Here's a little project that helped me through lockdown. Building and riding an old 86 Diamond Back Strike Zone. It was a great opportunity to re-visit some old tricks as well as learn a few new oldies.
Old school BMX 1980. By Pantswagen
Da Sugar Hills on the cover of FAT-'zine 19. Back to 1990. By BdJ. Flip through the pages.
You know what I like about all these FAT-'zines? it gives me a nice timeline of things that happened years ago. I couldn't really remember when we started putting on the extra FAT-JAM to start off the season. Now I know. 22 April 1990. This means we've done a "Mini-FAT-JAM" for 30 years now. It was dubbed Mini-FAT-JAM as it was a smaller version of the actual FAT-JAM. Mario Schepers seriously messed up his ankle by going Sky Hi after being towed by a moped to get some extra speed.
It was nuts and the pictures show it. We still talk about it every time we hang out at OJA and the pics help remember. What else did we have in this issue?
6 airs by Mat Hoffman on that Coca Cola quarterpipe in Bercy and boy did he go high.
Frans Swinkels got an interview, and we made a photo trip around the world starting in the USA and ending in France.
We went to Nantes, France for a contest, and the Pingel-Maier duo took care of the Tropica Contest #2. The poster was a fold out promotional piece to wear a helmet. Zonder Helm, Kop Kapot. Some Germans still remember that one as their favorite Dutch.
Lee Reynolds and Dirtbro Jimmy Arrington have an interview, Matt Pingel took care of some pages,
New rubber never looked and smelled so good! In 1984, Japanese tire giant Panaracer seized an opportunity to develop and deliver what is regarded as one of the most versatile, and aesthetically appealing BMX Freestyle tires of the original 80s era. Factory specified on the 1984/84 Haro Freestyler line up as well as the iconic Redline RL 20 II, this Panaracer FS High-pressure reissue was created from an original tire - branding, and tread pattern - and will take that show bike or daily rider to the absolute max level of authenticity and era-correct goodness! Upgraded to take 85 PSI and these are available and rideable for the summer cruises.
Limited stock AVAILABLE in Black, Blue, and Red with no new inventory expected until Summer 2023.
With 92 pages we were allowed to call this a double issue. Most 'zines at that time did not have more than 48 pages and FAT was establishing a name for itself in the underground BMX media world. Mat Hoffman made the cover and rightfully so. He had just performed a trick in Bercy that noone had seen before. A backflip on a quarterpipe! And not a low one either. Way out of the top of the Coca Cola quarter pipes. Sick! We're getting more American stuff in the 'zine so from now on the FAT issues should become more interesting for our American visitors.
Ralf Maier and Frank Schnuetgen did a Cali trip in the winter of '89/'90 and showed what it was like down there (page 28 - p33).
Vic Murphy wrote a story about the 2-HIp comp at Trend. Mark and Chris Noble sent some Cali stuff from their trip and we also had an interview with 2 Hip announcer Kevin Martin.
The other interviews in the double issue are with Klaus Dyba, Thomas Fritscher and Patrick van Wolferen. We sat on our asses too long and had collected lots of material for this one.
Divorze posse live, Lageja '90 contest report, a Life's a Beach, Ack 'zine and SKY HI sticker, contest info, 'zine reviews, Stokebros, Mookhoek mini, Rad-Lame list, Tropica DM, Skatehouse visit, Zoetermeer spot, BMX crosswords, ......
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:
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.