Birthplace: Bellflower, CA.
Eddie at Lakewood, spring 1981. Photo by Bob Osborn.
Bob Osborn, www.vintagebmx.com, march 2005: In the spring of 1981 I was hearing occasional rumors of a guy in Lakewood who rode skateparks and was really hot. So I tracked him down. This pic is from my first photo session with Eddie Fiola. In my opinion, in my time, NOBODY was better in skateparks than Eddie. Also, and he and I came to be good friends, NOBODY was a better guy.
Eddie, www.vintagebmx.com, march 2005: I remember that photo session - If I recall correctly that was my second shot in a magazine. And I think I was one of the first guys that wasn't wearing leathers? I recall most of the pics in the magazines, everyone appeared sponsored with full gear (or at least looked like they were).
Eddie Fiola is a wizard. He makes things happen on a bike you just can't believe. Whether it's one-footer aerials, tabletops, cross-ups, one-handers, airborne 360-s or not-so-simple jumps, Eddie rips.
Now 17, Eddie started out like most California kids. He jumped on the skateboarding rage at age 10 and soon gravitated to skateparks. The first one open to Eddie was Skatopia, near Knotts's Berry Farm. It was here Fiola learned the basics of vertical riding.
There was a local spot, near his house, called Kitty Banks, that was part of the L.A. concrete riverway. Kitty Banks had enough vertical to it for Eddie to learn how to fly. Top skateboarders, like Ray Bones and Stacy Peralta, used Kitty Banks also and Eddie would interpret skate moves into BMX freestyle moves.
The sport of BMX has had a lot of great trick riders. The standouts include Tinker Juarez, Jeff Watson, Bob Haro, Bob Morales, Perry Kramer, and more. In comparison, Fiola is the youngest and the most anxious.
Eddie Fiola at Lakewood on the cover of BMX Action august 1982.
By the end of 1982, Bob Morales and Eddie Fiola left team Haro and signed a one year contract with Kuwahara and designed the Kuwahara freestyle bike. Kuwahara licensed the "ET" rights and used Eddie Fiola and Bob Morales to promote its new "ET" freestyle bike.
Eddie, Transworld BMX april 2003: My first sponsor was Premier helmets, then Torker (they just gave us bikes) then Kuwahara, they actually paid a monthly income, which wasn't very much, but the company that owned Kuwahara was Everything Bicycles. We got to go through their warehouse with a shopping cart and just pull parts, left and right, whatever we needed.
Eddie is the 1982 King Of Skateparks.
Eddie Fiola workin' out on the Vans half-pipe at the Elsinore race on the cover of BMX Action may 1983. Photo by Bob Osborn.
Eddie Fiola and Bob Morales finished their contracts with Kuwahara and signed with GT Bicycles.
Eddie, Transworld BMX april 2003: I remember going to Japan back when we were doing promotional thing for ET and Kuwahara. When I came back, I got sponsored by GT, and we started working on the movie Rad.
BMX freestyle exhibition on the infield at Anaheim Stadium in front of 40,000 motocross fans at the Superbowl of Motocross.
Eddie Fiola on GT Pro at the skatepark is on the cover of BMX Plus! october 1983.
Eddie is the 1983 King Of Skateparks.
1st place pro @ 1984 King of the Skateparks round 1.
Fiola broke his wrist two weeks before the contest trying to invent a new trick. He was trying to do a drifter air. Sort of a carve aerial. A couple days before the contest Eddie cut his cast off so that he could ride, but after the morning session he decided it would be best to have it back on. A new feature to the contest was the highest air competition. The judges were looking for the lowest point of the bike when it peaked, and there was some controversy brewin' as to who won 'cause it was real close between Fiola and Dominguez. The prize was $200, winner take it all. By the judges decision, Fiola won. The judges marked his winning aerial at eight feet, nine inches and that's on top of a bowl that is 12 feet deep. That's almost 21 feet from the bottom of the pool!
Cover of BMX Action Bike april 1984 (bottom right).
One footer on the cover of Bicross Magazine #22 juillet 1984.
1st place Pro @ 1984 AFA Freestyle championships.
BMX Plus! october 1984: Fiola won the hearts of the judges and the crowds with spectacular one-hand-one-footers, 360s out of the quarterpipe onto the platform, and the smoothest landings of anyone present, all done with such flair and personality that he out-scored even Wilkerson, 96.6 to 96.3 in the ramp riding. ,In the ground riding Fiola took the top score of the whole event, too, with a routine that didn't quite match Wilkerson's or ltson's as far as difficulty of maneuvers, but more than made up for that disparity with personality, showmanship, smoothness, end pure exuberance. Fiola scored 91.5 for his ground routine.
Top gun on the cover of Freestylin #2 fall 1984.
Cover of Freestyle BMX UK #5.
Cover of BMX Plus! october 1984.
Eddie Fiola up close at the Pipeline on the cover of BMX Action december 1984.
December 1984, Eddie Fiola et R.L. Osborn sont les invités freestyle du premier Bicross International de Paris Bercy. Personne en France n'avait vu ça.
1984 King Of Skateparks.
King of Skateparks round 1.
Eddie Fiola in France on the cover of BMX Action Bike #30 may 1985.
King Of Skateparks
Eddie won the first Freestylin' Magazine Nora Cup
1985 King Of Skateparks finals.
Eddie Fiola and R.L. Osborn on the cover of BMX Action january 1986.
Freestylin january 1986
One foot at the 1985 King of the Skateparks finals on the cover of Super BMX and Freestyle february 1986
Lookback at the pipeline on the cover of BMX Plus! june 1986
Cover of BMX Plus! september 1986
Cover of Freestylin november 1986 ?
Cover of Bicross Magazine novembre 1986
GTV video.
King Of Skateparks
Eddie won the Freestylin' Magazine Nora Cup again.
Eddie Fiola tourne dans deux films publicitaires à gros budgets: Levis 501 et Montain Dew.
Yearly earnings: $100,000.
The "washed up" Eddie Fiola.
Steve Emig, freestylebmxtales.blogspot.com, december 2009: By late january 1987, I'd scored a job at the AFA working for Bob Morales, editing the very sporadic AFA newsletter. (...) Among the things I did for the AFA was getting to go to the legendary Pipeline Skatepark to shoot photos for an interview with Tim Rogers, creator of the "Timvert," the super upside down inverts now standard among vert and trails riders. I think it was early evening when I got to Pipeline, more than hour in traffic from Huntington Beach. I met my friend Mike there, a Pipeline local who never rolled into the bowls. He was sort of the local flatlander, and knew everyone there. Tim was running a little late, but as luck would have it, Eddie Fiola rolled up soon after I got there. Although Eddie was known for being King of the Skateparks more than once, I was surprised to see him. He was in his final year of a grueling three year contract with GT, who was known for touring their riders to death and burning them out in those early years. Word in the industry was that Eddie was completely burned out on riding, and couldn't wait until his contract ended so he could quit for good. So when Eddie rolled up in his normal practice gear of Levi's, a T-shirt, and an open face helmet, I was confused. I'd heard he didn't even bother going to the skateparks anymore. So much for industry rumors.
Mike and I stood by the fence at the end of the Pipe Bowl, the place I'd seen in so many photos only two or three years before. There was no one really riding it, so Eddie was alone at first. Mike, the consummate Pipeline local, explained that in the Pipe Bowl, air was counted from the top of the five foot high fence. If a local said Eddie got "two feet," it meant two feet over the five foot fence, or seven feet out of twelve foot deep bowl that had four feet of vert. You had to be a hell of a rider to even get above coping at Pipeline. Todd Anderson, for example, could blast ten feet out of the Camarillo Ramp, but got barely a foot out of the Combi Pool in his first contest. Although Eddie had been one of the rulers of that park, I expected this "washed up" old pro to get two or three feet out and be a little sketchy. While I didn't mention this "washed up" stuff to Eddie, I told Mike I'd heard Eddie didn't ride much anymore. Mike just smiled. Meanwhile Eddie rolled into the banked area of the bowl next to the pipe, and carved back into the pipe, hitting nearly 10 o'clock both directions. Eddie flew out to his trademark stalled footplant behind the pipe, then dropped back in and headed for us, he carved through the bowl towards us and blasted up about two feet over fence right in front of us. That was his warm-up air. He went through a run with a couple more amazing airs and carves through the pipe, then rolled up on the inside of the fence to talk to us. As I recall, Mike immediately said, "Steve here heard you're all washed up." I knew Eddie well from my days at Wizard, but was still pretty embarrassed. I think all Eddie said was that you shouldn't always believe rumors. Eddie rolled away, and in the next hour or so I saw him do almost everything I'd seen in photos. All his airs were seven or eight feet out of the bowl, and he went through his repertoire. One footers, one footed tables, one hand one footers, can-cans, over and outs (can-can to one footers) and 360 flyouts, all with the signature Eddie Fiola style. And he was just riding. There was no crowd, no cameras, just a couple other riders watching. As Eddie rode, Mike would shout out stuff, like "Eddie, get a foot out." Eddie got speed then carved the whole top edge of the bowl a couple inches below the edge (there was no coping) while dragging his top foot along the deck. Mike said "see, he got a foot out." It was one of Eddie's dork tricks, but was still hard. Mike said something about sparks, and again carved the bowl, this time rolling his front wheel out and doing a sprocket grind (feeble style), sparks flying, back wheel hanging in the bowl as he ground around the curve. This was over a year before I saw the first guy, Ron Wilkerson, grind a ledge on the street, and about three years before grinds became popular. The crazy part was that this was one of Eddie's old tricks. This went on for close to an hour. About the only thing Eddie didn't do was the flyout on the hip fence.
That day at Pipeline, the "washed up" Eddie Fiola, who'd I'd ridden with many times, blew my freakin' mind. He also taught me a lesson about putting to much faith in rumors, even if everyone seems to believe them.
Cover of Bicross Magazine février 1987.
Cover of Freestyle Spectacular june 1987.
The Fiola chronicles American Freestyler september 1987; a day in the life.
Eddie, American Freestyler september 1987: I get up at about seven o'clock, take a shower, watch TV -HBO, Movie Channel, Thundercats. Then I go downstairs, clean up my bike around 11 and practice flatland until about two. Then I'm off to the skatepark, which open at about three. It takes about an hour to get there, depending on traffic, and I ride until eight and go home -that's a typical day.
GT Demo Tape.
Vintage footage of Eddie Fiola at the Pipeline is probably worth the cost of the tape by itself.
Eddie Fiola left his long time sponsor, GT.
BMX Plus! december 1987: Eddie Fiola's contract with GT Bicycles expired on August 1, 1987. Fiola has been looking for a new sponsor ever since. Although GT told us they would like to sign Eddie for another year, Eddie himself says GT's attitude toward him is cool. "They said they'd sell just as many bikes with me as without me," Fiola told us. "I don't need that." (Eddie told BMX Plus! that he had been making between $30,000 and $40,000 a year from GT before his contract ran out.) Nevertheless, Fiola is now considering potential deals with three companies: Air Uni, General and Hutch. Alan Brown of Air Uni told us that Fiola was asking $70,000 to $80,000 a year, but Eddie refused to comment on those figures.
Eddie Fiola: I got cocky. I knew there was more money to be made and wasn't thinking about riding. I was seeing guys with 4 and 5 different sponsors and they were making X amount of dollars from each company but GT was making everything on their bikes. So I got greedy and wanted to get other sponsors and GT didn't want to do that so we went off and did our own thing. I regret that. I could be managing a freestyle team now and not riding at all if I had not of not branched off done my own thing I would have had different opportunities. I think I should have maybe compromised.
Eddie Fiola appears in ads with the new and unusual Citicat bike. They were saying "Eddie's back,". Maybe so, but those bikes are gone, at least for the time being. The manufacturer ran into some production problems with the bike and decided to stop the project for now. That being the case, the company negotiated a deal with Eddie to end his contract early, possibly starting it up again when the production problems are solved.
Eddie Fiola: That was "that cocky someone". They offered me money. Piece of shit bike. If you ever seen the ad and read it word for word I never say it was any good. I think I said something like "It's like something you never ever ridden before." So I didn't lie, I don't think they sold one. But whatever. I am telling you exactly I have nothing to hide. I was cocky. Wanted the money. I've learned since then.
Eddie Fiola and the Pipeline skatepark on the cover of BMX Plus! july 1988.
Eddie Fiola: When I got out of competition, I did live shows for Vans. It was cool, I got to ride all the time. For 5-6 years I did live shows: on my own, with Gale Webb, and with team mates Todd Anderson, Scott Freeman, and Josh White.
Eddie Fiola: I stepped out of the BMX limelight pretty much when Josh White came in. I didn't want to get hurt anymore. I had to start thinking, what am I going to do for the rest of my life? Where is the next pay check going to come from? If I hurt myself doing what I'm doing, I don't have medical insurance or anything like that, so I got into more commercial and movie stuff. I got insurance, hospital benefits, so it was a little bit better for me. I also see Matt Hoffman ride, and you just can't keep up with these kids I like watching them ride, I think these guys that are on ground are like God, like Jesse Puente is beyond good. Riding wise, he's the best. Watching these guys ride for little amounts of money, busting their butts, I just didn't see it happening. I was out there riding, I made good amounts, and then blew if all.
Eddie Fiola en 1984 à Upland (photo exclusive d’époque) en couverture du Cream #13 de juillet 2005. A l'interieur une interview d'Eddie par Dimitri Coste s'étale sur six pages.
ROOTS: Eddie Fiola from www.vitalbmx.com.
