I had a norwegian BMX-bike and some friends at school was riding bikes. We made a track nearby school that we had fun at. We also made a small dirtjump in a forrest near my house. Then in (hmmmmm) 1984, I guess, I found BMX Action Bike in a store near school and was hooked on BMX. First picture I saw was Martin Aparijo doing a cherrypicker. It was an awesome magazine. It's the one where Skyway is on tour in England with Scotty Freeman, Eddie Roman and the balancemaster. So I started doing balancetricks and rockwalks.
Some weeks later I met a canadian in Oslo at a skateboard-ramp and he tought me how to do airs. That was totally great.
I then started hearing rumours about other people riding. And they started hearing rumours about me. Someone told that I was doing big airs (which I wasn't (just 2ft-3ft out)). And when I slammed really hard on a hangup a rumour really started to spread. The slam was pretty hard. I had no helmet and went straight to my head. I couldn't see the right side of my body, so I had to check if the hand was there when I went home. Gnarly.
Eventually I met up with other riders in Oslo and we started a club. At the most we were some 30 riders here and that was awesome.
I went to Woodward in 1988. Joe Johnson was one of the instructors at Woodward that year. He, Chris Obermeyer and a few other pros of that time was there instructing. So I was able to see Johnson practise the Tailwhip air before he pulled it in (Kansas ?) some weeks later. Pretty cool.
It was great. Some americans were over. Todd Anderson was there doing clicked lookbacks. I met up with flatlander Jay Jones who I had met at Woodward the year before. Jim Delavalle was also present, and so was "Tex" (who is now writing for RideUK and is also making London Bikes) (hi to you Tex !). I don't remember who won, but I remember Kenneth qualified for the Finals in 19+ expert-class. I met Gido from Germany, who I bump into everytime I go to Germany. He's a great lad (hi! Gido !). I also met up with Scott Carrol there who was a great guy (recently learned that he has passed away). Kenneth Kristiansen (another old-schooler) and I took my Ford Escort (with the following licence-plate (DF 20175) (No kidding !)) and drove down to Trier. It took us a long time, and we had a great time there with everyone. On the way home we speeded and saw the speedometer on the white-lightning go all the way to 180 (in Denmark). It was an amazing trip. We tried to catch an earlier ferry to Sweden, and ended up getting the ferry before the one we was aiming for... On the way through Sweden and Norway I thought I saw sheeps and tigers, which was when I decided it was time for Kenneth to take the wheels (we had then been driving for 20 hours straight!)
In 1991, the Worlds went to Denmark (Aalborg) and was a blast. I met a gorgeous norwegian lady there (hehe). And I got to ride with Jamie Bestwick and Simon Tabron in the vert ramp and learned a few tricks to get higher in the vert.
(We didn't have indoorplaces in Norway, so every year I had to relearn airs). Don't remember how bad I did. But I didn't qualify. Later that year I messed up my knees pretty bad and haven't been riding vert that good since. (I've done the following tricks on a vertramp: tabletops (5-6ft), candybar, can-cans, onehand-onefooters, no-footers, x-ups and have practiced switch-handers.)
This shot was taken for a brochure we planned on making to get some sponsors and stuff. We're still searching. Photo: Kenneth Kristiansen/Spokesmen.
