I don't know what sparked this. Maybe my son Quinn's interest, a want to lose a few pounds or who knows but I just recently bought a Mongoose and have began riding again. Of course not at the level that I once did. For the most part I haven't touched a bike or a skateboard for that matter in 15 or so years. Riding again has brought back some old feelings of freedom that I had forgotten about. That feeling I used to get riding alone in a parking lot at 3am or going at break neck speed 20 or 30 miles a day in the many tracks I would take across Des Moines in my Youth. Now I'm slowly beginning to pass that joy on to my son. After running across Lewis's Old School Iowa Skater Page a few days ago it got me to think that I should add a BMX/Skating Page. So Here it is.
| I'm not sure but I think I got my first BMX bike around 80 or 81 but really didn't begin to do jumps and dirt riding until 82. My Cousin Kent had a PK Ripper and I remember spending a weekend tearing down the Huffy, re-building it and ripping off all the reflectors, chain guard, etc... Before long that bike went away and was replaced with Kuwahara and I think I began racing in 82 or 83. I wasn't really that good at it but did place a few times and during this whole time I was doing a small amount of skating mostly down hill type stuff and dropping off curbs. |
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| I'm not sure where the whole Freestyling thing started but I do know that without a doubt it was the how tos and photos of Bob Haro and Mike Buff in BMX Action that got me into it. I think everyone that owned a BMX bike tried endows and Bunny Hops but these guys were taking Skating tricks and doing them on BMX bikes. At the time I think the Haro Master Frames had come out but there really wasn't any such thing as a Freestyle bike. There wasn't even pegs out yet or cable Detanglers like the Rotor. For the most part all BMX bakes were geared toward Racing and the idea was to get the things as lite as possible. In fact my Kuwahara BMX bike weighed about 18 pounds. |
| I think it was toward the end of 83 that I began to set my bike up for Freestyling. This involved extra long cables, Coaster brake with a seat clamp to attach it to the frame. The Long cables were so you could spin your bars and the coast to make it easier to roll backwards. Before long I believe it was Skyway that came out with pegs and it was the first of many items that would come out to adapt racing bikes to Freestyle bikes. I even bought one of Skyway's frame stands pictured here to be able to do frame stands and other tricks. The idea was during the week you put all this stuff on to do tricks and then took it off on the weekends to race. That is just what I did for about 6 months until I quit racing all together. I think the first real trick I learned was the Rock Walk. Today this day it amazes me how few people can do this trick. Let me tell you in 83 if you could do a rock walk you were the shit. |
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| I think it was late 83 or early 84 when Kent built his Quarter Pipe from the old Bob Haro BMX Action plans. The transition was really rough. Basically it was two frames 6 foot tall with two 2x4 set in a X. Then you screwed in the plywood and start hitting the thing. Instead of the smooth prefect transition that you have now it was really choppy but it got the job done. I remember the biggest thing was just to be able to do a 180. Getting over the copping was a pipe dream. Shortly we both had down flyouts, foot plants and 180s. I was never really that good on the ramps but it was always fun to hit the things. There's nothings like floating up there for a few seconds. It's a mix of danger, fear and freedom that can't be found anywhere else. See Flatland was my game and it was about to explode. |
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By 1984 BMX racing had all but completely died out. There was a lot of reasons for this. From the fact that it had become almost the motor cross little legal to the fact that it just wasn't exciting. By the early 80s it was nolonger about jumping and showing off and was all about sitting low to the ground and going fast. Also it was really pricy and the average kid didn't have a parent that was willing to shell out $600 for a bike. Add to that the fact it wasn't something you could do just anywhere. You need a track. A lot like what street skating did for skating, freestyle did for BMX. The BMX industry was looking for something to replace the void in the market and they found that in Freestyling. At first it was a very underground thing and was seen for the most part as a side line. Something you did between races and when you weren't hitting the dirt. That changed in 84 and 85 when just about every BMX manufacture began producing Freestyle bikes. Along with the new bikes came a whole load of new products. many of which in retrospect were down right dumb and useless. It was about this time that I got my first true Freestyle bike a Kuwahara Freestyler frame with all the trimmings. I'm not sure but one of the things that came out about this time that really changed things was the Pot's Mod. |
| For those that don't know the Pot's Mod was taking the bolt that held the tension of the goose neck inside the fork and drilling a hole through it. Then threading the front brake cable through the hole, into the fork and out the hole just above the front tire. Then the front brake is set up with the cable entering the bottom and locking on the top. This allowed you to spin the bars without hooking up the cable. It was invented by I think Mike Buff's step brother. It's one things from that period you will still find on every Freestyle bike. It seems pretty damn simple now but back then it was rocket science. Another big jump was the Rotor by ACS. Though the thing never worked that well and you had to take the thing apart to replace cables. What it was, was the first detangler for the back brake. It was two cylinders that rotated with a cable that ran from the brake lever and one that went to the back brake. So now you didn't need those extra long cable cause you could rotate those bars forever now. |
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Most of the tricks from this period revolved around hopping tricks or balancing tricks and for the most part have gone the way of Mammoth. Thanks to the Pott's mod tail spin and other tricks can about but the style was for the most part very choppy compared to modern flatland. In the beginning of 85 I started the Flyin & Stylin trick team with my cousin Kent and we started doing a few Demos around Des Moines. It's strange but for the most part we thought we were alone in our interest. I mean we knew that someone was buying all those Freestyle bikes but we didn't know where they were going. That changed when we did a 10 days of demos at the Iowa State Fair. I had a year or two before seen the Flying Aces preform there but those guys seemed a lot older and were more focussed on skating. For info on the Flying Ace Check out Lewis's Old School Iowa Skater Page. At any rate it was during the first couple of days of demos that the locals began to come out of the wood work. |
| At the Fair I met Mark Brown, Russ Cook, Doug Shaw, Brian, Fred and a number of other locals. There was all this small local group of kids spread out in the city and they all had a pack that ran with them. Over the years to come this would shape our riding and our social life. Russ in fact ended up bring down his ramp to use instead of mine. 8 foot tall with prefect transition it was a big difference. The design was one of the best of 100% wooden designs I've ever came across. His father came up with the design and my finial quarter and Russ' half pipe was made this way. Instead of using plywood sides and then building a frame work of 2x4s, he cut the transition out of 2x12s. It was a great deal more solid if it was supported correctly. By the end of the week the demos had turned to the state of chaos with about 10 riders riding at once. |
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Around this time the Mountain Dew commercial feature Freestylers had came out. It may have been earlier I'm not sure but it sparked a fad. I think this was the first of the Dew Extreme ads but no longer were we these weird teenagers that rode kid bikes. It made a big difference and in a lot of ways helped skating, Freestyle, BMX and Snowboarding to move out of the underground and into the mainstream. This was a good thing but it also brought in a lot of the quick buck maker and in a way helped to give it a quick death. Skating stayed a great deal more hardcore and underground for a little longer but by 86 it too was mainstream again. |
| In the fall of 85 I began to spend more time at Russ' half pipe and riding downtown at Noland and a number of parking lots around downtown Des Moines. A normal Friday night would start with a trip or ride to Russ' and then riding the ramp until dark. We would usually met up and spend the night avoiding the cops and riding to crowds here and there. It was not uncommon to have 10 or 20 of us tooling around and riding every where. There was a lot of talent there. Russ was one of the best Flatland riders I've had the pleasure to ride with. He had style and smoothness unlike anyone else. There was Mark Brown who could rock walk a block and a half and bunny hop just about anything. Doug Shaw was a good over all rider from street to ramp to flatland. Fred had great balance. We all pushed each other and had a blast at the same time. |
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Around this time Dennis McCoy made big news cause he was the first Freestyler to get a sponsorship in the Midwest and hell maybe the first outside of California. I had seen him ride at BMX Pro in KC with the Haro trick team and I was impressed. I'm not sure how I hooked up with him but a number of times Russ and I headed to KC to ride with him. He had a hole crew that rode with him and they called themselves the BMX Brigade and they tore up the Plaza in KC. The two riders that stick out are Brian Belture and Rick Thorne. Both were maybe not at Dennis' level but were better then most of the riders I had seen coming out of California. They rode year around either in their house or in the underground parking garages of downtown KC. These guys were hardcore and lived on their bikes. We took a number of trips down to KC to ride with them over the next few years. |
| The thing about Dennis was that not only is he by far the best riders I've ever seen but he is one of the nicest people I've ever met. If you could keep up with him, he would ride with you. I remember once taking off with him from his house in south KC and us riding at break neck speed to Liberty about 30 miles away. Not stopping for nothing and if you got left behind you were lost. He was just that hardcore. I think he got up and got on his bike and then got off and went to bed. On one visit he had broke his leg or ankle trying 540s and he spent almost the whole 2 days we were there on his half pipe in a cast trying 540s. It's been a number of years since I saw him but I'm sure he hasn't changed. |
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It was during this period that I bought my first Haro Master. I think off Russ and then got an 86 green Haro which I put together in Dennis' front yard. We went on to do another year at the Fair in 86. By this time Kent was getting out of it and Chris was added to skate. The team had buy this time became more of a gang then anything. I know we did a bunch of other demos but face it it was over 15 years ago. At the fair in 96 I also set up a contest and there were a number of riders from all over the state. It was a lot of fun but by this time I had began to spend more time on my Skate then on my bike. |
| I think it was around 86 where a lot of people started to lose interest. It had just gotten to the point where it seemed that everything you could do had been done. The hopping, spinning, and bouncing thing had wore itself out. To look back doing a hand stand on your bike with the tire turned side was with the seat against it must have been pretty boring to watch and also to watch someone hope on the front pegs of a BMX was too. It was fun sure but there is a point wear you go there's got to something more or I need to move on. I think we all dreamed of the stuff you see people doing today. On the ramp we all wanted to do 900s and flails and on flatland we wanted to do one on going flow of tricks but they all seemed out of reach at the time. That and we had all been too busy working on Cherry pickers and Gumbies and other dumb tricks to have time to work on anything else. I think it was the last time I went with Russ down to KC to hang with Dennis that I saw the future of flatland. Dennis had been for a long time combining tricks with this dance like foot work he'd developed when he was stuck in the house due to weather. It was flowing but it still had it's pauses. I'll never forget seeing him doing a fire hydrant into a decade. It was like the world had ended. I knew this was the trick that would change it all and it is the bases for flatland today. |
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That trip really sparked the whole thing for me. I would have more than likely stopped riding in 86 if it wouldn't had been for that trip. By late 87 other things were taking my time and interest. I did ride off and on until 89 but never at the level I used to. The last time I saw Dennis was I think the fall of 87. I drove down to this little town to visit a friend at school east of KC. I decide to head into KC to buy some records and do some shopping. I think I spent the night in the car and the next day after driving around looking for this store, I noticed that I was in Dennis' neighborhood. I headed to his house and he wasn't home but was told he'd be back soon. I think for some reason I hadn't slept for 2 days and ended up passing out in front of the house in my car. A few hours later I woke up to the zipping sound of rubber on wood and Youth Brigade. After wiping the sleep out of my eyes, I headed to the back of the house and was greeted by Rick Throne heading up the drive to make another run at his Quarter pipe. It had been about a year and half since I last saw any of him or Dennis. By this time I was shaving my head and I really didn't know if they would recognize me at all. On the ramp was Dennis doing a run and when he stopped, he said, "Hello Dave." and asked what I been up to. I filled him in about quitting college and everything else that was going on at that point in my life. He asked if I still rode and I told him not as much. He nodded and then this guy comes riding toward the quarter and kept trying to alley oop the gap between the quarter and the half about 10 feet. He'd slam hard and then get up and try it again. Over and over he took these hard bails and got up and did it again. He just wouldn't give up. Like a nail pounding in hard wood. It took me a while to realize that it was Matt Hoffman. The Craziest guy I've ever seen a ride. It was like his life depended on making it. I had seen this before, I remember seeing Ron Wilkerson at one, if not the first King of Vert contest in MN ride the same way. Doing these huge airs and then bailing hard, kicking his bike back together and then doing it again. There was a time when I was like that. I think I had long since made up my mind that I didn't have that drive anymore but hadn't admitted it to myself yet. When I got back to Des Moines, I rode a few more times but within a few months my bike had moved into the garage of my parents house and collected dust. |
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| DaVo in 83 or so. Dig this straight racing bike | DaVo in 83 or so. You have to have the dumb look to be Rad. |
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| Kent on my First 1/4. this was the full on BMX Action plans. It was 8ft wide and 6 ft of trans with I think no vert. | DaVo doing a old school curb endow. |
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| Kent doing a 180 I think on my first 1/4 | Davo doing a cherry picker on Court Ave in Des Moines. This used to be our favorite place to try and get change off drunks on the weekend |
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| I don't know why or who took this but this is the back of my second 1/4 made using the cook design. It was 8ft wide, 8ft trans with 6 inches of vert. Deck was done it was 8ft. I'm not sure what happened to this ramp. My parents wanted it out and this kid said he wanted it. He loaded it up and took it somewhere and I never saw dime one. | This is Kent on the ramp at the Iowa State Fair in 96. I remember when it was a big deal to get above the copping and I think he was about 3feet out |
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| This is Kent again same location same time. | This is Kent again and look at the crowd. |
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| DaVo at the Iowa State Fair. This was my ramp bike that used to be my racing bike. | Cherry Picking at the Iowa State Fair. Dig the Ugly Green and Orange thing I had going on. To the left is my kicker ramp. I guess they would call it a wedge now. |
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| Kent doing this handstand thing. That's me
announcing in the background. |
DaVo doing some balance thing. |
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| DaVo doing a handstand thing. I think my form was a little better then Kent's. | Chris doing a foot plant at Noland. Noland was always a lot of fun to Skate. Too bad you can't anymore. |
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| Chris I think somewhere on Walnut 1986 | Chris on Russ's Half 85 or 86 |
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| Talk about Dumb Tricks. I'm sure I didn't ride into it and it was all staged but it's a good shot | Kent downtown I think the same place as the one to the left. |
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| Russ on his quarter in front of his house. | This would be from the 1986 Iowa State Fair Contest I did. Someone wrote me a while back with the name but the e-mail was lost with my last computer. If you are reading this put it in the comment section or e-mail to me again. |
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| This would be from the 1986 Iowa State Fair Contest
I did. I'm not sure who the rider was. |
This is Russ again. It looks like from the same day as above. |
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| This is at Russ' Half in 85. I think that is Darren but I can't remember his last name | Russ on his half in 85 |
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| I think this is Darren again. Could be wrong | This is Russ sitting on the deck of his Half pipe. It was 16 ft wide with 8ft of trans. If I remember correctly the tombstone on the left was 4ft of vert and the the one on the right was 3ft of vert with a foot in the center. The wall closest had half a foot of vert and the roll in was 3 feet wide. The flat bottom was 12 feet. The ramp did a lot of traveling over the years. Soon after this photo was taken the neighbors stated complaining about the noise it being an eye sore. So the whole thing was torn down and hauled in the back of my 1970 pick up(in two trips) to Darren Stout's house on the south side of Des Moines. It was all rebuilt without the tombstones and the extra vert. Darren also put a new surface on it. For some reason Russ took it back and moved it to Kent's Girlfriends house in the Southside bottoms. The frame work sat there for sometime until it was moved to this house on Harding that I moved into and lived in in 89 and 90. After that I lost track. |
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| Russ Skating his half. | Chris doing a hand plant |
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| Chris on Russ' Half Pipe about 85/86 | Chris on Russ' Half Pipe about 85/86 |
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| Chris on Russ' Half Pipe about 85/86 |
