Yours truly, hang-5 in Shawnee, Kansas - 1989. Nice bent seatpost - I always had to run a layback because of my height, and the short top-tubes of the day.
19 years ago, growing up in Shawnee, Kansas, I rode with 3 guys pretty consistently - Scott Haefner, Mike Alexander and Tony Schrag. We met when I moved from Kansas City, KS and searched out anyone I happened to see on another BMX bike. Back then, it didn’t matter if it was a race bike, a freestyle bike, whatever - just seeing someone else on a bike was enough to open up the possibility of cameraderie. We rode flatland, “street”, ramps (though they were few and far between, until Mike got more into skating, and had an amazing 6′ mini ramp), anything was a possibility, and we didn’t see any issue spending hours at the same concrete banks - there were NO skateparks within 200 miles at that point.
Though Scott, Tony and Mike were a few years younger (which for some reason, can seem like a big deal in high school…), we became good friends and rode together consistently from ‘87-’91, when I graduated high school and left for college. We would ride off-and-on until about 1994 or so. I’ve kept up with Mike through the local music scene, and Scott occasionally via email, but haven’t spoken to Tony in years (where are you, man?).
Part of the reason I started this site was to share the photos and stories from this time. A time when freestyle, especially, was so raw and still fairly young. My other love was photography, and in fact, we all took photo class in school, and shot photos of each other. Well, I finally got a new scanner, so look for a bunch more of this stuff to come. This first batch is me, Scott and Mike. Tony will be in the next batch.
Discuss these or post some of your own over on the Vital Old School Forum.
Mike Alexander, curb-to-wallride with Johnny Rotten sticker in full-effect.
Scott Haefner - spinning frontyard. Adidas high-tops, 2-Hip shirt and a General RL Hustler Pro.
