"Born to Party" The Metal MC BMX jam in Huntington Beach- Summer 1988

First of all, it was 1988.  Keep that in mind.  The band Metal MC was supposed to be part Anthrax and part Beastie Boys.  It was neither.  On one hand, blending hard rock and rap in one band did get huge about a decade later, with Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, and others.  So you can't blame the guys for trying.  Maybe they were just the wrong guys, maybe they were too early on that idea.  But Metal MC didn't take off.  But they did give us SoCal BMX freestylers an excuse for a really fun jam, one summer afternoon in 1988.  

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The area on the bike path, underneath the Huntington Beach Pier, looked like this when I first rode up in the early spring of 1987.  That's French freestyle skater Pierre Andre' in the video, one of the H.B. Pier locals in those days.  That is the best video showing the area we rode and skated every Saturday and Sunday, in the late 1980's and into the 1990's.  There's an open restaurant area in this spot now, where there used to be an arcade, a bike rental place, and the Green Burrito Mexican restaurant on the south end of the building.  The bike path is still there, but the whole are looks much different now.  Here's a quick history of the H.B. Pier, from 1902 to 1985.  The end of the pier got trashed in another storm in early 1988, and was rebuilt and reopened in 1991, I believe.

Most of what people now know as "Main Street" in Huntington Beach today, didn't exist in the 1980's and 1990's.  The Main Street I was introduced to was a bunch of two story brick buildings, and there were a few empty shops.  There was a liquor store one block inland, on the corner, and very few people, like a handful, walking around at night.  The legendary Golden Bear nightclub, where Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and hundreds of other great musicians played, from the 1930's to the early 1980's, had closed down in 1983.  

There were about 5 bars in Downtown H.B. then.  Cagney's was behind Jack's Surf Shop on PCH.  Heading inland there was Perq's, Ma(fuckin')zotti's, The Long Board, and Skeefer's. Maybe one or two more.  Main Street was dingy, and most people in the city didn't come down there often at night, they went to the Newport Pier area bars, or other spots to party.  The Electric Chair record shop was just inland of where the fountain now is, a small storefront, with milk crates of punk albums and 7 inches on folding tables.  The P.O. Curb, now replaced by the low wall protruding from Rockin' Fig Surf Shop (still in the same location) was getting skated every night.  

Huntington Beach was a weird, occasionally wild, little surf town then.  There were oil pumps all over downtown then, even right on PCH (Pacific Coast Highway).  As a Midwest kid who spent high school in Boise, Idaho, I'd never seen a town like Huntington Beach, except maybe Venice Beach, but that had a whole different vibe.  The H.B. scene of the 1980's was something much different than it is today.  There were surfers, skaters, BMXers, wandering punkers and a few skinheads, and a bunch of weird characters.  Then there was the crowds that came to the beach on the weekends. That was the Huntington Beach I moved into in early 1987, to work for the American Freestyle Association as the newsletter editor/photographer, and all around assistant to Bob Morales.

There were always a few BMXers and a few freestyle skaters, that hung out at the Huntington Beach Pier on the weekends, in the late 1980's and into the 1990's.  There were a bunch of reasons for this, besides the hot women in bikinis.  The long wide area of pavement next to the building, on the south side of the pier, was a good place to both ride skateboards and BMX freestyle bikes.  During the week, there really weren't many people riding or walking up and down the bike path.  Under the pier itself it was concrete, which was sandy and slippery, so the pavement worked better for us.  

The main skaters were English freestyle skating champ Don Brown and French freestyle skating champ Pierre Andre' (Senizergues), and often Swedish freestyle skating champ Hans Lingren, along with local freestyle skater Jeremy Ramey.  Why were three of the top European freestyle skaters in Huntington Beach?  They rode for either Vision or Sims Skateboards (then owned by Vision), located in nearby Costa Mesa.  Although he rode for Powell-Peralta, Per Welinder rolled by fairly often as well.  At the time, all these freestyle skaters were the low paid demo skaters for the Big Three skate companies, while the vert skaters, like Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi, and Steve Caballero, were making the big money.  In the 1990's, the freestyle skaters took over the skate industry, and were sometimes jokingly referred to as the "Skate Illuminati." In about 1989, another top freestyle skater came up, Darryl Grogan, and he came down the pier now and then, as well.  

On the BMX freestyle side, the most local rider was Mike Sarrail, a tall guy from the San Gabriel Valley, who was really good at Miami hop hops.  He drove over an hour every weekend to session.  There was a crew of  good amateur riders in the Lakewood area who came by often to bust out their flatland skills.  In no particular order they were Nathan Shimizu, Ron Camero, Jeff Cotter, Ron McCoy, Dan Hubbard, and Derek Oriee.  Sometimes they brought Tim Cotter, Jeff's little brother, who also rode.  Most of those guys were featured in Vision's Freestylin' Fanatics video.  The spandex brothers, Chuck and Joe Johnson, showed up once in a while.  It wasn't unusual to see Martin Aparijo or Woody Itson show up, the original flatland guys.  From the desert, Randy Lawrence moved to H.B. for a while and found work as a bike mechanic, and he joined the locals around 1988-89.  Those were the guys there most often in that era.  Because the pier was a well known scene, pretty much anybody could just randomly show up and ride or skate.  Ed Templeton and Mark Gonzales showed up on a regular basis, along with a whole crew of H. B.'s amateur skaters.  

On any given Saturday or Sunday, we'd start showing up around 11:00 am or so, and just start riding or skating.  The skaters would get a crowd, and skate for 15-20 minutes, until the police showed up and said the crowd was blocking the bike path.  Then they'd stop skating, the crowd of beach going spectators would wander off, and then us BMXers would take over.  A crowd would form, usually 100 or so people, maybe 200.  At times we'd get 500 or more people watching.  We'd take turns busting out our latest and best flatland, for 15-20 minutes.  Then the police would roll up, say the crowd was blocking the bike path (which we actually told them not to do), and we'd stop.  The crowd would wander off, and then the skaters would get going again.  That was our weekend.  Week after week, year after year.  We'd head off to grab some food or take a leak when needed.  We'd talk to girls, or try to.  Mostly we just rode and skated in front of crowds from 11:00am or noon until about 7 or 8 pm.  That's our weekends played out, unless there was a contest somewhere.  I once figured out that I rode in front of at least 140,000 people, 100 or 200 at a time, from 1987 to about 1992, on all those weekends at the pier, from about 1987 to 1992.  The same was true of all the other riders and skaters.

Because so many, literally thousands, of random people watched us ride and skate every weekend, we'd often meet people who who said they wanted to put us in a video, a movie, at TV show, or something like that.  BMX freestyle was a new thing in the late 1980's, even most Californians hadn't seen it live and in person.  Most of the people who wanted to put us in a video or TV show were completely full of shit.  But not all of them.  The guy behind the Metal MC video wandered up and started talking to Mike one afternoon.  Mike explained freestyle, and that there were a lot more riders, jumpers and vert riders, too.  

The talk turned into a real project, and the guy rented the empty lot on PCH and Main (where Huntington Surf & Sport stands now), where we often had local AFA contests.  Mike told him to contact GT, to rent the Stonehenge, their four sided jump ramp, and we called around to tell riders to show up for the jam.  Boom, a fun BMX jam happened, and the guy's crew shot a bunch of footage to make the Metal MC video.  It was an all afternoon jam.  

In the video above, you see mostly Brian Blyther (in black) jumping, East Coast rider Dennis Langlois (grey jersey), and San Diego thrasher Brand Blanchard landing a 540 on the deck.  Also at the jam were NorCal legends Dave Vanderspek and Maurice Meyer, San Diego street rider Eddie Roman, several of the Lakewood crew, pro racer/jumper Rich Bartlett, Craig Grasso, Randy Lawrence, George Smoot, Scott Robinson, and about 30 more riders, myself included.  We had this kind of jam a couple of times.  This one, and another for a guy who made mass marketed video that sold in places like Kmart.  At the time, all day BMX jam sessions with some top riders and no contest were a rare thing, so this and the other Stonehenge ram jam were two really fun events Huntington Beach during the late 80's.  

This blog post was inspired by a great photo of Brian Blyther doing an X-up, that Steve Giberson, aka Guy B, shared on Facebook recently.  

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D.I.Y. World Championships- Post 4

 Cruelsifix, continuing to rock us all into the dusk after RAMPLIFLIER contest ended.  The two brothers in the band, who names I never caught, were hitting the ramp right before playing, and one was getting maybe three feet out and the other about five feet out of the ten foot high quarter.  The rock ON and OFF their bikes.  They rock.  They ride.  They have a band name that will definitely cause some controversy for some, but I'm going to blow your cover, guys.  These rockers are all just plain really good guys.  

 Younger rider with a no-footer off the five foot high cinder block launch ramp... tp flat.  They launched to flat for a while, then the "John Deere ramp," a landing built with long strips of wood that made it look like a tractor tire pattern, was moved into its landing position. 

 You know, there are times when you just need to go into the curved wall ride, and get the help of a three foot tall cat to fix your bike, while a hamburger eating rocker looks on.  There was a prize for hi-fiving the cat while doing a curved wall ride.  That was pretty damn impressive when it happened.  This obstacle, the curved wall ride, also won the prize for best obstacle built by a group.

 It's 2018, and BMX events are a family thing these days.  The cute little blonde girl here wasn't all that impressed by the riding, but she seemed to have a good time anyway.  I'm pretty sure that PBR isn't hers, by the way.  Number 9 guy is apparently a Russian, judging from the name, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't an evil bot.  Oh yeah, this is actually a riding pic, too.  My new friend Adam, in the black stocking cap with the beard above the crowd, is actually sliding a bike rack rail from a launch, in the background. 

Adam saw my art earlier, and wanted a poem, but didn't have his wallet.  We talked for a minute, introduced ourselves, and I told him I'd forget his name.  We kept running into each other, and I wound up remembering his name by the end of the day.  Good guy.  He's the guy who won the Golden Hairclippers in my impromptu curved wall ride best trick comp at the end of the day. 

You might be asking why I'm running a lame photo of a cut off rider doing a no footer on the launch ramp.  I'm not.  This is an great photo of Adam chilling on the back of the three foot tall cat in the bottom left, and there just happens to be a rider doing a no footer in the foreground.

D.I.Y. World Championships- Post 3

 The D.I.Y. jam idea comes out of the head of Steve Crandall, master of the FBM empire.  He wants to promote the concept that you don't need huge corporate sponsors or a huge bankroll, or a major skatepark or venue to have a great jam, all you need is a bunch of interested people, a community, to come together, grab some old pallets and scrap wood, buy a box of screws, and build some cool shit to ride.  In BMX, the roots of this whole idea is the kids on the block grabbing a cinder block and a random piece of wood, building a little, sketchy ass jump, and having a blast. 

In my life, that's exactly how bike jumping first happened.  I was 8, and lived in Coshocton, Ohio.  My friends and I found three bricks, a 2 X 8, and built a sidewalk jump.  We hadn't even heard of BMX then, we were jumping our banana seat bikes with tall handlebars, three speed stick shifts on the top tube, and slicks for back tires.  Roots.  Taking that basic idea to a ridiculous level, Crandall and friend Crescent (I don't know how he spells his name, sorry) actually built a 3,000 pound, concrete cinder block, and a slightly custom concave board to form this roots looking launch ramp.  Epic.  If Richmond, VA gets hit by a nuke someday, there will be cockroaches and this cinderblock left standing.

 There were trophies for each event, and $100 gift certificates for FBM/Powers Bike Shop for several events.  The gold painted guitar was for the RAMPLIFLIER best trick, the gold cinder block was for the giant cinder block launch best trick.

 Here we have one of the larger dogs at the jam checking out the Buck Wild trophy, an actual, mounted, 8 point (Eastern count) buck, with rifle holding hoof mounts.  This was for the best trick all day long.  The Buck Wild Jam turned into a session on the smaller quarterpipe, where handplants, flairs, 540's, and some crazy ass footplants went down.  Who won?  Shit, I don't remember, it was a jam.

 Steve Crandall's art was for sale under the awning.  His classic coffee mug paintings, along with prints of the board and cinder block.  Coffee and BMX, wake up and go ride America.

 Steve let me set up my art to sell, and I sold a bunch.  Huge thanks for that Steve.  I'm sitting in the cheap motel room right now, paid for by the art sold.  Thanks for that all of you who bought art, or helped me out just for the hell of it.  Seriously, Thank you BMX world. 

I couldn't get rid of my big Gwen Stefani drawing from last year's art show at Earshot Music, though.  But I had small prints of Bob Marley, Johnny Cash, a poem I wrote, and a WWII guy riding a motorcycle while shooting a machine gun. 

I bought these clippers for 41 cents at Goodwill, while doing some bargain shopping.  We painted the handle gold, and I was going to give them out for a prize in the World Record Bummy Hop contest, but I lagged on that, and it never happened.  So I held an impromptu best trick contest on the curved wall ride at the end of the day, and my new friend Adam won with a peg stand curved wall ride. 

What's a Bummy Hop?  When I moved to San Jose in 1985, I started a zine, met the Golden Gate Park freestyle scene guys, which included the Curb Dogs, the Skyway factory team, and some great amateurs, and started riding with them.  I learned that the San Francisco skaters had a trick called a "Vollie."  When they were skating down the sidewalk, and a sleeping homeless person was in the way, they'd ollie over the bum.  So it was a vagrant ollie, which became known as a vollie.  I asked the BMX guys what the BMX version of a vollie was, and there wasn't a good answer.  So, as the zine guy of the scene, I took a poll.  We had an official vote.  There were several ideas at first.  But eventually, the official name for bunnyhopping over a homeless person became the Bummyhop.  I told Crandall about this, and since I'm currently homeless, I volunteered to be the bum to bunnyhop in the first ever Bummyhop World Record contest.

But since it rained all morning, I waited until late in the day, when the pavement dried out, to tell Steve I was ready to do it.  By then, there were too many other events lined up, and not enough time before dusk.  We didn't have time to do it.  So... maybe one of these days, we'll have a Bummhop contest.  Or maybe some of you will do it.  If you do, buy the homeless person/people some pizza and beer or something.  Their life is hard enough, don't go making it harder.  I'm telling you, I know.  Oh, and don't land on them.  That wouldn't be cool.  

D.I.Y World Championships - Post 2

 BMXers have always jumped curbs and bunnyhopped street obstacles, since the early 1970's.  Then, in the mid-1980's, skateboarders like Mark Gonzales and Tommy Guerrero started skating the streets themselves as a big skatepark.  Tommy was part of the San Francisco area, Curb Dogs bike and skate team, led by BMX pro/good skater Dave Vanerspek, and the idea of looking for street stuff to ride bled over big time into the BMX freestyle world.  Since then, BMXers have been wandering into weird urban places looking for stuff to ride.  This past weekend, at a bike shop tucked away in the back of a sketchy looking industrial park, bikers gathered to session, goof around, and just plain have a good time.  That's exactly what happened.

 The upside down bike, the helmet and backpack.  I think I took this shot by accident.  But this is the BMXers life.  Chill for a bit, watch your friends, and grab the bike and ride a while.  When you see these things, there's a session nearby.  Below is the back part of the contest area.  Every obstacle was built by a different group of people, part of Steve Crandall's idea of bringing the BMX community together, everybody adding something, and then riding it.  It's like BMX Stone Soup.  Remember that book when you were a kid?  If not, go read it.  If you look close below, there's a guy on top of the gray banked wall, doing a manual, I think.  That obstacle was a grind box to banked wall to grind box, and made for some interesting combos.  With open jams in between, the day's focus went from one obstacle to another, with prizes for best tricks in each.

 This little low rider collie, "The Corgi", was wandering around all day, and getting in the way and ruining lines all fucking day.  It was a theme, and at one point there was a bounty to bunnyhop the Corgi, though no one did.  The Corgi even puked on the course and then ate its own vomit at one point, which nearly won it a best trick prize.  No one seemed to know who The Corgi belonged to.  There was talk of Corgi burgers and that it would fit well on a rotisserie, but all in good fun .  Somehow, The Corgi managed to get in the way for hours, but never get hit or landed on. 

While the Corgi got the most attention of the dogs there on Saturday, Powers Bikes shop dog, Pedals, didn't seem to mind the lack of attention.  She knew it was a big event, and when all was over, she rules that parking lot.  Pedals was the perfect hostess to the ten or so canine Americans at the jam, and I didn't see her give any attitude to any of them all day.  Well done Pedals! 

For some reason, mostly because she's the guard dog, she always growls at me when I go to Powers.  It usually takes a good hour before she warms up to me.  But Saturday, I walked up, and pulled out a granola bar for a little snack, and she was my best friend.  So I guess the way to Pedals' heart is through her stomach.  I'll keep that in mind next trip to the shop.