Happy Birthday To Eddie Fiola

Happy Birthday to the King Of The Skateparks. The caption in this photo says it all.

View more at this link Eddie Fiola post from the past.

I only ever got two autographs

I only ever got two autographs.  In August 1984 I saw the GT team at Rockville BMX.  It was the first freestyle show I had seen.  Ron Wilkerson and Rich Avella were on the tour after being picked up by GT earlier in the year.  Ron and Rich had a great interview in the April issue of BMXA and I couldn’t wait to see these two.  They had formed the 2Hip trick team, done their own shows and gotten to the factory pro level.  They were living the dream.  Ron was killing it on the ground with fresh tricks and blasting as high or higher than Fiola. 

 

After the show I got Eddie and Ron to sign pictures I tore out of a magazine.  I’m sure I have Eddie’s somewhere but I always kept track of this one.  

Brett Downs

BMX Action January 1986

Had to take a second look at this cover when it first came out. Yep, RL and Eddy are riding 24" cruisers on the Wizard Pubs halfpipe. Looks like Fiola might have liked riding the cruiser a little more than RL. He has him by at least 3 feet. He was the King of the Skateparks, he should have alley oped over RL.

This is a great shot of the pro class at the NBL Grands will Greg Hill out in the lead. I wonder what the heck happened? He just needed to make the main to have the number one spot wrapped up. Turns out he didn't and Pete Loncarevich took the top spot that year. Aaron Ross needs to see that set up Greg Hill is riding. He would be stoked on the color set up.

There are so many rad things about this picture of RL blasting a berm slide. Although the thing that stands out the most is the set up he came up with to hold his "Walkman". Someone needs to one this set up with their I-Pod.

Had to post this just because of how rad that air Fiola is doing. Text book perfect table on a 24" cruiser.

About this time was when RAD the movie was going to be released. This issue had some really cool coverage of the making of the movie. If I remember correctly RAD was up for Best Picture that year at the Oscars right? Take a look for yourself. RAD in HD.

BMX Action April 1980

Before Eddy Fiola was crowned King of the Skateparks, Bicycle Motocross Action had already named Tinker Juarez as the King. This iconic cover of Tinker laying out some style at the Lakewood Skatepark is ranked up there in my top ten covers from this time frame.

Not too often will I post up one of the editorial pages from any old publication. But when it includes artwork by Mr Bob Haro himself, I just had to get it posted. Here is a link for a bunch of his awesome drawings. Go get yourself a new desktop image.

I had run many a set of these Tioga Comp ST tires, I feel kinda lame for not knowing that the ST stood for Stadium Tire. I get a black mark for that against my old school knowledge. Good to see the overall design of the Comp ST didn't change much over the years. Great tires.

Tinker Juarez may be known to most people as a winning mountain bike racer. But his roots run deep into BMX history. This spread of him tearing up Lakewood Skatepark is proof of that. And I really could care less if anyone says anything about his knees in that table top picture. Awesome style on a bike that has wheels that weigh more than my whole bike now.

Bmx Plus March 1983

Lots of goodies in this issue. Great cover shot of Greg Hill with enough seat post sticking out that it needed two stickers. Still classic style from one of the era's faster racers. 

You know it is going to be a good issue when they have a section dedicated to just crashes and they used this their lead off image. Such a great capture. I looked at it and all all thought of was "Wow. One piece cranks." I am such a bike dork.

This is the section that sparked my interest in freestyle. There was something cool about seeing these guys doing stuff on a bike that I could probably do. And the fact that I didn't need to go to a BMX track to ride was a big plus. What I would give to have those slides today. Would make some really nice posters. Dig that picture of Fiola at Lakewood Skatepark.

Another page from the same article. It looks like that full pipe air is not going to turn out well for Jeff Watson. Knowing how big that pipe was, that landing could not have been nice. Although, those spongy old Tuff 1's probably absorbed most to the shock from the landing.

Magazine Monday

Gotta' say, I really like the site http://oldschoolmags.com/index.html. So many good scans of old magazines there. Always good to look at some of these older photos and articles that helped shape our little BMX world into what it is today. And of course it is also good to see some of the more fruitier things that came out of BMX from these times. What we need now-a-days is more three way jumps over cheesy bands with full crotch shots. And of course more robots. We could always use more robots. Aaron Ross would be stoked. 

Super BMX  February 1984. I wonder if The King of the Skateparks thought this was a good idea? The guys in the band looked happy to be there. "Hey guys, we have a big photo shoot today. Make sure and wear your tightest shorts."

How much cool stuff could they cram into one issue of Super BMX? As much as they wanted to apparently. I would have been more stoked to win the robot. Mongoose always seem to have some kind of weird promotion in this magazine. I recall something with CHiPs from around the same time. Larry Wilcox was big into BMX back then.

Dyno add from Freestylin' January 1986. I wasn't to picky when I was a kid so noticing little things in ads was never my thing. One would hope that the companies would work with the ad agencies and make sure they got some kind of accurate ad out for their product. Who would want to buy a fork with no threads on the steerer tube? Where did the rest of the steer tube go?  And does Bob Morales really think we would believe him that he rode into that trick? Come on Bob. Front brake down? Bars behind seat? Beyond Basics is what they missed.  Who cares though? I want that green Dyno Compe frame.

Freestylin' July 1985. I think at one point it was mandatory to have the "Camarillo" style roll in on your ramp. I recall at least 6 ramps in San Antonio that had one of these on it. Love the black and white shot of this ramp. Many a days was spent in someone's backyard fooling around on one of these ramps. good times. 

Cool old school clips.

Really rare bit of footage of Tinker Juarez riding a skatepark somewhere in Cali. Year? 1978 or 1979? 

I remember seeing this contest in an issue of Freestylin' and being so stoked. Looked like so much fun.

Brian Blyther is so smooth.

Some really cool GT show footage.