Straight outta the Midwest, John Wold and Scotty Zabielski take over the Old Fat Guy video series and fly out to the San Francisco Bay Area to meet a couple of legends and the land where the whole 43 thing was born. They skipped episode 43 and no one noticed, then came back and took it out to the Bay Area for issue #43.
So how did the 43 thing start? One of the skaters in the Curb Dogs had a dad who came home from the local store one day, pulled the changed out of his pocket, counted it, and asked, "How come every time I come home from the store, I always have 43 cents in my pocket?" His son, the skater, told this funny story to the Curb Dogs, and suddenly they started seeing the number 43 pop up over and over.
I know this, because I lived in NorCal for a year in 1985-86, and left in August of '86 to go work at FREESTYLIN' and BMX Action magazines. The little incident above happened a month of so later. A couple of months after that, the Curb Dogs and the rest of the NorCal hardcore riders came down to Southern California for a road trip. They came to Wizard Publications, and Windy the photographer went out and shot the epic photo of Dave Vanderspek doing the back wheel lipslide by the reflection pool. They came back to the warehouse, and I got off work, along with Andy Jenkins, Lew, and Gork. We were all in the parking lot hanging and bullshitting. Karl Rothe asked me what I'd been up to working there. I told Karl I had just spent a day and a half transcribing the 90 minute interview Windy did with Robert Peterson. "It was so freakin' long," I told Karl, "I transcribed like 43 pages." Karl freaked out, and had me tell the other guys. And me saying Bert's interview filled 43 pages became one of the early "43 incidents" where that number popped up randomly. The 43 thing grew among the NorCal guys, and strengthened with each 43 randomly run into. Eventually the whole "Lucky 43" idea seeped into the larger BMX freestyle collective mind, and became our lucky number as a sport.
This video is a cool little ride down memory lane. Maurice Meyer, who I always thought of as the assistant manager of NorCal is in this video, and so is Ron Wilkerson, pro rider, trick innovator, and contest promoter.
This video is a good watch for the old guys out there, fat or not, riding a lot, or not. Check it out. Oh, and this one's for Old School Joe:
Want some more old school BMX freestyle goodness? Specifically, Freestyle BMX Tales zines. You can order my pack with two, big, fat, 48 page zines about The Spot in Redondo Beach. I'm behind on sending these out, so it may be 2 to 3 weeks until I ship them. But if that's cool with you, send $15 paypal to stevenemig13@gmail.com , (steven not steve), and send your address to ship them to. Shipping included in the continental U.S. Other places, email for info. That's it. Go ride.
I've got a new blog going, it's about building and running an art or creative business, or any small business. You can check it out here:
WPOS Kreative Ideas
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