Blog post: The Story of my keychain: Part 4- Eddie Fiola and me meet some local kids
In the last post about the story of my keychain, I talked about hanging out with the Haro riders and the Hutch riders, at the Holiday Inn, the night before the contest. That contest, again, was the AFA Freestyle Masters contest held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in April of 1986. On the strength of my zine, that I'd been sending to the guys at Wizard Publications, FREESTYLIN' magazine editor Andy Jenkins had tapped me to write a freelance article about the contest for the magazine. It was my first job in the "real" BMX freestyle industry.
I caught a ride to the arena, Saturday morning, with the Haro team, who I stayed with all weekend. I wandered off by myself, as practice was going on. I stood alone near the table of trophies that Saturday morning. I was trying to figure out what I actually had to do, who I had to talk to, and how to do a good job covering the contest for FREESTYLIN'. As I stood alone, Eddie Fiola walked up and started talking to me. At the time, Eddie was the biggest name in the sport. He was the original King of the Skateparks, the first big freestyle pro I ever heard of, and the best known name in our weird little sport. Most people didn't really know BMX freestyle existed then. But if people knew one name in the sport, that name was Eddie Fiola.
So I was freakin' out inside when Eddie just walked up and started chatting. He was just talking about normal stuff, but I was thinking, "Holy Shit! Eddie Fiola is talking to me!" It was a fanboy moment. So I probably stammered like an idiot. But I tried my best to act as cool as possible. We'd been talking for a minute or two, when two young kids, maybe 14 or 15 years old, rode up to us. One had a mop of curly brown hair, and the other a bit more normal of a haircut. The kid with the curly hair totally interrupted us, and I kinda wanted to strangle him at the moment. On the inside, I was shouting in my head, "Dudes! I'm talking to Eddie-freakin'-Fiola, fuckin' go away!" On the outside, I just kept quiet for a minute.
The kid with the curly hair asked, "Eddie, you ever seen somebody to an air like this?" The kid took one hand, put it on the opposite side of the handle bars, then took his second hand off. At the time, 540s, high one hand on footers, and Mike Doninguez' no footed can-can, were the craziest vert tricks. No one did the air the kid was talking about. Eddie smiled, "Nope, I've never seen that one before." It seemed like a ridiculous variation then. The two kids both got huge, ear to ear grins, and rode off stoked. I was glad, and Eddie hung out and talked to me for a few more minutes, and then walked off, to go get ready for pro ramp practice. My crazy weekend, of actually talking to and hanging out with the top pros, kept going.
Not long after that, Jon Peterson, the Haro assistant team manager that I met the day before, came up and took me around and introduced me to several of the pros, to Windy Osborn, the FREESTYLIN' photographer, and other industry people. Later, during ramp practice, I got on top of the Haro quarterpipe, and shot three or four rolls of film on my Pentax ME Super, which I was just learning how to operate. As luck would have it, I set the ASA setting wrong for the indoor lighting, and all my photos came out grainy. That sucked, but I wish I had those photos now, even as grainy as they were.
Among other things, I saw this kid actually doing those switch handed airs that he told Eddie and me about. All weekend we all called that kid "The Stormtrooper," because he wore a Bell Moto full face motorcycle helmet, a chest protector, elbow pads, and knee pads to ride vert. In those days, most vert riders wore a T-shirt, Levi's, an open face helmet, and no pads to ride. So the kid totally stuck out. But none of us knew his name. He was doing variations four or five feet out on the Haro quarterpipe, and straight airs a couple of feet higher. The kid was definitely really good. But Josh White was the new, standout rider at that contest. He was the new kid most people were talking about. Joe Johnson was turning heads as well. The top vert pros of the time, were the early skatepark riders, Eddie Fiola, Mike Dominguez, and Brian Blyther. It was obvious the transition from the skatepark contests to quarterpipe contests were producing a new wave of up-and coming vert maniacs, Todd Anderson, and Dennis McCoy, and a few others, were already well known, and new guys Josh White and Joe Johnson were rising up right behind them. Vert riding was evolving, and 8 foot plus airs were becoming more and more common.
Here's the funny thing about this story. Every now and then, through 1986-87, and into 1988, I'd talk to other riders and tell them about the time Eddie Fiola came up and started talking to me in Tulsa, when I was just some unknown guy who happened to be writing the magazine article for that contest. It was just a cool little story to me, the first time a top pro walked up and talked to me. Then one day, a couple of years later, I was telling someone the story, and it suddenly hit me what trick the curly headed kid had showed us. I went, "Holy crap, that was the switch-handed air! Those kids were Mat Hoffman and Steve Swope." Then it became an even cooler little story. The biggest name in freestyle at the time, Eddie Fiola, came up randomly, and just started talking to me. Then two random kids interrupt us, and of all the kids in freestyle, they were then unknown Oklahoma kids, Mat and Swope Dog. So that was was when I met Mat and Steve for the first time, without realizing it.
But the story keeps going. Two weeks ago, late June of 2019, I finally made it down to H.B. Tuesdays, where Eddie Fiola and Martin Aparijo show up to ride and hang with other old school freestylers. Everybody was cool, and they knew I was down and out right now, so Eddie invited me to pizza with them, and they hooked me up. As we ate, and we all traded stories for a couple of hours. It was then that this story popped in my head, and I told the story of how Eddie came up to me at Tulsa, to Eddie Fiola himself, and a few other old school riders. Somehow, I happened to be talking to Eddie Fiola when the kid who would become the most influential vert rider... EVER... rode up to meet Eddie Fiola. It was the first time Eddie met Mat and Swope as well. And neither Eddie or I had any idea it happened. It was two random kids, like the thousands of other random kids Eddie met at contests and shows over the years. By some random bit of serendipity, I happened to be there and witness that moment.
Eddie didn't remember the incident, he's had so many interactions with people over so many years, that the moment didn't stand out above the others. I remembered it, because it was the first time Eddie Fiola had come up to talk to me. Somehow, 33 years later, with Mat Hoffman and Steve Swope now middle aged guys as well, I got to tell Eddie of the first time he met Mat Hoffman.
Like I've said many times, and one of the biggest things I've learned from all these BMX freestyle blog posts, is that it's the weird little moments, mostly, that we remember best when looking back at our early riding days. Those weird little moments are the things I blog about. Just another of the epic moments from the weekend that I became part of the BMX freestyle industry, the weekend that changed the entire course of my life.
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