I first heard of 16-year-old racer/jumper Chris Moeller when BMX Action editor Gork "discovered" him, while on a photo shoot in Huntington Beach with another rider. I soon met Chris, and we saw each other at events now and then over the next four years. Then, in 1990, I shot some video at the P.O.W. House and at Edison, with Chris, Dave Clymer, and 3 or 4 others from the P.O.W. House. (P.O.W. stands for Pros Of Westminster) and put them in my first self-produced video, The Ultimate Weekend. The S&M shield, spray painted on the door of the VW bus in this clip, was the first time a lot of people saw that now iconic image.
A year later, I was working nights at a video duplicator in North Hollywood, and Chris somehow tracked me down, called me up, and said he wanted to make a video for S&M Bikes. I was about $7 grand in debt form making my video, and then living off my credit cards, like an idiot, for a few months. I thought, "Cool, those guys are rad, and I can make maybe $2,000 for doing this project on the side. I asked Chris what kind of budget he had in mind for the video. He said, "I was thinkin' like $200." So dreams of paying off debt went out the window, but I started going down to H.B. on the weekends and shooting footage for what turned out to be Feel My Leg Muscles, I'm a Racer. I also got fired because I logged the John Holmes porn video, that Chris wanted to use bad acting footage from, at work, because I didn't have a VCR where I lived (a house crazier than the P.O.W. House). So I wound up living in Chris' one bedroom apartment, and working (sort of) for S&M Bikes. At the time, S&M was housed in the single car garage of the apartment called the Winnebago, because the whole apartment was 8 feet wide, long, and skinny.
Anyhow, I wound up sleeping on the living room floor of the Winnebago apartment, on Alabama Street in downtown H.B., and working for S&M when needed. In those days the first phone call of the morning woke me, up, because the phone (old school cord phone) was on a little table by my head. I'd crawl out of my sleeping bag, get up on my knees, find a pen somewhere, and take down an order from a shop somewhere. Then I'd lay back down, and go back to sleep until I heard Chris put on either a Pegboy cassette or this SST/Cruz compilation tape called The Big One. It had a Green Day song, a song by The Offspring, another by Big Drill Car, and "Bob says No" by Pop Defect, among others. That music was the morning (10:30 am to noon, depending on the level of hangover) wake up call.
One of us would make some sales calls to shops and distributors. Eat some breakfast. Sticker some frames or bars in the garage. Pack up some orders. The UPS guy would roll up the alley and pick up the orders going out. If we had international orders, we'd put the bikes boxes on a skateboard, and push them over to the mail box place a couple of blocks away, to ship them out. With that done, we'd often head to Papa Joe's on PCH for a slice of pizza (if we could afford a slice), and then go ride much of the afternoon. Obviously, Chris had a lot more to do to keep the business running. He'd often bum a ride with someone (he didn't have his truck yet), and go run errands.
We'd come back in the evening, it was Chris, a guy named Shaggy (who looked just like the cartoon one) and me at first, and then Bill Grad replaced Shaggy later on. We'd fix ramen or pasta for dinner, and Chris would pick the DBV or Designated Bag Victim for the night. That was the person Chris would make fun of, humiliate, and bag on all night. There was a 50/50 shot of being DBV in those days. So one of us felt like shit, and the other laughed his ass off all night.
Then we'd go get ride some more, get moderately drunk, either with a 40 or the H.B. cheesy bar tour (4 bars in downtown H.B. then), come home, pass out, and do it all again the next day. That was S&M Bikes, in a nutshell, in 1991 and 1992. I was Chris' roommate, off and on, through the P.O.W. House, the Sowell House with John Povah and Bitch Girl, then the other Alabama Street apartment, with Timmy Ball and Neal Wood, and finally in the condo, with Big Island, Operation Rick, and other roommates at times.
Because Chris ran S&M Bikes, every travelingBMXer, from pretty much anywhere, crashed on our floor. I met Steve Crandall, Will Smyth, Ian Morris, in our living room, and a whole bunch more that way. It wasn't unusual to com downstairs, and have to step over complete strangers sleeping on the couch and floor. I'd ask Chris or Timmy, and they'd be like, "Oh, those are guys from Germany that came in last night."
So, there was a party last night at S&M. Old blokes there included Chris Moeller (duh), Dave Clymer, Big Island Mike, Troy McMurray, Chris Stevenson, Super G, Pete Augustin, Paul Roberts, Paul Green, Ned, Ruben Castillo, and some more I don't remember. There was free food and beer, paid for by Chris Moeller, the guy who first taught me to steal food and beer at Ma-fuckin'-zotti's in H.B. 28 years ago, when we were all broke. Can't beat that. Kinda takes the fun away, though.
A lot of people bought books. I didn't, cause of my current situation, the damn raccoons keep knocking over my bookcase. I'll get one some day. Somebody let me know if I got mentioned in it, there's a lot of shit to cover in 30 years of craziness, I know. But I was around the company for about 4 1/2 years, and produced and edited the first two videos, so maybe I got made fun of for a couple of lines.
Anyhow, it was fun last night. I had to catch a bus, so I bailed out early, just as Chris brought Dave Clymer up on stage to tell stories. I have plenty of my own stories to tell from those days, at least of half of which don't involve graphic nudity by Chris. Well, not half... maybe 25%. Some day I may get around to those tales. If anyone has any things from the early S&M Days you want to hear about, let me know. I'll share the stories I remember.
Anyhow, the party was cool, it was good to see a few more old friends form way back, like Dave Clymer. Troy McMurray forgot who I was, but I never knew him that well. I did jump in the Deegan/Metal Muliha fight in Irvine, and wound up with the 4 or 5 members of the Metal Mulisha stomping on my head, after I tripped over my own feet and went down. I had crazy pain in my inner ears that night, and a weird gurgling of fluid inside my head, after I got home from my job at the porn store. I lost about 70%-80% of my hearing for about 3 weeks, and thought I was going to be permanently deaf. And both sides of my head were sore for about 5 weeks, so they probably cracked my skull a bit. What can I say, I never was a fighter, and shit happens. My hearing came back eventually.
All in all, the S&M Bikes "Behind the Shield" book launch party was a good stroll down memory lane, and I'll get a book when I can. Check everyone's social media today and tomorrow for more pics and stuff from the Sheep Hills Jam Friday and the party last night. Thanks for the hospitality Chris Moeller. I'll be building up the bikes from the parts I threw over the fence last night, and selling them at the swap meet for a month. (OK, I didn't really do that, but Chris will probably take an inventory anyhow, because he won't be completely sure if I'm joking or not). There are a few more pics in the post below. The only way to end this post is with the best photo of the night... Dave Clymer. You can buy the book here.
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