Four BMX photos that I got published in magazines in the 1980's

Dave Voelker, blasting ten feet out of the rickety, 8 foot high, AFA Socko quarterpipe in 1987.  This photo ran in BMX Action, not sure what issue, in 1987. Dave was always one of the most fun riders to watch ride, in contests or just screwing around outside.  His riding blew my mind many times.  #steveemigphotos 

This wasn't a traditional contest, it was a Guinness Book of World Records contest.  Brian Blyther won the high air part, with a 10' 2" air, setting the first official world record high air.  Everyone new it was close with Voelker's high air, but the judges gave Brian the win.  But with my Pentax ME Super, which was pretty much idiot proof, I snapped this shot from across the way showing that Dave Voelker at what looks to be about 10' 2".  Dave rode his whole career for GT, touring the U.S. and the world promoting GT and Dyno bikes, and freestyle itself, for 25 years or so.  He was always one of the guys going the biggest, and one of the most exciting riders to watch.

There are two ways to great photos.  You can shoot photos of something great.  Or you can shoot great technical photos of something.  Ideally, a good photographer continually improves their the technical skills, so they can, when the opportunity presents itself, shoot a technically great photo of something great.  Then, in more controlled circumstances, they can shoot incredibly good technical photos of something that may not be great in of itself, but the quality of the photo makes it an amazing shot.  Some of the most historic photos are those taken by average photographers that happened to be at the right place at the right time to capture a historic moment.  

Technology always scared me, I never did learn how to use a light meter, for example.  So I've always tried to take pretty good shots of things that are interesting by their nature.  I got interested in shooting photos during a couple of weeks when we studied photography in 9th grade physics class.  I was living in New Mexico at the time, and had a little, old, 126 box camera.  I started trying taking cool photos with that.  I remember shooting photos of a tortoise that wandered through our yard, next to a model car.  I hand made a little road sign that said, "Nuclear Test Site 2 miles."  The tortoise, in the photos was bigger than a car, a nuclear mutant.  Those weren't very good, but it got me started trying to take interesting photos.  At some point I upgraded to a Kodak 110 Instamatic, the vacation snapshot camera almost everyone owned in the 1970's and early 1980's.  That's when I started looking through big photo books at the mall, and trying to take better photos, when I was about 14, as a kid in New Mexico, with the simplest of cameras.

Also snapped with my Pentax ME Super, this is Dave Vanderspek bombing down the Palm Springs Tramway road on his GPV in 1987.  This photo ran in BMX Action, FREESTYLIN', and Homeboy magazines.  Andy, Lew, and Gork were big fans of Vander.

This was the first really big Gravity Powered Vehicle, or GPV race, in the summer of 1987.  Unreel Productions shot video of the event, at 5:08 in this clip.  GPVing was the little side sport to BMX and freestyle.  It was first started by BMX guys, bombing down local hills on bikes with no pedals or chains, built from the spare bike parts in the garage.  A few different groups got into GPV's.  By this race, fairings had entered the picture, giving a huge advantage on this long, steep, relatively straight road outside of Palm Springs.  But NorCal BMX legend, and Curb Dogs head guy, Dave Vanderspek went with the helmet, leathers, and his supertuck body technique.  

I'll be honest, this photo was pure luck.  It was only the second roll of film where I tried to shoot panning shots.  With my Pentax, and its stock 50 mm lens, I could set the frame speed I wanted (1/15th or 1/30th of a second here, I forget), and it would automatically set the F-stop for the lighting conditions.  At this event, BMX racer Tommy Brackens actually passed the video camera motorcycle, in a turn, and the motorcycle was doing 85 mph.  Pat Wallace, the cameraman facing backwards on that motorcycle, told me this himself.  These guys were hauling ass.  

But I shot this photo within 100 yards of the starting line, and Vander was maybe doing 20 mph at this point.  But the helmet came out sharp, and the panning worked well, and gave the impression of the real speeds the GPV racers were hitting that day.  This photo ran in BMX Action, FREESTYLIN', and Wizard Publications two shot magazine, Homeboy.  I had three or four photos, on the roll of 36, that came out about as good as this shot.  Those guys loved this shot, since it was Dave Vanderspek, and used it in all three magazines, months after I'd been laid off there.  Even BMX Plus! photographer John Ker complimented me on this photo, and John is a seriously technical photographer who has shot thousands of photos.  If he says, "Great photo," that's a serious compliment in the BMX world.

Eddie Fiola (front), and Chris Lashua, practicing synchro wedge ramp stalls, while taking a break from doing shows at the World's Expo in Vancouver, over the summer of 1986.  #steveemigphotos 

I shot this photo in the little town square area of Whistler, British Columbia.  At the time, they were just starting to promote the idea of mountain bikers riding trails at ski resorts during the summer.  Honestly, that seemed like a stupid idea to me, at the time.  There were hardly any mountain bikers, even up in the mountains, in 1986.  The sport hadn't really taken off then.  Obviously, I was wrong, and now things like this happen right there in the center of Whistler, where this and the next photo were snapped.  

I flew up to Boise, Idaho, then rode up to this contest in the summer of 1986 with former freestyle teammate Justin Bickel, and his parents.  They were my "freestyle family" for the first year and a half that I got seriously into BMX freestyle.  This was a great week of riding fun, where I met a bunch of Canadian freestylers, Rob Dodds and Rob Thring, among them.  The BMX Worlds were being held in Whistler that weekend, and they held an amateur freestyle contest as well.  The BMX Worlds were kind of a joke then, and most racers stayed in the States to race ABA points races that weekend.  The only pros in Whistler were Stu Thompsen and Greg Hill, as I remember.  

Us freestylers just sessioned all day, and half of the night that whole week.  The Canadians taught Justin and me to play "Touchdown," which is bascially hockey-like slams on a BMX bike.  We'd all ride around and run into reach other, trying to get the other guys to touch a foot, or their whole body, on the ground.  The last guy still on the pedals was the winner.  There were some pretty solid slams happening during that.  It's a whole different kind of bike riding, Canadian-style, eh..  

Out of nowhere, the GT/Brittania motorhome rolled into Whistler one day.  Out popped Eddie Fiola and East coast pro, Chris Lashua.  They hung out for two or three days, before heading back to Vancouver, where they were doing shows.  I snapped the photo above, and the one below, while Eddie and Chris were riding, practicing and just goofing around.  Both of these photos ran in the summer tour article in the December 1986 issue of FREESTYLIN' magazine, while I was working there.  They had no photos of Chris Lashua, so I showed them mine from earlier that summer, and these two made the cut.  

Eddie Fiola rose to prominence at the very beginning of BMX freestyle as the first King of the Skateparks.  He toured with GT for years, and then got into doing stunts in the TV and film industries.  For years now he's worked as a stunt coordinator.  But he still rides freestyle regularly.  

Chris Lashua with a small ramp flipper, a front wheel 180 while hanging the back wheel over the top of the ramp.  Whistler, BC, summer of 1986.  #steveemigphotos

Chris ran the GT/Mountain Dew trick team on the East Coast for years in the 1980's.  He went on to perform for both Ringling Bros. Circus, and then was a performer for Cirque du Soleil for many years, performing in the German Wheel.  After that, he started a business building equipment for circuses.  Several years ago, he and some friends founded Cirque Mechanics, which he runs and performs in still.  

I had a couple of more photos published in the magazines, I think.  After working for BMX Action and FREESTYLIN', I wound up contributing a photo or two, or an article or two, to all six BMX magazines of the 1980's, including BMX Plus! and Super BMX, and both of their freestyle magazines, as well as one issue of Homeboy.  For most of 1987, I shot all the photos for the AFA newsletter, as well, but few copies of those have survived, so those photos are gone, except for one of Eddie Fiola I've seen on the web and social media.  

I never became a great technical photographer, I still struggle with pretty basic technology, of all kinds, in the days when everyone shoots photos nearly every day.  But I still love shooting photos, I have a pretty good eye, and get some cool shots now and then.  I'm stoked I got a handful of photos published back in the 1980's, especially because I became a video guy, and shot a lot more video than still photos.  I still see myself as some kid from Idaho who somehow stumbled into the BMX industry, and wound up seeing a lot of amazing stuff happen in the early days of BMX freestyle.  I caught a little bit of that on film and video, along the way.

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