Here's Dave Vanderspek on a local news segment about him and the Curb Dogs from 1985.
It's really cool to see Dave Vanderspek, leader of the Curb Dogs, inventor of the Vander Roll, and amazing BMX freestyle rider, inducted into the BMX Hall of Fame. As I've written about several times before, I lived in San Jose in 1985-86, and published my first zine there. That zine, San Jose Stylin', is what landed me the job at BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines in August of 1986. Most of what I covered in 11 issues of that zine was the Bay Area scene, was made up of Dave Vanderspek, Maurice Meyer, and the Curb Dogs, and Robert Peterson, and the Skyway riders.
So I knew Vander, and the other guys in that scene, and rode with them on the weekends, whenever I could get up to the monthly Beach Park Ramp Jams, or San Francisco. The Golden Gate Park/Bay Area freestyle scene was the most cohesive scene of that era. Most of the guys were at Golden Gate Park, on Sunday afternoons, every week. All of the pros, Dave, Maurice, Robert Peterson, Rick Allison, Oleg Konings, and Hugo Gonzales, were always cool with helping newer and younger riders learn and improve. That happened, to some degree, in most scenes then. But it was a much bigger thing in the Bay Area.
Dave, Maurice, Bert, and all those pros would help all of us learn new tricks. Just the little things, "Hey, if you put your foot here, it would help you come out of it," or "I think if you lean this way, it'll help." That kind of thing. Some pros back then were just more into their own riding. They wanted to learn new tricks and push the boundaries. Teaching new riders wasn't a priority for many pros of the day. The NorCal guys wanted everybody in the scene to improve, and have fun riding, not just themselves.
The Golden Gate Park scene had a different vibe than every other freestyle scene I saw at the time. Even if some brand new kid rolled up, who could only do one or two tricks, they'd help the kid learn something new that session. That "make the whole scene better" vibe seemed to emanate from Dave, and through everyone else. The more time went on, the more that had an effect on me, and still does, decades later.
The reality is, I talked some smack about Vander back then, and was definitely jealous of how much magazine coverage he got, early on. I'd seen photos of him in the magazines, before moving to San Jose. Then I met him, and he seemed like a total goofball, he totally reminded my of Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I didn't take him seriously at first.
The best BMX photo I ever shot, this photo was complete luck. I was just holding the camera. Dave Vanderspek, at speed, at the Palm Springs Tramway Road GPV event, 1987.
Then I got the job at the magazines, and learned that Andy and Lew at FREESTYLIN' were some of Vander's biggest fans. It was actually in the handful of times I saw Dave after moving to Southern California, that I gained a lot more respect for him. After meeting and riding with several other top pros, and seeing Dave ride some more times, I realized just how good of a rider he was.
At one of the Velodrome contests, I rolled up to this little patch of pavement in the infield, near the contest area. Dave was sitting there on his bike. He started pedaling slow, and said, "Check this out." Then he did a huge bunnyhop, and landed in a pedal stall, on the hubba part of this small set of stairs. This was 1987, a year before the Santee Meet-the-Street contest. Street riding was barely even a thing then. Dave's pedal stall was like four feet off the ground. Street grinds hadn't been invented yet. Wall rides hadn't been invented yet. And Vander was doing this trick that would be impressive now, 36 years later. Then he hopped down, and said, "Hey your frame is cracked." Sure enough, there was a hairline crack in the Raleigh I was riding, right at this weird gusset it had. I hadn't even noticed. He explained why the weird design of the gusset would always be prone to cracks at that spot, just the way it was designed. I later told Raleigh, and they changed the design, making the gusset much better.
A couple of other times, Dave would roll up at an event, and talk about all the new tricks I'd learned since moving to SoCal. For a few minutes we'd just talk about tricks or new stuff we were working on. I had only ridden with Dave, at the Beach Park Jams, or Golden Gate Park, maybe a dozen times, while living in San Jose. But he remembered what tricks I had been doing then, and commented on new stuff I was doing, a year or two later. It wasn't just me, he did that for all the riders he knew, at any level. So he'd blow my mind with some crazy trick or move, then just sit there and talk a bit, like we'd been hanging out, riding together for years. He truly wanted to see everyone he knew keep improving, and get as good at freestyle, or skating, as possible. For a guy who was a solid, pro caliber rider, and who was always busy self-promoting shows, and all kinds of other stuff all the time, that was amazing.
So it's great to see him honored in the BMX Hall of Fame now. Here are a few other videos of Dave and the Curb Dogs, Skyway, and other NorCal riders and skaters of that era.
"Nobody got hurt, nobody got arrested." Dave has the white cap on backwards.
Vision Street Wear's Freestylin' Fanatics (1988)- Dave's segment is at 11:20
Curb Dogs video #1 (One of the first few BMX freestyle videos ever- 1987)
2023 BMX Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (Maurice Meyer accepts on Dave's behalf at 2:49:50)
And just for good measure, here's a local news segment about Maurice Meyer, which also shows the Golden Gate Park scene, and several of the amateur riders, as well.
Dave Vanderspek tribute drawing I did a couple years ago. #sharpiescribblestyle
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