Author Topic: pics/stories of what got you started  (Read 2793 times)

Offline Stubbleduck43

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pics/stories of what got you started
« on: December 04, 2009, 05:39:47 AM »
I'll start with pics:







You can thank this guy for getting me really into hardcore BMX.

Robert Saucedo

Offline BigDaddyEP

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Re: pics/stories of what got you started
« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2009, 06:07:12 AM »
I went to the 1999 X-Games in San Francisco hoping to see BMX vert or park.  Instead I stumbled upon an empty space of concrete with a bunch of flatlanders.  I had seen flatland before, but never up close.  From that point on I was addicted.

Offline cow

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Re: pics/stories of what got you started
« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2009, 06:27:16 AM »
trevor meyer on all white dyno slammer at the x-games flatland comp qualifiers on cable (Espn)....i had just moved outta my mom's house and pooled with some friends to install cable.

the first night we sat down to watch tele....we were flicking through the stations and i saw an image/run i would never forget.....trevor busted a manual-death truck coasting to turbine it two footed and i don't know if he ran out of speed or what but the guy instead of touching down he let the bike go up sided down,foot ended up on the front pegs hands on rear pegs and came out into a backward hitchhiker..............man me and my friends could'nt stop screaming and that night i made a vow to do that and never stop....... haven't yet..............

and they say television can do nothing for flatland...............  :ph34r: :beer: ;D :P :mellow:
Whatever you want in life is gonna take some effort on your part!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fact is, freestyle riding was, is, and will always be evolving and moving in different directions. So just do what you want and have fun with it. Trends come and go.- TYRONE WILLIAMS

Offline B-random Fantom

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Re: pics/stories of what got you started
« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2009, 07:02:09 AM »
I started off skateboarding but a group of freestylers used to ride flatland at the school in front of my friend's house so once he got into it, he got me into it and I never gave-up. I got into it just before this happened, which incidentally happened on the block that I lived on.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG_c4L_Myt8[/youtube]
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Offline tod miller

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Re: pics/stories of what got you started
« Reply #4 on: December 04, 2009, 08:03:57 AM »
Okay.  Where do I begin.  I guess the first time I saw freestyle was in an old issue of BMX Action.  I just randomly picked that up at the grocery store.  This was early 85...maybe late 84.  The first time I ever saw freestyle in person was watching Ruben Castillo do "Wheelie Walks" or maybe it was a Switzerland Squeaker  in front of my school one day.  I was stoked! 

This is Ruben.



Still get to ride with him every so often, and he STILL kills it. 

The guy that I started riding with on an almost daily basis was Chris Balles.  Hands down, one of the best bike riders I have ever seen.  Only guy I know that calls himself a flatlander that can/could do 720 jumps.   He hosts the Texas Flatland Roundup, and is still one of the coolest guys I have ever met. 

I wanted to post a way old school photo of him, but I had to steal this from his Facebook.  Probably a few years old?



Stubble...I remember Robert Saucedo.  You probably remember Chris and Ruben from the old AFA days here in Texas.
"A puppet no more!"

Offline sneakflat

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Re: pics/stories of what got you started
« Reply #5 on: December 04, 2009, 12:52:27 PM »
i had never even heard of flatland till a friend of mine got his hands on matt willhelms ground rules somehow. and this vid kept me motivated after that
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2LTVhqHAdo[/youtube]
I say to them its flatland and their like ?!?! :huh: im like  :rolleyes:

Re: pics/stories of what got you started
« Reply #6 on: December 04, 2009, 02:30:28 PM »
Stubbleduck, I love the pics of the hand-painted quarterpipe!

In the days before cool ramp stickers, we learned airs on a giant 6-foot high hand-painted Vision Street Wear logo!

Nice pics..

Offline Stubbleduck43

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Re: pics/stories of what got you started
« Reply #7 on: December 05, 2009, 06:38:32 AM »

Stubble...I remember Robert Saucedo.  You probably remember Chris and Ruben from the old AFA days here in Texas.

I remember watching Ruben on a 16 inch bike back in the day with his brother Robert.

Offline Stubbleduck43

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Re: pics/stories of what got you started
« Reply #8 on: December 05, 2009, 06:41:59 AM »
Stubbleduck, I love the pics of the hand-painted quarterpipe!

In the days before cool ramp stickers, we learned airs on a giant 6-foot high hand-painted Vision Street Wear logo!

Nice pics..

Thanks!  Actually ther were 2 quarter pipes side by side with a 3 or 4 foot gap between them.  Robert was doing 540's over the gap about 5 ft. up.  I'll see if he has pics. 

Offline trevoro

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Re: pics/stories of what got you started
« Reply #9 on: December 05, 2009, 06:48:18 AM »
There was a picture of andrew faris on the cover of our local newspaper. I wish I still had it. He was riding a blue Basic (STH or Aura - not sure).

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Re: pics/stories of what got you started
« Reply #10 on: December 05, 2009, 10:03:42 PM »
intrikat infinite pieces martti kuoppa Small | Large


So. f*cking. Good.

Offline jsteady

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Re: pics/stories of what got you started
« Reply #11 on: December 05, 2009, 10:42:51 PM »
Rad Intro Small | Large

Rad BMX dance Small | Large


« Last Edit: December 05, 2009, 10:51:47 PM by JSteady »

Offline flem

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Re: pics/stories of what got you started
« Reply #12 on: December 05, 2009, 10:43:02 PM »

Offline EZChris

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Re: pics/stories of what got you started
« Reply #13 on: December 06, 2009, 03:28:33 AM »
BMX
TRIX




Oh and a few random articles in RideBMXUK
Proud member of the Spaff Cartel.

TGK

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Re: pics/stories of what got you started
« Reply #14 on: December 06, 2009, 04:49:38 AM »
When I was about 6 years old I had watched my neighbor do tricks out in the street.  The most I remember him doing was pogo type tricks and maybe a few boomerang variations.  I was pretty much convinced that this was the coolest thing in the world, but had to sustain my sorrows till about 7 or 8 years old to get "a cool new bike" to ride !





I ended up getting a sky way bike and to look back at the color combination, you would think I was either gay, or it was a girl's bike. (lol- all white with lavender parts here and there). This bike lasted me a whole 2 years (can ya believe it?) But when I started to learn how to jump and grind, I quickly became very used to the "1" head set dilemma everyone had!  






 About or around age 12 is when I met up with this guy Matt, I never knew that he lived so close to my house witch was about a 5 minute bike ride(if that!). He had just recently stopped racing bikes and decided to ride more "freestyle" as a way to express himself also.  A summer had went past, and I had met a lot of cool people, and was very fortunate to live with-in riding distance to a indoor park, and outside vert ramp(made of dam metal!)called " Tam-o-shanter." I recall a few days after I had seen and sessioned this park, is meeting up with a two other guys that didn't live to far from my home,that also knew Matt. Both where opposite twins of each other, and Matt rode a scooter,(and always talked of this James Magraw dude as" scooter king"!) and Rick rode (from what I remember) a DMC frame with a lot of aftermarket parts.  It was funny how both having a Hispanic race got dubbed the "taco-twins". Lol.






Several years of both riding with the "taco-twins" and my buddy Matt was great, and never a dull moment. There would always be some sort of progression going on, weather it was me landing my first steam-funky chicken- back to steam, or Rick getting a crack packer glide, or even scooter Matt finding a way to get his fwd ropes dialed.





 On occasions a few of us would ride up to the local bike shop(Reggie's), and watch the Dorkin' vids from time to time.  This is where I had met my good friends Mike, and Chris(both now work for S&M- or used to-?-). With-in a few years time, I had not only learned a lot of basic flatland moves, but also a lot of jumping, grinding tricks that where always fun and made riding not only dangerous, but mentally stimulating . Ha




A few days before this demo at the local Tam-o-shanter skate park, I had met this guy  named Scott Powell through the taco-twins and another guy named Eric who both killed it on flat ground. This was also the very first time I had ever witnessed someone do a forwards hitch hiker across a parking lot! DAM I was stoked!      
  It wasn't till I met Scott, then a few days later meeting Kevin Jones doing hiker jugglers at a 2-hip demo at Tam-o-shanter that positively  this was the direction I wanted my life to go.  From there on out I have dedicated my life and mind set perspectives to coincide with riding , one way or another, there has been some pretty crazy stories from myself, and my friends over the coarse of 20+ years of riding, but as DMC had said, I wouldn't want to live and ride at any other part in bmx, because I know I would have missed out on a lot of everything.  




I guess looking back from the beginning up until the present, that I have been a very fortunate person to have not only grown up where I did, but have had the opportunity to meet some really cool people early on in life, and along the way.

(Sorry so long-lol).