Spinaroonies: A Brief History of BMX Spinning Tricks

 

Days ago, as I write this, Mike Varga landed the first 1260 air (that's 3 1/2 spins folks) on a BMX bike, on a halfpipe.  It was so crazy, even Mike's tire had its mind blown.  As fate would have it, I happened to be there when Mat Hoffman landed the first 900 on vert in a contest, 32 years ago, in the Spring of 1989, in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.  As an Old School BMX blogger guy, I decided this would be a good time to go back and look at the history of aerial spins (not flips, just spins) in BMX history.  Here goes. 

Blogger's note (11/24/2021):  I wrote this blog originally in July 2021, on my WPOS Kreative Ideas blog, the blog I was doing primarily at the time.  Since I' moved back to this blog, I decided to bring this post back here, so you know I haven't forgotten about BMX.  I'm also going to put this post on Freestyle BMX Tales, where I'll do most of my Old School BMX posts from now on.

Bob Haro- forwards 540 on wedge ramp and rollback 360-  1980- This video says Bob is 22 years old, and he was born inJune of 1958, so this is 1980, or early 1981.  That's the very early days of BMX freestyle as a demo activity, years before the first competitions.  The rollback to 360 by Bob Haro (1:22) is probably the first spinning trick on a BMX bike.  I'm pretty sure the front wheel 360 spin came later.  Bob also does a solid forwards 540 on the wedge ramp at :27.

360 flyout attempt, out of a concrete banked bowl, 1980???- 1:03 in this clip.  Reportedly near Sydney Australia, according to the comments.  Riders unknown. 

Andy Ruffel- 360 jump in 1983- 26:05 Andy also does Old School 360 bunnyhops, also called 360 floaters BITD, at 25:32.  He also does a front wheel 360 on a wedge ramp at 21:44.  Oh, and don't play chicken with airplanes, they have propellers.

Eddie Fiola- 360's over small doubles (by today's standards) in races in 1983?  1984?  I remember reading an interview with Eddie Fiola in 1983 or maybe early 1984, where he said he had done 360's in  BMX races over doubles.  I actually asked Eddie about this a few months back.  If I remember correctly, I think he said they were about 2 foot high doubles, maybe 8 feet apart, standard for BMX tracks in that era.  No photos or video for this, but I did get the story straight from Eddie himself. 

R.L. Osborn, front wheel 360 on a quarterpipe on video, 1984.  This Mountain Dew commercial, which featured R.L. Osborn, Eddie Fiola, Ron Wilkerson, and bike stuntman Pat Romano, aired nationwide on network Tv in the summer of 1984.  I was about a year into learning tricks on BMX bikes myself, and RAN to the TV to see this commercial, every time I heard the music start.  As a high school kid in Idaho then, I'd never seen a 540 on a quarterpipe, or a front wheel 360, which is what R.L. does here at :27.  It took me all summer to figure out what R.L. was doing, we didn't have a VCR, and no one I knew to tape the commercial in those days. Also R.L. with a 360 lake jump at the end.

Legend has it the Woody Itson did the first 540 on a quarterpipe, about halfway up the ramp, sometime about 1984-1985.  While known as mainly flatland rider to us younger guys of that era, Woody rode jumps, skateparks, and ramps, as well, in the early days.  I can't confirm this, so if anyone can, let me know.  

Eddie Fiola- 360 flyout on quarterpipe to deck- 1984.  It's at 1:33 in this clip.  This one is at the AFA Master contest in the old Surf Theater parking lot in Huntington Beach, in the late summer of 1984. 

Hugo Gonzalez- 360 out of the halfpipe into the banked area at Del Mar skatepark- 1985- It's at :43.  540+ jump off pier into ocean at :37, alley-opp 270 flyout onto roof at 1:22.

Eddie Fiola- 540 in the Pipe Bowl, Pipeline Skatepark in 1985.  To the best of my knowledge, this was the first 540 on video in a skatepark, though not the first 540 on a ramp.  Leave it to the original King of the Skateparks, Eddie Fiola, to bust this one first.

Josh White- One of the first 540's on a quarterpipe, on video- 1985- It's at 1:29 in this clip.  This is the Huntington Beach, CA AFA Masters contest in 1985, in the old Surf Theater parking lot.  At the time of this contest, Josh White was a completely unknown amateur from Oregon, so you can bet he turned some heads blasting huge airs, and a 540, at this comp.  He debuted to the rest of us in a feature interview in FREESTYLIN' magazine, in the August 1986 issue, and was riding for the GT factory team by then. 

Brian Blyther- One of the first 540's on a quarterpipe on video- 1985-  It's at 2:11 in this clip.  This one is also at the AFA Masters contest in Huntington Beach in 1985.  Brian Blyther was a Haro team rider, and one of the top skatepark/vert pros at the time.

Mike Dominguez- 7'-8' high 540 (judging by sprocket height)- 1987- It's at 9:33 in this clip.  AFA Masters contest in Oregon. This was in the 8 foot high by 8 foot wide AFA quarterpipe, with no vert. 

Craig Campbell- Wall ride to 360 (aka 540 wall ride)- Spring 1988- It was the first 2-Hip Meet the Street contest in Santee, California, at one of Dave Voelker's favorite riding spots.  Street had been emerging, but there had been only one contest in NorCal, no one really knew what to expect at this comp.  Craig Campbell blew everyone's mind pull this wall ride to 360 out of nowhere, at 4:53 in the clip.   

Jeremy Alder- the world's first barspin air- 1988-  In a small East Coast contest at the Crownsville Fairgrounds in Maryland, Jeremy Alder, largely unknown to West Coast riders, stepped up the game with the world's first barspin air.  It's right at the end of the video, go to 3:50.  He also does a couple of half barspin airs early on, a couple really big 540's for that era, and a 360 flyout to abubaca.  Jeremy was sponsored by Haro Bikes for a couple of years.  Progression.

Mike Dominguez nearly lands a 900 in fall 1988- 4:55- Mike Dominguez claimed to have landed 2 or 3 900's on his own ramp, months before Mat Hoffman landed the first one in a contest.  But there was no video and no photos.  Some people believed Mike, some weren't sure.  At 4:55 in this video, shot at the 2-Hip King of Vert finals in September or October of 1988, Mike hucks a 900 attempt and just barely misses landing it.  I believe Mike on nailing the 900.   About six months later, Mat did it with several camerasrolling (including mine, as Vision cameraman), and made the 900 official.

Mat Hoffman- first 900 on vert in a contest- 2-Hip King of Vert, Spring, 1989.  Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.  (My angle of that 900 is at the end of this clip- 14:43).  None of us knew he was planning to try that (except Steve Swope), until he tried the first one.  Mat missed the first attempt, and landed it on his second try.

Mat Hoffman- First no handed 540- 1989- It's at 1:34:00 in this video.  Mat actually pulled the no handed 540 the contest before this, at Woodward in Pennsylvania, but I couldn't find video on YouTube.  This is the 2-Hip King of Vert after that, in Colorado Springs.   I was the cameraman on this shot, and the video (Ride Like a Man) was edited by Eddie Roman. 

Craig Campbell with the first dirt jump 720 on video- 1989- In this Ozone freestyle team segment on Home Turf, a local San Francisco Bay Area TV show for kids, Craig lands a 720 at the Calabassas jumps in San Jose, at 1:49.  This video has interviews with Craig Grasso, Craig Campbell, and Pete Brandt, I believe, and there's some funny stuff.  It's worth watching the whole video. 

Ride Like a Man- 2-Hip/Eddie Roman directed video- 1990- 3:32- Maurice Meyer- 360 street abubaca.  4:02- Eddie Roman and ?, 360 down 6 long steps.  7:06- Rider?- 360 nsoepick over spine.  13:04- Rider?  Flatland body varial spin thing around the seat.  22:06- Vic Murphy?- fastplant to 360 on flat.  24:44- Mike Krnaich- tailtap 540 on spine.  28:34- Bob Kohl- tailwhip drop-in on 8 foot ramp.

 The Ultimate Weekend (my self-produced video) 1990-  Chris Moeller with the biggest 360 over doubles on video at that time- 35:45 (Mike "Crazy Red" Carlson lands a toe dragger tailwhip earlier, same session).  Keith Treanor with the first 360 over a spine on video- 22:12. Gary Laurent also does one at- 22:56 (same session).  Josh White, lookback 360 (on a flyout)- 23:59.  Josh White, one hand one foot 360 (flyout)- 24:13.  Keith Treanor, big one hand 360- 25:25

Eddie Roman's Ride On video-1992-  Intro- Huge 360 over doubles(rider unknown).  Dave Voelker(?)- turndown 360- 1:39.  First no handed 360 on video (?) Rider unknown- 1:55.   There will be more, I need to watch this whole video again...  

Mat  Hoffman jumps three flaming cars on Stuntmasters- 5:53.  1991or 1992?  Crazy as it sounds, I got this idea underway, but never knew the stunt actually happened.  I was working at a TV production company in 1991, and sent some footage from the 2-Hip King of Dirt at Mission Trails to motorcycle distance jumper Johnny Airtime, who worked in the other office.  Much to my surprise, the BMX stuff blew his mind, and he wanted to know what kind of real stunts a BMXer might be able to do.  Johnny and I threw ideas back and forth over the phone, and came up with a 360 over three flaming cars.  I was trying to hook up Chris Moeller or Dave Clymer for the gig.  Johnny had sen footage of Mat Hoffman, and asked, "Could Mat do it?"  I said, "Yeah."  I quit that company about a month later, but the Stuntmaster's show happened, and Mat did the stunt with ease.  In a side note, according to Mat's book, it was Johnny Airtime, on this stunt show, who told Mat that if he wanted to do bigger airs, he needed a bigger ramp.  Mat and Steve Swope built the first 20 foot tall mega quarterpipe soon after.  

Todd Lyons- fastplant to 540- dirt quarterpipe jump- 1993-  It's at 20:10.  Todd Lyons boosting a new spin at Twin Palms in Riverside.  

Jay Miron- First public 540 tailwhip- 1998- at 8:24.   There's a lot of vert ripping in this clip, by Miron, Dave Osato, Tony Hawk, and others.  That rollback nosewheelie tailwhip to drop back in thing Jay does?  WTF?  Never seen that trick.  I'll make you watch the whole clip to find that one.  The info says this was a small comp. at BC Place.  Sponsored by Kokanee beer!  Canada, eh.

Mat Hoffman with the first no handed 900 ever- 2002- At the X-Games.

Mike Spinner- First 1080- 2007- He talks about the whole thing in this 27 minute video.

Mike Hoder- 360 down El Toro 20 step- 2012- At 3:20.  There are a ton more big 360 and 180 drops in this video as well. 

Daniel Sandoval- First 720 tailwhip to barspin- 2012?

Crazy Shurva- bunnyhop 720 and 360 tailwhip bunnyhop- 2014.

Nitcholi Rogatkin- mountain bike 1440- 2017- That's 4 full spins, corked out.  That's the record right now on a jump, and 3 1/2 (1260), in the video at the top of this post, is the reigning record on vert.

 Dennis McCoy- Longest span being able to do BMX 900's on vert-1990-2021?  First 900- Summer 1990- in Indianapolis, IN.  900 at age 52 in 2018.  That's a 28 year span of being able to land one of the craziest vert tricks ever, on video.  I believe he has pulled at least one 900 in 2021, stretching that span to 31 years.  DMC continues to amaze us all.  

What about the women?  BMX freestyle has been a boy's club from the start, but since girls like racers like Deanna Edwards and Cheri Elliot, and freestylers Krys Dauchy from Ohio and Alma Jo Barrera from Texas in the 80's, there have been some women riding hard on BMX bikes.  So here are some of the best women's clips of spinning tricks from recent years.

Women spinning tricks in 2019- Mexico City Van's comp-2:28- gnarly backflip attempt.  3:06- Macarena Perez- Tailwhip air.  7:00-Natalya Diehm- tailwhip jump.   

Top Ten Women's BMX tricks compilation- 2021- :02 Macarena Perez- backflip over box jump.  :07- Nikita Ducarroz- 540 on vert.  :16- Charlotte Worthington- Flair on vert.  :20- Shanice Silva Cruz- front flip on box jump.  :26- Hannah Roberts- tuck no handed 360 jump.  :29- Hannah Roberts- double tailwhip jump.  :39- Hannah Roberts- triple barspin.  :43- Hannah Roberts- double truckdriver jump (360 barspin to barspin).  So yeah, there are a lot fewer women riders than men, but they're holding there own out there at the parks.

This blog post got out of hand real quick.  I did a similar post about backflips a while back, but there are a lot more spinning tricks.  I could watch and dig into old videos, and add 100 more variations to this list.  But I'm going to stop it here.  I did say a "brief" history of spinning tricks.  The idea for this post, after seeing Mike Varga's insane 1260 on vert, was to show the long and continuing progression on the basic idea of spinning your bike around, one way or another.  I seriously never thought a 1260 on vert would happen.  

The craziest thing about this post is that I couldn't figure out who did the first truck driver, a 360 over a jump with a barspin.  Logic would say Chris Moeller might have been the guy, but I was roommates with Chris for quite a while in the earl 90's, and I think he was the 2nd or 3rd guy to do one.  Maybe Tim "Fuzzy" Hall did it first?  But I'm not sure on that, the first and most basic 360 variation.  

I also found tricks and clips I had no idea existed, like Andy Ruffel doing a 360 on film in 1983, and the Australian video supposedly from 1980.  This post is not complete, by any means, but I've got a lot of the firsts, or firsts on video, in a timeline in one place.  That was the basic idea, to see when spinning tricks and certain variations began, and how they fit into the 43 or so years that BMX freestyle has been a thing.  Thanks, as always, for checking out my blog post.  I'm not going to do as many Old School BMX posts as I have in years past, I've written well over 1,000 already.  But I'll try to make the ones I do good ones. 

What's a Spinaroonie?  Listen to Eddie Roman's color commentary, 4:58 in this clip.  I was the cameraman for that footage, by the way.

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The people who did bike tricks before BMX freestyle

 

You've probably seen videos or her, dressed in much more attractive clothes, doing tricks on You Tube, Instagram, or maybe on TV.  But here's Viola Brand in an actual artistic cycling competition, in a long, and flat out amazing, routine. 

One of the biggest, and longest, adventures in my life was the 20 years my world revolved around doing tricks on a BMX bike.  I got into BMX in a trailer park, outside of Boise, Idaho, in the summer of 1982, and entered my first race that fall.  BMX changed my life, pure and simple.  I learned my first trick from a magazine how-to, the Haro bar hop, in early 1983.  BMX freestyle became the main theme of my life up until 2003.  It only stopped then because I started working 7 days a week as a taxi driver, and there was no time for anything except work.  I've been trying to get my life back on track, so I can start riding again, in the last few years.

But before that, back in 1978 or 1979, I was a kid living by a lake in rural Ohio.  I didn't even know BMX existed then.  In those days of very little media, and almost no alternative media, word of BMX racing hadn't made it to me and my friends in Ohio.  I had a banana seat three speed bike, with a T-shifter on the top tube.  My friend Tom, who lived about half a mile away, had a similar bike.  One day I rode to his house, and he told me he made a little bike jump in the edge of a field.  We would ride down a small hill on the two lane country road, dodge the potholes, and swerve to the side, where the tractor entrance to a farmer's wheat field was.  Tom had built a little jump, maybe 8 inches high, at the edge of the field.  We took turns, riding down the hill, swerving off the road into the edge of the field, and hitting the little jump.  In 1978, that was a big jump to us.

As we were hitting the jump, a younger kid, Mark Cofer, came riding up.  That was pretty weird, because the kid was about 7 years old, and he lived a mile and a half away, on a farm.  We'd never seen him ride up our way before.  Mark was the youngest of 4 brothers, I think, all of whom road dirtbikes.  They had a sort of motocross track on their farm, a trail through their cow pasture with small jumps and whoop-dee-doos.  Anyhow, Mark had a beach cruiser-style bike, but it was a 20 inch.  It had a big triangle seat, like all cruiser bikes did then.  Mark saw what we were doing, and started hitting the jump as well.  Riding was in his blood, thanks to his older brothers, and he jumped as well as we did, on his weird bike.

Then one time he came back up to the top of the hill and said, "Watch this."  He pedaled a little bit, then he climbed one foot up onto his top tube, and then to his seat.  Much to our surprise, Mark stood up on the seat of his bike, then took his hands off the bars, riding down the hill, standing straight up on his seat.  He somehow swerved around the potholes, and leaned to swerve into the pasture.  He hit the jump in the seat stand, and flew away from his bike, landing in the grass, as his bike tumbled to stop.  Tom and my minds were blown.  We'd never seen anyone even try to stand up on his seat before.  But he not only rode down the hill on his seat, he managed to hit the jump, too.  We were 12-year-olds who just got shown up by a first grader.  He did the seat stand, and hit the jump three times, I think.

I think Tom's mom called him into the house at that point, and we all went home.  I watched Mark Cofer ride down the hill, standing on his seat, in 1978 or '79.  That was 3-4 years before I got into BMX.  That was about the same time that Bob Haro, way out in  California, was riding skateparks and learning his first flatland tricks, before he did the first BMX "trick riding" demo at a race.  BMX freestyle was just being invented.  That was about 15-16 years before Viola Brand was even born.

I got into BMX in 1982, and wound up in the industry in 1986, and watched the best riders in the world for the next couple of decades.  I did framestands, and short bar rides ( jumping off, never landing one) myself.  I saw riders do surfers, and really good bar rides.  Jeff Cotter, and a few others did Pop Tarts, jumping up into bar rides.  But for over 30 years, I never once saw, or even heard of, a rider standing up and riding while standing on their seat.  Not until I saw a video of  Viola Brand two or three years ago.  She does a seat stand at 2:23 in the video above, the first person I saw do that trick since little Mark Cofer.

BMX freestyle is its own thing, actually several things now.  It's split into dirt, park, vert, flatland, street, and mega ramp genre's.  BMX freestyle came along at just the right time, along with the other action sports, to grow exponentially into a worldwide sport and lifestyle thing.  Then it faded some, as mountain bikes took over much of what BMX riding once was.  But there were people doing tricks on bikes long before BMX bikes were even invented in 1970.

Artistic cycling, what Viola is competing in above, officially goes back to 1956 for men, and 1970 for women, in Europe.  But unofficially, there was an artistic cycling competition way back in 1888.  Pedal bicycles, as we know them today, were invented somewhere around 1875.  I've always thought that bicycle trick riding was probably invented about 15 minutes after the first bike was invented, when a hot girl walked by, and some guy tried to impress her.  But that's just an educated guess on my part.  We know bicycle trick riding goes back to at least 1899, because Thomas Edison shot movies of it.  Yeah, Edison, the guy who invented the light bulb and the movie camera, among other things.  Here's the movie.


To put that in perspective, the first airplane (invented by bike shop owners and riders, Orville and Wilbur Wright), was invented four years after this video above.  Here are a few other photos of bicycle trick riding 100 or more years ago.  Old School BMX freestylers in the 1980's created the BMX freestyle scene, that we now see around the world.  But we didn't invent bicycle trick riding itself.  We were lucky enough to get into it at a time when the world was ready for it to grow into a worldwide, pretty popular sport/lifestyle.

 Dennis McCoy may be middle aged now, but he didn't invent footwork.  He just rocked it.

 Grandma did trackstands.

 Ow.  Just ow.

 Mega Ramp, circa 1905.

 Circus people have always been crazy.  I worked on five Cirque du Soleil tours, trust me on this one.

It took about 100 years, and Morgan Wade, to repeat this trick.  Think about that one for a minute.  This guy  has no helmet, no emergency rooms.  Hell, they didn't even have chromoly frames back then.. 

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The Legend of Charlie Gnarly: How BMX began...sort of

  OK, this is not exactly how BMX began.  Last winter, I was working on an ebook about my early years in BMX and freestyle.  Looking for a cool way to open the book, I listened to a few Indian "creation stories" from different tribes, and wondered how a creation story for BMX would go.  Scot Breithaupt himself told me a short version of the story of Charlie Gnarly, one weekend when I worked for him as a cameraman in 1989.  So I decided to write a mythical creation story for BMX.  this is it.  

The Legend of Charlie Gnarly

The Godfather of BMX, Scot Breithaupt, haulin' ass and flying fast in the late 1970's or early 1980's.

A long time ago (the late 1960's), in a land far, far away from most of you (Long Beach, California), a young man was racing his Schwinn Stingray on the bumpy Jeep trails in an area of oil fields.  The young guy also rode motorcycles, but it was really expensive to keep a dirt bike running, so he spent a lot of time on his bicycle, racing around on the bumpy trails.  A few homeless guys lived in the bushes in that area, and no one cared much about him tearing down the trails on his bicycle.  

One day at those trails, young Scot saw a scruffy looking guy with a full beard, on a dirt bike, watching him ride from a distance.  One of the homeless guys, sitting up against an old shack said, "Hey kid, I'll give you a brand new bike if you can catch that guy."  Young Scot didn't think the bum could buy him a bike, but maybe he could steal him one.  Scot was competitive as could be, and liked a challenge, so he took off down the Jeep trail, heading straight for the bearded guy on the motorcycle.  The motorcycle rider, not wearing a helmet, just shook his head, laughed, and let the kid get within about 50 feet, then hit the throttle.  

Scot, pedaling for all he was worth on his Stingray, hauled ass after the motorcycle.  He got close in the first turn, as the motocrosser stuck a leg out and carved the turn, sending up a big roost, showering Scot in dirt and rocks.  The mysterious bearded motocrosser played with the bicyclist, slowing down a bit, letting the kid close in, then carving a turn and hauling down one of the other trails, and accelerating.  In a few minutes, the bicyclist was completely winded.  He coasted to a stop, huffing and puffing, next to the homeless guy by the shack who had bet him.  The motorcyclist stopped 50 yards away, looking back at the kid.  The bearded motocrosser shook his head, hit the throttle, and hauled ass the other direction, riding out of sight down the trails.

Young Scot fought to catch his breath.  He was pissed off, he hated losing a bet.  But chasing the guy on the motorcycle, hauling ass on the bumpy oil field trails was the most fun he'd ever had on his bike.  The old homeless guy sitting by the shed laughed.  "Kid, you'll never catch him.  You know who that was?  That cat on the dirt bike was Charlie Gnarly.  He's the best motocross rider there ever was.  He won every race there was to win.  A few years ago, he up and quit, nobody knows why."  

Young Scot was beginning to catch his breath.  "Charlie Gnarly?"  he asked.

"Yep," the old bum said, "Kid, I'll get you the best bike you ever saw if you ever get Gnarly.  He's fast as the wind on a motorbike."  

Scot shook his head in frustration.  "I'll catch that motherfucker.  I'll get Gnarly someday."  

Scot kept going down to the oil field trails to ride his bike, and some of the younger local kids would show up, and race Scot, and jump off the bumps on the Jeep trails.  Every now and then, maybe once or twice a month, they'd all hear a motorcycle, and Charlie Gnarly would ride up, and sit and watch them, from 50 yards away or so.  The old bum, usually sitting by his shack with a bottle of wine, would yell at them, "Go get him!  Catch Charlie Gnarly!  C'mon kids, get Gnarly!"  Scot and the whole little pack would take off, hauling ass towards the old motocross rider. Charlie Gnarly would let them get close, and then take off, winding back and forth, stopping and starting, carving turns, bouncing over bumps, and keeping the the kids pedaling until they were all out of breath.  It was as if Charlie Gnarly had been born on his dirt bike, his skill amazed them, as the tried to catch him.  Then he'd send up a big roost as he turned and headed off the other direction and disappeared.  

No one knew where Charlie Gnarly lived, or when he would show up.  Scot started riding at the trails every day, and the local kids did, too.  They got faster and faster, pretending to be motocross riders, racing each other every day on their banana seat bikes.  As the Spring of 1970 rolled around, Scot decided they needed to start having official races, just like the real motocrossers did.  He organized races at the old oilfield trails, and called it the B.U.M.S. track.  About the same time, up in Malibu, an hour's drive away, some other bike riders parents' started holding races as well.  Weekly races of what they called Bicycle Motocross began to happen, and draw more and more riders on the weekends.  

Still, once and a while, during the week, Charlie Gnarly would show up at the trails, and all the bicycle riders would take off after him.  By that time, there were broken Schwinn Stingray frames and forks, and a few broken pedals and handlebars, littering the trails.  The crazier the kids got trying to get Gnarly, the more they broke their bikes.  The kids kept looking for better parts, and some of the motorcycle companies, Yamaha and Kawasaki, made bicycles that looked like motocross cycles, but they were heavy and slow, with their plastic fenders and fake gas tanks.  The kids begged, borrowed, and stole bike parts wherever they could.  The just wanted to ride, they wanted to get Gnarly.

One day, Charlie Gnarly showed up in the distance.  Like so many times before, Scot and the other bicycle motocross kids took off after him, chasing him through the trails.  Charlie took a quick left, showering most of the the pack with his roost.  But this time, young Scot Breithaupt was ready for him, Scot anticipated the Charlie's turn, stuck his leg out, and turned off the trail, and cut cross country to the trail Charlie headed down next.  As Charlie Gnarly looked over his shoulder at the pack of kids eating dust, Scot popped out of the brush and onto the trail right next to him.  Scot wasted no time, and kicked the side of Charlie's motorcycle.  Charlie fishtailed, his back tire hit a little mound, and he high-sided, and was thrown off the motorcycle.  Scot skidded to a stop, not really believing he had finally caught Charlie Gnarly. 

Charlie rolled and bounced along the ground, and the motorcycle careened off into the bushes.  Charlie Gnarly smiled.  "You finally got me kid... I had a feeling you'd do it someday.  You got fire in you, like I used to."  Scot watched as Charlie Gnarly got up, brushed some of the dust off of himself, and then went into the bushes, and picked up his motorcycle.  He looked it over, and got back on it.  Scot, very unlike himself, was kind of in shock, blown away he'd caught the champion motocrosser on his Stingray.  He had finally got Gnarly.  "Follow me, kid," Charlie said.  Charlie rode slowly down the trails, to the edge of the oil fields.  Charlie stopped, and got off his bike near an old maintenance building.  

"What're you doing?"  Scot asked.  

"Just hang on a minute," Charlie Gnarly told Scot Breithaupt.  Charlie pulled his keys out of his pocket, and unlocked a rusty padlock on the old building.  He disappeared inside, and reappeared a minute later holding two bicycle frames, frames like Scot had never seen before.  One was bright chrome, the other painted black, the tubes were all straight, not curved like Scot's Schwinn.  Charlie held the chrome one up, "This one is made of Chrome-moly steel, it's lighter, and a lot stronger than your bike."  He held the second bike up, it's down tube looked wider and flat.  "This one is 6061 aluminum, it's not quite as strong, but it's lighter, and it's still a lot stronger than your bike.  I call this design the double diamond hard tail.  If you're going to race bicycles in the dirt, this is how they should be made.  I knew you'd catch me some day, so I figured I'd design and build a  couple bike frames actually made for racing.  You'll be able to ride a lot harder, and a lot faster, on one of these."

Charlie Gnarly handed both frames to Scot Breitaupt.  "Which one do you want?"  Scot checked them both out, then replied, "I want the light one, the aluminum."  Charlie Gnarly held his hand out, and Scot handed him back the chrome frame, and kept the black one.  

Charlie went back into the building, and came out with a pair of chrome forks, with straight fat tubes, the legs weren't curved, they were much beefier than the forks Scot kept breaking. "These are tubular chrome-moly steel, they'll last you a lot longer than the ones you have.  Take these home and build yourself a bicycle MX... a BMX bike."  

"Really?" Scot asked.

"Yeah, really," Charlie Gnarly said, as he locked up the building, and got back on his motorcycle.  

"Thanks." Scot said,  one of the last times he was ever at a loss for words.  Charlie Gnarly started up his motorcycle, nodded to Scot, and rode off.  That was the last time Scot ever saw Charlie Gnarly.  

Scot went on to become one of the top BMX racers, and soon started Scot Enterprises to promote BMX racing, and his riders.   That soon turned into SE Racing, which invented the PK Ripper, the Quadangle, the Floval Flyer racing cruiser, and the OM Flyer for Scot himself.  Scot grew a full beard, just like Charlie Gnarly, and came to be known as the Old Man of BMX, which is what the OM stood for.  The fire that Charlie Gnarly saw in young Scot led to a lot of progression in BMX racing.  Scot rode hard, promoted hard, and would get gnarly every time he did.  That fire also led Scot to a lot of self-destruction at times, he liked to party hard as well.  Scot made huge leaps forward, and sometimes reverted to self-destruction.  But few people, if any, made as much of an impact on creating BMX racing and BMX bikes as Scot Breithupt.  That growth of BMX racing in the 1970's set the stage for BMX freestyle to evolve from skatepark carving in the 1970's to a full fledged sport in the mid-1980's.  SE racing sponsored Todd Anderson, Craig Grasso, Fred Blood, and Justin Bickel, and a few other freestylers along the way. 

OK, maybe that's not exactly how it happened.  That's not quite how BMX began.  But it did begin in 1970, and Scot Breithaupt was a big part of it in the early years.  

In January of 1989, Scot Breithaupt hired me to be a cameraman at the Reno Silver Dollar Nationals, for a TV show he was producing.  Scot headed up early in the week, and paid for a rental car for me to head up to Reno that Friday, taking off a little early from my job at Unreel Productions.  I wound up driving through the Sierra Nevada mountains in a blizzard, so the weekend got off to a sketchy start.  I shot video of Scot, and other racers, all weekend.  We made the long drive back down to Orange County Sunday night.  On the trip, Scot told me the legend of Charlie Gnarly, a mythical guy who young BMX riders would chase when out riding.  Every time they tried to "get Gnarly," they got a little better, a little crazier, and pushed themselves as bike riders.  After a while, the guy disappeared, but every time the BMXers got crazy on their bikes, they called it "gettin' gnarly."  I took a few liberties with the story Scot told me on that drive, but that's the nature of legends.  Welcome to my story in the world of BMX...

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Old days versus new days: Brant Moore talks to Bill Nitschke and Dave Voelker at Swampfest

Bill Nitschke was one of the eternally underrated Midwest rippers in the 1980's, and he invented the Whopper (bunnyhop tailwhip) and a bunch of other tricks.  Dave Voelker was a legendary GT vert, street, and dirt rider always asking Can I go bigger?  This is a really cool conversation about the early days versus today in BMX freestyle. 

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Bike memes #4

Never forget...

It's my opinion that bicycle trick riding began about ten minutes after the first guy learned to ride the first bike, when a cute girl walked by.  Just an educated guess.  This is a circus rider from about 1890, or so.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

This was about 100 to 110 years ago.  Look at the size and shape of this loop.  Then think about the fact that the guy was riding a mild steel bike, possibly a fixed gear (but probably not).  There are a few photos of this loop, some are of the guy practicing (note the crash pads), and a couple photos are of this loop set up for a circus or demo.  Seriously, this is Mat Hoffman level crazy for its day. 

Ow.  Yeah, it's completely impossible, too.  But just... OW.

This photo was in the archives all by itself.  I have no idea what the hell he was trying to land on.  But  a huge crowd showed up to watch him figure out that kink was a killer. 

This photo just makes me laugh.  We all know that feeling.  The stoke is real. 

This chimp doesn't seem particularly happy about being dressed up and posed on a bike.  That's where this caption came from.  

As hard as it may be to believe, I was actually factory sponsored for about a year.  Raleigh was a huge company, BMX was a tiny thing to them, but some marketing person came up with this odd, and totally cool, retro ad, while I rode for them.  The two man team of David Morris and me didn't do much as a team, except one photo shoot for Super BMX, and demos at the annual bike trade show in Long Beach.  David did shows up in the northwest, I believe.  I actually did really like the bike, seriously.  It was a double top tube, Torker/Haro freestyler design, with Hutch Trick Star geometry.  But to hit the mass market price point, the down tube was mild steel.  And so were the first handlebars, which I found out the hard way when a pair snapped mid-air, during a bunnyhop.  If the bike had been 100% chromoly, it would have been one of my favorite bikes of the 80's.  But I think I snapped 7 of them in a year. 
 

I think this photo is actually dated 1905 or 1910.  Think about this, it took 100 years AND Morgan Wade, to do this trick again.  This guy was fucking nuts.  Also notice the flat spot in the rim.  

I forgot this one.  OK, now all of my current BMX memes are on this blog.  There are a 3 or 4 memes from my own photos about 2 or 3 posts before these vintage meme posts.  Enjoy... share as needed. 

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My bike memes #3

When I first learned to ride a bike, which was at age 6, in 1972, this was my dream bike.  My dad built my first rat bike out of a pile of parts in our garage.  I had five different bikes I wanted him to build up back then, but the super long chopper was the ultimate ride I could imagine.  Easy Rider had just come out, and harcore bikers riding choppers were a prety frequent sight back then.  I didn't even hear of BMX for five more years, as a kid in small town Ohio. 

First, be glad you don't have to wear a marching band uniform to jump a 20-25 foot gap.  Second, be REALLY glad you live in the age of Chromoly, this guy was jumping on a mild steel frame.  Now how crazy does this jump look?

The guitarist we all know as Slash today was actually a gifted BMX rider, jumper, and racer in the mid-1970's, when he was about 13-14.  Then he met skateboarder Steven Adler, who showed him a guitar...

I made this one for all the BMX collectors out there.

Yep, ladies were pulling tricks waaaaaaay before Krys Dauchy came along. 

I'm not sure why this monstrosity was built.  But I love the fact that this guy is about to attack something wearing a black derby. 

Self-explanatory.

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BMX memes #2

This kind of bike is something I've seen being used on TV/movie studio lots a lot.  Tech guys will throw a small light, props, tools, or other equipment, in the big, sturdy basket, and deliver it to one of the sound stages.  Obviously, there are other uses for the big baskets, as well.  

I actually did this a few times while working on the set of American Gladiators in the early 1990's.  I had my BMX bike (an S&M Dirtbike at the time), that I rode to work a couple of years, and a beach cruiser one other year.  Once in a while, one of the women on set would ask to hop on my handlebars to ride over to the lunch stage, which always seemed to be all the way across the lot.  I remember giving Ice, the Gladiator a ride once or twice, and a few other women, as well. 

The bike shop in this photos is Orville and Wilbur Wright's shop in Dayton, Ohio, around 1900-1910.  I made this meme because so many people see BMXers (or skaters, snowboarders, etc.), as loser "adrenaline junkies," too lazy to work, or not very smart.  I just wanted to remind people never to underestimate a couple of bike riders.  The Wright's not only tuned bikes, they invented aviation.  For real.

This seems like a whole lot of set up for a not-so-exciting circus act, but it's also probably in the 1900's-1920's, when no one had seen anything like this.  And after watching the highlights of the Florideah Swampfest, which happened last weekend, building crazy ass shit and then trying to ride it isn't all that different today.  It's probably just about as dangerous, too.

The whole "43" thing in BMX started as an inside joke, with the Curb Dogs in San Francisco, in 1986.  Like the "420" story in pot culture, it slowly radiated out, and now 43 is kind of like the "lucky number" for all of BMX.  This is unit 43 at my old storage unit complex.  I just lost my unit, I couldn't keep the payments up, and it was #143.  Really. 

I wasn't sure what kind of caption to put on this freakin' crazy photo.  This is what popped in my head.  What I keep wondering is if this guy killed a leopard while out in the bush on a bike, what the hell is hiding in that tall grass behind him? 

I wrote my "Become" poem in about 1992... during the P.O.W. House days.  This one I drew on picture of northwest rider Monte Hill tweaking a turndown. 

Todd Lyons, a one time roommate of mine, and now the media savy brand manager for SE Bikes, is always getting kids giving him shit because the SE cruisers sell out of bike shops too fast.  I had TL in mind when I made this one recently.  

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My BMX memes #1

That top drawing, and the upside down bail below, are ones I drew in my #sharpiescribblestyle, back in 2016, I think.  The one handled tabletop is Jason Davies, and he did actually give my a thumbs up to draw that photo of him, quite a while before he passed away, in May of this year.  Ride In Peace, Jason. It's a bit cut off, the quote reads, "Bike: a four letter word, that when used properly, relieves the stress that leads to the use of other four letter words."

 

 In 2019, shortly after returning to California, I was working to promote a BMX website that didn't work out.  During that time, I started digging through thousands of public domain, vintage photos online, looking for bike related pics.  I found quite a few, including several that no one had seen before, at least in modern, BMX times.  So I started making memes of them.  "You complete me," above, is one of the many.  Most of the vintage photos in these memes date from the 1890's to the 1920's. 

When I lived in the P.O.W. House back in 1992-1993, we had a motto about life that we called "The 3 B's."  That stood for "Beer, Bikes, and Bitches."  Typical 20-something guys' priorities.  It later got extended to "The 5 B's, 'Bikes, Boards, Beer, Bongs, and Bitches.'"  Obviously, from the photo above, the bikes and babes theme goes way back, long before our day.

1980's freestyle legend Craig Grasso was lost to the Dark Side for quite a while, and none of us had heard from him in years at one point.  I made this meme back then.  He has since reappeared on the scene, and is living and doing art in Las Vegas these days. 

The is the first meme I made, trying to figure out how to work PicMonkey, back in 2019, I think.  I nabbed the photo of RonWilkerson blasting on the Woodward West Mega ramp. 

Did you have a grandpa that used to say things like, "Back when I was a kid we ate road kill 'possum for Sunday dinner, and we were THANKFUL.!"  Well, I did.  OK, not the road kill 'possum part, but he did actually tell me he walked 4 miles to school barefoot once or twice.  And that I wasn't thankful for anything.  That grandpa idea was in my head when I drew this one.  The photo is one of Dennis McCoy's worst bail photos, which I borrowed.

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