Friday, July 7, 2017

BMX freestyle legends

 I come from the world of BMX freestyle in the 1980's and 1990's.  I stumbled into the industry thanks to a zine I published, so I got to know all these guys over the years.  Ron Wilkerson (above) was a top pro freestyler for Haro Bikes for years.  He invented a lot of lip tricks on vert, and can ride anything.  He also put on the 2-Hip King of Vert Series and the 2-Hip Meet the Street series of contests, as well as starting two bike companies, Wilkerson Airlines in the 90's, and 2-Hip Bikes which is still going today.  He's one of the most influential freestylers ever.
The middle drawing is an unfinished one of Eddie Roman.  Eddie rode for Skyway bikes, could ride flatland, ramps, and street, and made several of the most influential BMX videos ever.  He was one of the lead guys as street riding turned into its own genre in the late 80's.

The bottom drawing is another San Diego street legend, Vic Murphy.  This one-footed tabletop jump was off of a curb cut.  You know those little bumps at the edge of a driveway?  Vic hit one of those and blasted this super stylish jump, which is one of the great street riding photos of the early days.  I think it's a Spike Jonze photo, from his days at FREESTYLIN' magazine.  Normally I always draw the backgrounds in my drawings.  But this one of Vic just seemed better against the white paper.  I really dig this drawing, it's one of the favorites I've done.

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