One of the original flatland innovators of the 1980's, long time GT pro, Martin Aparijo, is still riding a lot, and he just keeps getting smoother. Here are a three of his recent videos, all short sequences, of him in the last month or so, from Martin's YouTube channel. Above he does a silky smooth backwards wheelie variation.
Here are some more short clips:
And the link to Martin's YouTube channel main page
If you read have read my blogs on any kind of regular basis, you know my BMX posts are usually my personal stories, sometimes my own little adventures riding, but often something I witnessed, usually involving a top rider or event. Basically, I write BMX memoir tales, mostly. It makes sense to add a little story here.
Thanks to my zine, and meeting FREESTYLIN' magazine editor, Andy Jenkins, at a contest, I got my first chance to do a freelance article for FREESTYLIN' in the spring of 1986. Andy asked me to write the article for the Tulsa, Oklahoma AFA Masters contest, which I was going to anyway to compete in. In the magazine world then, freelance writers would pay our way to an event, write the article afterwards, and then get a check for the work when the magazine issue was published, which was usually about three months later. I was working at Pizza Hut when I got the gig, making about $450 a month. I flew solo to Tulsa on a wing and a prayer, with barely enough money to scrape through the weekend. I didn't didn't have hotel reservations, I didn't even know where the contest was being held. It was the first time I had ever flown to a contest, and the first time I had ever flown solo anywhere. In other words, I was an idiot at traveling.
I headed out of San Jose airport, and like every flight west of the Mississippi seems to do, my my plane flew over the rand Canyon, and then had a layover at Dallas/Fort Worth. My dad had flown through DFW, and told me to find my next gate while on the first flight, since it could be a long walk, even a run, if I had to go from end to end of the airport. I got my bearings with the airport map in the online magazine, and made it to the gate of my second flight, and waited there. I didn't see any other BMX riders, but it was a huge airport, so I didn't really expect to.
Then, about fifteen minutes before the plane was ready to load, I saw Eddie Fiola, Martin Aparijo, and some blond guy walk up, across the aisle. I knew Eddie and Martin from all the magazine photos I'd seen of them. At the time, I was still incredibly shy, and hated to go up and introduce myself to people. I was like a Rainman level of shy then, or pretty close. But it was also my first major trip to an AFA contest, and I needed to meet as many top pros and amateurs as I could, to get info for my article. I got past the shyness, and walked over and introduced myself.
Martin and Eddie were totally cool, and they introduced me to the other guy, a kid named Josh White. Josh White had just done the photo shoot and interview for FREESTYLIN' that would blow him up as one of the top new vert riders, but the magazine wouldn't be out for a couple of months. So he was still unknown to most freestylers. I hung out and talked to them until the last boarding call, when I was getting really nervous. But we all walked to the ramp, and made the plane. That was the day I met Martin Aparijo, late March or early April of 1986.
I wound up meeting two other up-and-coming vert riders at that contest. I met an East coast kid named Joe Johnson at the Tulsa airport. There was another kid, a younger one, who was doing some crazy variations, as well, but I didn't get is name at the contest. As fate would have it, that kid got his first editorial photo in my first freelance article. That article, a review of my zine, and most amazing, the Josh White interview, all appeared in the July 1986 issue of FREESTYLIN'. The kid who got his first photo was none other than Oklahoma local, Mat Hoffman.
Starting with meeting Martin, Eddie, and Josh, that was the coolest weekend of my life up until that point. Joe Johnson introduced me to the Haro guys, and I crashed in one of their rooms for the weekend. I seriously felt like I had won some contest. The GT guys were at a different motel, but many of the top riders were at the trusty old Holiday Inn, where I stayed. It was a crazy weekend.
Right about the time that Tulsa article came out, I got flown down to Wizard Publications, to interview for a job there, and getting hired changed the course of my life. Part of my new job was driving Windy Osborn, the photographer, to photo shoots. One of the first bike tests we did was for a GT freestyle bike. We did a photo shoot with Martin Aparijo on a sidewalk in Redondo Beach, doing Miami hop hops. That was the first time I really talked to Martin at any length.
Here's Martin praying those mags would hold up, in that FREESTYLIN' photo from 1986. Windy Osborn photos, borrowed from the web.
Martin's an all around cool guy. Besides being a pioneering freestyler and a better dirt jumper than most people realized, he's always down to tell you a story or two. If you're struggling, he's likely to give you a pep talk to get back on track. When I make it down to H.B. Tuesdays in Huntington Beach, Martin's always there, gliding some new variation of the classic tricks, and telling stories.
I wanted to do a quick post tonight, and the thought of showing everyone who reads my blog Martin's YouTube channel seemed like a good idea. If you haven't already, go check out his channel, as he keeps adding more videos, and keeps getting smoother and smoother it seems.
No comments:
Post a Comment