Dave Vanderspek GPV drawing

 Dave Vanderspek was a pioneer BMX freestyler and skateboarder from San Francisco in the 1980's.  I work from photos on the drawings I do now, and this is from the best photo I've ever shot.  In the mid-80's, BMXers started putting old bike parts together with no pedals, and bombing down hills powered by gravity alone.  These bikes were called Gravity Powered Vehicles, of GPV's.  At a GPV race outside Palm Springs, California in the summer of 1987, I shot the panning shot of Dave Vanderspek below.  The crazy thing was, it was only the second roll I'd ever shot trying panning shots where you blur the background.  The stars aligned that day, and I got this great shot of Vander, a favorite of the guys at BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines, where I worked briefly.  This photo ran in both magazines, and in a special issue called Homeboy. 

When I started drawing pics of old school BMX photos, I knew I had to draw my Vander photo.  Yeah, the photo's black and white, but there's a quick shot of Dave in this video (at 7:25), so I was able to get the colors for the pic.  Dave died in a bizarre way at age 24, but even so, he was one of the most influential BMX freestylers of the early years of the sport.  R.I.P. Dave.  43.