bm wrote:
This thread brings up an old memory. My friend that lived across the street was the ringleader of our little BMX/freestyle crew. Another kid down the street had a quarter pipe in his backyard but had graduated to driving cars and no longer cared about the bike so he offered to sell the quarter pipe to my friend. He bought it, but now we needed to figure out how to get it home to my friends house. None of our parents were forthcoming with ideas or assistance because they thought we were stupid and going to kill ourselves so we rounded up about 8 more of our friends, got whatever skateboards we could get our hands one, and proceeded to wheel this monstrosity home. You can imagine the difficulty in trying to get 10 to 12 skateboards working in unison and tracking straight with an 8 foot tall mass of 2x4s and plywood perched on top, but we ultimately made it. I think it took us 5 or 6 hours to go about 300 yards but we were not to be deterred, this was a quarter pipe after all. We ultimately turned it into a half-pipe and over a few years proceeded to break many bikes and bike parts, and a variety of assorted bones. Those were good times!
My childhood best friend’s dad owned the biggest and best bicycle shop in the area (still owned by their family today but different name and different location across town). They also owned the local BMX track. They had the biggest house on the block with a massive driveway. They had a half pipe in the driveway. We pretty much had BMX carte blanche to do whatever the fuck we wanted.
The mid 80s was BMX heaven for us. His dad put on freestyle and skateboard shows all the time. I’ve hung out with a whose who of freestyle and skateboard culture from that time. Most prominently Tony Hawk, Bob Haro (more or less businessman by then) and his crew, and Mat Hoffman. I loved Tony Hawk in the most straight guy kind of way. I think I was 15 at the time. Which put Tony at 17. I thought he was the coolest dude on the planet. He was making some ridiculous money for a 17 year old. I remember he said he was buying his own house or some shit.
Dave Mirra lived about 20 miles from us so our BMX track was where he got his start. He was four years younger than me but I got to know him pretty well as his father and my father worked together so he and his dad would hang out in our area on race days. He was ridiculously good. He was like 11 or 12 at the time and he was the most talented bike rider I had ever seen. He ended up moving to North Carolina if memory serves but I never forgot that kid. It was amazing to see him turn into a X Games freestyle god 10-15 years later.
He and my brother were the same age. Fast forward all these years later and they end up racked near each other (M last names) at the Syracuse 70.3. I think in 2013 or 2014. My brother went over to him and said you probably don’t remember me but you used to hang with us at the BMX track. Shame what happened to him.
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Dimond |
Cadex |
Desoto Sport |
Hoka One One
