Name: Dom Phipps
Occupation: Owner On Record - A Brand history marketing agency.
BMX History Projects done: Haro Bikes - 30 Years of Freestyle. Haro First Generation Innovation.
Books - The Rise of BMX Freestyle Volume 1 & 2. The Birth of the BMX Freestyle Movement - 1st and 2nd Edition.
Current BMX history project: Redline BMX Foundations.
First of all, how can you explain your interest in the early days of BMX?
Dom Phipps: I was just a neighborhood rider growing up in the south of England. BMX came along in a period of my childhood, where I think many of us needed to set off in a direction. BMX became the catalyst for a lot of young people to become free-thinking, creative, and independent. I loved everything about it, including the social aspect and friendships with other like-minded kids. It was a magical time to be young.
In the early '80-s everyone in The Netherlands rode a BMX bike. People in their 40-s-50-s remember that time well as everyone has stories of bombing frontyards, breaking bike parts or winning their first trophy. The magazines were the bible, it was all you had and they were read over and over again. It was how we learnt English in fact with every word that we did not understand looked up in the dictionary. New products were drooled over but impossible to get our hands on for multiple reasons.
Oldschool BMX Parts opened up shop in Heesch for a day to bring the BMX pioneers and oldschool fans together. Collectors displayed their bikes, brought products they wanted to sell and the Oldschool BMX Parts man-cave sold plenty of old parts. It was just cool to go back in memory lane because some of the
Classic clip of Neil Ruffell in the early days of his riding career!
Oldschool BMX Video vom BMX Contest im Tropica in Hemsbach am 09.12.1990.