Brooklyn Banks Meet the Street '89: Part 1- The scenario

The bigger part of the Brooklyn Banks, about 28 (?) years after the contest I'm talking about.  Here are the Animal guys making the most of some of the finest brick laying work anywhere.  Even now, with a whole lot more street experience (of all kinds) under my belt, this place looks as gritty and urban and street as about anywhere I've ever seen.

BMX racing surged in the early and mid-1980's in it's second wave of popularity.  BMX freestyle was in its infancy during the mid-80's growing from two trick teams in about 1980,  Bob's Haro and Morales with one, and R.L. Osborn and Mike Buff with the other, into an actual sport.  BMX racing and freestyle blew up in the late 80's as corporate money from outside industries piled on the "fad."  Then in late '88 and early '89, the outside money started looking for other fads.  That's what big money does, but we didn't know that then. 

At the big bike industry trade show in January of 1989, I walked around, and I actually heard industry guys, in booth after booth, saying, "BMX is dead, mountain bikes are the new thing!"  The ten or so manufacturers who had trick teams touring during the summer of 1988, dwindled to two or three teams out in 1989.  Sponsorships, even for the best riders, were pulled away.  BMX freestyle was dead... to the world.  But not to us hardcore riders, we just went underground.  When the big money pulls away, the D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) kids come out to play.

Myself, I hung out at the Huntington Beach Pier on the weekends, riding with more skaters than BMX freestylers, guys like Pierre Andre, Don Brown, Ed Templeton, and even Mark Gonzales.  I'd heard tales of the Brooklyn Banks, one of the very few places, like Love Park in Philly, that were famous East Coast spots.  When word spread that Ron Wilkerson was going to have a 2-Hip Meet the Street contest at the Brooklyn Banks in New York City, everyone was stoked. 

Personally, I was stoked because I had become the cameraman at Unreel Productions that year, the Vision Skateboards/Vision Street Wear video company.  Vision Street Wear was sponsoring the 2-hip contests, and I got sent, all expenses paid, to shoot video of all the comps, vert and street.  There was no way I was going to go cross country without that help, I wasn't that great of a rider, and it would have been an expensive trip.  I wound up being one of the luckiest guys that weekend, having airfare, an awesome room, and meals paid for.

As the event got closer, I heard that Vision was sending pro racer/jumper/street rider Rich Bartlett to ride, me as cameraman, and BMX team manager "Hollywood" Mike Miranda to... well I'm not sure.  He only had one rider to "manage," but it was a weekend in New York.  Can't beat that for free.  Mike took his girlfriend for a long weekend in NYC, made the most of it, and Rich and I were sharing a room.  So we flew there, met up, and Mike drove us all to midtown Manhattan, where we had the best hotel room I've ever had, before or since.  It was about three miles or so from the contest site at the Brooklyn Banks. 

I'll be honest, New York City scared the crap out of me.  It was huge, tall, people rushing everywhere, sketchy ghetto areas, and most of the buildings looked similar from street level.  I was seriously afraid of getting lost and dying in some sketchy way.  But that just added to the intensity.  We got there, I think it was Thursday, with the street contest happening on Saturday, and then a King of Vert on Long Island on Sunday.

Rich and I got settled in, and I felt weird, but cool, walking my bike through the hallways of a swanky New York hotel, down the elevator, and through the lobby.  Rich seemed to know where the banks were, more or less, and we headed off to find the contest site.  We rode pretty mellow, on the sidewalks, and eventually found the Brooklyn Banks, and maybe a 100 or so freestylers there already there riding.

We just sessioned  that afternoon, and as evening started to set in, I talked Rich.  He said something like, "I told Mat and Dennis and a couple guys they could crash in our room, OK?"  I said, "Sure."  As crazy as it sounds now, in September of 1989, Mat Hoffman and Dennis McCoy didn't have sponsors, and they, and pretty much everyone else, paid their own way to New York City.  It was customary then to crash on the floor of the motel rooms of guys who had sponsors, and Rich and I were about the only ones who did.  OK, I was a cameraman, not "sponsored," but, close enough.  So Rich Bartlett, me, Mat Hoffman, Steve Swope, Dennis McCoy, some new kid named Rick Thorne, and a couple other Kansas City street rogues, all started to ride back to our hotel room...

Part 2 in a couple of days...  meanwhile, check out the new Block Bikes Online Shop .
That's Rich Bartlett's new deal, and that's who's brought me in to make this blog rock.


Story shared by Steve Emig/The White Bear

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