It's all about having fun on bikes... First 2-Hip Meet the Street in 1988

It's funny how things work out.  This contest was in the spring of 1988, behind a shopping center, in Santee, California.  The location was chosen because it was one of Dave Voelker's favorite street riding spots.  Nearly every major rider was there, and many of us every day California BMX freestylers, industry people, and street riders, as well.  NorCal Curb Dog and street pioneer Dave Vanderspek, BMX Action trick team entrepreneur and 1988 "Old School" rider, R.L. Osborn, mid-80's street legend Eddie Roman were all there.  Then a new breed took the day, San Diego local  Dave Voelker, and English bloke Craig Campbell blew everyone's minds.  BMX riding completely changed because of this contest. Street riding, as a genre of bike riding, exploded that day.

Street riding, on BMX bikes and mountain bikes is world wide today, there are contests, highly paid pros, and high caliber videos.  But more than anything, there are just a lot of people out there, all around the world, having fun on their bikes in all kinds of different ways.  And that's what it's all about.

I'm rode to this contest in the back of a VW bus, driven by Unreel Productions cameraman Pat Wallace.  He shot this footage.  I later edited this clip for the 1988 2-Hip video, the very first 2-Hip video, put out by Haro pro freestyler, trick team owner, and contest promoter, Ron Wilkerson.  At 3:07 you see me ghost ride my bike into the wall.  I wasn't used to riding that big of a lip into a wall, and couldn't do a decent wall ride that day.  Then at 3:13 you see pro racer, hardcore jumper, vert and street rider, Rich Bartlett bust a cool line over the box jump.  Rich does a big wall ride earlier, and then tries to pull down the big General banner from the wall later.  This new blog, the Block Bikes Blog, is the product of Rich and me connecting and working together again after 31 years.

Rich has been hardcore in the bike industry this whole time.  He owns Block Bikes, an actual bricks and mortar shop, in Lancaster, CA, north of L.A..  He put out the Block Bikes brand, he's been riding hard all these years, and rides road bikes, MTB's, and BMX still.

As for myself (Steve Emig), I've worked in the BMX and skateboard industry, then got into TV production, and then burned out in 1995.  I went off on my weird philosophical journey to figure life out.  I read hundreds of books, and worked lame jobs, like being a furniture mover.  As a philosophical type,  I, of course, became a taxi driver.  There's nothing like dealing with crazy drunk people nightly to put life in perspective.  Then I became homeless as that industry collapsed because of new technology.  I began blogging, worked to figure out how to be a functional writer in today's world, and wound up a blogging Sharpie artist somehow.

So Rich and I connected online recently, started throwing ideas around, and I'll now be doing this blog and some online marketing and social media work for Block Bikes Online Shop, as it grows.  We're both really stoked on this, it seems like a great fit, and we want to help keep BMXers, and everyone who rides bikes of some kind, hyped on riding itself.

For those of you who follow my personal blog, I'll keep it going, sharing my Sharpie art, and tossing out my ideas on the economy, the importance of small business in America these days, and stuff like that   It will have an old BMX story now and then, still.  But I'll be sharing a lot of my old school stories in this blog, as well as covering many other aspects of bike riding.  This is all being brought to you by Block Bikes online store, so it'll help if you all click over and buy 8 or 9 bikes right now.  Buy them for the whole neighborhood, get them kids away from Fortnite.  Get the kids back outside and riding.

Stay tuned, there's a lot more coming...

Check out Block Bikes Online BMX Shop