Blackman

It's hard for me to really break down Blackman for you, since I don't really understand him myself. He's 17 years old, already was on a RIDE cover feebling a ridiculous ledge at MLK High, had a split section (with Nigel) in Livin' In Exile (and had some hot clips in All Day), was sponsored by Volume and Animal, and was living at the Snoff Shack. He also wears his pants lower than physics allows.

No more (well, except for the pants). Currently he's riding a scrapped-together Sunday (a prototype frame that has already been ridden by Mike Hoder, Vinnie Sammon and Big James), no one's really fuckin' with him as far as filming goes, and I guess he's living back at home. He even got his ass beat at the Tiseo Jam—although he stuck around long enough to the three the 10-stair rail and win $50-odd bucks in the process. But he's still young, and while you not like him as a person, you've gotta respect the way he rides.

Back wallride attempt.

Wallride to whip.

Air out of a wedge at the top of the bank.

TISEO JAM

Beatdown.

Body slam.

Scopin'.

Three over the rail.

Cakin'.

Joey Piazza

When Joey first started coming around Union Square (at least best I can remember) he was riding a Standard Shaman that weighed more than he did. We called him "Average Joe," because it just fit. Years later, he's off at college (Albany) rolling on a Fit Series 3, working on stuff for Prototype NYC and AM:PM, and spending his summers in the city doing, well, this kind of stuff:

Austin x NYC

These shots are from October 10th, 2006. Joel Moody and Aaron Ross were in town filming for the upcoming Empire BMX video (if you haven't picked up the last one, you're seriously missing out). I missed many other sessions, but joined them downtown on this night, along with Mike Osso, Vinnie Sammon, Bob Scerbo, Charles Hearn and Tyrone Williams (among others). Joel spent a lot of time behind the camera, but still got some lines in.

Joel Moody, icepick.



Aaron Ross, smith.



Aaron Ross, feeble to manual to 180 out.



Aaron Ross, flat tire.




Joel Moody, nosewheelie (the flash was a mistake, as it turned out).




Incidentally, Aaron's bike is really, really, REALLY bright.

Dave Dillewaard

Dave Dillewaard is really tall. He's an Aussie who lives in Corona, CA for a good portion of the year, rides for GT, enters all the big contests, double fists whenever possible, and did a tailwhip-to-manual-to-barspin back in at the Banks. Among other things. When he first got down there, I overheard a kid say to his friends, "oh, he must be sponsored by GT." Damn right, bitches.

Ralph Bury

Ralph wears Prada glasses, rides a hella light Fit S3 with purple everything (and ti everything else) and a crankarm-slide-flattened chainstay, and looks like a member of The Mars Volta. He also rides like a man. Footjam nosepick, Brooklyn Banks, October 12, 2006.


Bar sequence. I still don't see why a barspin can't be called a "barspin," but who am I to buck the trend? I just wish I'd shot a sequence of one of his whip hops.

Josh Stricker is one sick motherfucker.

In riding, there are some things that get talked about often, but never get done. One such constant speculation was wallriding the back wall of the Brooklyn Banks. You'd need to launch out of the bank (with no lip to propel you higher, mind you) clear a 10-foot or so walkway, and still hit the wall high enough to ride it. In a word, impossible. Only no one told Josh Stricker. September 8, 2006, the day before the Tiseo Jam. I apologize for the video-grab quality, but Scerbo was filming the line and I didn't want to get in the way. And he was going a billion miles per hour. He didn't come back into the bank or anything, but give him time.



Oh, and by the way: two months later, the tiremarks are still there. Pay homage.

Nigel Sylvester

Nigel Sylvester is from Queens. Feeeel me? He was on WeThePeople, got to Eurotrip with those dudes, then got picked up by MirraCo (and Nike 6.0, what). Last week I got to see him snap BOTH axles on a 180 bar-to-bar-back flyout gone wrong, and this week he managed to snap BOTH sides of a 3/8" front Primo axle simultaneously—the wheel fell out but his pegs stayed on. Looked like he had peg bosses. He's currently testing a prototype of his soon-to-come MirraCo signature joint (the current one's based on the Black Pearl, and let's just say there'll be a lot of changes). Anyway, he missed a good chunk of this summer due to a broken scaphoid bone in his wrist, and I had this shot from before then. Long icepick to bar out. Yeah, b.

More Big James from the Banks.

Just jumpin'. I never remember to point the damn camera high enough—sorry, bro. Note the clean Zoom Teams and two-tone bars.


Footjam nosepick.





Invert over me. (This is probably my favorite photo that I've managed to take so far—it looks like something straight out of BMX Action.)



Table over everything and everybody. (Although this photo might be even better. Sometimes, intentionally or not, everything just comes together. This was one of those times.)



Downside footplant.



Pillar fakie. He does these even higher now, which is just plain wrong.


360. A lot of people in NYC do sick threes, but James does them with more style than anyone. They're more like 180, pause, 180. So much snap.


All photos taken at varying times this summer/fall with the trusty D50. The nighttime ones I was just poaching someone else's flash/video light. The table shot (night) was about as lucky as it gets.

Biz 5 tap sequence

I'll post more about this later, but for now a quick recap and a sequence. The other week (October 20th or thereabouts) a few visitors came to town to film. Escorted by Brooklyn-born BMX auteur Glenn P.P. Milligan was a group consisting of GT pro and X-Games competitor-whatever Dave Dillewaard and fellow Aussie Yonny Wakefield (I need to double-check that when I'm actually awake), and Boston-born-and-raised Cali transplant (and Volume pro) Ryan "Biz" Jordan. In between trips to Max Fish and the Cheesesteak Factory, shit got done. including this Biz 5 tap at the Banks. He eventually pulled it with a barspin in, and with a barspin out (separately). Of course I didn't get either of those sequences shot properly because I'm not all that great a photographer. Dammit. More to come later.

Welcome to the Rest of Your Life

Hm. Well, here I am, just another lonely voice in the already overcrowded blogoverse. Blogiverse? Blogaxy? Blogosphere? Whatever. I don't know if I'll really promote this much (if at all) or whether I'll just delete the entire thing in the next couple of days. Who knows? But, for now, it's just going to serve as a repository for any randomness I can think of about BMX—mainly centered around NYC, since that's where I live and ride. As a professional writer (yes, that's my day job) and aspiring photographer (isn't everybody these days?) I figured I may as well start up a new spot rather than just posting on my MySpace page, or even on BMXboard (where I post as the nauseatingly prolific Not Eddie Roman). The content here will all be produced solely by me.

Anyway, enough babble. Here's a couple photos of New Jersey resident and Animal Bikes employee-of-every-month Mike Osso. Textbook 180 bar (even if he throws 'em the opposite way he's supposed to) at the Brooklyn Banks, and turndown street gap on Bond Street off Broadway, NYC. Shot with a Nikon D50, the first with a Lensbaby.





Oh, and here's a shot of "Big James" Dickens blasting out of the Brooklyn Banks. This shot was/is on the Fit site, but it's buried kind of deep by now. Keep in mind, those of you who've never made the pilgrimage to the Banks, there is no lip, no vert, nothing to throw you up. That's pure bunnyhop. (I've been meaning to bring a tape measure and some tape to mark off that lightpost in feet, Hoffman warehouse ramp style. One of these days.)