It was 25 years ago, in 1985, that I went to my first BMX freestyle contest… an AFA Masters in Fitchburg, Ma. 1985 was also the year that Haro released a new version of its Master frame and fork set with new chainstay platforms, and an incredible new color — neon green. At the time I rode a Hutch Trickstar, but when that green came out I couldn’t resist. I added some green Haro bars to the Trickstar.

I never had a green Master at the time, but the release of that bike and colorway, looking back, seems like a turning point for BMX bikes. Since then, I’ve thought it would be cool to have one. And when I found this mint condition F&F online I couldn’t resist. So here it is. A 1985 Haro Master that now adorns my office as a piece of art. To me, it’s no different than a sculpture or a painting.

Brian Chapman has been a fixture in the New England Bicycle scene for decades. Since the ’80s Brian has been one of the more well known flatland freestyle riders in the Northeast, and while many of the riders from his generation have faded into obscurity, Brian continues to progress. These photos were shot back in 2005 in a parking garage in downtown Providence, RI. The shot above never got used. The kickflip hitchhiker after the jump is very similar to a film version that ran in Ride, and the cross-footed halfpacker ran in Sophisticated Rider as a center-spread.

The Chapman Brother’s legacy in BMX run deep. In the 80s Brian’s older brother Kieran produced a well known ‘zine called Radazine, which eventually became Wire Zine. A long string of videos covering the Northeast BMX scene evolved into one of the first BMX websites, and one of the first BMX sites with dedicated web content, eWire. These days Brian runs a hand-built custom bicycle frame company out of Providence called Circle A.

I put this video together for the ESPN BMX site from the Old School gathering last weekend at Woodward West. Everyone always asks “What’s he doing these days?” about some of these guys, so this should clear some of that up. Martin Aparijo, Josh White, Todd Anderson, and more. Tons of legends. There were too many good tidbits. Unfortunately, I had to leave some out or it would have been endless. Thanks to everyone who gave me their rundown on camera.

It looks like we can officially call this the “Second Annual” Old School BMX Reunion, as organizer Steve Swope announced plans to make it an annual event until “guys stop coming.” With 250 in attendance this year, it doesn’t show any signs of fading away soon, as the gathering has only grown from last year. It was a who’s who of ’80s BMX Freestyle magazines. From Mat Hoffman, to Josh White, to the Castillo brothers, to Maurice Meyer, to Martin Aparijo, to Mike Dominguez… every time you turned around, someone else was walking in the door. One notable missing face this year was Bob Haro, who was in attendance last year.

Without a doubt, one of the best parts of the weekend for me was seeing Mat Hoffman back on his bike. A couple years back Mat was in a bad car accident which destroyed his already destroyed shoulder, leaving him with partial paralysis in that arm. After a lot of time off contemplating if he’d ever ride a bike again, Mat has gotten a fancy shoulder brace and a bit of strength back. I knew he’d started riding again, but I didn’t expect him to be riding again. But Mat never does anything half way. No one has done more for the sport of BMX Freestyle over the years than Mat Hoffman, and it’s good to see him back on the horse (photos of Mat and more after the jump).

I’m working on a video edit which should be up this week on the ESPN BMX site, but for now, check out a bunch of photos from today and yesterday. Thanks to Swope and Woodward West for another awesome gathering.

The man himself, Mat Hoffman. Can-can lookback.

Ruben Castillo. R-Dog.

The second, and hopefully annual (or at least somewhat regular) Old School BMX Reunion put on by Steve Swope and Woodward Camp kicked off today at Woodward West. Most of the guys either rolled in later tonight, or will arrive tomorrow, so today was mellow (much like last year)… tomorrow is the real day of madness. There were some true legends in the house already today: Joe Johnson, Eddie Fiola (pictured above on a 22-inch bike), Lee Reynolds, Brian Blyther, Rich Sigur, Dennis McCoy, Steve McCloud, Pete Augustin, Martin Aparijo, Todd Anderson, Dave Nourie, Ruben and Robert Castillo, Woody Itson and more. Tomorrow is going to be nuts. It was great to see Joe Johnson back on a bike, doing six-foot plus inverts out of a nine-foot-tall quarter. Check out some more photos after the jump, and keep your eyes peeled for more tomorrow night. I’m also working on a video for the ESPN BMX site which should be up early in the week…Multi-tasking.

Joe Johnson, Invert.

Joe Johnson. If Joe still rode today, doing the same tricks he did in the early 1990s, he would still be considered one of the top BMX riders. He was that good. Joe was way ahead of his time, and during that era was the only person capable of beating Mat Hoffman in a vert contest, and he did. He was the first rider to do tailwhip airs, and double tailwhip airs (he also came insanely close to a triple nearly 20 years before anyone else would do it). Joe is a legend. One of the best who ever rode a bicycle. Still.

I grew up a few miles from Joe, and began riding his backyard halfpipe around 1985, a couple of years before he became “The Joe Johnson.” I was 9 or 10, and to this day Joe calls me “Kid Jared.” Joe’s younger brother Phil was a year or two older than me, and we rode together quite a bit at the time. In 1986 Joe got sponsored by Haro (THE team at the time), and before you knew it the magazines and big name pros were rolling through Stoughton, Massachusetts. Josh White, Brian Blyther, Spike Jonze, Dennis McCoy, Dino Deluca, and countless other legends passed through Joe’s backyard during the late 80s. Without Joe’s ramp and the crew of guys that rode there, it’s safe to say I wouldn’t be still doing “this BMX stuff” 25 years later.

In the early 90s after extensive touring with Haro and GT along with a few injuries, Joe faded from the scene at the top of his game and focussed on school. But Joe was so far ahead of his time that the legend lived on.

On rare occasions Joe would pop up for a session out of the blue. In 1998 Joe got hooked up with a random demo through Dennis McCoy. Mind you, this was almost 8 years after Joe faded off the scene. Dennis got Joe a Mongoose Hooligan (DMC was riding for them at the time) and Joe was back at it for a minute. Out of the blue one weekend Joe showed up at Impact Skatepark in Providence with his new, fresh out of the box Mongoose, and an unworn pair of Vision Street Wear high tops (also 8 years past their prime). There was a little bit of wow factor, but at this point most of the kids in the park had no idea who he was. I think Kevin and I figured he was going to kill himself.

Impact had a six-foot mini ramp with a steep transition. I think it was a seven foot radius cut at six feet, which is pretty quick. It was built that way on purpose (Kevin Robinson wanted to still be able to do airs on it), and while it was a little bit scary, you could blast it if you wanted to. Joe showed up, 8 years off the horse, and proceeded to do fully-clicked lookbacks at six feet out. Not modern day faux-lookbacks where you air opposite and do a turndown. Legit straight up and down air lookbacks his normal direction. Clicked. And turndowns? No problem. It was amazing to see. It was like watching the GT mini-ramp tour from 8 years prior. Then he put the box jump in its place, just like it was a 2-Hip Meet the Street contest 10 years earlier, complete with can-can lookbacks. You just don’t see people do those anymore.

Joe came out and rode a few more times over the years. I saw him at a couple of sessions at Rye Airfield in New Hampshire after I moved back to the east coast, and he came down to Woodward a few times to ride in the mid-2000s when I was living out there. Joe still works with Dennis and Paridy McCoy on occasion behind the scenes at the Dew Tour events, so shake his hand next time you see him, and thank him for the tailwhips.

Throughout the 80s and most of the 90s, Turtles (named after two concrete Turtle shaped playground elements) was a legendary skateboard and BMX spot on the outskirts of Boston. Sitting on the edge of the Charles River, this children’s playground was accidentally designed to be one of the most fun spots on the east coast. An accidental skatepark. Its wading pool (only full of water a few months out of the year) provided some perfect grind ledges, rails, as well as a small set of stairs… and of course the infamous turtles. A snake run of banks ran through the playground, ending in a five foot tall pyramid/hip with tubes on top (designed for kids to crawl through). Aside from a few swing sets, turtles actually wasn’t much of a playground, especially by 90s standards, when every McDonalds in America seemed to have a giant built in playland.

By the mid-90s the park was run down. The swings were falling apart, the slide was broken, there was graffiti all over the bathroom building, and there were more skateboarders, BMXers and Mountain Bikers in the place than little kids. At that point, if you were a small child you stood a good chance of getting crushed by a speeding bike or skateboard, so it wasn’t a great place to “play.” I had been riding Turtles for many years by the time I went to college. But in ’95 I moved right down the street from the park, and rode it pretty much every day until it was demolished in ’98.

To the average person in Boston the name Turtles meant nothing. It was just that run down playground along the Charles River. But to BMX riders and skateboarders around the country who had ridden the place, or seen it in magazines (Chris Lashua had some amazing pictures riding the place in Homeboy magazine and Freestylin’) or videos, it was a famous skatepark. It may have been an accidental skatepark, but it was better than some of the intentional skateparks we see today.

Jumping the tubes on top of the banks at the bottom was almost a mythical feet. Skateboarders rolled over them, people fastplanted them and tail-tapped them, and rumors flew around about people jumping them. But in ’96 Dave Muggleston was the first person I saw start to jump them on a regular basis. He would just roll around the park and jump them like it was nothing. By today’s standards it’s a normal hop, but no one was doing it back then, despite the big names that had ridden the place. Above is a photo of Dave just a few weeks before the park was bulldozed in 1998.

After a failed mission to Washington with Ben Hucke and Aaron Lutze this morning (rain, followed by an injured wrist for me) I hit up the Enjoy the Trick flatland jam here in Portland. Joe Loumena (above right) and his crew of flatland locals put together a few gatherings a year. This time around it was at a school a few blocks from my house, and brought in riders from Northern California, Vancouver, Seattle, and more. I need to build a flatland bike and get out and ride with those guys more often. My “street” set up just doesn’t really cut it. Check out a couple more shots as well as larger versions of the above shots after the jump.

One Hour With Ben Hucke from Souney Media on Vimeo.

Went out this morning and filmed this short edit with Haro rider Ben Hucke a few blocks from my house. One spot, one morning, one hour (ish). Just another day of shredding…

I posted a few photos of Ben recently you should check as well here. You can also watch this video on YouTube and on BFD.com.

A few months back when Steve Swope sent me a note about an old school BMX gathering he was planning at Woodward West, I figured it would be a fun group of 20 or 30 people I see semi-regularly anyway. As a result of sites like Facebook, a number of riders from the past have reconnected, and quickly the gathering grew to over 200 attendees.

I’ve gotten to meet a lot of the guys I read about as a kid from working in the BMX industry for the past decade (Wilkerson, McCoy, etc), but many of them still remained mysterious. A number of legends from the past turned up from Ron Wilkerson, Dennis McCoy, Brian Blyther, Lee Reynolds, Dave Voelker, Eddie Fiola, Dave Nourie, Rich Sigur, Gary Laurent, Hugo Gonzalez, Mike Dominguez and Marty Schlesinger to the man who started it all, Bob Haro. Artist Rich Hanson and one of the original BMX photographers, John Ker were there along with Europeans like Bart DeJong, Stephen Prantl and Andy Zeiss.

The riding sessions felt just like the old days… all fun. It didn’t matter what your bike looked like, or what kinds of tricks you still had in your bag, everyone was just there to have fun. The weekend was open (by invitation) to those over 32 who had kept a strong connection to BMX freestyle over the years.

Lee Reynolds and Ron Wilkerson showed some of the newer school old schoolers like Kevin Robinson, Simon Tabron, Brian “Yellow” Gavigan, and Lip Lord Jay Eggleston that they still could hang on a vert ramp after all these years. Even when the others had worn out and taken off their pads, 43 year old Ron Wilkerson was still up on the ramp by himself blasting well above head height.

Some guys rode a lot, some just hung out, but it didn’t matter either way. After a long day of riding Saturday, everyone converged on the Lodge for a reunion party complete with a slide show, videos playing, and even an impromtu bar floor flatland demo from Dave Nourie.

The turn out was so incredible, and the old school riders were so stoked, that this might turn into a yearly event (the minimum age will go up by a year each year of course). If it does, I’m heading back for sure, as this weekend was 20-some-odd years in the making for everyone there. Awesome. Thanks to Steve Swope for organizing the whole thing, and Debbie Williams and Gary Ream at Woodward Camp for making it possible.

Above images are the entire group, and of course Ron Wilkerson doing a lookback at age 43. Check out the gallery below.