Thanks to Paul Meacher for getting me to dig for footage of the Animal House vert ramp, beacuse it led to this- A bit more of one of the days I was with Dave while shooting what ended up being his "Firsthand" for Fuel TV back in 2007ish.
BMX - ANIMAL HOUSE LA Ride BMX. Animal took their tried and true recipe of no-frills street riding to the urban sprawl of Los Angeles. Featuring their west coast contingent along with some east coast heads, the squad includes Augie Simoncini, Colin Varanyak, Andrew Castaneda, Johnny Raekes, Hobie Doan, Abdul Fufanah, Jonathan “Twinn” Jaramillo, Charles Littlejohn, Richard Hernandez, Clay Johnson, and Gabe Brooks. The dudes put a few new twists on some old spots, and unearth some fresh gems as well.
“We have expanded our team to include an insane crew from the west coast like never before with Andrew Castaneda, Demarcus Paul (who got hurt right before the project), Johnny Raekes, Hobie Doan, Charles Littlejohn, Gabe Brooks and Richard Hernandez. We also have two of our top pros, Augie Simoncini and Colin Varanyak—who originally hail from the east coast—currently calling California home as well. So it only made sense for us to get them altogether and do their thing. We rounded out the squad with a couple of our top east coast riders, Abdul Fufanah and Jonathan “Twinn” Jaramillo, and Clay Johnson from Arizona to add to the mayhem. The riding that went down was wild, insane, technical, dope, crazy, smooth, and above all… motivating to get you to hit the streets right after you watch it. Thank you for your support of Animal and real BMX street riding.” —Ralph Sinisi, Owner-Animal Bikes
When The Animal House dropped late last year it was surrounded by a ton of excitement, and it was one of the rare times that a major project fully lived up to the hype.
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.