6:54) Jay Lonegran in East Coast Destruction (2000-ECD) Brian Foster 2002 X-Games dirt (2002- ESPN) S&M Bikes 20th Anniversary Party (2007?- S&M Bikes) 1:00- Todd Lyons, 1:32- Chris Moeller skating, 2:43- John Paul Rogers, 2:59- Jason Thompson Chris Moeller showing new products at Interbike (2009- Vital BMX) Todd Lyons interview at Interbike (2009- 3V) S&M Bikes Hallowiener Jam (2011- S&M Bikes) Moeller at 2:15, 2:33, 4:31, 4:40 car jump, and at 6:38 they show the photo sequence of Chris Moeller jumping a Cadillac to flat at the 2-Hip Meet the Street in Palm Springs in '89 or '90. I saw that one happen live, it was freakin' nuts back then. Chris Moeller jumps car to flat (2011 S&M) Brian Foster Stay Fit (2012? Fit Bikes) Brian Foster signature stem promo (2012- Fit Bikes) Nike 6.0 The Pool (2012-Nike) 5:22- Brian Foster, Best Trick winner Brian Foster Bike Check (2013-Fit Bikes) Brian Foster- Anthem II Declassified (2013? Fit Bikes) Brian Foster- Tom Dugan does Malaga (2014- Fit Bikes) Brian Foster at 2:35, 4:17, 5:10, 5:34, 6:04, 6:55, 7:20 Todd Lyons BSX Ride session (2014- BMX Ultra.com) Brian Foster Holy Fit- (2015- Fit Bikes) Jay Lonegran Posh Halloween Jam (2015- DIG/Rob Dolecki) Jay at :29, 3:49 Chris Moeller on Brian Foster (2015?) BF-iT trailer- Brian Foster documentary (2015) BF-it Cutting room floor (2015- DIG) Alan Foster- :12, 5:49; John Paul Rogers- :22, 3:59, 9:27; Chris Moeller- :30, 1:34, 5:43, 6:20, 7:59; Todd Lyons- :52, 2:56, 4:56, 5:29. This is the closest thing to a P.O.W. House "where are they now" with the best known guys. Everybody's talking about Brian Foster, but then, we've been doing that for 20-some years. Style never goes out of style. Todd Lyons- Introducing the Fat Ripper (2016- SE Bikes) Summer Cruisin' with SE Bikes (2016-SE Bikes) Todd Lyons at :21 SE Bikes Philly Rideout: narrated by Todd Lyons (2016-Third Eye Productions) Brian Foster at Merritt warehouse (2017- Merritt) Todd Lyons- The OM-Duro: The Worlds first 27.5 inch BMX Mountain Bike (2017-SE Bikes)
The Pro's Of Westminster included:
Dave Clymer, Chris Moeller, Todd Lyons, John Paul Rogers, Bill Grad (RIP), Eric Millman, John Salamne, Alan Foster, Lawan Cunningham, Mike Griffin, Jay Lonergan, Chris Sales, Bill Naggy, Scotty _______?, Brooks Manbeck, Brian Foster, Jason Thompson, Steve Emig, and ???? Who'd I forget?
Two brave women lived there: Suzi, Brooks' girlfriend and now wife, and Kris, Alan's girlfriend and now wife. I'd like to apologize to the ladies for all the grief we gave them.
Honorable mention and Card Sharks contestant: Ned.
Also: Bob the dog, and Thor the Pit Bull (I'm not sure if Thor was there long enough to be official.
I'm Steve Emig, aka Heevin' Steve, Heave, E.Mig, M.Ig, The White Bear, Sluggo, etc. Here's what I've been doing lately. All drawings are 18" X 24", and drawn in my unique Scribble Style with Sharpies. Vic Murphy's classic one foot table off a curb, Dave Vanderspek on his GPV, early pic of Ron Wilkerson, and The Ramones.
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Here's flatland dynamo Chris Day, at the peek of the AFA Masters era, ripping it up on flatland in 1988.
At the beginning of August in 1986, I flew from San Jose to Southern California to start my new life working a Wizard Publications. I was so nervous about it all that I got a horrible case of the hives, and had to wear long sleeve, button up shirts to work for two weeks. And Jenkins and Lew gave me a hard time about that, thinking they had accidentally just hired a button up dork. I was a dork, alright, just not a button up one. Once the hives were gone I went back to rockin' my T-shirt collection.
I moved into Gork and Lew's two bedroom apartment, and slept on the couch for a couple of months. They showed me around the office, around Redondo Beach, and took me to their flatland area, The Spot. The Spot locals at the time were Lew, Gork, Craig Grasso, and this young kid named Chris Day. Chris was about 14 or 15 then, and did these amazing flail boomerangs, whipping his legs around and snapping the trick like no one else at the time. Chris was amazing to watch. When R.L. Osborn was in town, he'd usually come ride at The Spot once or twice a week, and it was obvious he was keeping tabs on Chris. Chris was one of the young generation of riders, and R.L., an old school veteran then, didn't want to miss any progression happening in the sport.
As a young kid, though, Chris could be kind of annoying. I soon learned that he would ride over to our apartment, barge in the the door without much of a knock, and head straight for the cookie jar Gork kept well stocked. We didn't really mind him eating cookies, but it would have been cool if he at least asked first.
When the magazine deadlines were close, Andy, Lew, Gork, and me all wound up working late at Wizard, which was a small warehouse with an office area up front. All of our offices were in the back, along the walls of the warehouse. Sometimes Chris would ride over there at night to hang out. But we were busy doing the work we should have been doing in the previous three weeks, and we didn't need any more distractions. Gork would always have his ghetto blaster blasting metal, usually Metallica, on those nights. In between songs we'd often hear Chris knocking on the warehouse door and yelling, "Hey guys! It's me! Chris! Hey guys! Let me in!" We'd laugh, and the next song would start, then we couldn't hear him anymore. When that song stopped, we'd hear Chris yelling and knocking again. One might he did that for about two hours.
It wasn't that we didn't like Chris. Generally speaking he was a pretty cool kid as well as a great up and coming rider. But he would wear on our nerves, and we just needed some time without him around now and then.
As the fall progressed, Gork, Lew, and I decided to move into a three bedroom apartment, so I could get off the couch. We looked around for a while, an found one about a half mile away in Hermosa Beach, right down the alley from where Andy and his wife Kelly lived. We moved in one weekend, and decided to not tell Chris that we moved. We still went down to The Spot every night and rode with him, but we just "forgot" to tell him we moved. Every once in a while he'd say, "I was knocking on your door yesterday, and nobody answered." One of us would tell him we must have been at the store or something. It took Chris three weeks to figure out we moved to a new apartment and then find it. After that, he went back to raiding the cookie jar until Gork stopped stocking it.
Somewhere along that time, Gork's grandma sent him some homemade persimmon brownies. No offense to Gork's grandma, but they didn't taste good. We had a new cookie jar then, some ceramic animal or something. And we stopped leaving cookies out for Chris to eat, so he left the jar alone. So grandma's persimmon brownies sat in that jar as kind of a science experiment. After five or six weeks, they all had about a quarter inch of hairy mold on them. We had a party one weekend, and Chris showed up, along with a bunch of other people. When the chips and other munchies ran out, Chris asked if we had anything else to eat. We'd all had a few beers at that point, and one of us said, "there's some homemade persimmon brownies in the cookie jar." I think Chris had snagged a couple beers, despite being under age, so he was a bit buzzed. He opened the cookie jar and started chowing down on the mold covered persimmon brownies. I think he ate all of them. We just sat there laughing our asses off.
I soon got laid off and moved south to Huntington Beach to work for the AFA, and I only ran into Chris Day at contests then. He kept improving and rocked on flatland for quite a while.
Years later, when I was working on my video, The Ultimate Weekend, Jess Dyrenforth called up and said he'd been riding this cool ramp near San Diego, and that he wanted me to come shoot some video. So I headed there with Randy Lawrence. Much to my surprise, along with Jess were Pete Augustin, underground legend Mike Tokemoto, and Chris Day. Chris was doing these amazing sweeper footplants on the spine. None of us had seen anything like them before. Chris also did these sprocket slides to revert. I wasn't sure what to call them, kind of a 540 sprocket bash. But they were fucking amazing.
You can find that section of video here. Go to 38:03 in the video. Here are a couple angles of Chris Day's sweepers in 1990.
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