Looking Back Now:
I completely remember this phone call. I was like “Wow! Mat Hoffman just called & asked me to ride for him. Cool!” But at the time, Haro was paying me quite nicely. And if I recall, the whole Hoffman sponsorship deal was contingent on Reeboks sponsoring the team with their action sports shoe brand called “Boks.” Anybody remember Boks? I think they came & went pretty quick. The big money Boks team deal never happened, but Hoffman still sponsored some BMX racers anyway . Chris Breen & Lawan Cunningham were the two dudes who raced for Hoffman for a couple of years. But Hoffman’s whole BMX race sponsorhip program only lasted a couple of years.
That’s funny that I was talking about the high postin’ Southern California girls over 12 years ago. Shoot, ain’t a damn thing changed since 1996!
Photo:
This pic was taken of Mirra & I over in Cologne, Germany in 1996 at the Freestyle World Championships. Somehow I won the dirt jump contest at the Worlds with a flip x-up being the raddest trick I threw down. My how things have changed over the last 12 years!
1996 - Sponsorship Offer from Hoffman Bikes Actual Journal:
Entry from October 2, 1996: I went to Jamie Staff’s house in the morning. We planned to go to the Haro offices & I was going to talk with them about me getting a signature bike. But the main guy at Haro wasn’t there. So we went to the Slater trails instead. We came back & played some video game golf & then I went to the gym. I came home & Matt Hoffman called. He wants me to ride for Hoffman Bikes next year! They’re going to make race bikes & get into racing. I need to fax him some #’s (amount of races I want to go to & what I want to get paid). I told him that it would have to be a lot more money than Haro is paying me. We’ll see what happens. This could get interesting. At night, I went to John Paul Rogers’ house & us & Jamie & John Povah, and Alan Foster went to the Galaxy Theater for the Crusty Demons of Dirt video premier. It was good & there were tons of dope girls, but they were too high postin’ for me. We left at midnight.
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.