The Beach Park Ramp Jam: How I met the Curb Dogs and Skyway team guys

Here's a local TV news segment on the Beach Park Bike shop ramp jams, at the same time period I lived in San Jose.  In the clip we see Robert Peterson, Maurice Meyer, Karl Rothe, Chris Rothe, and Darcy Langlois.

As I've mentioned many times in blogs before, I got into BMX while in high school in Boise, Idaho, in June of 1982.  I raced locally throughout 1983 and into 1984, then got more into freestyle, and focused on that.  I graduated from Boise High in 1984, and used my $300 in graduation gift money to buy a Skyway T/A frame and fork set, much to everyone's dismay.  That was my first good quality BMX/freestyle bike.  In the spring of 1985, my dad got laid off, and soon found a new job in San Jose, California.  My family moved there in May, I think.  I rented a room at my best friend's house for the summer and worked my summer job as manager of a tiny amusement park called the Boise Fun Spot.  Here's the sole surviving riding photo of me from that summer, along with one of me running the Ferris Wheel.  The three women on the Ferris wheel, Kim, Michelle, and Pam, all worked there.  The photos were taken by co-worker Vaughn Kidwell. 

 Long before I met Robert Peterson, I spent the Idaho winter learning Peterson inspired balance tricks in my bedroom and the living room.  Oh yeah, real Vuarnet cat eye glasses, baby.  Found those in a field, you can't beat free.  Insert joke about my Op cord shorts here ________________.

After we closed the Fun Spot, tore down the rides, and packed it up for the winter, I got ready to move to San Jose.  I packed up my shit brown 1971 Pontiac Bonneville, which had 455 engine, and was slightly smaller than the U.S.S. Nimitz, and got about the same gas mileage.  I drove solo from Boise to San Jose, which is a story for another day.  I got situated in my parents' three bedroom apartment, and soon found a job at Pizza Hut, right down the street from the Winchester Mystery House.  I began riding solo around our area in the afternoons, and working in the evenings.  The Apple Macintosh had just debuted the year before, Apple was still a pretty small company, and I didn't hear the term "Silicon Valley," for months after moving there.  Things have changed a bit in San Jose since 1985.

I knew there was a really cool scene of riders in NorCal, but in those pre-internet days, I had no idea where to find them, and the San Francisco Bay Area is HUGE.  At that point, I'd never seen the first issue of FREESTYLIN' magazine, that told about Golden Gate Park, and where the riders sessioned at on the weekends.  I had been thinking about starting a Xerox zine about freestyle in Boise, inspired by an article in FREESTYLIN'.  So I decided that doing a zine would be a way to find and meet other riders.  I also called my Idaho teammate, Jay Bickel.  He introduced me to Skyway riders Oleg Konings and  Robert Peterson at the 1985 Venice Beach AFA contest, but didn't know how to contact either of them.  His mom said she'd try to find their numbers.

I took my photos from Boise, including the one above, and made my first zine, called "San Jose Stylin'."  It sucked, it wasn't even folded like a book, I'd never actually seen a zine in real life before, just read about them.  My first couple of issues were three pages, copied on both sides, and stapled in the upper left corner, like a test in school. I bought a manual (non-electric) Royal typewriter, 1930's era, at the San Jose Swap Meet for $15, and had my trusty 110 Kodak to take photos with.  I used my Pizza Hut money to publish my zine.  I then drove around San Jose and dropped off copies at every bike shop that carried BMX bikes. 

After a week, I got a phone call from a guy named John Vasquez, an amazing rider, and he told me to come see his ramp and meet his riding buddies, which included Vince Torres.  They were in San Jose, and I went down to session with them, and shoot some photos.  They became the main story in my second zine issue.  They also told me about riders meeting up at Golden Gate Park on the weekends, and the monthly ramp jams at Beach Park Bikes, where Robert Peterson worked.  About the same time, Jay from Idaho got back to me, also telling me about Bert and Beach Park Bikes. 

I called up Bert at the shop, and he was really cool.  He told me the next ramp jam was a week later, and that I should come ride with them.  By then, I'd sold my car.  So I borrowed my dad's car, and braved the Bay Area traffic, which scared the crap out of me at first, since we didn't have traffic much in Boise.  But I put my Skyway in the trunk, and made the trip up to Foster City, home of Beach Park Bikes.  About halfway to downtown San Francisco from my home in San Jose, Beach Park sat practically in the shadow of the enormous San Mateo Bridge. 

I got up there, a Saturday afternoon, I think.  The Skyway factory ramp was there, not even set up yet, along with the wedge ramp.  I went into the shop, asked for Robert Peterson, and introduced myself, and gave him a few of my zines.  Bert was really cool, and immediately introduced me to Dave Vanderspek and Maurice Meyer, leaders of the legendary Curb Dogs, and pro riders who were standing there.  That's the first time I met Vander and Drob.  I later met Oleg Konings again, who, by the way, is the guy who invented scuffing... in 1984.  True. 

As they set up the ramps, I got talking to another rider there, a guy named John Ficarra, who lived a couple blocks away.  We hit it off, and he wound up introducing me to other riders who showed up, which included Chris and Karl Rothe, Darcy Langlois, Tim Treacy, and I think Rick Anderson and Mike Golden, hot ramp riders, were there that day.  As I recall, John, Vince, and a couple other guys from San Jose showed up that day as well. 

Honestly, I was overwhelmed.  I was some kid from Idaho, where there were two serious freestylers, in the whole state, and I thought I was hot shit.  I got fucking schooled at Beach Park, everyone there was really good.  Suddenly I wasn't reading about Bert, Maurice, Dave, and Oleg in the magazines, I was hanging out and riding with them.  I honestly never really thought that would happen while living in Idaho.  I mean, we all played basketball as kids, too, but never expected to hang on a court with Magic Johnson Larry Bird some day.  But in freestyle, even now, riding with the top pros is a pretty normal thing if you travel to contests or jams. 

I introduced myself as "the zine guy," because I honestly didn't feel cool enough to hang with those guys.  It wasn't them, they were all cool as hell.  That was my own issues.  I don't remember much about that day, except just having a blast riding and trying to land my best tricks, and seeing all these other tricks I'd never seen before.  I hit the ramps a bit, and got more psyched on riding than ever.  I had to leave right when the jam was over, my parents needed the car to go somewhere, I think. 

The last thing I remember was John Ficarra saying, "Hey we're going to get a pizza and watch Faces of Death, you wanna come over?  As tough as it was to say "no" to an offer like that, I did, and headed back to San Jose.  A whole news phase of my freestyle life had begun, and would take me places I couldn't even imagine at the time. 

I'm going to dive into a bunch of stories about my time in San Jose, and Dave Vanderspek, in particular, because I've just finished my latest Old School Pro rider drawing, one of Dave Vanderspek, below. 

High quality color copies of this drawing, 11" X 14," each signed and numbered, on thick card stock, are available for $20.  Message me on Facebook, or email me at stevenemig13@gmail.com, if you're interested.  The first 22 are gone, but there are plenty left... for now. 

"Put your helmet on, Oleg!"