Although there was always rumours of an angry persona, he was always friendly to us youngsters and later on when I started hanging out with him regularly I borrowed a lot of his traits, I considered him an adult, even though he was probably only 20 years old he always seemed to pursue the things he liked whether they were considered cool by people or not, he did what he desired.
Although he’d already scored the cover of BMX Action bike and featured many times in the mag Andy rose to infamous status after his iconic interview shot at Meanwhile 1/4 pipes
in west London featured in BMX Action bike/RAD magazine. He’d already been riding for a few years at that point, was a regular on the UKBFA contest scene in the mid 80s, starting out as a prominent flat lander, later to become one of the most innovative and aggro ramp and street riders of the late 80s.
We cover starting out riding in South London in the early days, riding locally, Youngs BMX store in Lewisham, discovering Rom skatepark and the hive of BMX that existed there, the beginnings of South bank BMX scene, The Meanwhile crew, getting on the cover of BMX Action bike, learning to air, the RAD interview, Chingford ramp scene. The Tizer worlds, injuries, riding for GT, getting into street riding, trip to the enchanted ramp in CA, his clothing brand 'Evolution’ , the dying BMX scene in the early 90s, comics, metal/punk music, getting out of the scene, BMX in the Olympics, looking back on BMX now and way more!
Riders mentioned:
Paul Zach, Paul Gerlach, Billy Stupple, Marco Lara, Biff, Jason Hassel, Craig Campbell, Nick Phillip, Jess Dyrenforth, Neil Ruffell, Robert Ruffell, Andy Ruffell, Dave Young, Aju Bubu, Chris Laney, Shane O'Brien, Jason Lunn, John Povah, Greg Guilliotte, Lee Reynolds, Dave Slade, Nick Phillip, Sid-Warren Sidell, James Hudson, Jason Ellis, Shaun Allison, Scott Macdonald, Mike Canning, Zach Shaw, Jerry Galley, Gary Macallion, Nick Howard Elkan, Joe Johnson, Dennis McCoy, Ron Wilkerson, Darren Whitfield and more...
Merch available https://bicycleunion.com/collections/...
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.