HARO Legends show. Cologne, Germany. By BdJ

Jul 28, 2012

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 8818 times

The sport of BMX freestyle (or lifestyle or however you want to call it) is still rather young, so young that the originators are still alive. The creators of our sport made it over to Cologne once again and a show was put on by the sickest team that paved the way for many of us; Team Haro. Dave Nourie, Brian Blyther, and Ron Wilkerson travelled America and the world to promote BMX freestyle in the early eighties and now, being in their fourties, they once again stepped on their original bikes and put on a show at the 2012 BMX Freestyle world’s in Cologne, Germany.

But they got some help in the form of Mike Dominguez who had built some ramps at home to get some practice in before hitting this show. Mike has been on Team Haro at some point and is a true BMX freestyle hero throwing 900-s over canyons back in the day and the highest fakie airs possible. Next to Mike the godfather of BMX freestyle was present; Bob Haro. He got on the mic for a few words before the show started and it was

good to see him around. Original speaker Kevin Martin made it over once again and although not announcing BMX demos any longer, he still got it. He’s done so many with these guys that it was just a matter of finding the auto button and get it on. If we’re talking about innovators of the sport, Mat Hoffman needs to be mentioned. Better yet, he was there in person and enjoying every minute of it.

And as if there weren’t enough big names around, Dennis McCoy stepped in for the show and showed up with a big bang! There’s a showman inside all of them and DMC wanted to kick off his presence with a giant air on the rather small quarterpipe. Things didn’t go as planned as he hung up badly and landed on the flat bottom, similar to Craig Campbell in 2009. Luckily Dennis had

his fullface on and took the crash like a champ/stuntman and continued to ride the show. BMX fan Xavier Mendez was present as TM and took care of whatever the boys needed.

Brian Blyther and Mike Dominguez rode on bikes from back in the day with a few adjustments like new wheels (by Odyssey). Dave Nourie brought his own HARO MASTER bike that he still rides on a regular basis. It had a DBI sprocket too. Ron Wilkerson rode Brian Blyther’s old bike with a freecoaster hub, or however that hub is called where you can change from riding freewheel to riding coaster brake. DMC rode his current HARO and had an advantage of a solid headset, current geometry and decent weight. The team had very limited practice time on the quarter

pipe and improvised kick turn ramp as the space was used by the flatland riders whenever it was dry. But as true heroes they got to work and didn’t disappoint.

Dave Nourie’s flatland riding is still show worthy. The SD boy who invented many flatland tricks did them all again in front of a decent sized crowd in Cologne. Being in his fourties didn’t seem to bother him one bit as he did the Gumby, the Nourie handstand, pedal pickers, swivels, stuppleducks, and many Vanderolls. The crowd ate it up and the flatland pros in the crowd were loving it. The flatland doubles with DMC made it even better. Ron Wilkerson showed off his footwork on flatland too but then took it to the ramp as he tried his insane drop-in moves that riders aren’t even doing these days.

Ron’s a true showman and made his pedal picker drop-in work after crashing bad on the first one. He dislocated his shoulder along the way but no one noticed that. A stuntman doesn’t show his pain. Ron had a smile on his face at all times. Mike D looked very solid on his bike and it showed he’d been riding. Turndowns, lookbacks, one-handed-one footers, and high fakies were some of the tricks he brought. Brian Blyther can be considered one of the most stylish riders to ever hit a vert ramp and gave Cologne some of it during the demo. Brian also still rides on a regular basis but doing it on an old school HARO bike and an old school quarterpipe is tougher than it seems.

The show ended with Brian Blyther and Mike Dominguez doing a double air on the quarter. When Kevin Martin asked them if they were ready for it, they replied with a no. They still did it with Mike D on top and Blyther alley-ooping underneath. They pulled it off and it was time to call it right there. The fans now rolled up for interviews, photos and autographs just like in the early days. Thank you team Haro.

BdJ