In early 1991, pro freestyler and contest promoter Ron Wilkerson held a 2-Hip King of Dirt contest at Mission Trails, outside of San Diego. BMX was "dead," the mainstream world had given up on the sport, and we were a little underground tribe doing our thing in little pockets around the U.S. and the world. Death Jump, the big jump in this clip, was like no contest jump before. I consider it the first 'mega ramp," a 4 foot launch to a 25+ foot gap, to a hard, sandy, downhill landing. In addition, Mat Hoffman tried a backflip on dirt for the first time in a comp. This contest changed bike riding. This is my clip that appeared in the S&M Bikes video, Feel My Leg Muscles... I'm a Racer, S&M's first video.
This is my most popular blog that's still online, and I retired it with just over 100,000 page view in the spring of 2020. A lot of people still check this blog out, or stumble upon it if the Google me. So here are a few of the better things I've done that are online. Just to let you know, Steve Emig: the White Bear is banned from being linked to on Facebook and Instagram.
My two current active blogs:
Stench: Homeless Super Hero- I'm writing a fiction blog now about the world's first homeless super hero, Stench.
Crazy California 43- This blog tells little stories about locations of all kinds in California, places I find interesting, weird, funny, historical, or interesting in some way.
What 12 years of blogging can add up to
I just added up the stats of my blogs, most of them anyhow. Here's what I came up with (as of May 2021):
12 1/2 years of blogging, 25 blogs, 2,405 blog posts, 438,932 page views.
Really. Slow and steady work pays off (in content, if not in income).
Addicted to Blogs (May 2021)
My Sharpie Scribble Style artwork
In 2005, while actually living in an indie art gallery, I developed a way to shade with Sharpie markers, using overlapping scribbles. Unable to find any job while living in North Carolina, I stepped up my art game, and started to actively sell my drawings. I've done hundreds of drawings, sold around 90 originals, and my artwork has somehow made it to 6 of the 7 continents (I'm looking for art collectors in Antarctica and on the International Space Station, to go fully global). Here's a post on how my Sharpie art began. You can find it almost everywhere by searching #sharpiescribblestyle
The Birth of my Sharpie "Scribble Style
Where did "The White Bear" come from?
In 1988 I got dumped by my first fairly long term girlfriend, got depressed (and a bit drunk), and wrote a poem called "The Journey of The White Bear." It told of my journey from a super shy, naive kid in Idaho, to working in Southern California, and dating a singer in a band who was a few years older, and much more experienced partying, and at life in general. I published that poem in 1992 in a poetry zine, gave one copy to my roommate, Chris Moeller, and he started calling me The White Bear. The nickname stuck. It's not a racist poem, but used the colors white and black as metaphors for going from a naive young man to some experience at real life.
My best BMX videos
I've produced, directed, and sometimes edited 11 BMX videos, 10 of them from 1987 to 1993. I was one of the first four BMX freestyle riders to produce full length videos, which soon became a key aspect of the BMX world. Eddie Roman, Mark Eaton, and Jeremy Alder are the other three early BMX producers. I lost all my videos, masters, and raw video footage in a move in 2008. So only other people's copies online are left to share.
Oregon Pro Ramps- (1987) This is the second of 6 BMX freestyle videos I produced for Bob Morales and the AFA (American Freestyle Association) in 1987. Those video started my video career. A couple of shots from Oregon Pro Flatland were used in Mark Eaton's documentary, Joe Kid on a Stingray.
2-Hip: The '88 Adventure (later called 2-Hip BHIP). (1989) This was the first 2-Hip video that I produced for Ron Wilkerson. Part 3, the Meet the Street in Santee is linked, the other sections of vert riding are on YouTube.
The Ultimate Weekend (1990)- My first self-produced video.
Feel My Leg Muscles... I'm a Racer- (1991) - (the first S&M Bikes video)- Chris Moeller, Dave Clymer, Jimmy Levan. (Footage from Jimmy's section was later used in the documentary Go Fast, Pull Up).
44 Something- (1993) The second S&M Bikes video, made for about $750 (not including equipment costs), this video sold over 7,000 copies, and was listed as one of the ten best BMX videos of the 1990's by BMX Plus! magazine in 2000.
Huntington Beach Street Scene (1989)- The Old Man/Godfather of BMX, Scot Breithaupt, sold ESPN a bike sports series in 1989. He was editing at Unreel Productions, where I worked, and needed an idea for a show. I talked him into producing a street riding show. It went form idea to event to TV show on air in 15 days, unheard of in TV production. Myself and Randy Lawrence and some H.B. locals appear in the into. This wound up being the first made-for-TV BMX street riding TV show ever, six years before the X-Games.
Where I think our society is headed
My online book/blog about the tumultuous 2020's, where I think society is headed, and our world is headed over the next decade. I think we are now in what will be one of the craziest decades in human history. This 20 chapter book as a blog explains my thinking on why I believe that. Like this blog you're reading now, "Dystopia" is banned from being linked to on Facebook and Instagram.
Welcome to Dystopia: The Future is Now, book 1
A few of my most popular economics/futurist posts
I'm an Old School BMX freestyler, and BMX/skateboard industry guy from the 1980's/1990's. I also have a brainiac side that thinks about long term events, economic and business/social trends, and futurist thinking in general. These ideas have cost me about 20 years of my life, some people find my ideas that offensive, simply because they disagree. Here are a few of the posts on these ideas. You can make your own decision on whether these ideas make any sense or not.
Looking at a world beyond jobs (June 2017)
Larry Kudlow's Wishful thinking (January 2018)
What happens when 7-10 million men are playing video games and not working? (March 2018)
Our Economy is Powered by Unicorn Farts (March 2019)
A Beginner's Guide to the Next Great Recession (August 2019)
Predictions: As We head blindly into 2020 (January 26, 2020)
My 2021 Financial Predictions (January 4, 2021)
The Phoenix Great Depression blog- With the Repo Market crisis in September 2019, the U.S. entered a recession. With the 33% drop in GDP in the spring of 2020, we entered an official depression (3 year contraction OR a 10% drop in GDP). I believe we are in what will feel like a great depression, and may very well meet the official definition (5 year economic contraction). This blog shares my thoughts on that from 2020. For 2021-2022-2023 we will see rising prices. Inflation, high inflation, possible hyper inflation (when prices rise monthly, weekly, even daily on many items). I stopped this blog because no one wants to here what's going to happen ahead of time, even if it will totally jack up their own life.