Our grandparents call them hooligans, our parents call them trouble, and we call them awesome. BMXers: scarred up, dusty and disheveled boys (and in some cases girls) on teeny tiny bikes doing tricks that the human body was definitely not created to endure; fakies, fire hydrants, wall taps, grinds,360s…not only are the actual tricks gnarly beyond belief, but so is the pain you can definitely expect to be experiencing when you screw them up. BMX is short for Bicycle Motocross and it got started in the early 70’s when bored and broke kids decided they wanted to go ahead and imitate one of the more dangerous extreme sports around, without the actual equipment necessary, naturally.
Homemade ramps were tacked together in back yards and trails were flattened out in parks, and I’m pretty sure there were more than a few arms in slings and legs in casts before the first contest was held. Young and stupid was the order of the day, and so the sport gained popularity and eventually some kind of order was formed out of the chaos when the National Bicycle League was founded. Some of today’s biggest events are the X-Games and Gravity games and obviously Worlds, with smaller events popping up like mushrooms wherever there are bikes and pain resistant misfits to ride them. Riders compete for top scores in street, park, vert, trails and flat land categories.
As with all sports, BMXing has its only motley collection of heroes old and young. These are the crazy cats who pave the way for generation after generation to amass scars and broke bones, and to it in style.
Corey Nastazio: Nasty to those who know better than to call him Corey, is a father of two who may not be as much of a loose cannon as he was a few years back, but who’s insane arsenal of tricks leaves little room to assume he’s gone soft. From Ripley’s to VH1, you never know where Nasty’s mug could pop up next. Nasty rides for two: not just himself but also for good friend Stephen Murray whose riding career was cut short due to a serious injury. After Stephen’s injury Nasty took it upon himself to ride harder and better than before, and that’s exactly what the Rolling Stone and Maxim cover boy did. Nasty was one of the first dirt jumpers who could flip anything on wheels: the 2x King of Dirt is known as the craziest bastard in BMX. Nast IS the job, and he loves every second; “You don’t wanna take a day off when you’ve got the best job in the world.”
Francisco Zurita: This young gun now a resident of the legendary Pro Town (Greenville North Carolina), “Coco” is a little…unexpected. This kid brought his bike over to the US all the way from Chile just because he wanted to ride in contests like he’d seen in the magazines. Getting into show riding shortly after his arrival and his stint as a water filter salesman in Texas (not to mention the trips back and forth to Chile because of his tourist’s visa), Coco is now one of the top 10 vert riders on the planet: he was the first rider in history to pull a triple tailwhip on vert…pretty darn impressive. There’s zero tough guy jock attitude here, also a disturbing lack of protective gear, and no fear of working your ass off to get what you want.
Dave Mirra: Dave is the vert ramp and park rider who is credited with the popularity explosion that BMXing experienced in Greenville NC circa 1994. He took the opening of a new skate park as a sign from the powers that be, and decided to make his move a permanent thing. Little did Dave know that BMX fever would spread like the plague and that Greenville would, only a few short later, become known as Pro Town. The locals came like lambs to the slaughter, and pros from across the US began migrating to Greenville to see what all the hubbub was about. To date, Greenville has claimed 34 pros and the transplants still haven’t stopped. Young blood BMXers like Chris Hughes and Kelly Bouldin are some of the newest acquisitions. Dave has to his name the record for most X Games medals ever won, 2008’s 2nd place Big Air medal and third place in Rally Car racing at X Games. H was sponsored by Harro from the mid 90’s until the establishment of his own bike company.
