A public service announcement . . .
I am in slack-jawed awe December 18th, 2008
. . . for my readers who do not hang out on bmx sites and are unaware of the things that are going on in the bmx world, I hereby offer you the following:
As a reader said on the site I stole this from, some of this stuff isn’t even possible in video games.
–Erik Ryberg
December 20th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I read that comment as well. And I didn’t get it. There was this thing called the ’80s, you see. And in that era, my teenage friends and friends of friends were doing many of these same tricks. Some of Scott Cramner’s tricks are presumably unique to him, but in general this stuff was being done before he was born and before Hotmail existed. Also, all of this is happening in a fabricated park. Free-ride trials peeps and the blind trials dude are way beyond this skate betty.
December 31st, 2008 at 7:16 pm
John, I imagine that you have a few years on me, and while I agree with you that a lot of really good bike riding (both in terms of bmx and mountain bikes) was established in the ’80s and the skill of trials riders is pretty incredible, it seems like you are underestimating the skills of modern bmx riders. Your claim that you and your friends were doing these same tricks back then is a bit inaccurate. While I respect the riding styles and innovations of many of today’s predecessors, there’s no doubt that today’s riders are heaps and bounds better than those of 20 years ago, much less those of 5 years ago. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that some of today’s BMX riders (street riders, park riders, dirt jumpers and racers alike) are among the top athletes in the world, purely based on their level of bike control and coordination. It’s almost always the case that these bmxers are FAR more talented than their mountain biking and roadie counterparts.
Scotty Cranmer is just one of the hundreds of prodigy bmxers who is barely in their 20’s that has a bag pull of “video-game-style” tricks. Frontflip tailwhips, triple tailwhips and fakie-hopping down 13 stairs was NOT happening in the ’80s. Maybe you’ll enjoy this video of Bruce Crisman, another ridiculously skilled rider.
If you can’t get into it though, I understand. I’m into “throwback” stuff too and I think that a lot of things were better back then: the quality of bikes, the heart of the riders, and, well, a lot of things. The riding, however, was not.
December 31st, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Here’s that link in case it didn’t work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuLyDJCZqi8
OR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umqa2zd2nV4
January 1st, 2009 at 6:03 pm
That Crisman video was awesome. I’ve never seen someone bunny hop BACKWARDS over stairs, get crossed up, and land. Riding has definitely changed and progressed since the 80s.
November 20th, 2012 at 7:46 am
You are much kinder on the new donpleemevt than I am, I find the new roundabout on Parry St very annoying as often cars have to do a u-turn there. I regularly and now find this road a lot less safe with this roundabout on it. I think the council missed a trick by not putting a bicycle path through National Park with the redevelopment of Markettown and National park oval #2. This would of been very handy for me at the least.