Eddie Fiola at Pipeline

For an instant flashback of 1980's BMX freestyle, click here.

Now that you're feeling the 80's vibe, let's talk about Eddie Fiola.  I got into BMX in 1982, as a high school kid in Boise, Idaho.  There were about 400 kids in my high school graduation class, and I was the only BMXer.  That was BMX freestyle, outside of Southern California in the 1980's.  It wasn't even a new thing in 1983, not enough people had even heard of it to be new.  When it came to sports, kids at school were talking about Michael Jordan, I was reading magazines about Eddie Fiola, who was the biggest name in vert, and in probably in freestyle, at the time, from my magazine reading perspective.  Yes, R.L. Osborn was huge then, but BMX Action wasn't on the newsstands in Boise then, only BMX Plus! was in the 7-11's and grocery stores, where I bought my magazines.  I couldn't afford a subscription then, not until FREESTYLIN' came out in 1984.

It was in one of those 1983 magazines, that I first saw this place called Pipeline Skatepark, in some far off wonderland called Southern California.  That's how it seemed then.  I grew up in Ohio until 8th grade, moving from town to town, then we moved to New Mexico for a year, and then my dad got a job in Boise, Idaho.  In the world I grew up in, there were everyday people, kids and adults, that I saw in life.  Then there were these other people, a separate species, it seemed, that showed up in magazines and on TV.  I wasn't one of those people, I "knew" I never would be one of those people.  But I was fascinated by those "famous" people.  Even as a little kid, I would listen intently to interviews with people, athletes, actors, businessmen, musicians, politicians, and others.  I wanted to know what made those people different from us "normal" people.  So I got into this weird, new little sport of BMX freestyle with that mindset.  While I daydreamed of becoming a pro freestyler some day, there was a deeper part of me that truly believed that it could never happen.

Then I got deeper into freestyle.  I started racing, and managed to never make it out of 17 novice class... in Boise.  I never raced novices, that's part of the reason, because there were few kids my age beginning to get into BMX.  I was racing intermediates and experts much of the time.  Then I got more into freestyle, and joined the only local (or Idaho) trick team, with Jay Bickel, in 1984.  We reformed it into the Critical Condition Stunt Team, and started doing shows that his mom set up, and rode in every parade in the region.  Then, in the summer of 1985, the Bickels hauled my broke ass to the Venice Beach AFA Master comp, and then to a contest in Whistler, British Columbia, held in conjunction with the BMX Worlds.  As luck would have it, Eddie Fiola and Chris Lashua were on tour in Vancouver, and had a week to chill out, and drove up to Whistler.  Suddenly I was hanging out with 40 crazy Canadian riders, Jay Bickel, and GT pro riders Eddie and Chris.  The first day they showed up in Whistler, several of us were just kind of watching them ride at a bit of a distance.  By day three, it was like, "Yo Eddie, what's up?"  The line between "those magazine people" and us "normal people" began to blur.

Over the next year, my family moved to San Jose, and I became a part of the Golden Gate Park scene with Dave Vanderspek, Maurice Meyer, Robert Peterson, and all those guys.  Then I wound up working a Wizard Publications when Eddie Fiola was dating photographer Windy Osborn.  He became a friend, one of those people I saw nearly every day, and watched tear up the T.O.L. Ramp.

But the way things worked out, mostly because I didn't have a car, I never saw Eddie ride Pipeline.  Sometime in 1987, Mike Sarrail, my riding buddy from the Huntington Beach Pier, took me up to Pipeline one night.  Eddie was there riding that night.  The weird thing was, word in the industry was that Eddie was burned out and sick of riding then.  He was in year three of a three year GT contract, that had him touring endlessly.  Everyone in the biz kept saying Eddie was just riding out the contract, then he'd give up riding and go get into doing commercials or something in Hollywood.

Yet there was "burned out" Eddie Fiola, the guy I first saw riding Pipeline in photos, four years earlier.  He was in jeans a T-shirt, and a open face helmet, he was fucking tearing the place up.  He was having fun.  He did the classic tricks, 7 and 8 foot airs, or 2 to 3 feet "over fence," as Pipeline locals would say.  He didn't need to ride Pipeline then.  There were no more contests in skateparks to get ready for.  Eddie was laughing, joking, smiling, and blowing my fucking mind.  No sign of the burn out.  We all look at those old photos from Pipeline, and mentally compare them to quarterpipe photos of the era.  But the Pipe Bowl had four feet of vert, it was a whole different beast to ride.

Mike started calling out things to Eddie.  "Hey Eddie, can you get a foot out?"  Eddie carved into the pipe, came out at warp speed, carved the very top of the face wall, and took his top foot off and dragged it along the top of the pool.  A foot out.  A dork trick, but it looked freaking impossible to actually do.  Mike asked Eddie for a light, or something like that.  Eddie again carved the top of the pool, then popped his front wheel out, into a sprocket grind that sent up a shower of sparks.  They had several little inside jokes like that, things only the locals knew, and Eddie did one weird, but hard, trick after another.  Moves I never got a hint of in the magazines.  Then he went back to just plain shredding the park with his classic lines, but even smoother and with more style then in the skatepark contest days.

That night, I knew I had to do a an interview with Eddie, for the AFA newsletter.  So there I was, a week or two later, on a slow afternoon at Pipeline Skatepark, in Upland, shooting my own photos of Eddie Fiola shredding Pipeline.  Just like the photos I'd seen as a grommet kid in Idaho, four years earlier.  It's amazing where life can take you.

Alright, there's one post from a Never Was rider, Has Been industry guy, and ridiculously prolific blogger, to spark some memories for all of you at the Old School BMX Reunion at Woodward West this weekend.  Have fun, and I'll be posting more, and checking Instagram and Facebook for pics and videos.

Oh yeah, I know my reputation's gonna take a hit this weekend, because of the zines people have ordered from me that I never shipped out.  My East Coast banishment has made earning money damn near impossible at the moment.  If anyone wants a cool Sharpie drawing, I could use the cash to ship some of those orders out.   Email me if seriously interested in a drawing: stevenemig13@gmail.com .

Oh yeah, this blog hit 500 posts, 16 posts ago.  That's about how many Freestyle BMX Tales had.  Cool milestone.

I've got a new blog going, it's about building an art or creative business, or any small business.  You can check it out here:
WPOS Kreative Ideas