FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

When injured from the crash at the Dew Tour Simon Tabron received get well wishes from Terry Jenkins and Dave Young, two of the UK's vertical aces in the '80-s, people that Simon looked up to when he started out riding. Simon took the opportunity to send both of them some questions to see what they've been up to and how they see vert riding how it is today. Here's what Dave Young has to say and enjoy the pics. Name: Dave Young

Name: Haha!! Mike Canning.
Hometown: East Grinstead, UK.
Occupation: Aquarium manufacturer.

What is you earliest memory of BMX bikes on ramps?
Canning: Mmm ,okay ....Bob Haro came and did a show at the NEC in Birmingham. I'd only just started riding. It was televised on channel 4, as it was in its infancy, we could only get a fuzzy picture, but I was mesmerised. Not long later I met Carl Alford, he was a bmxer with a track and a 6ft q/p in his garden. He invited me round and told me to do a 180 on the ramp. "Don't turn too much ,or you'll crash" he said .So that's what I did....crashed! I went home and started building my first q/p.

Did you have mates to ride with from the start?
Canning: For sure, I was a Grifter boy, always jumping that heavy bike, I wanted to be Evel Knievel. Some guys from school had a bmx mag, BMXplus! I think. Well they had set up a track on their housing

Name: Jason Ellis
DOB: 27/07/71
Hometown: Retford, Nottinghamshire, England
Occupation: Song writer/Producer

Riders like Harry Main today left school to become a pro BMX rider. When did you end school to go ride bikes professionally?
Jason Ellis: 1989, straight out of school I had a couple of crap jobs to make some money before I went riding shows.

Back then you guys were the first ones to do something like this. Do you have any advice to the riders who want to quit school and ride fulltime?
Jason Ellis: Ride as safe as you can whilst still getting the job done. The first shows I rode were with Mike Canning, he's an awesome rider who got to the top of his game riding very little 

Name: Billy Stupple
Hometown: London, England
Occupation: Building Contractor and joint owner of Radbmx website and shop.

When was the first time you picked up a BMX bike?
Billy Stupple: The first bmx that I ever saw was in a local bike shop

Name: Jess Dyrenforth
Hometown: Santa Ana, Ca 92701
Occupation: Licensed Massage Therapist, HHP. Photographer and Owner and production manager of GOST Brand.

When was it that you picked up a BMX bike?
Jess: I rode my first BMX bike at 11 years old during a trip to San Francisco with my mom. Later that year I got a Raleigh Ultra

-Name? Terry Jenkins (I do remember this one, and now that I am pretending to be all grown up I go by Terence) -Age? This past July I made it to 38, and still counting (freekin hell I’m old, ha!) - Year and age turned pro? I turned Pro sometime in early 1984, yeah twenty-two years ago! But let’s use the word Pro? loosely here; I was just sixteen years old out of school and on the dole of course. The only pro freestyle riders back then I believe were Andy Preston and Mike Pardon. FBMX Magazine contacted me as they wanted to have a Professional Freestyle division so I said yes, wasn’t quite sure what I was saying yes to but it sounded great. The UK pro division now consisted of something like four riders, but hey it was a great start!

Name: Andy Shohara
Occupation: Construction Superintendent
Hometown: Mililani, HI.

First of all, how did a family from Hawaii end up living in England?
Andy Shohara: My dad got a new job at an Air Force base near Banbury and moved there with the rest of my family at the end of 84. I stayed back in Hawaii to finsh my senior year of high school. After I graduated there was a lot of drinking and smoking going on along with a lot of surfing, but a whole lot less of riding. By Christmas of 85 I new I needed a new environment. I flew to England for the holidays and they surprised me with a new half-pipe in the back yard. I officially moved to England on the day of Mon's 2nd jam.

How hard was it to get used to the British weather compared to the Hawaiian sunshine
Andy Shohara: It was brutal. I was used to riding all year long,

Name: Craig Campbell
Age: London, UK
Occupation: DJ/Producer

Craig: Romford Skatepark, 1981

Name: Greg Guillotte
Hometown: Plano, TX

You have moved around quite a bit in your life, lived in Holland for a little while too, can you sum up the countries in short?
Greg: I lived in Holland from 10-14 and England from 14-18. Lived in the US before and after that.

Where was it that you started riding BMX?
Greg: I started racing when I lived in Holland and at one of the out of town events the hosting team had a quarter-pipe. I rode it all day and fell in love with the idea of vert. Then when I moved to England, I built a quarter in my backyard and helped build the ramps at Meanwhile 2. 

Name: Antoine Morvan
Age: 24 years
Hometown: Bordeaux, France
Hook-ups/Sponsors: Myself

The favorite list:

-Spot to ride: BMX Bandits park in Bordeaux, FR
-BMX video: Criminal Mischief of course!