Progress
When I started riding BMX back in the early 90s, BMX wasn’t exactly something that many people were bothered about. In fact, just riding down the street you’d get shouted at. Riding a BMX and being an adult was enough to get you in trouble anywhere and everywhere you went. Because of the misconceptions surrounding what BMX was—that it was glorified ‘showing-off’, or that those who did it were also involved in crime and / or sketchy activity—it didn’t pay to ride a small bike. Not that it mattered to me. BMX gave me something to strive for and achieve. It set me goals. Most importantly it enabled me to create, be myself, and have incredible fun doing it.
As the years went by, my friends and I growing out of our awkward lack of bike control in to real BMX riders (older riders, like we had seen in the town doing tricks we couldn’t fathom ever achieving), the perception of BMX changed too. It was no longer frowned upon so greatly. In fact, there were stirrings that foreshadowed a paradigm shift in BMX and its once tired image: shops were opening, skateparks were being built and council across the world were beginning to understand what it was all about. This was both good and bad. Good because finally we had places to ride, but bad because the secret world of BMX had been shattered and nobody knew what that would mean or how it would change things.
Our worries were compounded by things like MTV; showcasing BMX as more of a circus event than a stand-alone lifestyle. But for all the negatives there were many more positives. Now we can safely say that BMX is here to stay. Not only that but the essential facilities too.
One last thing, I have spent the remaining part of my weekend going through HIPS with my significant other. Last week her place in Brixton was broken into and it was kind of the last straw for her, so she decided she was going to start looking around. I am really looking forward to her finding a new place, I mean I love Morgan, but sometimes I find it a little tiresome listening to her ranting about this…
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