Eddie's Roman's 2000 video of fellow San Diego ripper, Dave Voelker, one of my favorite riders of all time.
I was a couple of months into the job that changed the entire course of my life, working at Wizard Publications, home of BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines. As epic as that sounds, I spent much of the first two months sitting in my office, going through boxes of Windy's old 8 X 10 black and white photos, looking for ones to decorate my office, and reading back issues of BMX Action. I was waiting for the printouts of the articles to get handed to me to proofread, and Andy, Lew, and Gork were masters of the last minute. I usually got all the copy for both magazines over about two days, the day before deadline. I also drove Windy to photo shoots, where I helped out a little, but mostly just hung out. I built up the bikes for that months bike tests. I wrote little pieces of the magazine, when asked. But it took a couple of months for my job to really evolve and keep me busy most of the time.
About the time that happened, sometime in the Fall of 1986, it was nearing the end of or normal workday. FREESTYLIN' editor Andy Jenkins came over my intercom, and said the weird, goofy, but brilliant rider, trick team owner, and inventor, Brian Scura, had a new ramp rider. He had just driven up to Wizard from San Diego to do a photo shoot with Windy Osborn, the photographer for both magazines then. Andy told me to go out side and help this new kid set up the quarterpipe for the shoot.
So I walked out of my office, through the small warehouse, out the human door next to the big roll up door, and out to the edge of the parking lot. There was a van with a flat trailer, with a sturdily built wooden quarterpipe on it. Walking around the trailer was a young guy, maybe 18 or 19, with stringy white blond hair. I told him Andy said to come out and help him set up the ramp. He said something along the lines of, "I don't really need help, Brian Scura designed this thing, he laughed, "it's pretty much a one-man job." I laughed, Brian Scura was the guy who designed the Gyro brake cable detangler, and I got the job of listening to Brian for an hour on how to properly dial in a Gyro. Then I had to put that knowledge out to the BMX freestyle world in like 2 or 3 small paragraphs. Brian was a inventive genius, so I was intrigued on how one guy could set up a big, heavy, 1980's quarterpipe. I told the blond guy I didn't have much to do, and I might as well hang out. He just laughed, and went to work unloading the ramp with off the trailer, basically by himself. There was a car jack, and the trailer tilted as I remember. It was brilliant the way it had all been designed. Typical Scura.
He was right, I stood there and pretended to help here and there, but wasn't needed. Kashiwa Street, where Wizard was located, was on the backside of a closed loop, so there was very little traffic. When riders brought their own quarterpipes, they'd set up on the side of the street, next to the Wizard parking lot. In typical freestyler fashion, the blond guy and me just started talking, riders rarely introduced themselves upon meeting back then. We all rode, so they were part of the group, no matter how they dressed or what music they listened to or what background they came from. I think at some point, Dave and I introduced ourselves, both being new to the industry side of freestyle, neither of us knowing who the other guys was.
Once the ramp was set up, Dave moved the van, and parked nearby. Then he grabbed his bike, but not his helmet, and did a few warm-up airs. Although I rode ramps, I rode them badly, and aired about coping high, or a little under. Dave's first air, just to check out how the ramp was sitting, was maybe 5 or 6 feet. That was a solid air for any rider then. The top pro riders of the era topped out at about 8 foot straight airs in contests, did variations 2 or 3 feet lower, and a few could push ten foot airs on their personal ramps. Every rider's quarterpipe was different then, with transitions from 5 1/2 feet to 9 feet. Some had a couple inches of vert, some were still the slightly undervert, six foot tall, Bob Haro-style ramps that had started quarterpipe riding. The Brian Scura Trick Team ramp was 8 feet high, as I recall, big for the day, and I sat there watching this unknown kid from San Diego, Dave Voelker, blast several six or seven foot airs without his helmet on. That was insane at the time.
Then he headed to the ramp a tiny bit slower, and I gasped as his bike went completely upside down, for a couple seconds, I thought he'd looped out, and this new kid was going to kill himself before Windy got a chance to shoot a single photo. As I caught my breath, I realized he was actually doing a downside footplant at the very top of the ramp. There were 2 or 3 riders that did downside footplants. But this Voelker guy did one so freakin' upside down, and so stretched out, that it blew my mind. As he rode back from it, I told him I thought he was going to bail right then. He just laughed and said something along the lines of, "Yeah, people trip out on those."
A couple of airs later, Windy walked out with her camera. I asked if she needed any help, because I just wanted to see what this blond nutcase was going to do with his helmet on. But Windy said she had it handled, and it was still during work hours, so I had to head back inside, and miss the actual photo shoot.
As the years passed, Dave Voelker did one crazy thing after another that blew my mind, and everyone else's. His flatland riding influenced mine, and I learned to do quicker flat ground 360's, because the ones he did looked so cool. On top of amazing riding, Dave was always just a cool dude to hang out with, he always just seemed kinda stoked to just be riding. And that's a good thing.
When I came across this photo from a few years back, the best footplant photo of Dave I've ever seen, I knew I had to do my own Sharpie art version of it. That's the drawing below. I got Dave's OK to draw it, and sell some copies, and he's getting the original. I'm doing 20 high quality color copies, signed and numbered by me. Like the John "Dizz" Hicks drawing I did recently, I put a kind of apocalyptic, dystopian, urban background in this one. I wanted to do something different than the lyrics and song titles I've done in the backgrounds of my musician drawings. Also, we're in really crazy times in the world these days, and I kind of want to remind everyone that no matter how dark things may seem, BMX freestyle riding shines bright.
Eveyone who gets a drawing copy can get Dave's autograph, if you meet up with him at some point, I left room for that. Half of the drawings are on their way to Europe, and there are 4 of the 20 still available as I write this. If you're interested in one of those, hit me up on Facebook, or email me at: stevenemig13@gmail.com .
Now grab a cool drink, and watch that video above. It's one of the classics that never gets old. Thanks Dave for letting me draw this, and thanks to Shad Holland, whose photo of the drawing copy I'm using below. You can also order some of Windy's classic BMX photos, and her new stuff, on her website at windyosborn.com . You can find my Sharpie artwork all over using #sharpiescribblestyle.
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