The Nasty Jam. So... dirt jumper Cory Nastazio held this jam so long ago, even he doesn't remember what year it was. The location was Gorman, OK, outside of Gorman, which is the middle of nowhere, off The Grapevine. That's what the 5 freeway, north of Los Angeles, is called, as it rises up out of the central valley, and winds through the Santa Susana mountains, and then back down into the San Fernando Valley, just north of the L.A. basin itself.
Last night, I asked Athene, Freddie Chulo's girlfriend at the time this happened, what year this was. I knew their boy Armando was toddler size, and by gauging Armando's size, she used her mom memory, and she pegged this as the Spring of 2002. So I'm going with that, because I don't remember exactly. Thanks Athene.
I can't remember how I heard about this, I was sort of randomly running into the Sheep Hills locals at this point, now and then, and I rode up to the Nasty Jam with Barspinner Ryan Brennan (:23), Freddie Chulo, Athene, little Armando, and another rider. Marvin Lotterle, maybe? I'm not sure. I took my video camera to shoot footage, so my footage of this is another bit I lost in 2008, when I moved to North Carolina.
We were all pretty broke then, and we drove up from Orange County, through L.A. itself, through the Valley, up the Grapevine, and then down some desert road. We passed the Middle of Nowhere about two miles before we got there. Then we got up there, and it was in a federal park or state park or something, which meant there was like a $8 vehicle charge. There were like five of us, and we didn't really have the money (if we wanted to eat later, which we did). We called this lady who was helping Cory put on the event, and she said, "There's five of you and you can't afford $8?" She got the obvious answer back, "We're BMXers." Sure, Cory Nastazio was a BMX rock star then, rollin' fat and blingin', and Stephen Murray (:24) pretty much was as well, but not the rest of us. Anyhow we scraped it up, and bounced down the Jeep trail to the Nasty Jam.
Although it was way up in the mountains, it had that total backyard feel. One big, sketchy-ass jump, with a dirt mound roll in a ways away. Plywood on the ground to smooth things out a bit, and hot, hot Southern California desert sun. The riding, for that time, was off the chain, as you can see in the clip. Cory himself was blasting turndown flips, stretched Superman-seat grabs, and 360 tailwhips. I remember Reuel Erickson was doing his Superman decade jumps, which I'd never seen before. Then we had the flips, 360 tables (Butler was there), and other variations of the day.
At a time when the X-Games was turning action sports into big crowd, overly organized, stadium-like events, the Nasty Jam was low key, chill, half-assed (in organization) and loads of fun, just like we like it. There were a dozen pros maybe, and a bunch of young kids running around and watching. It was a fun afternoon in the mountains with bikes. Or a camera, in my case. Like they said, we bought raffle tickets, a little money was raised to help a fan of Cory's, a couple bikes were given away, and the band played as the afternoon faded.
The whole BMX posse headed down into Gorman, or one of those I-5 crossroads places, for a dinner that was paid for by Nasty, or someone. We took over some upscale type burger place, and had a great dinner and talked smack and joked around.
One thing I specifically remember was that the woman who helped Cory put on the Nasty Jam had a son, a skinny kid who was totally into BMX. That kid was going around, table to table, talking to all the pros, and telling them he planned to be a pro rider like them some day. I learned many years before, that those random kids actually might turn into amazing riders some day. Mat Hoffman and Steve Swope were two random kids I met in Tulsa in 1986, when they were unknown to the national scene, a couple months before Mat first got sponsored. So when some 14-year-old kid tells me he's gonna be a pro someday, I keep in mind that it just might happen.
Obviously, I'm talking about that kid for a reason, because he's this guy now:
Yep, that kid hanging out at the restaurant was a young Dakota Roche, then coming up on his 15th birthday.
I saw him around now and then after that, and remembered his name. So that's another tale of why you shouldn't blow off random kids you meet at a contest or out riding, you never know who they'll be. And last night, Armando Chulo, a toddler at the Nasty Jam, learned he spent a day chilling with Dakota Roche, before anyone knew who he was. Armando's a tall guy of about 19, heading out on his own now. How quickly they grow up. Well, except for Nasty, not sure if he's ever gonna grow up. What's he up to these days, anyway?
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