New BMX memes... Mike "Hucker" Clark, Jess Gregory, Tucker Smith, and a couple vintage pics

 Mike "Hucker" Clark with some crazy corked out 360 at Sheep Hills.  Boozer Jam 2021. 

I got a little more time to work online now, I found a library that's open.  So I'm starting on a new batch of BMX memes.  The photos of Hucker, Jesse, and Tucker are my pics from Boozer Jam 2021.  The other two are vintage public domain photos I found, digging through thousands of public domain photos from way back.  Enjoy.  Feel free to share if you like these people.  #steveemigphotos

Jesse Gergory, S&M Bikes/Rock Star Energy Drink/Etnies rider, and one of the best female jumpers out there these days.  She can manual crazy good, too.  @lilbmxwolf on Instagram.

Tucker fuckin' rips.  Why is he not in a bunch more videos?  Seriously... why not?  Somebody shoot more quality footage of Tucker.  @tuckersmithbmx on Instagram. 

I honestly hope Mat doesn't get any stupid ideas when he gets this, like trying something like this. 

Todd Lyons, one of my old roommates from the POW House days in the early 90's, is brand manager as SE Bikes now.  He's always sharing comments from haters, mad that the bikes sell as soon as they get to shops or online sellers.  So kids are always bitching about having to wait for the next shipment to come in to get a bike.  When I saw this photo, that came to mind. 

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Ron Wilkerson at the Huntington Beach AFA contest in 1985

The first big innovator in lip tricks on vert, Haro pro in the 1980's, 1/2 of the 2-Hip Trick team, and the guy who started putting on 2-Hip King of Vert, and then Meet the Street contests, in 1987-88.  Later came Wilkerson Airlines.  Ron Wilkerson, one of the most influential BMX freestyle riders ever.  Hey, he invented the abubaca, and a bunch of other stuff. 

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Badlands movie Kickstarter didn't fund... yet.

Here's vert legend Mike Dominguez in the Pipe Bowl at Pipeline skatepark in 1985.  This was the contest he uncorked the no-footed can-can.

I've been pushing the old school BMX world to support Don Hoffman's Kickstarter campaign to make the "Badlands" documentary, which would tell the story of Baldy Pipe, Pipeline skatepark, and the influence it had.  It's primarily a skate story, but BMX vert is part of the story.  The campaign ended a couple days ago, and it found 115 backers pledging $16, 843 (43!) towards the $150,000 goal.  Don isn't giving up.  He's going to regroup and keep working on getting this done.

For me personally, Pipeline was a place I first read about in BMX Plus in 1982 or 1983, as a high school kid in Idaho.  The skatepark, and its riders, instantly became legendary to our little Idaho riding crew.  It seemed like a magical place a million miles away then.

As the years passed, I ended up riding Pipeline a few times right before it closed.  In fact, I had my front tire crab in the pipe while oververt the last night it was open.  That sent me into a Superman dive straight down 11 feet onto it's hard, hard concrete.  I ended up going to the emergency room, thinking my wrist was broken.  I was actually stoked that I might have the last broken bone from Pipeline.  It turned out to be a really bad palm bruise, and I couldn't hang onto my grip for a month afterward.

Since I worked under Don Hoffman at Unreel Productions then, I got to go up and shoot video, and ride, several times after the park closed.  The fences were getting torn down, which opened up a whole bunch of lines not possible before.  I was jumping out of the four foot bowl and doing a little nose wheelie into the ditch, among other things.  During those sessions, Fiola, Blyther, Steve Alba, Micke Alba, and several Vision skaters had some epic sessions.  It was great being able to ride without little kids yelling "Next after after next" before rolling in.  I chipped about eight blue tiles out of the shallow part of the Combi right after Malba and Salba got themselves some.  I didn't bother going up the weekend in got demolished for the last session, I think there was a freestyle event that weekend.

I really hope Don manages to get this movie made, because it's a big part of the history of everyone who's ridden vert in ANY sport.
 

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Bob Morales explaining skatepark equipment in 1984

As the Kickstarter crowdfunding clock ticks away for the Badlands (Pipeline Skatepark) documentary, I realized that a lot of the old and mid school riders out there don't realize just how big of a part Pipeline played in vert riding.  Like Dogtown and Z-Boys and Joe Kid on a Stingray, this movie will tell a great story about how vert skating and BMX got off the ground.  Pun intended.  Some park had to be the first to actually build bowl with vertical walls, and that park was Pipeline.

In this clip we see Don Hoffman, the man behind the Badlands movie, ask early skatepark rider/contest promoter Bob Morales to explain the set-up for early vert riders, and Eddie Fiola, the original King of the Skateparks is the rider.  These three guys played huge roles in making BMX/bike stunts what it is today, and what it was when we all did it.  Help the Badlands Movie Kickstarter campaign to get this documentary made.  18 days to go, $7,403 and counting...  

Blogger's note- 7/30/2025- The Badlands Movie (Pipeline Skatepark documentary) never happened.  That's really a bummer, it needs to happen.  But it hasn't yet.

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Chris Miller at Pipeline

Chris Miller flat out shredding Pipeline after it closed.

When I got the job at Unreel Productions, Vision's video company, in late 1987, I spent most of my time in a little room with a bunch of machines making copies of different videos.  I also got the job of organizing the tape library, which was boxes of hundreds of  tapes which were not labeled well.  Most of those tapes were betacam camera originals.  In those days, big, 35 pound, betacam cameras were the "broadcast quality" standard.  The cameras cost about $50,000, and the video quality was high enough to be shown on broadcast TV.  So when a cameraman went out to shoot something, they came back with a bunch of these tapes.  Each tape was in a plastic case, and ten of those fit into a cardboard tape box.

So while I was making copies of one thing or another, I would pull out a box of these betacam tapes, figure out what contest or video shoot it was, and label all the tapes and boxes by hand, so we could find that footage easily later.  In the course of doing this, I saw all the footage that was being shot, and I looked at all the old camera tapes and master tapes of videos already made.  So I became real familiar with each skater, biker, or snowboarder's style and abilities.

At the same time, I would get off work and go ride my BMX freestyle bike for two or three hours every night.  Often I would ride to work, and then hit a whole bunch of street spots around Huntington Beach on my way home.  So watching all the footage definitely stoked me to ride, and gave me ideas for tricks sometimes.

It didn't take long for me to be blown away by the skating of Chris Miller.  He had this effortless looking flow around the pools that was absolutely oozing with style.  I decided that I wanted to learn to ride my bike the way Chris Miller skated.  That never happened.  But it was definitely a good goal to work towards.

In this clip, we see Chris first in the 15 bowl, the biggest vert bowl at Pipeline, and then he's skating the back bowls, which rarely get seen in videos.  Those were the beginner bowls, and were 4 feet, 6 feet, 8 feet, and 10 feet deep.  When the park was open, there were fences between the bowls, which prevented transfers.  But after the park closed, and the fences were torn down, all kinds of new lines were possible, which is what Chris is taking advantage of.

Then he moves to the Combi Pool, the gnarliest skatepark pool in its day, and Chris tears it up.  That was the pool the skaters spent the most time in over the years.  Then he moves on to the Pipe Bowl, the pool best known to BMXers, because that's the one the riders blasted huge airs out of.  Those tuck kneed carves Chris does in the pipe are some of the coolest things in skateboarding.

The video is old, down a couple of generations, and kind of sketchy.  But Chris Miller's skating is epic.  In a bike comparison, I'd have to pick Brian Foster as the guy who best blends speed, style, and big airs like Miller does on his skate.  Both of those guys are just beautiful to watch ride.  It's no surprise that Chris Miller has ruled the Master's Class at the new combi pool in the Pro-Tec Pool Party contests for nearly a decade.

The story of Pipeline and Baldy Pipe will be told in the Badlands Movie.  You can help it get made by support the Kickstarter campaign in that link.  $6,578 and counting...

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Eddie Fiola tearing up the Pipe Bowl

I think this clip is from the 1987 GT Bikes video Demo Tape.  In any case, industry legend McGoo does a quick interview with Eddie Fiola as they look at his 1985 run from the King of the Skateparks series.  Eddie ran skinny, 1 3/8" rims for that contest, and people thought he had a 22" bike or something. 

At the time, quaterpipes ranged from the Bob Haro designed, 6' high plan in the magazines, to 9' high.  Most ramps went just up to vert.  The face wall of the Pipe Bowl at Pipeline skatepark, however, was an 8' transition with four feet of vert.  The pipe itself was 20 feet diameter.  You had to be badass just to air out of that wall in the deep end.  The fence is five feet high, and Eddie routinely got two or three feet over that. 

This was the first skatepark where BMXers could really blast airs more than 3 or 4 feet out.  Eddie Fiola established himself as the first King of the Skateparks, and was the most widely known pro freestyler to all us kids out in the rest of the country then.  His riding, along with the other skatepark riders, inspired kids all over the U.S. and U.K. to build sketchy ramps and learn to blast airs. 

In today's world of mega airs, it's hard to understand just how earth shattering these huge airs were at the time.  The 540 was a brand new trick as well.  Having the full pipe to pump speed out of, as well as a deep pool with no coping, helped Eddie and the others take riding to a whole different level.  Without Pipeline skatepark, that jump in the progression of skatepark riding may have taken years to happen.

The Badlands movie, tellling the story of Pipeline Skatepark, is now raising money on Kickstarter.  It's a huge skateboard story, but it's also a big part of BMX freestyle history.  Click the link and help support this movie getting made.   

Blogger's note- June 14, 2021- Don's still trying to find funding to make the Pipeline documentary, which really needs to happen. 

Blogger's note- 8/12/2023- The Kickstarter campaign to make the Pipeline documentary didn't raise enough, as far as I know, and I don't know if Don is still looking for money to fund the doc.

I do most of my writing on Substack now, a platform designed specifically for writers.  Check it out:

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Badlands movie: Because this never happened at your skatepark

Go to 26:26 in this video.  The Badlands Movie... because Agent Orange never played in a bowl at your skatepark.  Badlands/Pipeline Skatepark movie Kickstarter campaign.  Ante up.  Home of the first vert pools in a skatepark.  $6,293 and counting...

Blogger's note: 8/12/2023: The Kickstarter campaign for this documentary wasn't able to raise enough for the documentary to get made, which really sucks.  This post is from 2017, and I don't know if Don is still trying to find funding for the movie. 

I do most of my writing on Substack these days, a platform designed specifically for writers.  Check it out:

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