The Reaction to my RAD movie blog post

Over a couple of days, that previous post about the movie RAD got 1343 pageviews from the Old School BMX world.  I also got more comments from that post, across multiple Facebook groups, than from any post in years.  My whole point in writing it was that, when RAD came out, BMX freestyle was this weird little "sport," largely unknown to the mainstream world, and it meant everything to me.  I was 19 years old, couldn't afford college, and everyone in my life thought I was completely nuts for wasting every day learning tricks on a "little kid's bike."  I was a complete dork, I was really uptight, and I had to continually justify to everyone why this weird sport meant so much to me.  In my heart, I knew it was where I belonged, but no one else believed that then.  I was hoping that having a real movie made about the sport would legitimize my weird habit of riding to those around me.  In addition, I think I had just written my first freelance article for FREESTYLIN' magazine.  Because of assignment, I was able to hang out with pro riders at the Tulsa AFA Masters that year, and got my first taste of being an actual part of the freestyle world.  I was looking to RAD to explain to non-riders why I rode BMX bikes all day, then did my shift at Pizza Hut, then typed my zines all night.

RAD was a pretty typical Hollywood movie, written and produced by people who didn't ride, to entertain a mass audience.  My personal expectations of RAD were completely unrealistic.  That was the point of my post.  In the comments, a few riders, at similar levels in their BMX freestyle life, thought the same thing I did.  But not everyone.

Some riders didn't even see RAD, and it had no effect on them.  Some just saw it as entertainment, didn't expect much of it, and thought it was alright.  But the riders who either saw RAD when they were really young, or saw it before they even got into riding, loved it.  To younger kids, RAD made BMX look awesome, and probably got a lot of kids into riding BMX bikes in the first place.

When I wrote the blog post, I expected a few comments.  But the number of people who commented, and the wide range of opinions amazed, and really stoked, me.  One guy called me a douchebag in a comment, then thought better of it, and was editing the comment as I tried to respond.  So I thanked him in another comment, because I could totally see where he was coming from, especially how I talked about the whole "Bacon Number" bit in Hollywood.  We actually had a cool comment discussion after that.

In another comment, I wondered out loud if RAD had any effect on rider/video producer Eddie Roman, since his first school project BMX video, "Aggro Riding and Kung Fu Fighting," came out that same year.  Eddie, who I think was doing missionary work in the Caribbean this past week, responded, saying it didn't.  His love for comics and kung fu movies,, along with his love for freestyle did.

One comment had took me back to the reason I write old school BMX stories in my various blogs in the first place.  I shot a lot of video in the late 1980's for Vision, and from 1990 on, for myself.  I shot and produced The Ultimate Weekend in 1990.  Some of my footage wound up in the first two S&M Bikes videos.  But most of my raw footage was never seen by anyone, except me.  I had one of the best collections of Mid School BMX footage, from 1990-2007, that existed.  I was planning to make a BMX freestyle documentary in 2010, the 20th anniversary of  The Ultimate Weekend.  I was able to keep most of my footage safe (some disappeared while stored in the S&M Bikes warehouse around '93), through years of homelessness and other tough times.

But when circumstances forced me to move to North Carolina, where my family ended up living, in 2008, I lost everything.  My master tapes of videos I'd produced, all my raw footage, my BMX/skate/rock climbing magazine collection, including a complete collection of FREESTYLIN' magazine, and all my other creative work.  I had nothing left but memories.  So I started blogging.  My BMX blog posts are my documentary. 

I was a goofy kid living in Boise, Idaho who got into BMX in 1982, and freestyle in '83.  Against all odds, I somehow stumbled into the BMX (and later skateboard) industry, thanks to my first zine.  I met everyone, and worked side by side with the Wizard Publications crew, Bob Morales at the AFA, Don Hoffman at Unreel Productions, Scot Breithaupt on TV shows, and then Chris Moeller in the early days of S&M Bikes.  I hung with freestyle mentor/punk rock encyclopedia Mike Sarrail at the Huntington Beach Pier, and with freestyle skaters Pierre Andre and Don Brown there as well.  I was a professional sidekick, helping the people who were making the sport happen, and watching a lot of it happen firsthand.  I didn't have the personality back then to start my own business.  But that made me a great witness as all this cool stuff happened around me.

There's an old saying, "History is written by the victors."  That's not really true.  History is actually written by the scribes, monks, journalists, editors, zine publishers, photographers, and DIY video producers who are standing near the victors.  In the mid to late 1980's, in the BMX freestyle world, I was one of those guys.  That's why I blog, that's why I'll keep telling my BMX and skate stories, and that's why I really appreciate all the other Old and Mid School Riders taking the time to read my blog posts, and to comment and add your own memories and thoughts to the mix.

I'm still learning from this sport that shaped so much of who I am 30-some years ago.  Oh, and if you write the word "Rad" in a facebook comment, weird little thumbs-up asteroids shoot across your screen.  Who knew?

I'm doing most of my writing on Substack now, check it out:

Steve Emig The White Bear's Substack