2-Hip Meet the Street: Brooklyn Banks 1989 - Part 3

Dennis McCoy is crazy.  Let's just start with that.  That's a big part of why we love him as a rider.  It's probably a big part of why he's still riding at age 52, and still ripping.  Or maybe he just REALLY wants to avoid getting an office job.  The riding from the clip above is all from two or more years after the Brooklyn Banks contest, as far as I can tell.

When I ended the last post about the 1989, 2-Hip Meet the Street contest at the Brooklyn Banks, (on this blog), it was the Thursday evening before the Saturday contest.  In the room Vision Street Wear Rich Bartlett and I were sharing, Dennis McCoy, Mat Hoffman, Steve Swope, up-and-comer Rick Thorne, and two other Kansas city guys, were picking their spots to sleep on the floor that night.  they were also doing a little bike tuning.  A few of us headed down to the street, without bikes, looking for food.  There was a mini-mart close by, and I wound up with a big hunk of cornbread, a Coke, and some other snacks.

After munching in the room, we all headed back out to go street riding.  Out of nowhere, I was roaming Manhattan with the two top riders on the planet, Dennis and Mat, and five other high caliber riders.  Keep in mind, I had a room paid for as the Vision video cameraman, not as a rider.  Also, I had sprained my ankle pretty bad about three weeks earlier.  It was nearly back to normal, but a little sore and weak.  I knew if I got sketchy and rolled it, even a little, I'd be heading back to the room.  I had to spend two more days with a 35 pound betacam on my shoulder, which would suck with a bad ankle.  So that stuff was in the back of my head. I also knew that if our posse got chased by security, cops, thugs, or a cop on a horse (the fastest threat), I was the slow kid in the pack.

All that mental baggage in my head, we headed out.  Our hotel was in Midtown Manhattan, around 36th or 37th street, as I remember.  We headed in the general direction of Greenwich Village, and the locals showed us where Washington Square Park was.  That became our base, if one of us wandered away from the posse or locals, and got kind of lost, we'd head back to Washington Square and meet up later.  Our spot for New York City pizza slices was near there, as well. 

Here's the crazy thing.  I can't really remember those rides.  I know how crazy that sounds.  I was riding with some of the best riders ever, on street, and I can't remember much.  You know how when you go on a really fun vacation, or maybe spring break, and so much crazy stuff happens, that it all blends together?  Things that on a normal day would seem epic, get forgotten, because even crazier things happen.  That's how that New York trip was.  Plus, it was 30 years ago, so that doesn't help.

In 1989, wall rides were happening, but we weren't grinding ledges much yet, and handrail slides hadn't been invented.  Tailwhip jumps hadn't happened yet either, though I was doing clunky footplant tailwhips.  But I was just weird then, no one else did them.  Most of what we were doing could best be called "applied street riding."  We were a pack of riders, just roaming, the kind of stuff Dennis and his Kansas City "street rogues" were known for.  We didn't casually pedal to a spot, and then try a gap or a grind.  Oh, the term "gap" wasn't part of our lexicon yet, either.  More than anything, we were a pack of BMXers, riding at a good pace, hitting things on the fly.  If it was in the way, we'd bunnyhop it, if there was a lip or curb jump, jump it and get some style in the air.  Hop up and down curves, swerve in and out of moving traffic, bump jump little curbs, tire grind a curb or step.  That's the kind of stuff we did, just non-stop.

Banks were big then, and bank to walls for wall rides.  So if we found one, we'd stop and session it, doing nosepicks, abubacas, blunts (back wheel stall, an abubaca without vert), or a 360 flyout if that was possible.  We'd do 180 bunnyhops, roll backwards in traffic, freak out drivers, then whip a 180 out and haul ass again.  Nollies were a favorite of mine at that point, a nosewheelie at speed into a speed bump, low curb, or random 2x4 on the ground.  It was just noon-stop rolling session without any real destination.  That's probably why I don't specifically remember much.  It was pure, hauling ass, in the moment, street riding.

When we got thirsty or hungry, we'd ride back to Washington Square Park, get a drink, maybe a slice of pepperoni, and eat.  There were two weird asphalt humps there, too far apart to really double jump, and we'd do little tricks on those.   We'd get flatland jam circles going with other pros, ams, and NYC locals at the Park.  That's what we did Thursday night, most of Friday and Friday night, and Saturday after the contest.  It was like all the basic bike skills, pedaling fast, foot out carved turns on pavement, bunnyhopping, all happening at warp speed.  It was so much freakin' fun.

Around 10:00 pm or so, we gathered again, and headed back to our hotel room.  More food and snacks were consumed.  A couple local guys followed us up to our room.  Bikes were tuned, and Dennis, crazy freakin' DMC, asked the locals, "Where's the worst place in New York City?"  They threw neighborhood names around, but decided it had to be Hell's Kitchen.  Dennis McCoy said, "Take me there."  The locals said, "No way."  Dennis kept on them.  Eventually Dennis found a couple crazy locals, and they headed off to take him to ride Hell's Kitchen.  We honestly weren't sure if we'd see Dennis McCoy again, that's how scary it was to the locals in those days.  New York City was gnarly enough, and we were in Manhattan, the rich borough.  Going to the worst place in New York seemed like suicide.  But then, it was Dennis McCoy who wanted to go.  How bad was Hell's Kitchen in 1989?  Here's a video of it about crack addicts there from 1988.  If you're an addict, this is a serious trigger, so pass this up and keep reading.  If you want to see it, here's Hell's Kitchen (NSFW).

After Dennis and the locals left, the rest of the posse, Mat, Steve Swope, Rich, Rick Thorne, and the K.C. guys, got ready for the late night session.  Like I said before, I knew I was the slow kid in the crowd, mostly because of my sore ankle.  So I sat  that session out, and hung out in the room and watched TV.  Those guys came back at maybe 2 am or so, with stories of dodging security guards, and police, crazy tricks, and off the hook, high speed street riding.  One security guard tried to corner Rich, who was a body  builder and a pro racer, and Rich gave him a pro elbow so he could escape.  I knew I made a smart move by not going, a couple guys almost got caught by security.

Dennis McCoy wandered in around 5:00 or 6:00 am.  We all woke up, and he had stories of Hell's Kitchen that even he thought were crazy.  So we listened a while, then all crashed out again.  We had two more days of New York City riding ahead, sleep was needed.

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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