Derek Adams

Orchid Footwear head hancho. Lover of beer, iphones and backflips.

Posts from Derek:

Heavy Metal Figure Skating

Figure skating with battle axes to Van Homan’s epic Stay & Destroy video part song? Awesome. I saw this on Metal Sucks via @superlewman. If you’re an old ass bmxer you know Lew.

No that’s not the name of the next FBM video, but it could be. This is the story of Thomas Bruso also known as Epic Beard Man “whose belligerence has become a worldwide phenomenon”. I thought most bmxers would get a kick out of this guy. Seen on buzzfeed.com. I love crazy people.

Hangin’ Tuff

I swear I’m not going to keep posting a bunch of recycled old school news, the New Kids probably don’t give a damn, but nobody else is posting anything today so what the hell. I was trying to explain what old freestyle contests looked like to my friend after he had no clue what was going on in this Josh White photo and I found this video of Carlo Griggs going freaky high (at :18 seconds) with Skyway Tuff Wheels no doubt. We both thought it was the highest air we’ve ever seen on an 8′ quarterpipe. I’d love to see any footage of anybody going higher if it exists.

Torqued, Stretched, and Clicked

Here’s a scan from a late 80’s Freestylin’ mag that my friend Bob sent over. He also has some never seen before home movie footage from a Rockville show that we’re trying to digitize. We’re going to put it on Least Most sometime soon and teach you kids how to crank balls out at a quarterpipe. Dudes in the 80’s used to blast, and Josh White was one of the smoothest riders in the game.

Snowboarding For Dummies

The other night when yet another blizzard hit the northeast, my friend Mike and I wanted to get out and snowboard. But we were too lazy and cheap to drive to a real mountain, or drive anywhere for that matter. We had all the right snowboard clothing so we bundled up and walked over to this parking lot near my house. It’s steep enough to get cruising on a skateboard, but not on a snowboard. So we decided to bring snow shovels and plow a slalom course for us to skate. It was pretty fun and felt almost exactly like real snowboarding. It started to snow so hard that it got tough to keep the course clear and things started to get pretty sketchy. Sketchy is a good thing if you’re looking for a cheap thrill, but after a few hard bails we were ready to retire. I can’t say this is the brightest idea we ever had, but it’s still better than sitting in the house.

There’s nothing like a beer after snowboarding. Keeping in the spirit of our Adventure section here’s a beer review in 10 words or less based solely on the bottles in my recycling bin.

1. Green Flash West Coast IPA.
My favorite beer ever, good any time, hops for days!

2. Troegs Nugget Nectar
Bringin’ the west coast to the east coast.

3. Victory Hop Devil
I always liked this logo, beer is great too, elixir.

4. Newcastle Brown Ale
Who doesn’t love a Newcastle?

5. PBC Joe Coffee Porter
Coffee lover’s best choice, serve in coffee cup, it’s coffee!

6. Rogue Chocolate Stout
This is like a dessert, it’s no pukefest like DeadGuy.

King Shit

Some of you may remember Dave Carnie from Big Brother magazine. I’ve always loved his work, he’s hilarious. I stumbled upon his new site King Shit today. I’m not even sure if it’s actually new since it’s Flash and the posts aren’t dated, but either way it’s good to see Carnie doing his thing somewhere. This one zine article called We Were Way Gnarlier Back Then where he did a Danzig book parody had me rolling. It’s worth checking out. He even mentions bmx, so don’t be afraid to go there (because it’s a skate site omg).

BMX Bike of the Future

I saw this on bikerumor.com today. Hubs are out, but apparently tall seatposts, chicago bars, single tube frames, and uniblade forks are back in. Get stoked!

Best Invention Ever

I saw this commercial last night when I was half asleep. I almost thought I dreamed it until I saw it again today. I mean seriously, is this a real product? Who cares, either way it’s amazing!

Skids & Wheelies

Speaking of zines here’s the cover of Van Homan’s first zine, Skids & Wheelies, from December 1996. This issue featured NJ local legend Gary Thorpe on the cover and a Garrett Byrnes interview. Even if you’re the greatest bmxer in the world, it’s cool to do things besides just the riding part. Make a zine, make a new bmx blog, shoot a photo, make a video, build a dirt jump, throw a jam, start a t-shirt company, make a contribution to Least Most, do any little thing that makes bmx a more bitchin’ place to be. The future is in your hands.

Don’t Be Reatarded

Cocaine is a hell of a drug. RIP Jay Reatard.

Ginch and Gincher

This seems to be the big one for today. Get into it.

Something Different

This is the first contribution I ever made to a bmx publication. This “Something Different” drawing ran in a Stylin’zine way back in 1987. Zines were like the bmx blogspots of the 1980’s, any good scene had one. I was 14 at the time, and my friend Dave Fox used to run this little zine called Stylin’. I used to look forward to it even more than the big publications, because the people in it were my friends. I found this issue the other day and this silly drawing made me laugh. Besides the tricks that people do on bikes (and the multiple Swatch watches), not much has really changed since then.