Editors: Matt Holmes, Mike Daly.
Matt Holmes, june 2003: 2020bmxmag started back in 98. Basically it was a long time coming. There was no mag in Australia giving a voice to all of us or our riding. We had comps and riders as good as those overseas, but no way of getting much sponsorship, so with a kind of vision for the way it should be, 2020bmxmag was born.
It contains straight up Australian riding, dirt, street, vert and flat. Documented by the riders for the riders. No racing just riding, music, art and stuff that rocks.
Colin MacKay on the cover.
1999 X-Games.
Stevie McCann.
Joe Morris 360 x-up on the cover.
Steve McCann icepick on the cover.
Rob Smith interview.
Russel Tranter on the cover.
Colin Winklemann interview.
Meet the Street.
Pacific highway.
Corey Bohan on the cover.
Michael Steingraber interview.
X-Games down under.
The average reader is an image-conscious male, aged from 12 to 17. They love and live the street culture, including the hip-hop and the punk music scenes. Their clothes show only the coolest logos and they spend most of their hard-earned pocket money on these trendy threads and/or rebuilding and updating their bikes. But that's not to say the readership is limited to just the hardcore street youth. As our research shows, we attract quite a broad reach of riders from all 20inch disciplines including: flat, dirt, vert and racers. We even inspire older generations of mountain bike riders who are eager to not only stay in touch with their roots but attempt to keep up. When looking for a voice for the bmx market you can't go past 2020.
Matt Holmes, february 2005: It's just some marketing chick shit talk... One of the many reasons I parted ways with Emap and went back to publishing solo!
Russel Brindley no foot cancan on the cover.
Jurassic pipe.
How to turn down.
Leaders of the new school.
I yet have to experience it but 2020 magazine gives me a good impression on the BMX scene over there. It seems like there is no difference between scenes from all the different continents. Riders search for the full pipes, they wear the right clothes, they love good riding sessions and they look out of the car windows and hope to spot a new rail.
With all the reports put together in one magazine you get the feeling that BMX is huge in Australia. That might not be the case but Matt Holmes did not have any problems filling an 68 page glossy mag with great pictures, interviews, news, a bike test, contest reports, product reviews and more. A full on Australian BMX mag that deserves your support.
Luke Fink feeble on the cover.
Dave Freimuth interview.
Australians abroad.
Kym Grosser on the cover.
february 2003: The new issue of 20/20 BMX Magazine comes with a free doublesided pull out wethepeople poster of Clint Millar and the new australian wethepeople rider Luke Weatherall.
Matt Holmes, june 2003: I realised that there was no reason to have to answer to people that knew nothing about riding. Independent mag making is like riding, choose your goals, do it. And do it your way, but be prepared to work hard.
Mike Daly, may 2003: We just published our first copy independently, we are pretty happy with it, its bigger with better printing and more pages. So things are definitely looking up.
The guy on the cover is called Adam Hough and he's riding a crazy pipe in Melbourne, this issue also has the following:
T1 world trip story
Clint Miller Interview
Brett Dighton Interview
Berlin full pipe story
Markus Wilke Interview.
As a youngster becoming addicted to the 20inch experience in Australia, everything riding was defined by the likes of the magazines Freestylin', Go, BMX Plus, Invert, Ride BMX UK and eventually RideBMX. Styles, tricks, attitudes and pretty much everything was drawn from these imported mags. Australia is about as far away from the rest of the world as you can get (the 20inch world that is...) and any local publication (few and far between) was dominated by fluro coloured, nylon wearing racers. Although trying out the racing vibe, my first two motos were a gut wrenching affair involving abuse from marshals and DQ's due to x ups and flatties, of course then my bike was 'scrutineered' and that 'funny brake' thing, my gyro meant I wasn't allowed to race (I had taken off my pegs!). Fine, car parks, schoolyards and jumps would do me just fine... The years passed and the crew I rode with and all the people I met around the country made me realise that most of us were pretty much as good as some of the riders in the OS mags, yet none of us scored much more in the way of sponsorship beyond some free stickers, and if we were extremely lucky maybe cost price on some parts at a local store. Frustrating, yep, but then again it was pretty obvious we all rode for the love of it anyway, so whatever.
I guess it hit me harder once the odd US pro would come over and talk it up about the lifestyle and living to be made from riding. I knew I wasn't driven to become the best rider, more content to just ride with different faces and different places, so this whole mag thing became more and more apparent. Maybe, just maybe, if an Aus mag was out there, some of the amazing riders out here would have the chance to get the coverage which would in turn score them some kind of sponsorship and a chance to get overseas and have a shot at living the dream we grew up dreaming about.
I messed around with photocopied mags for a little bit, under the name of 'Abandon', sometimes 'Wreckless Abandon', whatever, it was cool but didn't really get beyond a tight little crew... So I dived headlong into learning how to do a mag, doing whatever I could do with a basic Mac (check LCII for old school Apple styles!), and any design company or mag company that would have me for experience. Moving from Adelaide to Melbourne I sponged every bit of info I could from anyone in the know, working for free to suss out stuff and make contacts. Working as a bike messenger got me in contact with so many crew in that industry. Slowly, the mag vibe started coming together, 2020vision became 2020bmxmagazine, and through endless favours, amazing amounts of trust and a few who pushed me to follow the dream, I somehow got a mag out after hours with just enough ads to go to a printer and managed to get a distributor to get it around the country... The distributor ripped me off pretty hard, a crap print job was assured and a lot of the countries big industry players fronted on paying and my visa card went way over the line. Still, it got by, got out there and got a lot of riders stoked. Round two was a little better, and the response from riders ruled, fuelled me to do it again, and again...
In search of some kind of backing and serious set up lead me to Sydney to hook up a deal with a major publisher in the most dodgy deal that has actually worked pretty well, I do some work for them and they take care of the business side of the mag. Complete freedom and less hassles, I even retain ownership of the title. Weird. Well, weird got weirder and although we got out 5 issues that stepped it up on anything done in the country, dealing with a large corporate company was always destined to become a twisted affair. Whether it was losing some control over the title or it was my inability to comprehend some guy in a suit letting me know his views on BMX, basically I had to jet and get it back to the real world. Although it seemed to me that I had just gone backwards a year or so, the industry of Australia, along with the riders had faith in the mag. So did the unstoppable Mike Daly who thus become a partner in the now fully legit company, now completely rider run and operated, like in the good old days...
Becoming independent again has its good and bad points, like anything. But more than anything, again it's back to being done solely by those who love what they do. The mag has become bigger, glossier and I hope pretty much world class on a shoestring budget with the help of the riders of Australia.
The last 5 years have taught me a lot and at times I wonder if I had known how much it would take out of me, would I have gone there? Still, I've seen riders from our shores go onto take on the world and hopefully the coverage they got in their early days made that difference. I may not ride all the comps anymore, but I do get to ride with all the crew I grew up with all over the country and stay in touch with all those that made a difference in my life. I've lived this riding deal too long to leave it alone. A mag gives a lot to a scene, to the riders that live the life and to those involved in creating it. I've also felt its wrath in how much it can take both financially and personally. Still, 2020 has grown and evolved alongside BMX in this country, and simply put, I'd be pretty lost without it. Hope you enjoy.