I was asked to draw this by Chad, at Powers Bike Shop, who I met recently after landing here in Richmond, VA a few weeks ago. Thanks Chad for the order, it totally helped me as I struggle first to survive at the moment, and then to turn my drawings into a legit little business. I was also stoked to draw Brian, since he's been one of my favorite guys to watch ride since I met him at the P.O.W. House 25 years ago. When Chad first mentioned Brian, the first thought in my mind was a weird little moment at the P.O.W. House.
The whole point of that house was to put a bunch of guys in a house, everybody sharing bedrooms, to make California rent as cheap as possible. We were in the long recession of the early 1990's, and everyone in the bike and skate industry learned how to make about ten different meals out of of packet of ramen. At any given time at the House, there were 3 or 4 guys totally scraping by money-wise, which we called the Roaches. I was working as a furniture mover at the time, and we were moving government offices, but the government was two months behind paying the moving company, which couldn't pay us workers. So I was in ramen mode one day when a few guys got back from a race. They had made some money, so they ordered pizzas from What A Lot of Pizza, the original $5 pizza place in SoCal. I sat there salivating, holding off on making the evening's double ramen pack dinner. Brian ate his pizza, but left the crusts, and held the box up, "Who wants pizza bones?" I jumped up, lept across the guys on the couch, and grabbed the box. I was stoked to have some pizza crusts to take the depression out of a couple days of straight ramen. That was life at the P.O.W. House, we all scraped by in our own way, some guys chowing pizza while other guys were condemned to ramen at times.
Brian Foster has been riding BMX bikes seriously for about 40 years. And out of all the amazing riding he's done in all those years, my first memory when he was mentioned was the weird little pizza incident at the P.O.W. House. Memory is a weird thing, which is probably why I'm the guy writing old school BMX stories these days.
Brian's older brother Alan was also a great rider, AA pro racer, and really good jumper. In fact Alan was in my first self-produced video, The Ultimate Weekend, in the first video coverage of the S&M Bikes posse and P.O.W. House. You can see him in this clip, bailing 360 attempts, at :29 and :46. Alan moved out to California from the East coast, to race, and younger brother Brian worked for the folks at Cyclecraft in Tennessee for a while, then followed big bro Alan out West to live in about '93. Although I was a year or two older, Alan was called "Dad" at the P.O.W. House, because he was the most responsible guy overall. Dave Clymer was kind of the mascot, the guy everyone thought of first when the House was mentioned, but Alan was the guy making sure the rent actually got paid, utilities stayed on, and the guy who climbed up on the roof in the rain to tack up plastic sheeting when a roof leak led to a drywall ceiling collapse inside. Our cheap rent was made possible by Alan keeping important details of our house under control, so the rest of us could be mindless BMX drunks most of the time. Thank Alan.
In those days, Alan and Brian were just two of my roommates, and we'd all hop in a truck to go ride a ditch, or Sheep Hills, or the local street spots around Westminster, or just session the backyard ramps. Everyone was a damn good rider, except me, I was the token goofy freestyler. But where Brian did stand out back then was in style. Brian's 1 hand 360 tables and other tricks were amazing things to watch, even back then. The jumps weren't near as big then, but when it came to stylish 360's, only Shaun Butler could rival Brian's style at the time.
In the BMX world of the early 1990's, most AA pro racers were gym rats, training like crazy, and not spending much time at the trails, and definitely not doing much street riding. But at the P.O.W. House, we had Dave Clymer, Todd Lyons, Alan Foster, and Brian Foster, all of which could hang in races, and shred on trails and street. Brian fit right in to our weird group. But his style, and soon his ability to hit REALLY BIG jumps of the day, started to build his rep as one of the best dirt jumpers out there.
The one absolutely INSANE jump where I shot footage of Brian was at the Dover Cliff Jump. You can see Brian on the jump in 44 Something at 21:57 and 22:25. (You can also see Alan Foster with a sweet one foot tabletop in the previous section at 21:07) This monstrosity at Dover was built by "jump builders to the stars," Hippy Jay and Hippy Sean, on the dirt bluffs over the harbor of super-rich Newport Beach, California. There were several jumps up there, some doubles, and a couple cool flyout jumps. But the Dover Cliff Jump, was a beast. It started with a full on, first straight speed, racer sprint towards a big crevasse. Then there was a near vertical drop in, at high speed, about 14 feet down, then right back up to a 7 foot high lip. The gap was a huge, 35 foot deep ravine, filled with brush, maybe a few cacti, and probably a rattlesnake or two. The landing was flat. But the landing was 8 feet HIGHER than the lip. People estimated the distance at 25 to 35 feet. I stepped it off the day we shot the footage that's in 44 Something, and it was a solid 25 feet. So, to recaptthat's a full sprint, gnarly ass vert drop in, down 14 feet then up a 7 foot lip, jumping 8 feet up while crossing a 25 foot gap. Even in today's insane jumping world, the Dover Cliff jump would be a serious jump. In 1993, it was like Evel Knievel's Snake River Canyon jump for BMX. Only the craziest jumpers in the Huntington Beach/Sheep Hills scene even tried it. Brian Foster lofted a stylish tabletop and a no footed can-can over it. By the way, that's English bloke Paul Roberts who slammed his nose into his cross bar by casing the landing. GNARLY. This clip in 44 Something was short, but it was noticed around the BMX world for years, as 44 Something wound up one of, if not THE, top selling BMX video of the 1990's. The Brian Foster legend of insane riding in videos began.
As for me these days, my drawings take around 35 to 45 hours each to draw. They are 18" X 24". Since my first art show was in a music shop, I've been asked to draw musicians and rap stars mostly, so I listen to their music, interviews, and documentaries about them while I draw. I've learned a lot about these people, and I get a vibe about them that often gives me ideas as I draw. For this drawing of BF, I watched most of the video segments available, listened to a podcast of Brian from a few weeks ago. I haven't seen Brian since, probably since one of the Core Tour events in the mid 2000's. I had no idea he was going to medical school, and actually working towards a doctorate in physical therapy. He's as low key as usual, but sounds like he's going to be a damn good therapist. If you read this Brian, I'm proud of you once again surprising us with an cool new phase of life. After 20-some years of surprising BMXers, mostly by finding...and landing...the craziest gap lines at events, now the Blue Falcon is going to be helping physically broken people recover and get back to life. Never under-estimate the P.O.W. House guys. Clymer's an iron worker now, Moeller, of course, owns S&M and Fit Bikes, Sal is a high school history teacher in a tough school in Philly, and Alan a Kris run a Day Care. I guarantee that Miss Iroquois (P.O.W. House angry neighbor) never expected any of that from us drunk punks back in the day.
For those of you reading this, I'm working on turning my art and riding into a business to support me. Original drawings, like the one of Brian above, now cost $120, and take 35-45 hours. Yeah, that's like $4 an hour, and that's part of the reason I'm temporarily homeless (again.) I started focusing on the drawing about 2 1/2 years ago, when I was unable to find ANY "real" job, and I've been selling drawings (fairly cheap) ever since. I started without a dime, and I've survived, but haven't been able to get up to the level of becoming a legit business. You can check out my body of work on Instagram now (Steve Emig 43), Pinterest (Steve Emig), Facebook (Steve Emig in Winston-Salem, NC). I finally just got on Instagram, but I've loaded up photos of over 60 of my drawings. Check 'em out and let me know what you think.
If you'd like one of my original drawings, email me at stevenemig13@gmail.com, or message me on Facebook. It's $120 for an 18" X 24" original right now. The prices WILL rise before too long, and I had a 2 month backlog right before leaving NC. Local drama and not getting paid, and the small size of the scene there, led me to move on. I'm also starting to do some smaller drawings, I'm selling copies of those. The drama in North Carolina jacked up my bank account, and I cannot take paypal at the moment. I'm working on getting that issue fixed. If you want something drawn, we'll work out the details. Despite my sketchy lifestyle, I've built a reputation of getting drawings done and shipped promptly, and satisfaction is guaranteed. So far that hasn't been an issue. I'm always nervous when I show someone their drawing, but they've all been stoked, so far.
I'll end up this post with one embedded clip and links to several great Brian Foster video segments and a podcast. Also, Congratulations Brian on being inducted into the BMX Hall of Fame last week. That's definitely well deserved, as was the induction of my former boss at the AFA, Bob Morales.
2018 BMX Hall of Fame induction video and Brian's speech.
The Blue Falcon - Go get'em BF!
Brian Foster at the Incline Club
Brian Foster BMX Dirt Session
Brian Foster- Winter Escape
Anthem II- Brian Foster: declassified
Stay Fit- Brian Foster
Merritt BMX- Brian Foster at Cranx
Fit: Brian Foster signature stem
Brian Foster Bike Check
BF-it: The Story of Brian Foster
Brian Foster: The BMX in our Blood podcast (August 26th, 2018)
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