Often after a few hours of riding at Golden Gate Park, a bunch of us would head to the Embarcadero to ride. That was a spot in downtown S.F., with big concrete ledges and other cool stuff to ride. At that point, in 1985-86, street riding was about bunnyhopping up, or jumping off things, doing footplants, launching off curb jumps, and things like that. Wall rides and ped grinds on street hadn't been invented yet. At some point, while riding the Embarcadero with Dave Vanderspek, Maurice Meyer, and others from the Golden Gate Park crew, someone mentioned the term vollie. When I asked what that was, they explained that it was an ollie over any homeless person, usually one laying down, or maybe over their legs while sitting. A "vollie" was the San Francisco skateboarder term for a "vagrant ollie," ollying over a homeless person.
As an inquisitive dork, and the zine guy of the scene, I asked what a BMX bunnyhop over a homeless person was called. I got about five different answers. I realized that there was no actual, "official" term for bunnyhopping over a bum. WE did actually do that once in a while, usually when Vander and Drob would head off through the streets, and we'd follow them, hopping over or footplanting any obstacle we found.
Being the zine guy of NorCal, I decided this issue needed a resolution, so I took a poll among all the Golden Gate Park riders, to get their ideas. Out of the 5 or 6 initial ideas, two terms led the pack, vunnyhop, for vagrant bunnyhop, or bummyhop, a bunnyhop over a bum. There was some serious discussion (well, sort of serious), and a bit of arguing. The poll was close. But in the end, the term "bummyhop" was officially sanctioned as the term for bunnyhopping over a homeless person in an urban setting. I put the results in my zine, and we all got a laugh out of it.
Now, as a person who has been homeless for extended periods, one just ending a month ago, I'd like to say that it's really lame to harass homeless people, they have more than enough to worry about, and get shit from all kinds of people all the time. Homelessness is also an industry, and several groups and many people make a living off the homelessness industry. And that sucks. That's why I avoided nearly all non-profits and programs for homeless people.
But as a longtime BMX rider, if there's a bum crashed out on the sidewalk, and you're in a hurry, and can do it safely, bunnyhop the fucker. I've done a few bummyhops in my time. Looking for a good, old school video of someone bunnyhopping a bunch of people just now, like maybe Mike Buff's 15 person bunnyhops back in the day, I ran into a video of a news clip of some kids in L.A. getting in trouble for bummyhopping homeless guys and putting the videos on YouTube.
I'm an old BMXer, I've done this in San Francisco, 30-some years ago, but not for video or photos. I think the people in the video that I found, acting all uptight, are pretty hypocritical. I doubt they think twice about the homeless normally, until a camera was thrust in their face, and someone showed them a bummyhop video and asked their opinion. They said it was terrible.
Here's my thoughts, if you're out shooting video, and you want to bunnyhop a homeless person and shoot video of it, talk to them first. Stage it, let them know what you want to do, and show them you have the skills to do it without injuring the person. Then, after you shoot your footage, hook the person or people up for helping you get some cool footage. Give them $5 or $10, buy them a pizza, a beer, or some cigarettes. If you're really cool, give them money to get a cheap motel room for the night. Whatever. Make it worth the homeless person's while. Then shoot some bonus footage showing that you set it up, and the people were cool with it. You'll probably get some cool interview footage, as well, homeless people make for great interviews.
But do not go around looking for passed out homeless people, and bunnyhopping them just for your video. Obviously, you could seriously injure someone, if they sit up suddenly. Ideally, just leave homeless people alone, they have enough problems. But I can't say "Never bunnyhop a bum," because we did it, once in a while, back in the 80's. So I'd be a hypocrite to tell riders to never do it if you're hauling ass down a street and there's a person passed out on the sidewalk. But now you know there's an official name for it, the bummyhop.
One more thought about homelessness in general, as someone who understands it far more than I ever wanted to.
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