LET IT BE PRINTED
by Mike Hinkens
February 23, 2016
Comments and Podcast link at bottom of page.
February 23, 2016
Comments and Podcast link at bottom of page.
Let it be printed.
“Who cares? Just ride your bike.”
It’s a fair statement. As a matter of fact, it’s probably one of the wiser things that BMXers say to each other. The simplicity of living a life of friends and fun is certainly an ethos that many, if not all of us, live by. When faced with drama on the Internet, the stress of a filming project, or the every-day-grind of personal life and relationships, jumping on your bike and cruising with friends is the best therapy anyone could ask for. Your mind clears of the heavy clutter of life and focuses on the movement of your legs, the strength in your arms, and the breath in your lungs. With a clear mind, a smile can creep back onto your lips.
The statement above has become a mantra for our generation in the face of the harshness of daily life on this planet. Yet, this mantra, chant it all we like, is not an absolute. As a matter of fact, we BMXers are the first to challenge those around us who chide us for wasting our time “just riding around on kids’ bikes.” When told to grow up, we snap back quickly and almost invariably with: “This is more than just a bike! This is more than just about tricks and fun! It is all about…” And the personal reasons pour forth. We then begin to contradict the ethos stated above as we prove that we do “care” and as we passionately explain what else BMX is besides “just riding your bike.” It is in that moment of seeming contradiction that the complexity of bike riding and its surrounding culture is exposed. On one hand, we all believe and live out the words above; but on the other hand, we can’t pretend that we don’t care. We cannot pretend that “real life” and bike riding have not become inextricably intertwined. For some, this distinction is not wholly true, as there are many riders who live a “normal” life and only hop on their steed when it is convenient. And having a great session with those people is just as amazing as any other session, but for many of us, bike riding has permeated almost every corner of our existence. It has affected us in our daily lives, influenced our career choices, determined our spouses, changed our very being so much that we cannot imagine a life without our bikes. And when someone would challenge those truths with “It’s only an object,” our retort would certainly invoke numerous examples to prove that our bicycle is important, but it is only the vehicle that allows us to partake in our deep and amazing culture. That culture is what we could “not live without.” A culture, based on friends and fun, that has spawned the growth of transnational friendships, unique styles of dress, specialized language, world travel itineraries, health regiments, business ventures[1], original forms of media, and artistic expressions that influence people all over the globe. When we examine the truth of our existence as compared to the statement I started with, we seem to be selling ourselves short. Isn’t BMX more than just passing fun? Isn’t BMX more than a simple release? Doesn’t BMX and the culture it spawned deserve more than a simple shrug and hard crank down the road? Doesn’t BMX demand a serious answer to these questions and the one I started with? I want to ask again: “Who cares?”
My answer: We do.
There is no denying that we, as a group, acknowledge and care about the continued existence of our unique culture. It is obvious, as evidenced by the fact that we document our lives more heavily than almost any subculture in existence. This documentation is widespread, detailed, and thorough, but fragments of culture remain neglected and sometimes intentionally concealed. Those fragments range from trivial to vitally important, yet they are often left to dwell in the dark. In the end, I feel that it is our responsibility to care about all aspects of our complex culture. We, as integral parts of a mature, complex, malleable, and growing culture, have a sacred duty to ensure it exists as well as grows in the ways that we, as BMXers, want it to. BMX Culture deserves, and demands, that it be considered, recorded, and discussed in public in a substantive and serious fashion.
Culture is a hard thing to define as it is such a huge concept. In its simplest terms, culture is all the things that make us who we are as a group, what we look like, what we do, what we create, what we believe, where we live, how we speak, how we interact with each other, and what norms we adhere to. Like all sub-cultures of humankind, BMX culture is hard to define because it is quite literally “everything” about ourselves. For the most part, our BMX culture is often defined by the things we chose to document and share. For many of us, we don’t give that too much thought. We create what we create. We film what we film. And we publish what we publish. And why worry about what our culture is, when we are actually a part of it? It seems a bit silly to ask deep philosophical questions such as “who am I?” and “why are we the way we are?” when we “just know” the answers. After over twenty years of being a part of this culture, I sure don’t need to ask those questions; I just feel the answers and know them in my being. I am sure you feel the same. When asked, “What is BMX?” the answer is fairly simple: “It is what I am.” But what about the fourteen-year-old kid who is just picking up a bike for the first time? Or how about the reporter trying to write an article about people on little bikes building jumps in the woods? Or how about the many people in general society who see us in their streets, on their TVs, or at their city council meetings? Some, if not all, of those people will never “be” a BMXer. They will never understand and simply “know” about our culture through experience. They will always be outsiders. More on that later, but for now, lets assume that this lack of understanding is something we should be concerned with, as well as work to change. This all leads to the questions of: What about all of our present BMX media sources? Don’t those outlets address this issue? My answer: Our media does answer these questions, but only partially.
Where we have come from and where we are today in BMX media.
It would be pretentious and profoundly misleading to state that no one has realized the importance of recording and sharing our experiences and then acted to do so. As a matter of fact, in this day and age, BMX culture is almost entirely defined by the content we create as a culture. There are many people out there doing an incredible job of this documentation and if it were not for them, the culture that we all love would not exist as we know it today. Historically, from zines to DVDs, our culture has been, and continues to be, documented more and more as each day passes.
Though I was not present at the inception of BMX, magazines and videos still exist today that show us aspects of our culture in the beginning. From mainstream magazines to homemade zines, the printed word has been used to document our culture from the beginning and up through today. In tandem with the written word, photographs became one of the most important ways to transmit information about BMX. BMX, an innately visual activity, lends itself to documentation with visual media. The photograph was the main medium for many years through which much of BMX culture was shared, but as we have seen, video (in various formats) seems to have surpassed that medium as the supreme distributor of BMX. [2] What I want to demonstrate is that there have been standard ways to share and transmit BMX culture since the beginning. At first magazines, photographs, and VHS tapes/DVDs did the job of documenting our culture, but, with the dawn of widely-accessible and affordable internet, the ways in which we transmitted aspects of BMX culture have expanded and changed. The ability to start cheap or free websites saw the birth of blogs, the “web edit,” news aggregators, and online magazines. And unfortunately for some, other forms of media struggled to keep pace with the rapidly changing environment. As 2016 dawns, “social media outlets” have begun to usurp the ground of magazines, hard-copy videos, and even some websites. Most recently, 15-second time restrictions, character limits, and expected size-standards have constricted the way in which aspects of BMX culture are shared with our community.
We all “care,” though, and we continue to work within and also around the parameters of the ever-changing face of the mediums we utilize. What is interesting to see, however, is that as mediums have developed and changed, many of our creative outlets continued sharing many of the same aspects of BMX as the prior mediums.[3] We never stop documenting, but have we stopped to think about what we are documenting and how we are doing it? The mediums are of little concern regarding the issue I have stated above; namely, that our culture deserves to be considered, recorded, and discussed in a substantive fashion. What exactly “substantive” means is the major theme of this piece and is discussed in a later section, but first I need to show that our usage of these varied mediums throughout the years only shares and spreads certain aspects of BMX culture and in certain ways.
Moving away from broad history, we need to discuss what documentation of BMX culture presently exists and how it documents our culture. Photography, one of the earliest forms of BMX media documentation, provides an interesting and tangible level of depth that I believe is extremely important to the comprehensive documentation of our culture. Visual records of what we do and the people who inhabit our world provide necessary depth to the landscape of BMX, yet we know that there are many limitations to this media. People, places, and events can be shown and preserved, but often times pictures can only frame part of an issue, start a conversation, or enrich portions of our culture. Alone, they cannot tell the story of BMX in its entirety now or in the future. An outsider could never understand the evolution of trail-riding even when shown a picture of X-Games dirt courses compared to famous runs at Push or Posh Trails. One could not understand the importance of New York City in changing the essence of street riding just by seeing a picture of someone riding the Flushing Meadows Fountain.
One of the other mainstays of our media, as stated above, is video. Regardless of the format, motion pictures of bike riding and the people who ride bikes are one of the easiest ways to glimpse our culture. Though obtaining a VHS tape or a DVD is not always the easiest task, sitting down to watch BMX in action is a fairly simple act. Props Visual and their eventual disbursement on television on various channels has been a huge way of introducing the average person to our culture. A young kid, a middle-aged man, or even an old woman could sit on their couch and watch the tricks we do, marvel at the locations we travel to, evaluate our music choices, purchase our products, see our faces, and hear our voices. This is undoubtedly one of the strongest ways for our culture to be transmitted, as well as recorded. And now, with the Internet and the ease of access it allows, a simple click can bring a person into the world of BMX. With Google and YouTube someone can see more content than Props could have ever brought to you, and all for free.
In addition, as we BMXers have adapted to the more interactive and all-inclusive form of media we create for the Internet, we have begun to share new aspects of our culture. In some small ways, we have begun to re-evaluate and change the content we document in the face of new media, yet only a little. Webisodes (video journals of large portions of a single day) have shown the world what a day in the life of a BMXer can look like by showing our eating habits, our jobs, and much more of the daily minutiae of our lives. One of the most relevant new formats connected to what I am concerned with--substantive content--is podcasts.[4] These online interviews with the youngest and coolest as well as the oldest and wisest have brought our thoughts and voices away from sound-bites and ridiculous blurbs, to statements of belief, opinion, and sometimes policy. It is in the discussion of serious and weighty topics such as those that I see a connection between the webisode/podcast and the other major part of our media documentation: the written word. Again, from the beginning, magazines have been, and thankfully still continue to be, ways of transmitting and preserving our culture. BMXers have created, operated, and influenced written media for over thirty years. Riders have been given a voice through which they can explain and elaborate upon other, sometimes one-sided, forms of BMX media (i.e. photography and video). In the pages of BMX magazines, our culture has grown as well as been preserved for all to see. The levels at which they discuss and delineate our culture vary drastically and that spectrum is of concern to me. All content is of some importance, no doubt, but we must admit, that some is of more relevance to our greater culture and its deeper meanings. We have seen a movement away from blow-by-blow coverage of events and trips, to discussions of our relationships with each other, our struggles and triumphs as a culture, and the questions of what it means to be a BMXer. Magazines have tackled many issues like skatepark etiquette, finding the appropriate bike, how to stay healthy and safe[5], how to create your own media, how to utilize and enjoy a road trip[6], and much more. Though a slight change of medium, blogs have served much the same purpose of magazines and then some. With less overhead, less advertiser influence, and less concern for sales, blogs have allowed BMXers from all aspects of our cultures to speak their minds in more open ways, share their extremely unique experiences, and document and develop our culture in intellectual and thoughtful ways.
It is on the written medium that I wish to focus. My call for a more substantive documentation of BMX culture is best answered with the written word. Often times though, the audience of these written mediums is a factor that can influence the content that is produced. Does a twelve-year-old want or need to hear about the challenges the industry faces in regards to distributors, mail-orders, and direct sales? Does a website fear its advertisers may be angry when it publishes a discussion of how professional riders may be risking their lives for little pay and no health insurance? Do bloggers avoid wasting their time writing too in-depth of pieces as it may never draw people to their site? I do believe these questions affect what we chose to document and share. That is the reality of running a business or maintaining a following. Yet, just because we don’t talk about issues, does not mean that they don’t exist. The question I am asking is: Do we have a place where these issues can be addressed?
What else could we need in BMX media?
“What is missing?” you ask. It seems as if there is a plethora of BMX media being produced and any person, today or in ten years, will never even be able to consume it all. The paradox is that in most ways, there is nothing missing, but, in my opinion, there should be something more. We have painted a rich picture of BMX throughout its existence and all the forms of media that have allowed us to do so are important and continue to be important to this day. People all over the world have devoted lives and careers to documenting our culture and have not done us wrong. Every day, I am impressed by the depth and freshness of some aspect of BMX media. Yet, in the cracks, between the multitude of content, there lies something that, though not neglected, should be nursed and encouraged to grow. That “something” is often the glue that is holding us together, the wedges that are driving us apart, and even the ideas that can help or harm our culture in serious ways.
As stated in the introduction, we are more than kids on bikes and this is all more than fun and tricks. There is a genuine and extensive culture that deserves to be discussed, preserved, and developed. One of the ways human culture, in general, has preserved and developed itself is by encouraging intelligent, thoughtful, and serious written discourse about its own existence and the issues that affect it most. Simply put, we need to write about ourselves in a different way than we have in the past in order to encourage thoughtful and meaningful discussion. The content I am requesting be created would be what I have called “substantive.” In other words, this is media that is possessing powerful and important substance that belongs to the real and essential nature of BMX. This high-minded task is what I am arguing needs to be undertaken in BMX culture. This task is an extension of the things that we already excel at doing. We think about and discuss BMX on a daily basis and in all of the forms listed above. What I am calling for is a concerted effort to share, analyze, and develop, in writing, the concepts and thoughts that make BMX culture what it is: a complex and unique way of living that often struggles to define itself, face challenges, and evolve. There are real, mature, and serious issues that both help and harm our culture and we need a place to work on those. A place where things can be said, free from the influence of advertisers or sponsors. A place whose sole purpose is the furtherance of BMX culture for all the people it encompasses. This necessarily means that this forum be free from influence that may inhibit open discussions. As such, this place should not be subject to the possible conflict of interest that a sponsored medium might have. Furthermore, it should be a public place where all within our culture are allowed to express themselves and their opinions. And through that expression, there should be the growth of genuine and constructive conversation. The business of developing the intellectual growth and documentation of our culture should be in the hands of the very people who make that culture—not just the people who have seniority, popularity, or power. Though standards should exist to ensure a positive and constructive environment, the more information and discussion that can be openly shared and discussed, the better chance our culture has at developing itself in yet another important way. The written word has been for many, and can be for us, the vehicle through which we achieve even more than we already have. We must take the time and effort to write about and discuss our culture in a methodical, comprehensive, detailed, and quasi-academic, fashion. If you are wondering what I am hoping we can create, take a look at what you are reading right now… Now, imagine your thoughts, along with many others,’ expressed in words just like this. That is what I feel BMX needs and that is what I wish to help create.
Will this even work? Why do we need another BMX media outlet?
The creation of in-depth and well-thought-out writings is a lot of work, but there are more than a few reasons why we should take this idea seriously and contribute to the substantive documentation of BMX culture. Think for a moment about the tasks you have undertaken as a BMXer. Driving across the country, cutting the stoppers off of a spot, and spending hours tumbling down a rail is no easy task. Neither is scouting for a hidden location, cutting down trees, buying and transporting clay, digging giant holes by hand, and building private trails. And it takes years of work, personal risk and sacrifice, and substantial funds to make a single DVD.[7] I won’t argue that racking your brain, sitting down, organizing your thoughts, putting them to paper, editing a few drafts, and submitting your work to a website is not a lot of work, but it requires no more motivation and effort than the examples mentioned above. It seems hypocritical to dismiss this task as too much work, when so much work goes into much of what we do in BMX.
Effort aside, this type of heavy documentation has been less than common in our culture. Unfortunately, academically focused projects are often characterized as above our skill levels or outside of our interests; yet, all of the rich, imaginative, and enlightened content that BMX culture has produced over the years counters those assumptions.[8] The diverse skills and abilities of BMXers all over the world, when focused, can achieve many things, including the creation of substantive written documentation. I have no doubt that we are capable of expressing ourselves in intelligent and profound ways. I used to think that there was no place in BMX for a project like this, but, as of late, I have been shown differently. For example, the plethora of positive feedback that I received regarding the last long and academic piece I published showed me that there exists a hunger for this type of media. Additionally, the consumption of comprehensive and thought-provoking media such as Podcasts is proof of this hunger. The view counts on some of the longest Podcasts surpasses the views counts on amazing bike riding videos. The fact that BMXers from all walks of life and all ages are willing to sit through hours-long interviews regarding both serious and trivial issues in BMX shows me that BMXers are ready for this type of media.
And when there is a hunger, we also have an opportunity to do that which is often challenging: educate the youth. If you have ever cringed at what “kids these days” are doing, then you believe that there is some sort of “correct path” for BMXers to take. This is freestyle, though, and as such, we are predisposed to do “our own thing,” yet we all understand that there exist social norms which we teach each other. In general, many of us hope to “teach” the new generation of riders all sorts of things ranging from “knowing your roots,” to proper “etiquette.” Most of us learned about the many aspects of this culture by immersing ourselves in it, yet it takes years to truly understand the depth of this culture. In addition, some BMXers grow up riding alone or around others that they may not or should not learn from. In those situations, those riders often turn to BMX media to help them learn about and become part of BMX culture. It seems silly to deny those riders, as well as the rest of the BMX community, the opportunity to hear and learn about as many aspects as possible of the culture they devote their lives to.
The more we can share with each other, the more mutual understanding we can encourage. It then follows that, the more we understand each other, the more of a family we can become. One example of this comes to mind: how sponsorship works.[9] Almost every BMXer has at one time or another pondered what it would be like to be a sponsored professional. Some act upon those thoughts with “sponsor-me videos” or shameless self-promotion. Others sit in silence and wait for opportunity to come to them, yet become jaded and frustrated when no one “notices” their skills. And others are pulled into to the folds of the industry with relative ease and little effort. Yet, all along the way, tension, frustration, and conflict can develop amongst these people in these varied situations. These are things that we do not want in our culture, yet as a young rider, I had no place to turn to learn about these issues and avoid the pitfalls associated with them. It took me a few years to understand this, as well as many other complex issues. My question is: Why don’t the people who understand things simply tell those who do not? I think we can all agree that the answers to questions like these are not secret. Regarding the example above, if every BMXer understood the complex nature of “professional” BMX, I believe we would have less conflict between riders of different ages, skill levels, and backgrounds. All we need to do is communicate. Magazines have attempted to tackle issues like the example above, but, to be blunt, someone needs to sit down and say it “like it is” without concern for how their statements will be perceived, if the answer will be too long, if it will reveal intra-industry drama, or even if it bums kids out. We need a place where we are able to openly discuss all segments of our culture regardless of the intensity or contentious nature of the issue.
Along with the concept of representing and transmitting accurate information to younger generations, we owe it to all BMXers to share and discuss the issues that affect the present, as well as the future, state of our culture. I believe that open and transparent communities stand a better chance of facing challenges and growing in a positive and intentional way. For example, if the BMX industry is in a financial slump this year, then say so. We, as a culture, are diverse, creative, and motivated. Why not invite all of us to work together to better that which we love? We should be open and honest about how things work in our culture so that we can tap into the resources that undoubtedly exist. With the best foot forward, our culture can advance with positive intentions towards real goals. And when individuals make choices that affect all of us, we should be able to discuss and debate them in public to ensure that we all work for the common good, not just selfish ends.[10]
Much of this is for us, but we also can remedy an issue that irks many of us: how we are perceived by the outside world. So often, we see mainstream representations of who we are and what we do and they are woefully off-the-mark. From BMX Bandits[11] in the 1980’s to Brandon Begin’s controversy with the local news media,[12] we are often inaccurately and embarrassingly portrayed to those outside of our culture. Much of the world knows of us only what they can find on Google or happen upon on YouTube. With Wikipedia topping the search results for “BMX,” we are destined to be defined by references to Eddie Roman and Freestylin Magazine.[13] Though important parts of our history, these references are like explaining modern pop music by discussing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960’s. We are so much more than just where we came from. We are what we create and share every day. We are people with real lives which are intertwined with the culture of BMX. We deserve more than a few quick lines on a barely-updated Wikipedia page or clip in a People are Awesome compilation on YouTube.[14] We have defined ourselves internally, but what will the rest of the world know of us tomorrow, next year, or in a generation? The culture we as BMXers have created is unique, meaningful, and deserving of recognition. We believe in documenting its existence, yet much of the media we share with ourselves and the world can never explain who we really are. With the written word, we can explicitly tell ourselves, the world, and the future, who we are. All we have to do is let it be written.
This really matters.
As mentioned above, BMX culture has been heavily documented since its inception, but bits and pieces of it have been falling through the cracks or pushed into the closet for just as long. It is my hope that those leftovers will be recognized, reorganized, expanded upon, and brought into the light. Many topics that are not addressed in BMX lend themselves to more intense discourse than is possible within modern BMX media frameworks. The conversations we share while sitting on street corners, the arguments we have while driving cross-country, and the revelations we come to when sharing our lives with our BMX family, are all things worthy of sharing with the rest of BMX culture. Things worthy of remembering. And things worth working hard to understand. It is my hope that this essay explains why I thought it necessary to create yet another media outlet for BMX culture, as well as why I chose to structure it how I did. The quest for understanding is certainly an integral part of human existence, as well as of BMX culture, and this essay and the website it inaugurates are a manifestation of that quest. When, at thirteen-years-old, I showed up at the local dirt jumps for the first time, I asked so many questions. I wanted so badly to understand everything about this amazing thing called BMX. Throughout the years some of those answers have come easily, while others elude me to this day. Every time I learn more about this diverse and amazing culture, it becomes more a part of me. and I more a part of it. That interconnection has wed me to its existence, and also to its survival. I have lived a BMX life for over twenty years, and now all I want to do is make sure that BMX lives on for twenty more years and then some.
Think about what matters to you and then, let it be printed.
Mike Hinkens
FOOTNOTES:
[1] http://leastmost.com/features/crandall-shrugged/ and http://fbmbike.co/custom-welding-and-fabrication/
[2] Possible future topic: The dominance of videos in BMX and the loss of respect for the photograph.
[3] http://www.northernembassy.com/2011/10/05/the-evolution-of-video-cameras-in-bmx/
[4] http://thecomeup.com/category/tv/ AND http://www.snakebitebmx.com/category/podcast/
[5] http://digbmx.com/features/eat-better-grind-further
[6] http://digbmx.com/features/not-normal-bmxers
[7] http://digbmx.com/dig-this/re-print-james-cox-committed
[8] http://www.profileracing.com/estore/product.php?productId=633 AND http://99seconds.com
[9] Possible future topic: The nature of sponsorships in BMX and what it means to be a “Professional.”
[10] See article connected to this topic at: http://www.imprimaturbmx.com/in-defense-of-bmx.html
[11] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085204/?ref_=nv_sr_1
[12] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ktee3cWQNY AND http://laist.com/2014/03/12/video_horrible_humans_do_bmx_bike_t.php
[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMX
[14] Possible future topic: Do BMXers allow themselves to be seen as spectacles to the rest of the world by doing cheap tricks to impress the average person? Does this help or harm our culture?
“Who cares? Just ride your bike.”
It’s a fair statement. As a matter of fact, it’s probably one of the wiser things that BMXers say to each other. The simplicity of living a life of friends and fun is certainly an ethos that many, if not all of us, live by. When faced with drama on the Internet, the stress of a filming project, or the every-day-grind of personal life and relationships, jumping on your bike and cruising with friends is the best therapy anyone could ask for. Your mind clears of the heavy clutter of life and focuses on the movement of your legs, the strength in your arms, and the breath in your lungs. With a clear mind, a smile can creep back onto your lips.
The statement above has become a mantra for our generation in the face of the harshness of daily life on this planet. Yet, this mantra, chant it all we like, is not an absolute. As a matter of fact, we BMXers are the first to challenge those around us who chide us for wasting our time “just riding around on kids’ bikes.” When told to grow up, we snap back quickly and almost invariably with: “This is more than just a bike! This is more than just about tricks and fun! It is all about…” And the personal reasons pour forth. We then begin to contradict the ethos stated above as we prove that we do “care” and as we passionately explain what else BMX is besides “just riding your bike.” It is in that moment of seeming contradiction that the complexity of bike riding and its surrounding culture is exposed. On one hand, we all believe and live out the words above; but on the other hand, we can’t pretend that we don’t care. We cannot pretend that “real life” and bike riding have not become inextricably intertwined. For some, this distinction is not wholly true, as there are many riders who live a “normal” life and only hop on their steed when it is convenient. And having a great session with those people is just as amazing as any other session, but for many of us, bike riding has permeated almost every corner of our existence. It has affected us in our daily lives, influenced our career choices, determined our spouses, changed our very being so much that we cannot imagine a life without our bikes. And when someone would challenge those truths with “It’s only an object,” our retort would certainly invoke numerous examples to prove that our bicycle is important, but it is only the vehicle that allows us to partake in our deep and amazing culture. That culture is what we could “not live without.” A culture, based on friends and fun, that has spawned the growth of transnational friendships, unique styles of dress, specialized language, world travel itineraries, health regiments, business ventures[1], original forms of media, and artistic expressions that influence people all over the globe. When we examine the truth of our existence as compared to the statement I started with, we seem to be selling ourselves short. Isn’t BMX more than just passing fun? Isn’t BMX more than a simple release? Doesn’t BMX and the culture it spawned deserve more than a simple shrug and hard crank down the road? Doesn’t BMX demand a serious answer to these questions and the one I started with? I want to ask again: “Who cares?”
My answer: We do.
There is no denying that we, as a group, acknowledge and care about the continued existence of our unique culture. It is obvious, as evidenced by the fact that we document our lives more heavily than almost any subculture in existence. This documentation is widespread, detailed, and thorough, but fragments of culture remain neglected and sometimes intentionally concealed. Those fragments range from trivial to vitally important, yet they are often left to dwell in the dark. In the end, I feel that it is our responsibility to care about all aspects of our complex culture. We, as integral parts of a mature, complex, malleable, and growing culture, have a sacred duty to ensure it exists as well as grows in the ways that we, as BMXers, want it to. BMX Culture deserves, and demands, that it be considered, recorded, and discussed in public in a substantive and serious fashion.
Culture is a hard thing to define as it is such a huge concept. In its simplest terms, culture is all the things that make us who we are as a group, what we look like, what we do, what we create, what we believe, where we live, how we speak, how we interact with each other, and what norms we adhere to. Like all sub-cultures of humankind, BMX culture is hard to define because it is quite literally “everything” about ourselves. For the most part, our BMX culture is often defined by the things we chose to document and share. For many of us, we don’t give that too much thought. We create what we create. We film what we film. And we publish what we publish. And why worry about what our culture is, when we are actually a part of it? It seems a bit silly to ask deep philosophical questions such as “who am I?” and “why are we the way we are?” when we “just know” the answers. After over twenty years of being a part of this culture, I sure don’t need to ask those questions; I just feel the answers and know them in my being. I am sure you feel the same. When asked, “What is BMX?” the answer is fairly simple: “It is what I am.” But what about the fourteen-year-old kid who is just picking up a bike for the first time? Or how about the reporter trying to write an article about people on little bikes building jumps in the woods? Or how about the many people in general society who see us in their streets, on their TVs, or at their city council meetings? Some, if not all, of those people will never “be” a BMXer. They will never understand and simply “know” about our culture through experience. They will always be outsiders. More on that later, but for now, lets assume that this lack of understanding is something we should be concerned with, as well as work to change. This all leads to the questions of: What about all of our present BMX media sources? Don’t those outlets address this issue? My answer: Our media does answer these questions, but only partially.
Where we have come from and where we are today in BMX media.
It would be pretentious and profoundly misleading to state that no one has realized the importance of recording and sharing our experiences and then acted to do so. As a matter of fact, in this day and age, BMX culture is almost entirely defined by the content we create as a culture. There are many people out there doing an incredible job of this documentation and if it were not for them, the culture that we all love would not exist as we know it today. Historically, from zines to DVDs, our culture has been, and continues to be, documented more and more as each day passes.
Though I was not present at the inception of BMX, magazines and videos still exist today that show us aspects of our culture in the beginning. From mainstream magazines to homemade zines, the printed word has been used to document our culture from the beginning and up through today. In tandem with the written word, photographs became one of the most important ways to transmit information about BMX. BMX, an innately visual activity, lends itself to documentation with visual media. The photograph was the main medium for many years through which much of BMX culture was shared, but as we have seen, video (in various formats) seems to have surpassed that medium as the supreme distributor of BMX. [2] What I want to demonstrate is that there have been standard ways to share and transmit BMX culture since the beginning. At first magazines, photographs, and VHS tapes/DVDs did the job of documenting our culture, but, with the dawn of widely-accessible and affordable internet, the ways in which we transmitted aspects of BMX culture have expanded and changed. The ability to start cheap or free websites saw the birth of blogs, the “web edit,” news aggregators, and online magazines. And unfortunately for some, other forms of media struggled to keep pace with the rapidly changing environment. As 2016 dawns, “social media outlets” have begun to usurp the ground of magazines, hard-copy videos, and even some websites. Most recently, 15-second time restrictions, character limits, and expected size-standards have constricted the way in which aspects of BMX culture are shared with our community.
We all “care,” though, and we continue to work within and also around the parameters of the ever-changing face of the mediums we utilize. What is interesting to see, however, is that as mediums have developed and changed, many of our creative outlets continued sharing many of the same aspects of BMX as the prior mediums.[3] We never stop documenting, but have we stopped to think about what we are documenting and how we are doing it? The mediums are of little concern regarding the issue I have stated above; namely, that our culture deserves to be considered, recorded, and discussed in a substantive fashion. What exactly “substantive” means is the major theme of this piece and is discussed in a later section, but first I need to show that our usage of these varied mediums throughout the years only shares and spreads certain aspects of BMX culture and in certain ways.
Moving away from broad history, we need to discuss what documentation of BMX culture presently exists and how it documents our culture. Photography, one of the earliest forms of BMX media documentation, provides an interesting and tangible level of depth that I believe is extremely important to the comprehensive documentation of our culture. Visual records of what we do and the people who inhabit our world provide necessary depth to the landscape of BMX, yet we know that there are many limitations to this media. People, places, and events can be shown and preserved, but often times pictures can only frame part of an issue, start a conversation, or enrich portions of our culture. Alone, they cannot tell the story of BMX in its entirety now or in the future. An outsider could never understand the evolution of trail-riding even when shown a picture of X-Games dirt courses compared to famous runs at Push or Posh Trails. One could not understand the importance of New York City in changing the essence of street riding just by seeing a picture of someone riding the Flushing Meadows Fountain.
One of the other mainstays of our media, as stated above, is video. Regardless of the format, motion pictures of bike riding and the people who ride bikes are one of the easiest ways to glimpse our culture. Though obtaining a VHS tape or a DVD is not always the easiest task, sitting down to watch BMX in action is a fairly simple act. Props Visual and their eventual disbursement on television on various channels has been a huge way of introducing the average person to our culture. A young kid, a middle-aged man, or even an old woman could sit on their couch and watch the tricks we do, marvel at the locations we travel to, evaluate our music choices, purchase our products, see our faces, and hear our voices. This is undoubtedly one of the strongest ways for our culture to be transmitted, as well as recorded. And now, with the Internet and the ease of access it allows, a simple click can bring a person into the world of BMX. With Google and YouTube someone can see more content than Props could have ever brought to you, and all for free.
In addition, as we BMXers have adapted to the more interactive and all-inclusive form of media we create for the Internet, we have begun to share new aspects of our culture. In some small ways, we have begun to re-evaluate and change the content we document in the face of new media, yet only a little. Webisodes (video journals of large portions of a single day) have shown the world what a day in the life of a BMXer can look like by showing our eating habits, our jobs, and much more of the daily minutiae of our lives. One of the most relevant new formats connected to what I am concerned with--substantive content--is podcasts.[4] These online interviews with the youngest and coolest as well as the oldest and wisest have brought our thoughts and voices away from sound-bites and ridiculous blurbs, to statements of belief, opinion, and sometimes policy. It is in the discussion of serious and weighty topics such as those that I see a connection between the webisode/podcast and the other major part of our media documentation: the written word. Again, from the beginning, magazines have been, and thankfully still continue to be, ways of transmitting and preserving our culture. BMXers have created, operated, and influenced written media for over thirty years. Riders have been given a voice through which they can explain and elaborate upon other, sometimes one-sided, forms of BMX media (i.e. photography and video). In the pages of BMX magazines, our culture has grown as well as been preserved for all to see. The levels at which they discuss and delineate our culture vary drastically and that spectrum is of concern to me. All content is of some importance, no doubt, but we must admit, that some is of more relevance to our greater culture and its deeper meanings. We have seen a movement away from blow-by-blow coverage of events and trips, to discussions of our relationships with each other, our struggles and triumphs as a culture, and the questions of what it means to be a BMXer. Magazines have tackled many issues like skatepark etiquette, finding the appropriate bike, how to stay healthy and safe[5], how to create your own media, how to utilize and enjoy a road trip[6], and much more. Though a slight change of medium, blogs have served much the same purpose of magazines and then some. With less overhead, less advertiser influence, and less concern for sales, blogs have allowed BMXers from all aspects of our cultures to speak their minds in more open ways, share their extremely unique experiences, and document and develop our culture in intellectual and thoughtful ways.
It is on the written medium that I wish to focus. My call for a more substantive documentation of BMX culture is best answered with the written word. Often times though, the audience of these written mediums is a factor that can influence the content that is produced. Does a twelve-year-old want or need to hear about the challenges the industry faces in regards to distributors, mail-orders, and direct sales? Does a website fear its advertisers may be angry when it publishes a discussion of how professional riders may be risking their lives for little pay and no health insurance? Do bloggers avoid wasting their time writing too in-depth of pieces as it may never draw people to their site? I do believe these questions affect what we chose to document and share. That is the reality of running a business or maintaining a following. Yet, just because we don’t talk about issues, does not mean that they don’t exist. The question I am asking is: Do we have a place where these issues can be addressed?
What else could we need in BMX media?
“What is missing?” you ask. It seems as if there is a plethora of BMX media being produced and any person, today or in ten years, will never even be able to consume it all. The paradox is that in most ways, there is nothing missing, but, in my opinion, there should be something more. We have painted a rich picture of BMX throughout its existence and all the forms of media that have allowed us to do so are important and continue to be important to this day. People all over the world have devoted lives and careers to documenting our culture and have not done us wrong. Every day, I am impressed by the depth and freshness of some aspect of BMX media. Yet, in the cracks, between the multitude of content, there lies something that, though not neglected, should be nursed and encouraged to grow. That “something” is often the glue that is holding us together, the wedges that are driving us apart, and even the ideas that can help or harm our culture in serious ways.
As stated in the introduction, we are more than kids on bikes and this is all more than fun and tricks. There is a genuine and extensive culture that deserves to be discussed, preserved, and developed. One of the ways human culture, in general, has preserved and developed itself is by encouraging intelligent, thoughtful, and serious written discourse about its own existence and the issues that affect it most. Simply put, we need to write about ourselves in a different way than we have in the past in order to encourage thoughtful and meaningful discussion. The content I am requesting be created would be what I have called “substantive.” In other words, this is media that is possessing powerful and important substance that belongs to the real and essential nature of BMX. This high-minded task is what I am arguing needs to be undertaken in BMX culture. This task is an extension of the things that we already excel at doing. We think about and discuss BMX on a daily basis and in all of the forms listed above. What I am calling for is a concerted effort to share, analyze, and develop, in writing, the concepts and thoughts that make BMX culture what it is: a complex and unique way of living that often struggles to define itself, face challenges, and evolve. There are real, mature, and serious issues that both help and harm our culture and we need a place to work on those. A place where things can be said, free from the influence of advertisers or sponsors. A place whose sole purpose is the furtherance of BMX culture for all the people it encompasses. This necessarily means that this forum be free from influence that may inhibit open discussions. As such, this place should not be subject to the possible conflict of interest that a sponsored medium might have. Furthermore, it should be a public place where all within our culture are allowed to express themselves and their opinions. And through that expression, there should be the growth of genuine and constructive conversation. The business of developing the intellectual growth and documentation of our culture should be in the hands of the very people who make that culture—not just the people who have seniority, popularity, or power. Though standards should exist to ensure a positive and constructive environment, the more information and discussion that can be openly shared and discussed, the better chance our culture has at developing itself in yet another important way. The written word has been for many, and can be for us, the vehicle through which we achieve even more than we already have. We must take the time and effort to write about and discuss our culture in a methodical, comprehensive, detailed, and quasi-academic, fashion. If you are wondering what I am hoping we can create, take a look at what you are reading right now… Now, imagine your thoughts, along with many others,’ expressed in words just like this. That is what I feel BMX needs and that is what I wish to help create.
Will this even work? Why do we need another BMX media outlet?
The creation of in-depth and well-thought-out writings is a lot of work, but there are more than a few reasons why we should take this idea seriously and contribute to the substantive documentation of BMX culture. Think for a moment about the tasks you have undertaken as a BMXer. Driving across the country, cutting the stoppers off of a spot, and spending hours tumbling down a rail is no easy task. Neither is scouting for a hidden location, cutting down trees, buying and transporting clay, digging giant holes by hand, and building private trails. And it takes years of work, personal risk and sacrifice, and substantial funds to make a single DVD.[7] I won’t argue that racking your brain, sitting down, organizing your thoughts, putting them to paper, editing a few drafts, and submitting your work to a website is not a lot of work, but it requires no more motivation and effort than the examples mentioned above. It seems hypocritical to dismiss this task as too much work, when so much work goes into much of what we do in BMX.
Effort aside, this type of heavy documentation has been less than common in our culture. Unfortunately, academically focused projects are often characterized as above our skill levels or outside of our interests; yet, all of the rich, imaginative, and enlightened content that BMX culture has produced over the years counters those assumptions.[8] The diverse skills and abilities of BMXers all over the world, when focused, can achieve many things, including the creation of substantive written documentation. I have no doubt that we are capable of expressing ourselves in intelligent and profound ways. I used to think that there was no place in BMX for a project like this, but, as of late, I have been shown differently. For example, the plethora of positive feedback that I received regarding the last long and academic piece I published showed me that there exists a hunger for this type of media. Additionally, the consumption of comprehensive and thought-provoking media such as Podcasts is proof of this hunger. The view counts on some of the longest Podcasts surpasses the views counts on amazing bike riding videos. The fact that BMXers from all walks of life and all ages are willing to sit through hours-long interviews regarding both serious and trivial issues in BMX shows me that BMXers are ready for this type of media.
And when there is a hunger, we also have an opportunity to do that which is often challenging: educate the youth. If you have ever cringed at what “kids these days” are doing, then you believe that there is some sort of “correct path” for BMXers to take. This is freestyle, though, and as such, we are predisposed to do “our own thing,” yet we all understand that there exist social norms which we teach each other. In general, many of us hope to “teach” the new generation of riders all sorts of things ranging from “knowing your roots,” to proper “etiquette.” Most of us learned about the many aspects of this culture by immersing ourselves in it, yet it takes years to truly understand the depth of this culture. In addition, some BMXers grow up riding alone or around others that they may not or should not learn from. In those situations, those riders often turn to BMX media to help them learn about and become part of BMX culture. It seems silly to deny those riders, as well as the rest of the BMX community, the opportunity to hear and learn about as many aspects as possible of the culture they devote their lives to.
The more we can share with each other, the more mutual understanding we can encourage. It then follows that, the more we understand each other, the more of a family we can become. One example of this comes to mind: how sponsorship works.[9] Almost every BMXer has at one time or another pondered what it would be like to be a sponsored professional. Some act upon those thoughts with “sponsor-me videos” or shameless self-promotion. Others sit in silence and wait for opportunity to come to them, yet become jaded and frustrated when no one “notices” their skills. And others are pulled into to the folds of the industry with relative ease and little effort. Yet, all along the way, tension, frustration, and conflict can develop amongst these people in these varied situations. These are things that we do not want in our culture, yet as a young rider, I had no place to turn to learn about these issues and avoid the pitfalls associated with them. It took me a few years to understand this, as well as many other complex issues. My question is: Why don’t the people who understand things simply tell those who do not? I think we can all agree that the answers to questions like these are not secret. Regarding the example above, if every BMXer understood the complex nature of “professional” BMX, I believe we would have less conflict between riders of different ages, skill levels, and backgrounds. All we need to do is communicate. Magazines have attempted to tackle issues like the example above, but, to be blunt, someone needs to sit down and say it “like it is” without concern for how their statements will be perceived, if the answer will be too long, if it will reveal intra-industry drama, or even if it bums kids out. We need a place where we are able to openly discuss all segments of our culture regardless of the intensity or contentious nature of the issue.
Along with the concept of representing and transmitting accurate information to younger generations, we owe it to all BMXers to share and discuss the issues that affect the present, as well as the future, state of our culture. I believe that open and transparent communities stand a better chance of facing challenges and growing in a positive and intentional way. For example, if the BMX industry is in a financial slump this year, then say so. We, as a culture, are diverse, creative, and motivated. Why not invite all of us to work together to better that which we love? We should be open and honest about how things work in our culture so that we can tap into the resources that undoubtedly exist. With the best foot forward, our culture can advance with positive intentions towards real goals. And when individuals make choices that affect all of us, we should be able to discuss and debate them in public to ensure that we all work for the common good, not just selfish ends.[10]
Much of this is for us, but we also can remedy an issue that irks many of us: how we are perceived by the outside world. So often, we see mainstream representations of who we are and what we do and they are woefully off-the-mark. From BMX Bandits[11] in the 1980’s to Brandon Begin’s controversy with the local news media,[12] we are often inaccurately and embarrassingly portrayed to those outside of our culture. Much of the world knows of us only what they can find on Google or happen upon on YouTube. With Wikipedia topping the search results for “BMX,” we are destined to be defined by references to Eddie Roman and Freestylin Magazine.[13] Though important parts of our history, these references are like explaining modern pop music by discussing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960’s. We are so much more than just where we came from. We are what we create and share every day. We are people with real lives which are intertwined with the culture of BMX. We deserve more than a few quick lines on a barely-updated Wikipedia page or clip in a People are Awesome compilation on YouTube.[14] We have defined ourselves internally, but what will the rest of the world know of us tomorrow, next year, or in a generation? The culture we as BMXers have created is unique, meaningful, and deserving of recognition. We believe in documenting its existence, yet much of the media we share with ourselves and the world can never explain who we really are. With the written word, we can explicitly tell ourselves, the world, and the future, who we are. All we have to do is let it be written.
This really matters.
As mentioned above, BMX culture has been heavily documented since its inception, but bits and pieces of it have been falling through the cracks or pushed into the closet for just as long. It is my hope that those leftovers will be recognized, reorganized, expanded upon, and brought into the light. Many topics that are not addressed in BMX lend themselves to more intense discourse than is possible within modern BMX media frameworks. The conversations we share while sitting on street corners, the arguments we have while driving cross-country, and the revelations we come to when sharing our lives with our BMX family, are all things worthy of sharing with the rest of BMX culture. Things worthy of remembering. And things worth working hard to understand. It is my hope that this essay explains why I thought it necessary to create yet another media outlet for BMX culture, as well as why I chose to structure it how I did. The quest for understanding is certainly an integral part of human existence, as well as of BMX culture, and this essay and the website it inaugurates are a manifestation of that quest. When, at thirteen-years-old, I showed up at the local dirt jumps for the first time, I asked so many questions. I wanted so badly to understand everything about this amazing thing called BMX. Throughout the years some of those answers have come easily, while others elude me to this day. Every time I learn more about this diverse and amazing culture, it becomes more a part of me. and I more a part of it. That interconnection has wed me to its existence, and also to its survival. I have lived a BMX life for over twenty years, and now all I want to do is make sure that BMX lives on for twenty more years and then some.
Think about what matters to you and then, let it be printed.
Mike Hinkens
FOOTNOTES:
[1] http://leastmost.com/features/crandall-shrugged/ and http://fbmbike.co/custom-welding-and-fabrication/
[2] Possible future topic: The dominance of videos in BMX and the loss of respect for the photograph.
[3] http://www.northernembassy.com/2011/10/05/the-evolution-of-video-cameras-in-bmx/
[4] http://thecomeup.com/category/tv/ AND http://www.snakebitebmx.com/category/podcast/
[5] http://digbmx.com/features/eat-better-grind-further
[6] http://digbmx.com/features/not-normal-bmxers
[7] http://digbmx.com/dig-this/re-print-james-cox-committed
[8] http://www.profileracing.com/estore/product.php?productId=633 AND http://99seconds.com
[9] Possible future topic: The nature of sponsorships in BMX and what it means to be a “Professional.”
[10] See article connected to this topic at: http://www.imprimaturbmx.com/in-defense-of-bmx.html
[11] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085204/?ref_=nv_sr_1
[12] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ktee3cWQNY AND http://laist.com/2014/03/12/video_horrible_humans_do_bmx_bike_t.php
[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMX
[14] Possible future topic: Do BMXers allow themselves to be seen as spectacles to the rest of the world by doing cheap tricks to impress the average person? Does this help or harm our culture?
Responses
“I care and I am going to ride my bike.”
by Payton Wagner
April 16th, 2020
This is exactly what I lived by for a few years after picking up my first BMX bike as an 11-year-old kid. It was 2008 and I got a new Mirraco Shorty and life was good. I liked watching BMX videos, but hadn’t really taken the time to learn much about riders who came before me or the history of BMX. I was also not as exposed to this world as other riders might have been as I was growing up in Maui, Hawaii. I literally didn’t care and was just going to ride my bike, but the day I started to care really changed my life.
It was a hot summer day in the town of Kihei in 2011. A group of 2 or 3 of my friends and I were riding at the local skatepark just like we did almost every day that summer. We rode at the hottest part of the day, but we didn’t care because we had the park to ourselves at that time. That was, until this one guy out on a walk at Kalama Park stopped by without a skateboard or a bike or anything. He just sat down and watched us ride for a little bit. Finally, I went over on a ramp near him and started talking to him. I can’t remember exactly how the conversation started or went, but the gist of it was that his name was Dave and that he rode BMX too. I was a little surprised because he seemed like an average guy walking through the park on his vacation to Maui just like hundreds of others do every day. What really got my attention was when he told me he rode for We The People and Demolition. At the time, sponsored riders seemed like mythical beings to me. He then asked if I had heard of the new Demolition video “Last Chance,” and of course I hadn’t. I believe he said something along the lines of “I was curious to see what the BMX scene was like out here so I stopped by, but I actually have a copy of it in my rental car if you guys want it.” So, me and my friend followed this stranger we just met to his rental car in the parking lot and he gave us a copy of the DVD. We thanked him, he left, and we were stoked—we just met a sponsored rider and he gave us a DVD that he was in. We went to my house and started watching it. Earlier, Dave had humbly told us that he was surprised he got enough clips to actually have a full part in the video and this had me expecting that he wasn’t necessarily one of the biggest names or best riders on the team. I was excited to see his part nonetheless. After a few sections we see the guy we had just met, and we learn that his full name is Dave Osato. “Woah he still rides front brakes” I’m fairly certain one of us said. The DVD and meeting a sponsored rider had me so stoked that I was ready to go right back to the skatepark that evening. I saw one of the local riders there who was a few years older than me and I told him that we met a guy named Dave Osato here earlier and he gave me a copy of the new Demolition DVD. I was about to tell him about Dennis Enarson’s crazy ending part in the video when he said “What!? Dave Osato was here!” He gave me a brief rundown of how I got to meet a BMX legend and I became so embarrassed that I had no idea who he was.
From that day on, I started paying more attention. I watched a bunch of Dave Osato videos and learned about the generations of riders before me. I became obsessed with BMX videos to the point that I got my own camera and wouldn’t go riding without it. Fast forward to the present day and I’ve earned a bachelor’s degree in film studies, am a professional videographer, and am just as stoked on BMX as I was that day nine years ago. Needless to say, that day changed my life. Dave Osato very easily could’ve just left and been annoyed with us little kids who had no idea who he was. Instead he was incredibly kind and seemed stoked just to see a group of kids riding BMX and having fun. Aside from the older rider I mentioned—who to this day is one of my good friends and favorite people to ride with—the friends I was riding with that day don’t ride BMX anymore, and that’s fine. But for me, I still ride and still think about the often brought up statement: “who cares, go ride your bike.” My response is, I care deeply about the BMX culture and lifestyle that has had an immeasurable impact on my life. At 23 years old and with 12 years of riding under my belt, I know I’m still young in BMX, but I hope that other riders take a patient approach to dealing with kids and see the potential in properly educating and sharing the culture that we love so much. So, I do care and I am going to ride my bike.
P.S. Dave Osato, if you end up seeing this, thank you very much for the DVD—to this day it is one of my prized possessions
by Payton Wagner
April 16th, 2020
This is exactly what I lived by for a few years after picking up my first BMX bike as an 11-year-old kid. It was 2008 and I got a new Mirraco Shorty and life was good. I liked watching BMX videos, but hadn’t really taken the time to learn much about riders who came before me or the history of BMX. I was also not as exposed to this world as other riders might have been as I was growing up in Maui, Hawaii. I literally didn’t care and was just going to ride my bike, but the day I started to care really changed my life.
It was a hot summer day in the town of Kihei in 2011. A group of 2 or 3 of my friends and I were riding at the local skatepark just like we did almost every day that summer. We rode at the hottest part of the day, but we didn’t care because we had the park to ourselves at that time. That was, until this one guy out on a walk at Kalama Park stopped by without a skateboard or a bike or anything. He just sat down and watched us ride for a little bit. Finally, I went over on a ramp near him and started talking to him. I can’t remember exactly how the conversation started or went, but the gist of it was that his name was Dave and that he rode BMX too. I was a little surprised because he seemed like an average guy walking through the park on his vacation to Maui just like hundreds of others do every day. What really got my attention was when he told me he rode for We The People and Demolition. At the time, sponsored riders seemed like mythical beings to me. He then asked if I had heard of the new Demolition video “Last Chance,” and of course I hadn’t. I believe he said something along the lines of “I was curious to see what the BMX scene was like out here so I stopped by, but I actually have a copy of it in my rental car if you guys want it.” So, me and my friend followed this stranger we just met to his rental car in the parking lot and he gave us a copy of the DVD. We thanked him, he left, and we were stoked—we just met a sponsored rider and he gave us a DVD that he was in. We went to my house and started watching it. Earlier, Dave had humbly told us that he was surprised he got enough clips to actually have a full part in the video and this had me expecting that he wasn’t necessarily one of the biggest names or best riders on the team. I was excited to see his part nonetheless. After a few sections we see the guy we had just met, and we learn that his full name is Dave Osato. “Woah he still rides front brakes” I’m fairly certain one of us said. The DVD and meeting a sponsored rider had me so stoked that I was ready to go right back to the skatepark that evening. I saw one of the local riders there who was a few years older than me and I told him that we met a guy named Dave Osato here earlier and he gave me a copy of the new Demolition DVD. I was about to tell him about Dennis Enarson’s crazy ending part in the video when he said “What!? Dave Osato was here!” He gave me a brief rundown of how I got to meet a BMX legend and I became so embarrassed that I had no idea who he was.
From that day on, I started paying more attention. I watched a bunch of Dave Osato videos and learned about the generations of riders before me. I became obsessed with BMX videos to the point that I got my own camera and wouldn’t go riding without it. Fast forward to the present day and I’ve earned a bachelor’s degree in film studies, am a professional videographer, and am just as stoked on BMX as I was that day nine years ago. Needless to say, that day changed my life. Dave Osato very easily could’ve just left and been annoyed with us little kids who had no idea who he was. Instead he was incredibly kind and seemed stoked just to see a group of kids riding BMX and having fun. Aside from the older rider I mentioned—who to this day is one of my good friends and favorite people to ride with—the friends I was riding with that day don’t ride BMX anymore, and that’s fine. But for me, I still ride and still think about the often brought up statement: “who cares, go ride your bike.” My response is, I care deeply about the BMX culture and lifestyle that has had an immeasurable impact on my life. At 23 years old and with 12 years of riding under my belt, I know I’m still young in BMX, but I hope that other riders take a patient approach to dealing with kids and see the potential in properly educating and sharing the culture that we love so much. So, I do care and I am going to ride my bike.
P.S. Dave Osato, if you end up seeing this, thank you very much for the DVD—to this day it is one of my prized possessions