BMX Roots

I fell off the blogging wagon over the past few months, as seems to be the case with me every-so-often. My work and home lives have both been busy, and I haven’t come through with new material for a while. So, I at least wanted to say “Happy Holidays” to those of you who take the time to read my ramblings. I wish all of you and yours a safe and Happy New Year.

While visiting Iowa with my wife and kids for Christmas this year, my boys watched “E.T.” for the first time with their cousins, and they were both excited to tell me all about it, including the parts with the bikes. Funny enough, over on the SPRFLS blog last night, there was a comment with the link to the above clip, featuring the big chase scene in the movie. For many of us, this defined BMX, or at least got us excited enough to go jump some hills. Before “RAD” with Bill Allen as Cru Jones, there was Bob Haro preforming in and providing input to Steven Spielberg on all of the bicycle stunts in the movie.

Now, there are no big tricks (other than E.T. making all of the boys fly), but there is amazing camera work and the feeling of just pedaling like hell. Look for the scene near the climax where all of the federal agents and police come into the frame giving chase on foot. Good stuff.

In the infancy of this site, I posted about a contest that happened in KC at the Pleasant Valley Skatepark. During the contest, I noticed a guy rolling around on a skateboard, filming. I was told by Ivy Melvin from Red Bull that the guy on the board was Trevor Hawkins of Butter Films and she had hired him to grab some footage. So, over a year has now gone by, but I stumbled-upon Trevor’s work on YouTube last week. Almost 10 minutes worth of some great footage of the good times had. Gotta love the long-jump section around the 3-min mark.

America, your president-elect. Barack Obama is indeed your new bicycle.
Now that you rocked the vote, rock a helmet like him, too.