Steve Emig Adventuring: BMX Action

Showing posts with label BMX Action. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Sheep Hills: My best photos from 2019

Having worked a short time at BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines back in 1986, I've seen a lot of great BMX photos, published and not published. None of these are that caliber. But using an old iPhone 5 that Steve Crandall gave me a couple years ago, I captured these images at Sheep Hills in 2019. This photo above, unknown rider to me, X-Up over the Boozer line, Boozer Mike Memorial Jam, 2019.

S&M and Rock Star sponsored female ripper, Jesse Gregory (@lilbmxwolf), throwing out what us old guys call either a one-legged Hannah, or a Griz Air. Hell yeah!

X-Games Real MX 2019 winner, Colby Raha takes it back to his BMX roots with a flip at the Boozer Mike Memorial Jam, 2019.

Rider unknown to me, but he needed no snow to snap this toboggan.

Rider unknown, but a great Leary (lookback to freestylers), over the hip. Boozer Mike Memorial Jam, 2019. #steveemigadventuring, #steveemigphoto

Monday, August 24, 2020

Transitions: A bike, a suitcase, and $80

Laugh it up, it was the 80's. This is me, and my SkywayT/A, and the Vaurnets I found in a field. Boise Fun Spot, summer of 1985. One year and 11 zine issues later, I was off to Southern California to live. Photos by Vaughn Kidwell.

My wheels were in my big, old fashioned suitcase, the kind you carried, with no wheels. I had a box, about half the size of a bike box, that had the rest of my bike in it. When I checked in at the San Jose airport, I told them it was camping equipment, a trick I learned from Skyway pro, Robert Peterson. That saved me the $25 bike fee on the airplane. We could do that back in 1986. My parents dropped me off at San Jose airport, one of those airports where you still had to walk 100 yards out to the airplane to board it. The suitcase had my clothes, and wheels, I think I was running Araya 7X race wheels then, maybe I still had my red ACS Z-Rims, I can't remember. The box contained the rest of my bike. I had $80 in my wallet. The money was made working nights at a Pizza Hut that was just down the road from the Winchester Mystery House. I boarded the plane, and made the short flight down to LAX in Los Angeles. It was dusk, right at the end of July, 1986, when I landed. I was met by three guys, my new co-workers, Andy Jenkins, Craig "Gork" Barrette, and Mark "Lew" Lewman, the editorial staff of BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines.

Eleven issues of my San Jose Stylin' Xerox zine about the Golden Gate Park/Bay Area BMX freestyle scene, had landed me a job at Wizard Publications, publisher of those magazines. We piled into Gork's van, after handshakes and retrieving my luggage. We talked about freestyle, or something, as Gork drove down PCH, Pacific Coast Highway. PCH is anything but a highway there, it's a surface street, the ocean is not visible most of the time, and there are dozens of stop lights, and plenty of traffic. I don't remember the conversation in the van. I do remember that I was wearing Levi's and a long sleeve, button up shirt. The reason for that is because I was so fucking nervous about my new job, that I developed a serious case of the hives. Then I laid out to tan a couple days before, which apparently makes the hives worse. So I rocked jeans and button up shirts for more than a week, until the hives finally went away.

I had turned 20 years old three weeks earlier. I had never taken a single college course, after graduating from Boise High School in 1984, but I was replacing a guy with and English degree, Don "Don-Boy" Toshach. I would mostly be an assistant to the three other guys in the van, working on both magazines. But I would also be the new proofreader of both magazines. If one single mistake made it into print, in either magazine, it would be my fault. That's part of why I was so nervous. Plus I was just super uptight and anal retentive, and shy, in general. I was still a virgin at 20, and hoped BMX would relieve me of that. It finally did, but it took another year.

It was dark when we got to Torrance, and we didn't go to Gork and Lew's apartment, where I'd be sleeping on the couch for the time being. We went straight to the Wizard office, at 3162 Kashiwa Street, in Torrance. The reason for that is that the BMX Action 10 year anniversary party was that Saturday. They picked me up on Thursday night, and Friday would be my first day of official work.

But Gork parked the van, and the three guys led me into the the small door on the side of the small warehouse. We walked past the legendary TOL halfpipe that R.L. Osborn and Mike Buff had built a year or two before. It was surreal for me.

Only 11 months earlier, I was the dorky kid you see in the photos above. I was the manager of the the Boise Fun Spot, a tiny amusement park in Boise, Idaho. I was one of about 5 BMX freestylers in the Boise area, and half of the only freestyle team in town. Like riders all over the U.S., and a few parts of the world, I waited for every issue of FREESTYLIN' to come in the mail, and I read every fucking word, ads and all, at least twice, the first day each issue arrived. Then I read it again the next morning, usually. The magazines were our only view to the larger world of the weird, new, little sport of BMX freestyle. There was no internet, few videos, and no TV coverage of BMX back then. Suddenly, a year later, on a dark evening in July, I walked into the door of Wizard. By some crazy stroke of fate, my life totally changed in a day. I would be a small part of writing and putting out those magazines that were read anxiously by riders worldwide.

I wound up spending most of that night, sitting six feet off the ground, on a big shelving rack. I helped Gork go through a bike box full of color slides, photos taken during ten years of BMX Action magazine. We needed to find 100 of the best slides, for a slide show to play at the anniversary party. I was clueless on the history of BMX racing, and when I found some interesting slides, I'd show Gork, and he'd school me on who that was, and tell me about them. Slide by slide, I spent my first night learning about th ehistory of BMX racing. Finding photos of "Trash Can" Morgan, jumping in combat boots, was the highlight of the night for me.

About three hours later, we headed back to the apartment, and I made my bed on the couch, and we all headed off to sleep pretty quick. I struggled with feelings of being overwhelmed, would I be able to actually do me new job? I wondered why my my zine had landed me the job. But I was really tired, and I fell asleep pretty quick.

Sometimes we make slow steady progress in life. Sometimes we seem to head backwards, and everything goes wrong for a while. Sometimes we have to struggle to simply survive for a long period of time, and then, suddenly an amazing opportunity comes out of nowhere. That chance gives us the opportunity to show who we really are, and who we are capable of becoming. Either we sack up and take a shot, or we freak out and don't take the opportunity, and spend our lives regretting it. Starting that job at Wizard Publications, that night at the end of July 1986, changed the entire course of my life. And I'm glad I took the job, and took the chance to head off on my own in Southern California. It's been a wild ride since, but that job started me on a real world education I never would have got any other way.

Thursday, June 25, 2020

Cowboys, Indians, and Oz...

Bob Osborn, known to us Old School BMX guys as Oz, was the founder and publisher of BMX Action, FREESTYLIN', and Go magazines in the 1970's and 1980's, and early 90's. My "big break" as a young guy came from Andy Jenkins asking Oz to give me a shot at Wizard Publications in 1986. Like every BMXer from that era, Oz changed the way I looked at the world.

This is going to be a series of blog posts, maybe two or three. I just realized that as ideas flooded my head. Peter Caruso just shared a great photo on Facebook, a shot of Oz squatting down at the top of the roll-in at Pipeline Skatepark's Combi Pool. Oz was snapping a low, wide angle shot of Mike Dominguez airing over the roll-in. The photo shared was snapped by rider Donovan Ritter, and is a great shot in its own right. In the comments, someone asked, "What's Bob Osborn doing now?"

One smart ass (not me, a different one), told the commenter to Google Oz. I shared a short YouTube video I came across of Oz, a shorter version of this clip above. When I searched YouTube for that clip, I found this one, and two longer videos about Bob, that I haven't watched yet (blog posts 2 & 3, most likely). I immediately bookmarked them, and being a blogger, I knew there was an Oz blog post or two (or 5) in my future. So this is the first one.

When I think of Oz, my first thought is my interview with Oz, Windy, Andy Jenkins, Gork, and Mark "Lew" Lewman, in the conference room of Wizard Publications. It was a good sized room, tucked in the corner of the "L" shaped rows of small offices in the Wizard warehouse. I'd flown down to LAX, after my Pizza Hut shift, and hung out overnight, sleeping on Gork and Lew's couch (given to them by Scot Breithaupt). It was fun, I was blown away they thought I was somebody worthy of working at the magazines. It was early July of 1986, and I was just turning 20, and living in San Jose, California. I sat near one end of the big, folding tables, and all of them were along the other end. I felt like I was on trial, and honestly, I was scared shitless. I was pretty sure I was going to screw that opportunity up, somehow.

I'd met everyone, and then this thin man in jeans and a pretty casual shirt walked in. Bob Osborn, Oz himself. Seriously, meeting the guy who ran those magazines felt like Dorothy and her posse meeting Oz in the Wizard of Oz. I never dreamed that working at BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' was a possibility. I was trying to become a pro freestyler some day. As a general rule, I never notice people's eyes, but Oz walked in, and then turned and looked at me. His eyes were a bright blue, and had an intensity that felt like he was reading who I was at a glance. That's what sticks out to me, like he looked at me and knew who I was in a moment. He was friendly, but serious. They all asked me different questions, and I can't remember any of those questions now. The mood improved, I was still nervous, but relaxed some as we talked about my zine, and the potential job I was being considered for.

At the end, Oz had one last question. He looked me dead in the eyes and asked, "Steve, are you sure you'd like to work here?" Yes, as a BMXer, I realize how insane that question is. I replied, "Yeah, I made 57 pizzas in 4 hours at Pizza Hut last night, I'd LOVE to work here." That answer surprised him, but he laughed. They all laughed. And yes, I actually counted how many pizzas I made at my job the night before, for some reason. Oz got up, excused himself, and said it was nice to meet me, or something like that, and walked out. I breathed a sigh of relief. It was seriously one of the intense experiences I'd had, in a work environment. Andy said, it seemed like Oz liked me, and that was good. My zine, San Jose Stylin', was the reason they were giving me a chance. I was a diehard BMX freestyler, if not a great rider. I had ridden with and interviewed the Golden Gate Park/Curb Dog/Skyway guys in the zine, Vander, Drob, Robert Peterson, and the others, and apparently seemed smart enough to take over the proofreading part of the job, from Don Toshach, who was leaving.

While Bob Osborn, Oz to most of us from that era, is known as the photographer/writer/publisher of the BMX mags. I just now realized it was Oz the lifelong photographer, that sized me up in an instant, with those piercing blue eyes. He not only raised R.L. and Windy Osborn, both legends in the BMX world, but he gave young Bob Haro a chance as a cartoonist. He gave Andy Jenkins, a Wyoming racer/art student, the editor's job a FREESTYLIN' because he liked a thank you note Andy wrote, after Andy won a bike in a contest. Oz hired, then later fired, Steve "Guy-B" Giberson. He picked Gork zine publisher and AFA employee, to editor of BMX Action. Oz hired Lew, after Andy and Lew became pen pals, and plucked Lew from Michigan. He hired me. When I didn't click really well in the office, I got laid off and he hired a punk kid, BMXer/skater named Spike Jonze, from Maryland. A few years later came Jeff Tremaine, as art director of Go. Those are just the names you know, the other staff members all rocked, as well. A few of us have talked about this list of people Bob Osborn plucked from obscurity over the years. The people on that list have had a serious influence on the BMX world, and most have done pretty cool things since.

Bob Osborn didn't give a shit about a resume'. I didn't have to take a written test to see if I was capable of learning to proofread two magazines in a couple weeks time, and get them out to the world with zero typos. Bob Osborn sized people up with the eye of a veteran photographer, and a weird life that had given him great intuition into people. He was a fireman when R.L. got into BMX, about 15 years earlier. All photos aside, and photos are his passion, his gift for picking people is one of his most amazing qualities. And then there are his amazing photographs, like the real world cowboys and Indians in the clip above.

One of my all time favorite photos of Oz is this one below, which means a lot to me, because it was on the cover of the first FREESTYLIN' magazine I got when I subscribed, the first issue of FREESTYLIN' I ever saw, issue #3.