ok...have a few minutes? heres my story. the (very)SHORT version.lol
well, ill be 34 in Dec. guess u can say i started tryin wheelies and side-kicks back on my banana seat Silver Fox bike after seein some older guys in the city doin bunny-hops and wheelies on their Mongooses back in like 1980 or so. i always thought what they where doin was the baddest-azz shyt id ever seen. i wanted so badly to be like them. well, not LIKE them cuz they were mostly a-holes, but i wanted to do kool tricks like they did and hop over garbage cans like they did.
it wasnt til around 1985 when i was at Lafayette St school library and came across an old bmx mag (with pics of Bob Haro, Mike Buff, etc. doin this crazy shyt on half-pipes) that i actually said to myself, "THIS is what i want to do".
after about a year or so of beggin the moms for a BMX/Freestyle bike, she finally came home from work one day and surprised me with a trip to this shop in Belleville,NJ. she set a price limit and said i could walk out with ANY bike within that range. i think i was there for about 2 hours trying to narrow my choices. finally, i decided to go with the one bike(at the time, or in that shop) that had an ACS Rotor on it. and that nite, i slept with my 1st freestyle bike next to me, a Mongoose FS-1. it was grey and had white skyway mags. i was sooo stoked.
shortly after i saw the movie RAD, and bytch-it was on from there. every waking moment- i was on my bike trying to duplicate what RL, Eddie, Ron, Martin, etc where doing in the opening and closing scenes of the movie.
after about a year-i had most of the flat tricks down pretty good. the infinity rolls, grasshoppers, crickets, tailwhips, pogos, cherry pickers, and miami hoppers were all pretty smooth and dialed. i would ride in a HUGE b-ball court at a park just a block from my house called Independence Park. the smooothest most beautiful spot u can imagine. sorta simlilar to the Green Mile. thats where i met my 1st freestyle bud, Little Manny. he was just gettin started too.
every once in while we would see some slightly older dudes busting tricks at the other end of the park. Manny was afraid to go talk to them cuz he thought they looked too "thug" and would want to steal his bike.(he rode an 87 Mongoose Decade-teal in color and hooked up since his parents had some money) my way of thinking was different tho. whenever i saw someone riding freestyle-i got freakin excited like a hyper child locked in a candy store. so being the curious cat-i rode over to these guys one day and said "wazzup". that day i met some of the most influential riders/friends in my life. they were light years ahead of where i was. they were already rockin some rolling tricks while i was still hoppin around. so meetin them and riding with them would forever change my way of riding. riding with these guys pushed me to my limits and i began to progress much faster than before. their names/street-names were Kool-Aide, Dev, Dab, Albe, Mike, Fab, Mo, and a few names i cant remember. Kool-Aide and Dev being the most advanced riders.
we would ride at the courts all nite. even after the parks lights went off-we rode in the darkness. the only light being from the street lamps about 100 feet away. it didnt matter if we could see or not. freestyle was in our blood and in our souls. if i had wanked off too much as a youngster and went blind-i STILL would have rode my bike.
like all good things tho, the crew slowly began to fade as different lifestyles and choices came into play. some went and sold drugs. some were "gettin up" and taggin walls. some ran with gangs. and some were locked up or killed.
after a while i didnt see much of Kool-Aide or Dev either. they still rode but had other things goin on aswell.
i later met Nelson Leito. i would see him racin thru the park time to time on his BMX bike. one day he rode up to me and started asking if i knew so and so or rode at different spots outside of Newark,NJ. he told me about this spot in Clifton,NJ called "the bowl" where they had dirt jumps. so once again, my life had changed. not only did i ride a ton of flat-i now started riding a ton of dirt. i met the Dirt-Nerds there. Mike, Mark, Barry, and Anthony. these dudes flew like mofos! i also met Dave Pawson, Ralph Sinisi, Jeff Zielinski, Chris Civello, Joe Tiseo, Joe Miliotti, Rob Dolecki and soo many other awesome friends there. they all lived in the burb areas and didnt care to come into my city, but i rode up there almost every day to ride with these people. it would be about a 10 mile ride(on my bike)from Newark to Clifton-ride all day-ride 10 miles home. meanwhile hang-5'n or peg manuling down every big hill, grinding every ledge, and jumping every curb there was on the way home. i just loved being on my bike. nothing gave me more satisfaction-not even sex gave me that kind of rush.(not knockin sex tho.lol)
one day i was hangin with my sk8er friends Marvin, and this sk8er phenom- Danny(from Ill Nino)and we got a crazy idea to steal wood from the supermarket behind my house to build some ramps in my yard. we built a few kick-ramps and a 6 foot quarter-pipe. woulda built more and better stuff, but we only stole so much wood before the owners realized someone was taking it and they put it inside.lol
after about a week of the ramps being built-the word was out that i had ramps in my yard and 2 crazy mexicans came rollin thru my alley one day. one of them being Grimaldo Duran. he would become one of the craziest street riders id ever know.
we would take a million trips into NYC to ride at Mullaly Rink and ride ramps and flat, and ride street, chase women, get drunk, see shytty bands play. it was always a good party time with these guys. unfortunately, i couldnt see my partying ways would ever tear me away from my bike. a couple years later(after moving out of Newark and into Toms River)my drinking and drug use would get the best of me.
1 week after moving from the city and into the burbs-i left my bike on my porch overnite and the next morning it was GONE! when i left the city-i had no cash and no savings(much like now.lmao)so i couldnt afford a new bike right away. it was devastating! my soul burned to ride, but i couldnt and i let depression get the best of me. i started hangin with some low-lifes back in the city and gettin wasted all the time to mask my pain and longing to ride.
before long i was just an empty shell and lost touch with the things that once made me happy and complete. FREESTYLE!
long story short-from about 96 to about 98-99 is mostly a blur. i had no bike...my soul was lost...i wasnt myself.
in about 98-99 i started gettin my shyt back together and bought a bike. a cheap deal, but nonetheless, a bike to ride. slowly i got my skills back..somewhat.
2 years or so later-i was visiting a friend back in the city. he was one of my friends from my party times but still a kool guy and friend.(at the time) he was having carpet put into his living room so he said i couldnt bring my bike in the house even tho his kitchen and hallway were NOT getting carpet. i said, "thats fkd up", but he didnt care. he was at this point in his life starting to think he was gods gift to everything so he started treating people like dung.(i just couldnt see it yet) anywho, i left my bike in my Bronco 4x4 and we ran out to Micky Ds for some quick food. when we came back 10 mins later-my bike was gone from my truck. who knows who did it...but we were only 50 feet away from the projects. duh. do that math.
again, i was crushed with no bike.
blah blah blah more long stories short...
just after, i started getting pains in my back. eventually had it checked out and found that i had a few compression fractures in a few of my vertabrae. the doc said it was slightly healed, but it was healing funny. like things werent lining up right. i was told i shouldnt do any more riding...EVER.
shorter shorter shorter story...
few years pass again and last year i didnt have as much pain as in previous years even with doing heavy labor jobs. soooo...i decided i wanted to ride again.
Kool-Aide and i got back in touch last November and in December i had a bike built. ive been riding ever since, but not hardly as much as i used to. i think in the past 10-11 months ive riden about as much as i would have done in a week back in the day. im just happy to be alive again and back on my bike. this old dog still has pain everytime he rides, and i cant seem to get my balance and groove back but i wouldnt have it any other way. even tho it hurts and im not even close to half the rider i was then-my heart is still in it 100%.
ive been able to witness York Jam, NYC Jam, King of NY, Rock and Roll Road Fools, and few other events this year and met some awesome people along the way. damn im sooo stoked to be back! i hope this lasts forever!
FREESTYLE IS IN MY BLOOD! my soul is FREESTYLE!
RIDE ON!