Bart de Jong, www.fatbmx.com, 2000: Fucking hell, this fucking magazine took me a couple of fucking hours to fucking finish! Funny shit going on in this fucking magazine. Some shit is really fucked up, but John Paul Rogers doesn't seem to give a shit. With Billy Riesing moving down to help out, shit's gonna get really fucked up I'm afraid. Strange enough though, the language potrayed in BMXaction can be found on the streets or at the trails every day. When BMXaction actually prints this shit, people think these guys are the "bad boys" for doing so. Using the word fuck in the magazine might make a big difference in sales of the mag. Wal-Mart for instance won't put it on their shelves but the BMXaction crew probably doesn't give a fuck. Cheers to the Bikes, Beers and the Bitches, as long as it goes.
Mike Aitken on the cover.
Inside is a cool old school section with pictures of Eddie Fiola, RL Osborn, Josh White and Kevin Jones. Also in this issue, the MTV Sports and Music Festival and an article about the day Mat Hoffman became big time. Also a Mike Aitken interview, Pat Juliff, Ralph Sinisi, Mike Lausman, Sean Emery.
Rachel Kenney on the cover.
Mike Escamilla interview.
CFB round 1.
Bios: Joe Tiseo, Glen PP Milligan, Darryl Nau, ...
Ryan Brennan on the cover.
UGP Roots
French vacation.
Road Fools.
Colorado scene report.
Taj Mihelich on the cover.
Vans triple Crown.
Bios: Matt Wilhelm, Bob Scerbo, Seth Kimbrough, ...
Taj Mihelich, www.collateralbmx.com, march 2013: During a stop at Collateral HQ's John Paul showed me an old BMX Action cover Ane Jens shot of me. Aside from the usual two-headed security guard giggle I get every time I see that cover, it jarred loose a whole bunch of memories that concussions and time had hidden from me. I was suddenly flooded with how good I felt on my bike in that photo. I can feel flashes of being completely connected with my bike and totally confident in what we could do together.
At the time of the photo I think I had the skatepark up in Olympia and I was riding tons. That’s when I always felt best on my bike, during those times where I was riding hours and hours every single day. At the time of this photo it was one of those especially good times. I can feel my bike through my forearms just from seeing the photo. There’s this sort of solid balanced feeling I had where nothing was going to surprise me about what my bike might do. Not sure if that makes sense, but when I haven’t been riding a lot, I don’t trust the grip of my tires or my balance. I feel almost like I could end up falling without expecting it. At the high points like this cover I just knew the bike and nothing was gonna’ shake me.
The photo is from a contest where I rode like I always did in contests. I’d get it in my head that all that mattered was doing something I hadn’t seen anyone else do AND something that I wasn’t sure I could do. I remember seeing a wedge ramp and not really being able to see what was behind it. I felt so confident I took off at full sprint with no real plan for where or what I’d land on. As it turned out I started coming down on to a grind ledge at an awkward angle. It was like closing your eyes off a jump and then opening them right before you land to see if you could still ride away. As the landing zone came into view it was clearly going to be a disaster - there was really no way I could ride out of it and I was in danger of getting sent over the bars from clipping my back wheel, casing sprocket or slipping on the heavily waxed ledge. I felt so good on my bike I wasn’t afraid at all, kind of felt this calm assurance that it was going to be fine. I twisted myself around until I landed manualing a bit of the ledge until I crashed off the side because of the impossible angle. I know this can’t make sense, but it seemed even like I crashed in control. It felt like what I had done was the only thing I could have done to not get completely destroyed… a near catastrophe turned into a nice soft slide out because my bike control was so on point. Such a cool sensation to feel so confident on my bike that I could just throw myself out into the unknown and know everything was going to be just fine.
Jason Enns interview.
Bios: Timmy Martin, Rat Boy, Scott Edgeworth, Block Bro's, Phil Wasson and Kevin Porter.
Wee Man on the cover.
Brian Tunney interview.
Vegas road trip.
Bios: Ben McEwen, Rich Hirsch, Shaw Leonard, Mike Szczesny, Weeman and Brad Gethard.
FBM Tour.
Santa Barbara scene report.
How to get sponsored.
Bios: Nathan Fons, Jimmy Buchans, Tim Thompson, Ben Snowden and Paul Kintner.
UGP Roots jam.
Choquette and Rotondo interview.
Bios: Andre Ellison, Tony Craft and Mike Cottle.
Randy Nickerson on the cover. Photo by John Paul Rogers.
Joe Tiseo memorial.
Keith Terra interview.
Bios: Lou Rajsich, Ben Brooksmith and Adam Banton.
Finding the key to Jimmy Chow.
From Russia with love.
Rotation big brown trip.
John Paul and co have renamed their mag Faction BMX Magazine.