Winter Splinter2007

Here's the thing, the Masters class was the only class determined strictly by age, not skill (real or perceived). Because of this there was a massive, I mean massive disparity in the riding levels of the competitors. Off the top of my head, Todd and Sean both entered beginner. Dave was an Intermediate, Noel was an expert and Jason, Kent and Steve were all pros.

Would on a normal day you expect all of those guys to compete against each other? Well, no, you wouldn't. It would be like having Olympians, high scool JV atheletes, Special Olympians and fat, old men like me compete against each other. I mean, it'd be interesting, it might even be fun(ny) but it would fail the "fair competition" test and since you'd have a good idea of who was going to win going in, it wouldn't even be that suspenseful.

Whatever else they are, competitions are entertainment and a onesided ballgame is always less entertaining than a fair fight. So, the question is, "how do we make something that's inheritly unfair somewhat equitable?" (or some other similar question with less flowery language. Get off my back it's7:14 on a Saturday morning. You're not even awake yet).

Why, I'm glad you asked. I'm nothing if not full of ideas and here's one that I think will work.

No tricks after 1988.

I didn't just randomly pick 1988 mind you, 1988 is the end of old school BMX. How do I know? Because 1988 was when Super BMX and Freestyle ended. If memory serves in their second to last issue Fred Blood told the SBMX&F guys that he saw "some kid in New York pulling tailwhip airs," which at the time was like saying you saw a Yeti in your bathtub. The next issue featured a Joe Johnson tailwhip air sequence on the very last page.

The next month in the mail I received some lame-assed Mountain Bike magazine in the mail. This pissed me right the hell off, because I didn't want a Mountain Bike magazine , I wanted Super BMX (I hold to this day that Decline is the only MTB magazine worth reading).

What does this have to do with anything? Pretty much everything. SBMX's cancellation was the first shot of "there's no more money in BMX. This was the first great BMX downturn.

Trickwise it's also significant. Remember, the tailwhip had been invented, but other tricks you take for granted today hadn't been. Which tricks? Well, grinds. All of them. Nobody had ground anything at this point. There were backflips, but really only Jose Yanez was doing them. Barspins, nope. Flairs, uh-uh. Double and triple tailwhips, are you shitting me?

We're talking back to the basics here.

rocket airs, abubacas, nothings, etc., etc. in the air. Hell, Kevin Jones was doing 1/2 of modern flatland before you were born) but it would hit the pro and expert guys' trick bags just enough to make it interesting, to level the playing field, to make people do kickturns. No, seriously, most people who grew up in the 80s, have some basic muscle memory of the flatland moves of the day, even the beginners could be competitive.

I'm just saying, the world needs this.

If you haven't gouged your eyes out from the sight of Sean in leathers setting up a framestand you're probably taking a look at Kent Dominguez here. For those who were wondering (which might not be many, but Kent told me the story so I'll tell it to you) before he was Papa Kent Pearson he was Wee Lad Kent Pearson who did freestyle shows for his local bike shop. When the rep from Diamond Back contacted the shop the owner told them about a kid he sponsored who always rode DB because his hero was Mike Dominguez, this ended up with Kent being DB Co-Factory (what, today, you kids would call "flow"). Why is this important? Because Kent weighs about as much as my left thigh and this jersey is tight on him. If you were wondering, yes, yes that's his original DB Co-Factory shirt.

The problem, however, with Kent Dominguez is that he should have been wearing booty tight black Levi's and Reebok aerobic high tops. The real Mike D. wouldn't be caught dead in baggy jeans and Duffs. Also, Kent is, sadly, mullet free.

I'm not even going to lie. Sean's frame is a color called "GT Blue." How big of a GT geek was I when I was young? If you said that I had my bedroom painted GT Blue you'd be close. It was actually painted "DeLarobia Blue" which, really, same thing.

Don't get it twisted, kids. You might think that lawnmowers are some new, exciting trick that you came up with all by yourselves. But just like dang near everything else, it was done before. Probably done before you were born. Here Dave shows us that he's not just a park and vert warrior, but he's still got old school skills as well.

Don't hate.

There are two things going on in this picture. First off, Dowker is pulling off pogos on the pedals, without a coaster brake. Legit!

Secondly, Diesel is back on the pumpkin, having retired the GT. By "having retired" I mean, "his cranks fell off." As modern freestyle bikes transform into classic BMX race bikes thanks to the fetishization of lightness that's going on, remember, the reason freestyle bikes ended up weighing 40lbs was because the original 23lb freestyle bikes weren't that strong.

Bowling ball on his head or no, Dave ain't no joke.

One handed pogo, fool.