This was the first time I met Anthony Napolitan, who I’ve shot an awful lot since then. At the time, Anthony was a flow rider for the distributor System Cycle, and lived right down the road from the skatepark pictured above, Section 8 in Columbus, Ohio. Section 8 was a bad-ass bike oriented skatepark, producing some amazing riders over the years. I had recently moved to Pennsylvania, and took trip out there with Kevin Robinson, Alistair Whitton, and a few other guys. Anthony was killing the mini ramp, and the pink bike was a nice spark of color in a dark indoor park, so we shot for while that night. This photo was used in BMX Plus Magazine a few months later. Seven years later, Anthony’s still killing it. He’s all grown up now, and went on to win X Games medals, and a Dew Cup in Dirt.

It’s possible I posted this years ago on here. But either way I’m bringing it back out because I like it. It’s a turndown flair, over a channel on the B3 BMX Ramp at Woodward Camp in 2003. I was laying on the roll in that runs through the channel, and getting attacked by birds which were nesting in the side of the ramp. It was off-season for camp, so birds had taken up residence in the ramp, and they were dive bombing me between Jamie’s runs.

I came across these shots of Mat Hoffman from 2002, sort of by accident, while searching for some shots in my files. I’m not sure if they ever got used, but they’re from a “Soul Bowl” contest in Huntington Beach, CA in 2002. HSA (Hoffman Sports Association) was the sport organizer for the event, and while Mat wasn’t riding in the contest, he took some runs during practice. I can’t remember if he was injured or healthy… Injured or not, when Mat drops in it’s full throttle. Judging from the photos, whatever limb was almost detatched from his body at the time wasn’t holding him back. The photo on the left is a no-hander one-footer, which I’ve been know to call the “best trick in freestyle” on several occasions. Subjective, yes, but I stand by that, as it’s one of my favorites to shoot and to watch. Sure there are harder tricks, but that’s one that will never get old, at least to me. The photo on the right is pretty serious. The Soul Bowl was/is a full-size vert ramp, but also featured a 45-degree hip and bowl corners. People would jump the hip, but they’d mostly creep over it, and do feeler airs. Mat on the other hand, blasted the shit out of it with very little practice. In all the years the Soul Bowl events ran, I don’t think anyone else went this large over the hip… and Mat wasn’t even in the contest. Check out both shots larger after the jump.

Check out a previous archive photo of Mat here from 2003.

And a portrait of Mat from earlier this winter.

Back in 2009 I posted another photo from this Warped Tour shoot with Joe Rich from 1999. I just came across two more slides from that day, and since Joe Rich photos are gold, I figured I’d scan them. The shoot resulted in an Etnies ad/postcard which you can see after the jump, as well as the other photo I scanned. You can also blow up the shots by clicking.

Before I moved back East from California in 2003, I spent a lot of time riding and shooting with some guys down in the San Diego area: mainly Gary Young, Ryan Sher, and Mike Parenti. This was right about the time Gary started getting a ton of coverage, and picking up more sponsors. We shot an interview for Dig Magazine, which resulted in a cover shot, and that same year he had covers of Transworld BMX and Ride BMX as well. I don’t remember much of this day, other than I know I have some shots of Parenti as well. It was prior to the Dig interview… I only know that because he’s wearing Duffs shoes, and during the Dig interview he’d started riding for Vans (and he still rides for them today). It’s shot at a park in Lake Perris, CA, then called Real Ride, but I believe it’s now called Da Compound. This no-footed can-can is out of the 6-foot mini ramp they had at the time. Come to think of it, this might have been the last time I made it out to that park. Click image to go bigger. And check out a previous Gary Young archive photo here.

In 1997 Kevin Robinson and a few partners opened up a skatepark in East Providence, RI called Impact Stunt Park. At the time, there were very few skateparks in the area (ZT Maximus and Skater Island were about it) and the ones that existed only allowed bikes one night a week at best. The Northeast winters are harsh, and the only option, if we wanted to ride, was riding indoors. For many of us, this meant spending a lot of time riding flatland in parking garages, and waiting for the only bike night at the other parks.  Thanks to Kevin and crew, the Northeast was saved, at least for a few years. Impact was one of the few skateparks in the country (at the time) that was designed with bikes in mind. As a result, the clientele was nearly all bike riders and inline skaters. The vast array of transitions didn’t really appeal to skateboarders, which, from a business standpoint, didn’t really cut it after a while. But from a bike riders perspective it was great: there was a mini ramp with a spine, big quarterpipes, a box jump, street spine, sub boxes, grind ledges, wallrides…. Impact had had everything… for bikes at least.

Impact held contests every few months, drawing riders from all over the east coast. Props’ Road Fools came through the park in its infancy. Impact was featured in the major BMX magazines of the time, and I shot the first BMX ad photo I ever sold there, fittingly a photo of Kevin for a Hoffman Bikes ad (you can see the shot after the jump). Impact’s large parking lot often saw gatherings of some of the best flatland riders in the Northeast.

Every good skatepark needs a shop, and Impact brought in one of the best BMX shops in the country at the time, Dick Maul’s Bike Shop. Dick Maul’s only other location was run out of a garage in Halifax, Massachusetts, and to this day I’ve seen very few shops that rival the selection Maul’s had (and I assume still has). A second location opened up inside Impact for the first year the park was open, but sadly, it just wasn’t doing enough business to stay open. John Maul and Rich Daguirda, who ran the shop did get to spend a lot of time riding the park, though.

During the late ’90s Impact was like a second home to me. I was living in Boston and working at a magazine while going to school, yet somehow, I found time to help Kevin out running the place a few days a week. I’d go down early, ride flatland indoors before the park opened, and then help run the park for a few hours, all while either riding or shooting photos. Like many east coast indoor spots, Impact was so dark it made photography difficult, but that actually helped me to figure out how to use a camera and shoot action. A lot of screwing up and “wasting film” was one of the best learning tools, and the constant flow of great east coast riders ultimately led me to shooting BMX for a living.

I moved to California in 1999, and not too long thereafter Impact saw its demise. Kevin had moved away to Woodward, PA to focus on vert riding, and in his absence a lot of things were falling apart. Indoor skateparks are an incredibly tough business, and Impact fell victim to that. Economics just aren’t in favor of indoor skateparks. But while it lasted, Impact supported the Northeast BMX scene and gave us a place to ride. Many of the riders who regularly shredded Impact still ride today, and have had success in BMX, including Ryan “Biz” Jordan (pictured above, click to go bigger), Jerry Bagley, Keith McElhinney, Derrick “The Maine-iac” Girard, and of course, Kevin himself. Check out more including a photo gallery after the jump.Below is the first “real” BMX ad photo I ever shot. Looking back it’s a bit silly. Boks, a division of Reebok that was making shoes for the BMX market had just folded, and since Kevin’s feet were kicking giant “Boks” logos at me, he put Hoffman Bikes stickers on the bottoms of his shoes. This ended up getting used as a Hoffman Bikes ad in Ride BMX, and perhaps elsewhere.

The photo of Brian Tunney below is from one of the Impact contests, during a time when I was experimenting with some different techniques. I was washing film in the washing machine, processing film in a mixture of folgers coffee and washing soda (seriously), and trying whatever I thought would yeild weird results. I don’t even recall what the combination of madness was used on this roll. There is a similar scratched photo of Marcel Tremblay in the gallery below.

Below is current Staff BMX Mailorder owner Bob Pratt, riding a Basic Bikes frame, and nosepicking the giant sub box toward the back of the park. At the time, this thing seemed massive.

Note: if you’d like to view a larger version of the images below than what the gallery shows, you can right-click, and select view image. You know, when you guys grab these for your facebook and such. Might as well get ‘em big.

Last night I dug out a bunch of old photos from Impact Skatepark in Rhode Island to scan for a more elaborate post down the road. Located in East Providence, Impact was Kevin Robinson’s skatepark in the late 90s. I spent a ton of time there before I moved to California. It was a dark, dungeon-like place for photos, but the tricky lighting actually made it a great place to learn. If you could get a decent photo at Impact, you could do so just about anywhere. The park saved us east-coaster from the winter, and saw riders come in from all over. Derrick Girard, who later became known as “the Maine-iac” and joined the illustrious FBM team, was a regular, despite living three hours away in Maine. He’d show up on a race rame (I believe that’s a Reynolds Racing frame in the photo) and destroy the box jump and wooden doubles (which you can see in the background).

I’ve got some scanning to do, but I’ll be posting some more photos from Impact in the near future, including some shots of Ryan “Biz” Jordan, Jerry Bagley, Keith McElhinney, and Kevin Robinson.

This one is from a contest Play Clothes held in Montreal, Quebec. It’s right about the time I started figuring out BMX photography, without completely blowing it. Funny side story: I got third in pro flat (Andrew Faris pictured above won). Hal Brindley asked if it was cool if he gave me Canadian money for the placing. I didn’t think about it and said yes. I forgot to consider Canadian currency was worth of half of US currency at the time. Oh well, it was fun, so it didn’t really matter. This shot of Andrew screams the time period, and Andrew himself. A Basic Bikes frame, a Baco “Pride” sticker. 48 spoke wheels. Pony tail. This was when Andrew was starting to win everything, and right before he got on the Schwinn team.

I started toying with BMX Freestyle sometime around 1983. In August of 1985 I went to the AFA (American Freestyle Association) Masters contest in Fitchburg, MA, the first contest I entered (13 and under open). From that point on never really thought about much else, much to the chagrin of unreceptive grade school teachers, who knew for sure that those kids bikes would get me nowhere. I guess they didn’t. I mean, I’m still riding them, and taking pictures of them, so in the grand scheme of things I haven’t really “gone” anywhere.  The photo above is from 1986, a year or so after the Fitchburg AFA Masters. From the looks of my outfit I was destined for Portland, and some sort of hipster pioneer. My mother dug up some old photos, most of which I’d consider the “middle school era” of BMX Freestyle. The 1986 shot above is a bit more old school, but most of them are a bit later.

Trophies from the King of the Flatland series. 1986 or 1987 I think.

This was some sort of ghetto, reconfigurable street set up I'd built. Rock Walk drop in. 1989.

Smith decade. Or a "Pegade" as they were called in New England. 1989.

Halflash. 1989.

An overview of the King of the Flatland competition in Manchester, NH. 1989.

This was my backyard halfpipe in 1990 or so, Sharon, MA.

This shot of Josh Heino is from the Nowhere Fast era, around 2001, in Irvine, CA. Rainbows are hot right now, so this one fits right in. A backwards grind down a kinked rail in quiet, California cookie-cutter suburbia.  Shot on Kodak E100VS film, presumably with a Nikon D90s.