Paul and I always wanted to ride motocross but could not afford it. We rode motocross on regular bicycles and made tracks. We painted bikes green (Kawasaki), red (Honda) or yellow (Suzuki) and pretended we had motocross bikes. There was no BMX at the time in Europe. I started riding when I was 4 (1973). When the first BMX bikes made it to Europe it was clear that it was the sport for me. I rode my first BMX race on a regular bike and won that one (1979). Later on that year Santa Claus brought me my first BMX bike.
Bart (3) and Paul (5)Photo: Dad.
With our dad heavily involved in the organisation of the 1982 European Championships in Beek en Donk, Paul and I got in touch with the SKYWAY team. The Vice President, Andy Patterson and Mike Salido were staying at our house for the race. From the few BMX Plus! issues that we had, we had learned a couple of words of English and used that to talk to the stars. I remember Andy doing wheelies on my mother's 'Holland-rad' when we rode home together. This guy was my hero, he won the race and gave me his padset. Yes!
Paul started experimenting with freestyle. The BMX ACTION trick team had come to Europe and inspired him to learn the rock-walk, see saw, front and backwheel hops and the no-footed curb endo. No pegs to be seen on the trick bikes! I was still concentrating on racing and got a 6th place at the World Championships in Slagharen in 1983, beating Steve Veltman.
As soon as the BMX racing scene got too serious and doing 'kick-out' jumps were not allowed on the track anymore, Paul and I got purely into BMX trick riding. We had the wedge ramp tricks going with the coasterbrake. Doing kickturns like Rich Sigur was our goal. The first axle pegs started coming in around this time (1985) which made doing tricks unfair because it was too easy (e.g. hopping tricks). Soon enough new tricks were developed that were only possible with the help of pegs and gave them a place to stay. With the Skyway connection in the pocket getting our hands on the latest freestyle equipment was a piece of cake. 5 cm. wide axle pegs and the Skyway Spinmaster were sent our way directly from Redding California. They never sent the removeable platform though.
Freestyle Force
The quest for freestyle shows was there and we started the 'Freestyle Force'. We made hundreds of FF stickers by hand and put them on people's bikes, numberplates etc. Our shows usually consisted of flatland and kickturns since the 'quarterpipe' didn't fit on dad's trailer.
We started this years ago. I think it was around 1988 that we did the first one. We started with a street session with ramps, pallets, cars, washing machines, rails etc. and later it turned out to be a dirt session at our local trails. It's usually dirt jumping during Saturday and something else on Sunday. We've done lake jumping on Sundays, motocross and this year it was a miniramp contest on Sunday. Saturday night it's party time at OJA.
Over the years the following people visited the FAT-JAM: Mat Hoffman, Todd Lyons, Jay Miron, Props, Leigh Ramsdell, UGP-crew, Chase Gouin, Day Smith, Paul osicka, James Sheppard and many more. 1994 was my personal favorite.
We now (2003) do two events per year. The "Mini-FAT-JAM" to kick off the season (March/April) and the actual FAT-JAM in the summer. It keeps the scene alive and motivates the locals to keep digging at the trails.
Commercials.
In 1988, Paul and I were invited to be part of a Coca Cola commercial shooting together with our friend Menno Fennema. We had to do tricks on our bikes, drink lots of Coca Cola and sat in a side-hack motorcycle. It was a good experience and really fun. I also once flew to the Canary Islands to do a Pro Specs shoe commercial (1991). I was chilling in the sun for a few days, rode for 20 minutes and relaxed some more. All expenses paid.