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.

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.

I dug out some folders of some old BMX slides from when I still lived in New England. Most of the stuff was shot during the late 1990s. I’ve got a lot of stuff from Kevin Robinson’s old skatepark, Impact which was in Providence, and I’ll post that in the near future. But this stuff of Jason Enns is what I was looking for in the digging process. I remembered we’d shot some stuff at Impact for the second issue of Nine-ninety Magazine (which was never published), and I was curious if it had disappeared. Sure enough, it was sitting unused in an Impact Skatepark folder in my slide archives. Jason had some of the most original mini-ramp style tricks at the time, and we had shot an X-up Canadian nosepick on the six foot quarterpipe, which really stuck out in my mind. 12 years later it’s still a bad ass trick. I was really hoping I still had this negative, and sure enough I did (In those days I didn’t really file stuff away properly). Check it out after the jump. Pusher sticker on his helmet, Iron Maiden patches on his ProDesign elbow pads. Kink Revision B frame. That bike is probably about 45 pounds.