Way back in 1987, freestyle was pretty big and many bike companies sent their freestyle teams across to country to perform for kids. They were always so much fun, seeing the riders you only saw in magazines riding right before your eyes! And it was a way to see new tricks — ah, the pre-internet days — like Karl Rothe’s front yard and steamroller (scuffing and forward rolling tricks were brand-new).
We had been going to the summer tours that came through Massachusetts since 1985 (thanks Mom!) but in 1987 we decided to videotape them. The tours we saw were:
- Mongoose — Chris Lashua, Karl Rothe, and Marty Schlesinger
- General — R.L. Osborn, Todd Anderson, and Pete Kearney
- Skyway — Mat Hoffman, Scotty Freeman, and Eddie Roman
- Haro — Dave Nourie, Brian Blyther, and Paul DeLaiarro
- GT — Eddie Fiola and Adam Jung
- Diamond Back — Woody Itson, Mike Dominguez, and Leroy Grossi
1987 seemed to be a big year for injuries — at least by the time riders got to the East coast. Eddie Roman looked tired and appeared to have some bruises on his face (I assume from a crash and not a bar fight). Ron Wilkerson had hurt himself at a previous show and was announcing. The top Australian GT rider Steve Cassap also got hurt on the tour and was announcing instead. Tony Murray was injured and wasn’t even seen at the Diamond Back show. And Todd Anderson broke (?) his wrist at the first General show of the day (we saw the second show) and yet still rode at our show.
In addition to injuries, ugly rainclouds were gathering the day of the GT show. We drove several hours to Connecticut to see Eddie Fiola, and I was kinda pissed they were wasting so much time with a drawn-out safety talk and warmup tricks while the clouds got ever darker. As expected, the skies opened up and it ended up being about a 10 minute show, which was a bummer. And I should’ve put in a new tape before the Diamond Back show, as I ran out of tape about halfway through (damn!).
A few notes:
- Chris Lashua — who at the time was considered an “old guy” — was only 19 years old and running the Mountain Dew Freestyle Team.
- Mat Hoffman and Scotty Freeman were only 15 years old and traveling the country riding their bikes. That must’ve been pretty fun, amazing, scary (for both them and their parents), and overall quite an experience.
- Dave Nourie is a great showman. I like watching his nonstop style, making even simple balance tricks look fun and pretty cool.
- Brian Blyther is able to get a lot of air when hitting the ramp without going very fast at all.
- Many of the pros had not been riding for very long — some only 3 or 4 years, which in 1987 was a pretty long time (though it’s definitely not long by today’s standards)
- I have respect for all show riders who have to ride well on some of the crappiest riding areas — small, slanted, bumpy, dusty … doesn’t matter, you have to ride (and ride well).
So with that, here’s some old-school, full-uniform, VHS-style BMX:
(And if you’re on an iPad or iPhone and can’t view the above Flash video, you can check out the 1987 BMX Freestyle Tour videos right on Vimeo.)