Before the word "huck," there was Hugo Gonzalez

Blog post: Before the word "huck," there was Hugo Gonzalez

I wrote a whole big post offline, but when I went to cut and paste it, the code got wacky, and wouldn't format.  So I'll write a new post.  13 years of blogging, I'm still a technical numbskull.

Like most of you who read my Old School BMX freestyle posts, I got into BMX, and then freestyle, in a place far away from Southern California, where both were born.  As a kid in the 1970's in Ohio, I rode a Schwinn Scrambler knockoff, made from my dad's collection of spare bike parts.  He was a packrat, and had tons of junk, so a purple, spray painted, 20 inch rat bike was my first ride.  Then came the red, white, and blue banana seat three speed, T-shift on the down tube, for my 8th birthday.  $50, straight from Grant's (like K-mart).  

 

That's the bike I first hit tiny jumps on.  Later came a 26 inch brown ten speed, I jumped that thing, too, on little, 6 or 8 inch tall, vacant lot jumps.  I didn't even know BMX existed until 1979, when I saw Schwinn Phantom Scrambler in a bike shop window.  I bought my first BMX bike the day before I moved away from New Mexico, in 1981.  I paid $5for the complete bike, with 3 pound aluminum mags, heavier than Moto-Mags.  I bought it from my friend Mike.  But I didn't actually get into BMX riding until June of 1982, in Blue Valley trailer park, outside of Boise, Idaho.  Those heavy mags had a jacked up coaster brake, and I hardly rode the thing for a year.  When I started riding it, and got into BMX, I didn't stop.

Like most of you reading this, I was soon reading every single word of every BMX magazine that I could scrape up money to buy, back in 1983.  I learned the names of those skatepark riders, Eddie Fiola, the first King of the Skateparks, Brian Blyther, Mr. Smooth, and Mike Dominguez, the up-and-coming super kid back then.  Also in the mix were Rich Sigur, Tony Murray, Donovan Ritter, Steve McCloud, Brian Deam, Jeff Carroll, and a few more.  But there was one who always stood out.  Hugo Gonzalez.  I soon learned from the magazines that he was the guy who would think up the craziest stunt to try every contest.  Landing seemed completely optional for Hugo's last trick, and often some of the other tricks in his run.  The high airs and new tricks of the other skatepark riders were amazing, but I soon began to wonder, "What did Hugo do at that contest?"

In Del Mar he raced across the long, concrete halfpipe, and launched a tabletop over the fence, crash landing in the next bowl.  The next year he 360'd over the fence, and almost landed it.  Hugo did the fence bounce at Pipeline, flying out of the banked section, landing sideways on the chainlink fence, then flying back into the bowl.  That was the first recorded "wall ride" in BMX.  He did the endo drop-in to knockout in the Pipe Bowl.  A downside footplant attempt, out of the Pipe Bowl, on another rider's crossbar.  Huge canyon airs at quarterpipe comps.  540 attempts over canyons.  The big 720 launch off the pier an into the ocean, somewhere (photo sequence is in a Hugo tribute video on YouTube).  Before we used the word "huck" much, there was Hugo.  Is it a coincidence that those two words both start with "Hu?"  Like, "Huh?  Did he think he could land that?"  I doubt it.

My personal favorite Hugo stunt was one that I think happened in Vancouver, in 1984.  There was a contest at a horse track, much like the track at any fairgrounds anywhere.  There was a paved area on the infield, where the contest was held, with a single quarterpipe at one end, and a wedge ramp at the other.  There was nothing to gap to.  No landings, no other ramps, no roof to flyout on.  My teammate from Idaho, Jay Bickel, and his family went to the comp, and Jay's mom caught Hugo's run on video.  I saw it when they got back.  For his last trick, Hugo went hauling ass at the lone quarterpipe, and just launched off the side of it, to the left.  He got 9-10 feet off the ground, in a big, tweaked out, semi-tabletopped arc.  He flew over about fifteen feet of asphalt, over the rope fence, and went another 6-8 feet.  He didn't even try to land it.  He was leaned over in a table, and just landed in the grass, 20-25 feet from the ramp, in a tabletop.  He just fucking launched into nothing.  It was so ridiculous, and epic at the same time.

So for my 6th Old School BMX Freestyle pro drawing, I drew this pic below of Hugo.  It's not his craziest trick. It's my Sharpie art take on a cool close-up photo (a BMX Plus cover shot), and it's at Pipeline Skatepark, where he did several epic stunts.  He's also riding a Skyway, the sponsor he's best known for.

I first met Hugo at the Beach Park Ramp Jams in 1985, held at the shop in Foster City, at the bike shop where Robert Peterson worked.  Hugo wouldn't do insane stunts at the ramps jams where it was just locals riding, but he pushed his quarterpipe airs to the limit.  When you talked to him, he was cool and down to Earth, then he'd got on his bike and just go nuts.  

 

At my first Old School Freestyle event in 2019, for Dom Phipps' book, The Birth of the Freestyle Movement.  I wound up talking to Hugo for quite a while.  He's a truck driver now, and had us laughing at cool stories for an hour or more.  He's still a totally chill guy to hang out with, and he has a ton of great stories to tell.  But he's the guy that really put the whole "just huck it and see what happens" idea out first, and had us all holding our breath at the end of every run when we saw him in a contest back in the day.  He pushed the limits beyond what anyone thought was possible in the early and mid-80's, pioneering the way for other crazy riders to follow.

I have a few new blogs I'm doing.  Check them out:

The Big Freakin' Transition

Crazy California 43

Full Circle

Stench: Homeless Superhero