Features

Words, Photos, & A Nearly Broken Nikon D60: Marty Wendt

Despite being known more for the “A’s”, Raider’s and gnarly violence, Oakland has a fairly rich history of BMX-related activities. Back in the early ‘80’s, Oakland not only had the famous Thor Land trails, aka Horse Hill (which in some capacity still lives on today), but was also home to the famous Boss Racing brand of frames, forks, bars, and cranks. Both the riders at Horse Hill, as well as the team and various owners of Boss Racing had a “Proud to be from Oakland” attitude, and you’ll still find plenty of that in the city today with guys like Kweli Kaluenja of First Rule (see sidebar), and Oakland’s one and only Dan K.

Hidden in the many nooks and crannies of Oakland’s diverse neighborhoods are countless talented riders, along with a great number of artists. A few of those artists are also riders, and they have merged to form First Rule Collective, which is the brainchild behind Scrape the Town 3, along with a number of other big city events. The Scrape the Town series is basically an invitation to all riders to meet up and session the street spots of whatever city happens to be the epicenter of the ride. At the end prizes are handed out for people who killed the spots, people who were killed by the spots, and a big barbecue is held afterwards to kick back and recount the events of the day.

The meeting grounds for Scrape the Town 3 was High Noon at the MacArthur BART (subway) station in Oakland, where the Green Machine, aka the First Rule Tour Bus was awaiting the arrival of lots of guys on kids bikes. Nobody ever knows what the turnout will be prior to the event, so there were plenty of astonished looks as more and more riders came through. Some people rode from 2 blocks away, some took the BART train from San Francisco just across the Bay, and some showed up from 6 or more hours away in SoCal. The Best Vehicle Award goes to the crew that showed up in an old station wagon fitted with airbags, the roof sawed off, and bikes and people spilling out.

AMP Energy Drink was there with an SUV full of girls and free energy drinks. Nobody left for the ride low on energy, and that was a good thing because the term “Hit the ground running” was in full effect here. Imagine you and 300 of your friends charging out of a parking lot at full speed with people manualing, bunny-hopping planter boxes, doing wheelchair-ramp 360’s, and just going berserk with an Energy drink SUV bumping music and a giant green bus in tow. It was pure madness, and it ruled. There were so many people there that gathering names of all the guys who were killing it was impossible. If you were killing a spot and I didn’t get your name I apologize, but you know who you are.

Not even five minutes into the ride we were all bombing down a four-lane street. I had my camera hanging around my neck and was holding onto it with my left hand. For some reason I decided to let the camera dangle and grabbed my bars with both hands, when five seconds later a guy going twice as fast as me and getting a tow off a car hooked my bars with his. Somehow I hung on and saved it while he went down in a ball of flames with his bike cartwheeling alongside the car. Gnarly. Scrape the Town became Scrape the Pavement for that dude.

The first spot was around ten minutes away and it looked like a park course at a TV contest. There was a fence all around a big parking lot, with a transition running through the middle, essentially separating the upper parking lot from the lower. The transition curves around 90 degrees with a hip at the bend. There is a 4-foot-high fence that runs the length of the transition and ends at some stairs with a railing. This is an empty parking lot not designed for bikes… Really? The assault began with some double-peg-action by The Come Up Kid, fence stalls by Aaron Bartlett who was not only saving Pitbulls that day, but also representing the Over-30-Crew, along with guys like John Ivers, Dr. Mike, Kyle Frasier and plenty of others giving the puzzled looking crew in a City of Oakland work truck on the street something to watch. There were a few folks going over the 4-foot fence off the bank, people hitting the rail by the stairs at the other end, busting variations up and down the stairs, and just generally destroying the spot. There were some crashes including a guy doing sick Look-Downs. He had them clicked, but then hung his wheel on the fence post at the hip and went face first into the asphalt. It was brutal and there was no shortage of blood. Dethklok would have declared it, “Totally Metal!” It ended with a rider attempting 5 or 6 times to 180 over the fence. He never quite nailed it, but he came mighty close and folks were stoked. MC Kweli rallied the troops and we were off to the next spot.

Stop number 2 was City Hall or something like that and it lasted less than 10 minutes before the call was made to roll out. Lots of stairs, planter boxes and rails here, all packed into a fairly small square so it was pretty chaotic. By the time anyone got into a rhythm and anyone figured out a spot to shoot some photos from we had to bail.

Just up the street was a spot with a big amphitheater that had giant steps which were taken over by a few guys including Cubby (Kyle Emery-Peck) who was trying giant 180’s down and within 5 tries had it pulled. The place went crazy. To hit it you had to wait on the other side of a 4 lane street, find a gap in traffic, charge across the street, bunny-hop the curb and jog to the right a little prior to lift-off. Not the most complicated run-up ever, but kind of involved. It was also pretty blind on approach so you had to trust that nobody was in your way when you came hammering at it. Not to mention you had to be willing to land backwards down a big drop while going about Mach 5. There were a couple other big tricks here including a couple 360’s and a tuck-no-hander off the same set of steps, as well as a handrail, which was fired out first try off a sketchy grass run-up filled with people.

A few blocks later and we were at another plaza with a long ledge that was seeing lots of manuals including a sick nose-manual and a few barspin variations. Cubby came through yet again with a hop down some stairs, over a planter box and onto a low wall. He went down a few times but in the end I think he pulled it. This spot also saw The Come Up Kid, who had been killing it, do something fierce to his knee that sidelined him. Kyle Frasier spotted something across the street and as soon as the crowd saw him on top of a wall that got taller the further down the street it went, everyone charged over just as he hit the gap off a 7-foot high wall over a wide sidewalk and fire hydrant and into the street. When he landed it sounded like his cranks broke but it was his bars moving forward. Since nobody had an Allen wrench for his stem he simply turned the bike nose-down and slammed the bars into the street moving them back. Slam Bars living up to the name.

Right around the corner was where trouble began. We hadn’t been there for 30 seconds when two Police cars rolled up, stopped in the middle of the street blocking traffic and hopped out ready for some action. Needless to say, we moved on.

However, it turns out that following 300 BMXer’s around is a pretty simple task since there were enough riders to practically be seen from space, so Oakland’s Finest simply followed the crowd to Laney College which was less than 5 minutes away, and once everyone assembled there we were again shut down within 60 seconds. Bummer.

After this, every spot was a hit-and-run and by the time the AAA banks were reached across from the park where the prizes were to be handed out, the number of cops was steadily growing and becoming less tolerant of what was going on.

Eventually the Police Commissioner got a phone call from the cops because they were at a loss of what to do. Turns out that being bothered on his day off because nobody knew what to do about 300 bikes running amok through the city did not sit too well with him and he apparently lost his mind and began screaming. Things went downhill rapidly after that. The prizes were handed out in record time with 1st Place being awarded to The Come Up Kid. Unfortunately he had already headed out, so the “Must be present to win” rule was applied and 1st was handed to Kyle Emery-Peck who promptly handed out most of his prizes to other riders. That’s coming through for your fellow rider! Second went to Jake Honesto, and 3rd through 5th were also won by people, but by the time everything was said and done, nobody seemed to remember who got what. Sorry guys. After the speedy awards ceremony people hit the road before a fleet of prison buses showed up to haul everyone to the joint. Some folks split to cool down with a swim, some went riding and others headed to the MLK House for an awesome barbeque. At the end of the day anyone who didn’t end up in a Police car or broke off was stoked on an amazing event, and went home sunburned but amped for the next round.

Oakland of the ‘80s showed the world the talents of Boss Racing’s late, great, Cecil Johns, along with other legendary riders such as Brent and Brian Patterson, and Bob Medrano. If the current talent of local riders is any sign, there are some more legends in the making. Stay tuned, this won’t be the last time you hear about riders from Oakland. If First Rule gets within 5 or 6 hours of your town, make sure you join them. You won’t be sorry.

First Rule would like to give a Big Thanks to Big Ed, along with all of the sponsors: Solano Avenue Cyclery in Albany, S&M Bikes, Fit Bike Co., Solid Bike Co., Mutiny Bikes, Sunshine Bikes in Gilroy, Kink Bikes, DK Bicycles, Knight Bike Co., Avantgarde Clothing, United Bikes.

For more info: firstrulecollective.com

Inside the Mind of First Rule

By Marty Wendt

Vital caught up with Kweli Kaluenja of First Rule Collective to get the scoop on what First Rule is all about.

Vital: What and who is First Rule Collective? Why was it formed?

Kweli: First Rule is Koit, Chris San Agustin, myself, and the lovable intern Cheese (who after this last event, moved up in the ranks and out of the intern position. Congratulations Queso!) We formed it for community - why else? We love to ride! We love what we do! It feels right.

Vital: On average how many riders show up to the events?

Kweli: Around 200 to 250 on average, but our last few events have seen over 300. Our SF Bike Film Fest block party, "We Got the Block", went into the 400’s last year. We consider these happenings to be more than a jam. It is an event packed with folks who show up for the competition, the prizes, some show to capture the day on film or still shots. Others come out to be entertained or to entertain. It’s a collaboration!

Vital: The riders generally seemed well behaved, do you guys push for that to keep peace with the law?

Kweli: It’s like this, you are with 4 homies walking around on the sidewalks. Pretty girl walks by and three of your boys start acting like fools to get her attention; those are your kin. The other homie is still a ‘lil new to you... He looks her in the eyes and says what's on his mind, and wishes her a good day. Before he’s three steps away, she gets his number. He didn't even yell to catch her eye. Which trick has less ridges?

Vital: Who are some underrated Oakland (or Bay Area) riders?

Kweli: Dale Ollison, Sal Mustache, Jon Ivers, Kyle Fraiser, Kurt Russel, Kyle Emery-Peck, Zac Costa, Jackson Ratima, Dustin Mata, Gerald Norman, Eric Mesta, Italian Berto, D-Block, Jake Honesto... There are quite a few handfuls of sleepers in the Bay! Stay tuned to out here, you will be pleased daily. Truth be told, the two largest names that are underrated are Pete Brandt and Sean Parker. Those two riders have forgotten more tricks that they personally hatched out of their brains, than there are ways to prepare eggs!

Vital: Future plans for First Rule?

Kweli: To keep collaborating young minds.

Vital: Is Koit reallly a Gypsy?

Kweli: Word has it on windy days, the wheel wells inside his house let a lot of dust in.

Vital: Has famous Berkeley resident, Don X-Up made it out for any events?

Kweli: As a matter of fact, yes. He was present at Scrape tha Town 2. OG Lance "sponsored" him with a used Standard, which was then "lost" in Berkeley, where Don can be seen on Telegraph Avenue daily, holla at your boy!

Vital: Anything else you’d like to add?

Kweli: Despite early rumors, no arrests were made. Anyone who got too excited got to speak with an officer, but made it home safe to come back and ride the same spots another day.