Derek Adams

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

Posts from Derek:

NÃ¼ Metallica

It’s good to see that Metallica just keeps getting better and more refined with age. I thought they might start to go downhill after Reload, but they just keep improving. In hindsight all of that Kill Em All crap they did in the 80’s was really barbaric and amateur compared to their new stuff. Their sound is so much more mature these days.

Road Trip!

Summer will be here soon. Start planning a road trip now.

03-25-2010

I’m not sure what’s up with the Daily Ops, it hasn’t worked in a couple days. We’ll look into it. Until then enjoy this random shot of Hazel Homan (just some bike rider’s dog).

Edit: looks like it’s still working here, but the photos aren’t feeding into the news page. Jason has something new in the works. Sit tight.

Daredevils and Real Backflips

Much like everyone else in the bmx blogosphere I was lurkin’ around on propsbmx.tv this weekend, rediscovering some bmx classics. I saw Road Fools 1 and had to throw it in here for the big kids. I honestly can’t believe that the Road Fools series is still going after 12 years. BMX has come a long way in that time. I was lucky enough to tag along on the first Road Fools back in 1998, and I don’t think anyone on that trip would have believed it would continue for so long. It’s definitely good to see.

I thought I’d tell the tale of my personal 15-minute claim to Road Fool fame, the “real backflip” as my alter-ego “the daredevil” (at 25:45 in part 1). People still randomly call me Daredevil to this day, a nickname that I’ve learned to deal with, but not one I’ve ever loved. I realized that it was never explained in the video, nor was the “real backflip” part. So after 12 years, for anyone who even remotely cares, here’s the story behind that…

When we first arrived at the Props office in snowy Chicago to begin RF1, we were hanging out killing time while waiting for more fools to arrive. This was around the same time Props was experimenting with their new print magazine venture called Tread. Tread only lasted a few issues, but each one looked amazing. It just ended up losing money like most print magazines, so they pulled the plug on it. At the same time there was another new bmx magazine that popped up out of nowhere, and the first issue had just arrived at the Props office. I can’t remember the name now, but nobody had even heard of it and it was really lame. It made BMX Plus look hardcore, if you can believe that. So I was flipping through this magazine and laughing at the lameness when I came across an ad for a company called “Dare Devil Clothing”, another company I’d never heard of. I had been running Little Devil clothing for around 3 years then, so I thought it would be funny to give these guys a call. I dialed the number in the ad and it went to a voicemail recorded in french. I think I left a message and that was about it, I never heard from them again. At some point on the trip, after I pulled the first “real backflip” Marco asked me to yell Daredevil into the camera and the nickname stuck…to me. So I guess I’m the Daredevil, I can live with that. It’s no worse than being a Mad Dog.

That leads me to the “real backflip”. This term evolved from the phrase “real street”, which was a funny way to describe street riding at the time. Until then street riding could include launch ramps, grass flyouts, pallet set ups, and various manmade obstacles. “Real street” meant that all of that stuff was now strictly forbidden, and for the most part still remains forbidden to this day. I forget who coined the phrase, but we all thought it sounded completely ridiculous. Riding natural street obstacles was quickly gaining popularity back then, but to call it “real” seemed kooky to us. It implied that if there was any sort of manmade interference with the natural (manmade) environment, it was fake and it didn’t count. This was a time when the Wildman launching a ramp over a Porta-Potty onto the beach was called street, so I guess there had to be a line drawn somewhere (literally in the sand perhaps), but the phrase “real street” just wasn’t going to be the answer. So after that, everything on the trip became “real” to us as a joke. Real coffee, real bikes, real truckstop, real skatepark, real this, real that, real everything! You get the point. At some point I flipped a box jump without putting on a helmet and Jimmy Levan dubbed it a “real backflip”. It was a total joke and only lasted 3 seconds of the video, but I wonder how many helmetless backflips were done as a result of RF1’s popularity. Hopefully not too many, bad idea.

So there you go, 2 random stories about one B-rate character in one classic bmx video. Long live Road Fools!
-Derek Adams

Here’s part 2. Jimmy’s infamous church gap at 12:55.

Propsbmx.tv

I thought one of our other minions would have posted this by now, but looks like I get the honors. We’re not trying to chase down every video that hits the net, but this one just needs to be posted on every bmx site and seen by every bmxer. I had to watch this 3 times to achieve full comprehension. Props to Garrett and uh, Props.

Check the new site: propsbmx.tv

Here For Kicks

Double Darryl from HFK posted this sweet photo of Mark Mulville in our forum. That also lead me to the Here For Kicks website which I found to be amusing (but I always find boobs amusing).

The Bagger Mark Experience

Today I was riding around town and realized that the Statue of Liberty mascot outside of this accounting office was actually Bagger Mark from the Howard Stern Show. Besides being a member of Howard Stern’s wack pack, Mark has been in a couple of Bam Margera movie productions including “Where The F**k is Santa” and the recently released “Minghags” where he plays a main character. Big Daddy even worked as Mark’s stunt double in Minghags and did a big flip to flat dressed as the Bagger (see first clip below). I thought I would share some funny Bagger Mark clips as homage to the hardest partying little dude in my home town.

Here’s the clip from Minghags where Big Daddy does a flip dressed as Bagger Mark (at 1:42). Go buy Minghags so I don’t feel bad about embedding these unauthorized clips. This clip is also the only reason I made this a bike feature on the site (I was also contemplating tagging it adventure and art).

Big Daddy getting the Bagger treatment.

Mark on the Howard Stern show, part 1 of 6.

I threw this in here because my friend Joe Frantz is the one playing the school teacher. It’s funny because he went to college to be a school teacher, then decided to follow his dream of film making. Now he directs movies and tv shows for Bam. I was once in a band with Joe and he can sing exactly like Danzig (a lesser known fact).

Bagger in full party mode.

Howard Stern Show prank call to Mark. This one is funny too and there’s a bunch more on Youtube.

Who’s Behind The Least Most?

This is probably the number one question I’ve been asked since this website launched. Who’s doing it? I admit it has been kind of a mystery, especially when some of the crew have been using aliases like D.B. Cooper (and I’m still not convinced that Lee Sizemore is a real person), but things are starting to become more clear now that we have an about us page. Also Scott Towne just made his first post, I’m psyched to see more from him. And we’re definitely open to any contributions from creative people in bmx (we know you’re out there!).

Photo Feature: Fit @ Ray’s

Fit Bike Co. along with S&M held their annual dealer appreciation jam at Ray’s MTB Park last weekend. Van Homan arranged for Fit to pick up the tab for us to go ride/film/party so we rented a 15 passenger van and loaded it up with Fit supporters from PA & NJ. My task was to shoot photos but I knew it was going to be difficult to keep me off my bike long enough to get anything substantial. I mean this is the Disneyland of bike parks we’re talking about, there’s an endless amount of obstacles to play on. I did manage to get a few photos while almost getting run over 100 times in the process. Click the numbers below to flip through them. And check out Ray’s if you can, it’s way better to ride than to look at.

Van Homan tearing up the hip in Ray’s rhythm room. Lookback and 270 turndown.

Newest Fit flow rider, Brendon Reith, bunnyhop over the wall down into the pump roller.

Dan Conway’s moustache, downside whip in the Subaruoom.

Josh Fry, bunnyhop wallride over some sticks.

Randy Brown, transfer from the S&M MTB course into the Fit pump track.

Gannwear was the designated 2×4 beer chugger during the shop team race through the rhythm course. The race wasn’t over until the chugger pounded an entire PBR. In the end 2×4 came in a close second. Where’s Cody Jennings when you need him?

Jeremy Ball, not your average school teacher.

Van Homan, yes we can. Ray’s rhythm room.

Randy Brown, nosewheelie. Focusing is overrated.

I thought I’d leave you with Fit’s Flickr slideshow and this photo of Mike McHue’s license plate. McHue is Fit and S&M’s crazy ass sales rep in Ohio and this license plate is on a vehicle that looks like an undercover police car, spot light and everything.

Bonus! Here’s Van Homan’s favorite song from the trip, this must have played 1000 times on the drive out. Van loves it. Sing it to him next time you see him.

Dyno Dino

I said I’d cool it on the old school pics, but I had to share this never-seen-before photo of Dino Deluca from 1987. And what better day to post it than the launch day of our new retro Freestylin’ logo. Besides the obvious height/style of this, the thing that stood out the most is the width of the ramp…only 6 feet wide!! So crazy. Shot by Bob Myers in Paoli, PA.

Best Wedding Photo Ever

This didn’t make the cut for my Van Homan interview in January because it’s a blurry iPhone photo of a photo, but it’s still worth sharing. Mr. and Mrs. Homan.

Lightning Fast

Deuce showed me this and I had to repost it. I was laughing the whole time so I’m going to give you the keys to the Lamborghini. Enjoy.