One night in the mid-2000's, when I was a fat taxi driver, I got a call from the BMX guys at Barspinner Ryan's house in Huntington Beach. Somebody needed a ride from a party at their house. I was the old, washed up Has Been BMX industry guy, so all the BMX guys called me when they needed a cab... especially if they didn't have money.
In any case, I picked up one of the Sheep Hills Locals, can't remember which one, hopped in the cab with a couple younger guys I didn't know. As I was driving them, the Sheep Hills guy told them, "Hey man, this is The White Bear, he's the guy that made the 44 Something video." Much to my surprise, one of those guys was a rider just breaking into the big time, Ryan "Biz" Jordan. He said, something like, "I used to watch that video EVERY DAY before I went out riding." To say I was stoked is an understatement. When I shot video and sat down to edit that video in a corner of the S&M Bikes office, my main goal was to make a video that made people want to go ride. It's as simple as that. When I made my first self-produced video in 1990, riders didn't really make videos then. Eddie Roman had made Aggroman, and Mark Eaton had mad a couple of VHS mastered Dorkin' In York videos. But videos were made by companies to promote their bikes. So I spent a long time that year trying to figure out what the real goal of my video was. When it all came down to it, my criteria for a good bike video was that I wanted a rider to be walking their bikes out the front door to go ride before the video ended. I've actually seen that happen with my videos fromtime to time.
But when Ryan Jordan was in my cab that night, it was the first time that a serious pro rider told me that my video got him stoked to go riding before he was a pro. That's a good feeling. So all you riders out there, if you run across some old HAS BEEN BMX guy whose photos or video parts or videos they produced stoked you out when you were younger, let them know. It's a really great feeling to know that the video I got paid $450 to edit in 1993 actually made people want to ride.
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.
Check out my epic blog post about why the action sports exploded when they did
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.
I'm going in a new direction with my writing, as of late summer 2023. Check out my new stuff on my Substack:
More from the 2-Hip KOV at Mission Trails, spring 1991 (I think). Mike "Crazy Red" Carlson, no-footer over Death Jump that didn't end well. Below, Bill Nitschke with a 25 foot jump to front wheel hang. Ouch. Oh yeah, the dirt at Mission Trails was sand over hardpack, basically, it was like bailing on sandpaper.
Crazy Red again. He was a one man crash real that day. The photo above is a second before the photo below. Even his bike was pissed off at him that day.
Keith Treanor, first attempt over Death Jump led to hitting the eject button.
This is Freestyle BMX Tales: The Book, part 1. That big square up top is all the pages of part 1, (20 full size pages) laid out. I'm calling this "the coffee table book of BMX zines." It's either one of my greatest ideas... or one of my worst. I'm never sure. Here's a few excerpts:
"On another street, I followed Rick Thorne between two big rig trucks, both of which were moving slowly. Unfortunately for us, they were moving closer to each other. We both hit the gas, cranking hard to get past them. Rick pulled up his front wheel and turned the bars to squeak through the narrowing gap. I did the same thing right behind him, yelling in excitement as I cleared the trucks."
"The sound wound up, and with a yell, Scot came screaming around the corner of the warehouse racks on an 80cc dirtbike. Jay and I looked at each other, wondering if that was a normal thing in the SE warehouse." "A few weeks later, completely out of nowhere, Andy (Jenkins, editor of FREESTYLIN') called me up at home, in San Jose, one afternoon. He asked me if I was planning to go to the next AFA Masters comp in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I told him I was. 'Would you like to cover it for us?' I grabbed a putty knife to scrape my bottom jaw off the floor. 'Uh...yeah.' I muttered somehow."
"This punk kid sailed 25 or 30 feet down the hill, head high, blasting a huge no footer. Nobody jumped like that back then. Those were the first photos I saw of Chris Moeller..."
"'Uh-boo-buh-kuh,' Andy told me, I don't know what the trick is or how you spell it. He's coming here in an hour and you'll be driving Windy and Ron to the photo shoot.'"
I got into BMX in a trailer park outside Boise, Idaho in the summer of 1982. I saw my first local freestyle show in the spring of 1984. BMX freestyle became my thing, and I dreamed of being a pro rider someday, getting free bikes, and touring the country. I never did become a pro, but I did get some free bikes and managed one skateboard tour. I didn't have the guts or charisma to start my own company in the 80's or 90's, so I became a kind of wandering sidekick, the right hand man to some of the top people building freestyle. I became part of the Golden Gate Park scene in 1985, getting to know Dave Vanderspek, Maurice Meyer, Robert Peterson and the rest up there. My zine landed me a job at Wizard Publications, where I worked with Andy J., Lew, Gork, and Windy. I went on to work for AFA owner Bob Morales, the guy who turned trick riding into the sport of BMX freestyle. That led to video work, and I worked for Don Hoffman at Unreel Productions, the Vision Skateboards/Vision Street Wear video company. A lot of BMXers don't know Don, but he made several of the first freestyle videos, and his parents owned the legendary Pipeline Skatepark. I went on to self-produce a video called The Ultimate Weekend, in 1990. The next year, young Chris Moeller, who ran S&M Bikes out of the garage of a one bedroom apartment at the time, called me up to make their first video. I became his sidekick/roommate for quite a while, and also lived in the P.O.W. House during the early 90's, rooming with guys like Dave Clymer, Todd Lyons, John Paul Rogers, Alan and Brian Foster, and a bunch more.
I have a lot of stories. I'm putting the best ones into a weird book of sorts. It's a handmade thing, a D-Ring binder, filled with 20 pages to start, all hand laid out by me, zine style. It comes with a few custom stickers and a couple of 11" X 17" copies of my drawings. Each book is signed and numbered, and I'm hand numbering the pages of every copy. Part 1 of Freestyle BMX Tales:The Book is out now, and costs $20. Every 4 to 6 weeks, I'll have another 20 pages (and some goodies) for $10. I've got a lot of stories of those old school days of BMX freestyle. I'll keep putting some on the blog for everyone to read. But the best collection of my stories, thoughts, and lessons from those days will be in the book. You can order yours today at my Go Fund Me page. The books are numbered as the orders come in. #3 is up for grabs as I write this (11/262016). Order yours today.
I'm continuing with my 25th anniversary look back at my 1990 video, The Ultimate Weekend. We're up to one of my favorite sections of the video, the Nude Bowl section. This week's clip is at 26:56 in the video above. I'm skipping the wall fakie bit. After the flyout jumping in last post's segment, there's a section of Keith Treanor, John Povah, and Alan Valek with a small ramp against the back of a shopping center in Garden Grove, CA. I think John built the ramp, and they'd been sessioning this spot now and then, so I went along to shoot video. Keith's wall fakies here are about as big as anyone was doing wall fakies at the time, and I was pretty amazed. John and Alan add their own style to the session, and then some dumbass neighbor called the cops. Typical. By this point, I made it a rule to always keep the camera going when police showed up, which was actually a pretty new idea then. Few guys were shooting video then, and rarely did we shoot somewhere that could garner a call from the 5-0. This cop turned out to be about the coolest one we ever ran into, which is part of why I put him in the video.
OK, then we get to the Pool Party. When I was editing this, halfway through the week long edit session in the back of a video store in Hermosa Beach, I decided I wanted to make this section an actual music video as much as I could. For the young kids out there, there used to be this TV network called MTV, and back in the olden days they actually played music videos all day long. But there had been no video with BMX freestyle on MTV. Only Tom Petty's "Freefallin'" and a single obscure punk video ever showed skateboarding in a video. So I was determined to make this section as a stand-alone music video that I was going to try and get played on MTV. That was my thinking while I edited.
First, let me tell you about this song and band. Believe it or not, it all starts with street skating legend Mark Gonzales. He walked into an indy record shop, probably Vinyl Solution in HB, and found a punk album and bought it just because he liked the cover art. When Unreel needed the skaters to find music for a skate video, Mark brought the album in to Unreel Productions, Vision's video company, where I happened to be working at the time. The album was by a Toledo, Ohio punk band called The Stain, led by musician Jon Stainbrook. So someone at Unreel called Jon to get permission to use the song in a video. At the time, Unreel was searching all over for underground bands to get music to use in videos. People didn't really bootleg music then, particularly professional production companies like Unreel. Some of the "unknown" bands Vision approached for music rights included Agent Orange, Anthrax, Joe Satriani, musicians from Oingo Boingo, No Doubt, The Offspring, Big Drill Car, The Descendents/All, and many others. Some bands were totally stoked to have their music in a skate video, and some bands were complete assholes and wanted absurd amounts of money to use a single song. Then there was The Stain.
Jon Stainbrook was a positive thinking part of the punk scene, and nearly every band traveling through Ohio stayed at his house while in Toledo. So while The Stain wasn't one of the best known punk bands in the late 80's national scene, pretty much every other band knew Jon and The Stain well from their travels. But unlike many, Jon also had a businessman side to him. When Unreel called about the rights to a single song that Gonz liked, Jon saw an opportunity for make some money to finance his own pursuits. He sent us tapes with a whole bunch of tracks to choose from, and asked a reasonable price for the rights to use them in videos and TV shows. Since his musicians, namely Mark and Jeff were incredible musicians with varied tastes and abilities, The Stain became composers of all different kinds of music for Unreel. I was just a peon at Unreel, but it seemed to be a really good deal for both parties. So for a couple of years, I was dubbing tapes with many different variations of music by The Stain on them. When it came time for music for my own video, I was way too afraid to bootleg music, which became the norm a couple years later. I called Jon, and he sent me a wide variety of tracks and we set a price. Full disclosure, I never did pay him all the money I owed him, but I paid about 2/3 of it. So if I ever win the lottery, Jon is one of the first people to get a check.
When I first listened to the tape he sent me (remember cassettes old timers?), the song "Pool Party" was my favorite. When I asked him about it, he said he wrote it for some skater friends. But it worked perfect for a bike pool party as well.
Months before all that editing and song picking took place, I would join forces with riding buddy/photographer Mike Sarrail, and the then unknown and chronically unemployed rider Keith Treanor, and we'd go shoot video somewhere almost every weekend. I first heard about the Nude Bowl, and saw footage of it, from the Vision skaters. That was one of the best perks of my job at Unreel, I made copies of every piece of raw footage that came in. So I saw new pools and spots when they were still secret, and often the skaters would tell me where they were. That's how I learned about and the directions to the infamous Nude Bowl.
As the legend has it, the Nude Bowl ruins the bikers and skaters loved had once been a nudist colony high on a desert hill in the general area of Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs, California. For some reason, the nudist colony went out of business, and skaters found the pool and began spray painting and sessioning it. The great thing about the Nude Bowl was that you could drink beer, camp out, light a fire, and nobody gave a damn. It was in such an obscure place, that police didn't care what happened there, unless the couple neighbors on the entry road got pissed off for some reason.
This trip in this clip was my 3rd trip there, and I was totally stoked I got skatepark legend Brian Blyther, and his friend and Pipeline local, Xavier Mendez to show up. It was between 100 and 105 degrees out that day, and it was scorching weather to ride in. The only drawback to the Nude Bowl was that there was no shade. In any case, I got out the video camera, Mike got his still cam, and Brian, Xavier (long hair), Keith, and John Povah sessioned the pool. After shooting from several different angles, I had to get on my bike and ride myself. Although I could never do a decent air to save my life, I loved carving pools. To give you an idea of the gnarliness of the pool, you'll notice that Brian only gets about three feet out. The pool had a weird transition, about nine feet including a foot of vert, and pool coping. Although Keith, John, and Xavier could do do decent airs on ramps, none got very far out of the pool. We sessioned, drank water, and sessioned some more for two or three hours, and all had a good ol' time.
When it got down to editing this segment months later, I realized that the other riders were just riding the Nude Bowl like a quarterpipe. That's cool, but it's a POOL. You gotta CARVE. So I used a few clips of myself carving (in the Vision Street Wear shirt) to fill out the segment and show some carving. At that time, in 1990, there were NO skateparks in Southern California. To the best of my knowledge, there were no pools open to bike riding ANYWHERE in the U.S.. Underground legend Mike Tokemoto was out there sessioning pools with a couple friends, but no one else was.
All in all, I was pretty stoked on how this Nude Bowl segment came out, although I never did find a way to get it aired on MTV as a music video. Mostly, I just wanted to remind BMXers that there were a few empty pools still out there, and that they were a blast to ride. Mission accomplished.
Last October was the 25th anniversary of my 1990 video, The Ultimate Weekend. I'm continuing on with the look back at it, today at 14:00 in the clip above.
Jumps. When most of us look back to the early days of riding our bikes, even before many of us knew about BMX, there were the jumps. There's just something amazing about taking a bicycle, made for human powered transportation on the ground, and making it fly. That second or two of weightlessness somehow makes us seem like we are getting away with something. We jump our bikes and get a momentary reprieve from the Law of Gravity.
There had been a lot of jumps built in an around the Huntington Beach, California area. I've heard tales that Greg Hill and other legendary racers hit jumps in the Bolsa Chica mesa area of northern H.B. in the late 70's and early 80's. When I moved to H.B. in 1987, there were jumps at Hidden Valley, nestled in an actual little hidden valley (hence the name) behind the shopping center at Beach and Adams. Those jumps are great in the winter, when many other places flood, and they were around in 1990, though not as elaborate as they are today.
The best known jumps in 1990 were at Magnolia, in the wetlands just south of the big power plant on Pacific Coast Highway. So that's where this little session took place. Sheep Hills, the now infamous jumps of that area, weren't built until about a year after this video was made. We start off this session with a local kid named Mike jumping the style jump. Rhythm sections had yet to take over. In 1990, most jumps were trails where you pedaled a lot then hit the jump. The style jump was 14 1/2 feet tip to tip, and happened to be the biggest double jump I , personally, have ever jumped. In this clip we see Mike bust a one hander over it. Keith Treanor does a 360 over it, and that was a pretty big jump to 360 in those days. John Povah jumps it, and then gets pissed when he can't pull some trick over it. We've all thrown and maybe even kicked our bikes in frustration at times. But when John kicked his bike in this clip, he hurt his foot... for a month. Sometimes it's the stupid things that get you hurt.
The guy with no shirt is a guy we met out there that day. He said his name was Luke and he'd just come back from the Marines as I recall. I think this may actually be the guy we know as Carter Holland today, but I'm not totally sure.
After the style jump, we see a dork session of the guys doing a bunch of different variations over a little bump. Nowadays, this kind of thing would never make it into a video. But I specifically put this in to show our lifestyle of riding then. We weren't always doing the biggest, baddest, most technical tricks. Dork sessions were a fun and normal part of riding, and I wanted that in my video.
Then we hit a flyout jump up on the canal bank. At that time, I'd been trying bunnyhop tailwhips for about three years, and never landed a clean one. I did manage a few toe-dragger bunnyhop tailwhips in late 1989, but never got the trick dialed. Bill Nitschke brought that trick to us later that year. But the idea of tailwhip jumps was out there, and we were all trying them... and not landing them. On any given day of riding at the Huntington Beach Pier, we might decide to ride down to Magnolia and session a while. And what's in this video is a pretty typical session.
The funniest thing that ever happened at Magnolia when I was there happened between Mike Sarrail (the tall guy who does the little kickout over the bump) and myself. He was shooting photos one day of another jump at Magnolia, where we'd ride down off the canal bank, hit a little berm, and then hit a jump. Mike and I were giving each other a hard time, and he started throwing dirt clods at me to try and make me mess up. At one point, he threw a small rock at me as I was coming out of the little berm. The rock went right between my arms and hit me square in the nuts. I did a kind of rolling dead sailor and piled into the the ground. It was the most accurate rock Mike ever threw, and he was laughing his ass off as I lay on the ground in pain grabbing my balls. Aaaaahh... the things we remember about our sessions after time passes.
Then next session after Magnolia is us riding some banks somewhere in an industrial area, either in Orange or Garden Grove, I can't remember. That was the only time I ever rode there. In that section we see John Povah trying, and then making the long manual. Keith Treanor is going for the footplants. I think it's Alan Valek who does the tailwhip on the bank, which was a pretty new trick then.
Unlike today's videos where everyone gets a section and they spend months trying to land their absolute best tricks, in The Ultimate Weekend, I just wanted to show real riding. No one had really done that yet. Most of the mainstream videos up until then had guys riding in uniforms and flatlanding with helmets on. I wanted to show what our world of BMX freestyle, jumping, and street riding really looked like. I just happened to be one of the first guys to do that. A tidal wave of other videos followed in the early and mid 90's, taking riding to new places.
Back to the 25th annivesary posts about my 1990 video, The Ultimate Weekend. If you go to 9:54 in the video, you see a quick little night time street session at a place in Huntington Beach many of us called the Slater Ditch. It's some kind of a pump house or something along a canal that feeds into Bolsa Chica wetlands. The younger guys, like Andy Mulcahy, whose mug is in this section a couple of times, called it The Cancer Ditch. They called it that because the water at the bottom of the riding area was so nasty that it would probably give you cancer if you fell in.
At one time, this had been a well known skate spot, but the city workers built some speed bumps across it to deter skating. After that it was a place for BMXers to session, usually late at night, like in this video. Personally, the best I could do was footplant the wall, and jump this little step up on the other side. In this clip you see Keith Treanor and Randy Lawrence sessioning, while Andy and Sean Johnson look on. Back in 1990, video cameras could not handle low light well, so I wasn't even sure I could use this footage. I used the editing system to pump up the video level so it was just barely watchable. The Stain's quick song, "My Grandma's Got a Mohawk," worked perfectly to end the "Friday Night" phase of the video. I can't even count how many times I rode this spot in the late 80's and 90's. Usually alone, but sometimes in groups like this. The Cancer Ditch is one of those obscure little places that got a little famous because of BMX.
