FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

Cover boy Ralf Maier is designing skateparks for a living now as a landscape architect. I did a lot of trips with Ralf, some of them are covered in the issues of FAT-'zine. Ralf got an interview in issue 16 and so did Vic Murphy, Mike Golden, Sander Cornelissen and Gerrit Koornwinder. Back in 1990 you sent a letter to the other side of the world with the questions you had. You were hoping in a few weeks you would see a reply. Vic Murphy came through with the answers and I typed them out. He even put some pics in the envelop so I xeroxed them and then sent the pics back to him. Gotta love the e-mail of present time.

Matt Pingel contributed a lot of pages and went sandboarding. We had reports on a skate comp in Valkenswaard, a freestyle contest in Leiden, the Wath Jam, Spanjer's skate comp in Hengelo, and a concert report about the Digital Underground.

The free sticker came from Invert magazine (UK, now RIDE). We checked "The U" which was a crazy dirt spot where you rolled down a huge hill and did a fly-out at the end. We reviewed the following 'zines in issue #16: UHS, RIDE -'zine, RADAzine, Albert 'zine and Mental Chaos. Remember those?

Pages 51-63 show a review of places we visited in 1989. Looks like we were nomads back then already.
Enjoy the issue. It's the last 'zine on the Smith Corona typewriter. We invested in a new Olivetta

Bicycle Motocross Action Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit managed by American BMX Company Inc. (ABC), will be the title sponsor of the BMX Society Old School BMX Show and Celebration, arguably the largest such event in the world. The June 4 event, to be held in Carson, California, will feature an old school BMX show with awards for the best bikes in various categories, as well as an evening symposium and presentation with BMX publishing legend Bob
Osborn. “It’s really an honor to have Bicycle Motocross Action, take on the role of title sponsor. Toby has always been supportive of our events and the old school BMX community. He’s unique because he isn’t solely a corporate sponsor’s figure head. He’s an A-list, old school, BMX celebrity—a person who was often featured in the pages and even on the cover of the seminal magazine that inspired our event,” said Steve Brothers, BMX Society’s founder.

“Of course now Toby has this new project that has so much potential as a resource in the BMX community—and this new non-profit organization has taken on the name and mantle Bicycle Motocross Action. It’s a great fit, a perfect storm of circumstances,” he added.

The BMX Society will present Osborn with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Osborn, or Oz, as he is known,

It was the late '80-s when issue number 15 came out and these items made it on the RAD side of the RAD-LAME list:  Bresie'Z, Robert's graffitied Renault 14, Speedfreaks video, Vla, Divorze Posse's Demo Tape (that's a cassette by the way....), A Full PO Box, Watching Jason Ellis cutting Mike Canning's hair, Prantl's 360 at the Energie hal, English riders visiting the Leiden freestyle contest, DP's Black Medallion, Advertisers, D-signs designs, On Edge Apparel, DJ Kid Sundance, Tye Dye shirts, 'zines, Lambert's Harley, Mini-ramp Hengelo and Double seatpost clamps.Man, most of these things aren't too hot any longer but back in 1989 they made it on the RAD list. To see what made it on the Lame side, turn to page 17.

We have a Jason Ellis interview in issue 15,  a street sk8 comp in Eindhoven, 540 sequence of Albert Moonen, the Circus came to town and brought 2 BMX-ers from England, The Cologne contest Number 2 took place at the Jugendpark, Merijn Bonte got an interview, Free Converse sticker, Divorze Posse live, we had an article about miniramps that were the new thing at the end of the eighties, Matt Pingel had his fair share of contributions in the issue and Martijn Deijkers wrote a scene report on Adelberg, Germany. Andreas Althaus got an interview as well, we had a report on the King Of Concrete, concert report on the Bad Brains and  a wrtie up on a demo in Uden. 

Dude, what a list! Did you get your cup of coffee yet? Because here comes the full issue.

Bob Haro is the Father of Freestyle BMX and the founder of Haro Bikes and Harodesign. Bob grew up in Southern California riding motocross and skateboarding. When he ran out of money to continue racing dirt bikes he turned to BMX. Drawing was Bob's first passion and started illustrating for BMX magazines and brands. He became the staff artists for BMX Action Magazine. At 18 he started his own business, manufacturing BMX Plates and selling tens of thousands in the process.

The first double issue of FAT-'zine. With 88 pages it was also twice the size of most 'zines back in the day. Issue 13+14 featured over 150 photos. The quality was terrible but at least it brought the message across. The typewriter was still doing its job but the ink ribbon was fading. I loved freshly new ink ribbons as it also had a white line up top that you could use to correct the typos. But more than once the machine got stuck behind a photo and the letter didn't line up correctly and you had to bring out the Tipp-Ex to change things. It was horrible compared to the computers we use today.

FAT-'zine was getting a structure with an editorial, contents page, news section, staff list, RAD-Lame section etc. and the double issue had the following features: Lageja contest, Freestyle contest in wherever, Bart & Martijn Deijkers interview, free VANS sticker, Kees Lemmens interview, Phantasialand report where some American riders were doing shows, Incertitude concert review, 8th Muenster Mastership report, Albert Retey interview, Amsterdam skate trip, Tropica and StokeBros write-ups, Rene Hofman interview, Trier/Kenn freestyle contest (1989) where we stayed in the concrete pipes, second FAT-JAM report where the FIAT 127 got thrashed, Andreas Althaus interview, we went to Spain to do a demo with David Quesada in San Sebastian and the ETA got loose.

Sean Coons did a comic and we already had stuff lined up for the next issue. 

Check back next week for issue 15 but first flip through the double issue page by page:

The day after the Mini FATJAM, or better, the Mini FATJAM afterparty at OJA, the day starts too early no matter what time you wake up first. Basically the day is a waste trying to recover from the long day and night that ends with a few drinks (too many). Now that events are back on the calendar it will also lead to multiple events happening at the same time. On the weekend of 2/3 April the Ultimate X took place in South Africa, Swamfest got wild in Florida, UEC racing was going on in Verona, Italy and also the Mini FATJAM took place. Next to that the annual Oldskool gathering put on by Marcel van de Hurk also draws BMX-ers from all corners and so harm van Brussel showed up straight from a BMX race in Nuland (making it BMX event number 6 on the same weekend). Two years of no events because of the pandemic with QR codes, mouth masks, social distancing, vaccinations, and now 6 on one weekend and actually, we like it like that.

Issue 12 had a green color. In the beginning we picked our color but after some issues we did not care. As long as it wasn't the same color as the previous issue it was okay. The cover photo on the green paper came out nice. Issue 12 had the infamous Believe it, or not?! news section, a reader photo section and also an MBL concert report. We used to have some ramps at the end of our street that we set up differently all the time. It was our ghetto skatepark but it worked for us. We also rode our scooters there, see page 9 and 10. 

RAD-LAME list, of course! Entered a Talent Show at school and won! One DJ, one rapper and me flatlanding on stage. We got a trophy and a day off. Sweet.

2 Hip King Of Nothing (Rotterdam) report where they stole my camera. Bad news it was. Free Dave Vanderspek Curb Dogs sticker in this issue. RIP Dave. Yes we rode fullpipes back in the day. 19 years ago in Lieshout. Take that.

Tony Hawk did a demo in Eindhoven and we were there. Ryan Moniham interview, Dynamo Open Air '89 report, Bresie interview, Miniramp pics, Pingel art,  Open Dutch vert skate championships, and a freestyle contest report from Sedan, France. Another road trip it was and we rode on carpet! That about sums it up.

The Sugar Hills trails in Aarle-Rixtel really started running back in 1990. It was also the first year a jam was thrown to open up the outdoor season. The March/April date remained on the calendar for the following 30 years. The name of the jam was dubbed the Mini FATJAM as the younger brother of the FATJAM that has taken place in the same town since 1988. Unfortunately over the past two years the global pandemic forced us to pull the plug and no events were possible in the way we envison them; having fun together. But guess what, the Covid situation is allowing us to invite the BMX family and friends to make a trip down to Aarle-Rixtel again on 2 April without any restrictions as long as we don't exceed the 500 maximum capacity. So do yourself a favour and make sure you show up early in order to "get in".
Bring your bike, a chair, your friends, some food, drinks, a good mood and you'll fit right in. Red Bull will handle the wings for the riders and their sound car will be set-up for tunes all afternoon. It's free to participate, it's free to spectate, it's free to park, it's free to use the toilet. We've collected some goodies from our sponsors (Thanks to @ridetsg / @paulsboutiquebmx / @fatbmx) so make sure to join the special session at the Sugar Hills Trails at 16:00hr. The trails are open for a session starting from 13:00hr and offer smaller jumps for beginners and the KILLER jump for the pros. It's an opportunity to ride dirt even if you are not a 'dirt' rider. The trails can handle some serious rain so no worries about the spot not being rideable even when snow is expected in the days leading up to the Mini FATJAM. We will ride!

With 48 pages this was a skinny issue of FAT-'zine. We're still inthe year 1989 and we went to Paris, France for the BMX Freestyle World Championships. John Yull, Mike Canning, Rolf Seiler, and Dave Beveridge got the cover from the Freestyle Championnat du Monde in St. Denis, France. The pages got messed up a little. It was pretty tricky to put the pages in order and then Joop van den Kimmenade had to be on top of it too when he stapled the 'zines together.

Kees Lemmens wrote a report about a session in Den Haag, Erlangen, Germany was covered by Matt Pingel,and  Haluk did the Tropica contest. We had an interview with the very talented Scott Carroll (RIP), and Lars from Mars wrote a story about bikers and skaters riding together.

We drove over to Uden fr a street skate contest which was won by Dirk Winkelman.  We checked out De La Soul live in Eindhoven and this report was followed by the Paris World's article.

Stephan Prantl was interviewed (page 42-43) and we had an anti-drinking campaign sticker (Drank maakt meer kapot dan je lief is) in issue number 11.

Still a lot of stuff was put onto the 48 pages and like every week you get to flip through it page by page.

Lee Reynolds made the cover of issue # 10 of FAT-'zine. He had not seen it until recently when he found it online. That's why we're putting these things on the internet. Those who did not save anything from back in the day still have a way to flip through the pages; digitally.

It's 1989 and we made it to the Mega Free event in Paris. We started working the "press pass scam" to get into places for free and to get backstage. Paul brought a suitcase, long jacket and a baret to impress the security guards and it worked. When he opened up the suitcase backstage his bottle of Coca Cola and bag of chips rolled out, but he was in! That game never stopped.

Back to the issue:
Carl Inkpen reported from a competition in Farnham, UK, Pingel went to Rom skatepark.

We had 6 'zine reviews (Liberty, ACK, Spazum, Shred Zone, Mayhem and R.A.H.F.).

There was no Photoshop back then but there were scissors and glue to make a double air on page 15-16. We traveled to Roncq, France for a contest and had a good time as usual.

Our local rap group was called Divorze, read the interview on page 22-23. Lars From Mars (BMX Masters MC) wrote another story for FAT and we interviewed Eric Fischer.