From the BSNYC Culture Desk: Trickery

Recently I was watching TV (while duly clad in my lounging smock, of course) when I came upon "Rising Son," a documentarty about the skater Christian Hosoi:

Now, I must confess that there was a period in my youth when I did ride the wheeled board. Furthermore, it was during a time when Hosoi and his contemporaries were at their most popular, and while they were pushing the limits of just how high you could go on a skateboard (and, it turns out, just how high you could get while off of one), the companies they promoted were pushing the limits of how much crap they could sell you. A skateboard is pretty much just a wooden deck with a pair of trucks and some wheels on it, and you'd think it would be hard to convince people to buy accessories for the skateboard itself. But somehow they also managed to sell people things like plastic rails and tail protectors and nose protectors and truck protectors and multicolored risers to bold under the trucks and even little plastic covers for the rear truck designed to allow you to ride up curbs more easily. If you were foolish and dorky enough to put all of these things on your board at once your skateboard was vastly more protected than you were and looked like the board itself was ready to enter a roller derby.

In any case, firmly in nostalgia's grip, I kept watching. If you don't know what happened to Christian Hosoi I'd hate to spoil the ending, but I'll just say that he had it all, then he lost it all, then he went to jail, and then that thing that happens to everybody in jail happened to him. (No, not that thing--I mean he got religious.) I recognized many of the people interviewed from the magazines of my youth, when I'd stare at pictures of people like Natas Kaupas ollying over life-sized plastic cows or whatever, and I'd imagine California as this endless landscape of backyards with empty pools (apparently nobody in California put water in their pools), and palm trees, and banked walls, and ramps, and life-sized plastic cows begging to be ollied. I on the other hand lived in New York, where the sidewalks were covered with ice half the year, and by the time I went to Washington Square Park to skate on those asphalt mounds the city had covered them in some kind of rubbery material and I looked and felt like I was trying to trudge through a flood of maple syrup.

But while I may have blamed my environment for making skating difficult, the truth is I wasn't very good at it. The same went for freestyle BMX, which I also wasn't especially good at. The people in the magazines always seemed to be floating, but I never felt like I was floating when I was doing tricks on skateboards or bikes. I always felt kind of stuck to the ground (even when it wasn't covered with rubber), and especially when it came to freestyle BMX I was also very concerned about hurting my crotch. (Which is why I could never do a cherrypicker.) On the other hand, racing BMX did give me that sensation of flight, and that's the direction I ultimately went, though I have no intention of purchasing either of the PK Rippers currently on offer on Craigslist here in New York City (not least of which because "PK Ripper" sounds like the name of a villain in a horror movie about a killer plastic surgeon or something):

Obviously people still do tricks on skateboards and on bikes--in fact it's probably more popular than ever--though it's been awhile since I've concerned myself with it.  However, I was perusing trackosaurusrex recently (where the tricks are usually performed on "track" bikes) and unexpectedly came upon this video:

VIMBY - Lotek SF Mixtape Teaser

After all those videos of fixed-gear freestyling I forgot that bike tricks can actually seem kind of fluid and graceful when performed on bikes with small wheels that coast.  Even if you're not particularly interested in that type of riding nor the sneakers and t-shirts that type of riding is often used to promote, you've probably been impressed by something someone did on a BMX at least once.  In any case, it's in stark contrast, to, say, this (also from trackosaurusrex):

The Hammer from Laali on Vimeo.

I realize the practitioners of fixed-gear freestyling feel as though they are pioneering a new sport, and I certainly acknowledge the fact they can do a lot of stuff I can't do.  However, companies are already selling pre-built fixed-gear freestylers but I have yet to see anybody do anything on a fixed-gear bike that made me say, "Holy crap!"  And believe me, I'm waiting.  Sure, I know they're still working on it, and sure, someone may very well have that "I think I'll ride a skateboard in an empty pool" moment of brilliance.  But right now it just seems like people are doing tricks on bikes very poorly suited for tricks (even with the advent of things like this), and that strikes me as being recalcitrant rather than innovative.  Even noted fixed-gear freestyler and architect Prolly, the Malcolm McLaren of fixed-gear freestyling, has yet to make it seem exciting:




Perhaps I'm just jaded, but when I turn down the loud guitar music I just see some guys riding in circles.  Sure, they can handle their bikes, but watching them they look the way I used to feel when I used to do tricks--stuck to the ground.  There's just not that speed and fluidity that made skating and BMX seem exciting to me, and that I can still see when I watch it today.

Apocalyptic rumblings aside, it will be interesting to see where all this goes.  The trendiness of fixed-gear bicycles is bound to wane eventually, but as a means of transport they'll obviously stick around.  Even if people stop buying stuff like this:

As for tricks on fixed-gear bikes, though, that's harder to say.  I suppose that depends on some degree on innovation.  At present, fixed-gear freestylers seem to be mining the past--they're doing BMX-based tricks while wearing clothes from skateboarding's heyday.  There's also a "meh" factor--while certain tricks may be impressive because the rider pulled them off on a fixed-gear with 700c wheels, they're not intrinsically impressive.  Then again, I suppose they have made some progress, as you can see here:

After all, they're filming themselves in color now.