1991 was the year I had to join the army. Everyone had to back in the day and it was my turn. Had my personal UZI 'n shit and made it to the Corporal rank in just one year, whatever that's worth. The best part of the 12 months in the army was that I managed to pass for my truck drivers licence. I rented a room so I did not have to live on the military base and could ride a bit after "work" and still manage to do the FAT-'zines. The pace had slown down to only a couple of issues per year but they were stacked with stuff. Just like issue #22:

-Did a commercial in Gran Canaria for ProSpecs shoes in 1991
-Reported from the Trier contest
-Rode the Vogelsang dirt spot in Cologne
-Went to Abbeville in France for a contest
-Was there a contest in the Jugendpark every 4 months or something? -Mini-FAT-JAM Aarle-Rixtel
-Christmas Jam report from Denmark

We've arrived in 1991 with the FAT-issues. #21 has 104 pages and includes all stories from my first trip to the USA. It was the best. For year I'd been reading the american magazines and now I was there, in San fucking Diego! Before I had put my bike together Vic Murphy called to see if I wanted to go ride some street. Hell yeah! 20 minutes later Knock knock, who's there? Vic Murphy, Pete Augustin and Kaarlo Wik. Damn, is this for real? I hurried getting the re-welded HARO Master together to hit the streets. Wow, this was good! Places visited were Mission Trails (daily session?), Ron Wilkerson's spine vert ramp, the San Diego Home Ave ditch, Imperial Ditch, backyard pools, rode some flatland at Mission Beach, went to the Nude bowl, the 2-HIp meet the street in Palm Springs, Balboa Park, a ditch in LA, the DirtBros mini, and much more. It was a great time and you can read about it in this issue. But there's more. Interviews with Alexis Desolneux and Eng San Kho, reports on the FAT-JAM, a trip to Longjumeau France, UK KOV report, KOC report, the Lageja '91 comp and of course free stickers and stuff.

Let's start this review by a quote from Vic Murphy who was a regular contributor to the FAT-'zines back in the day. "I ride to get better. Not to get money. Not to impress anyone. Not to improve the envirenment. But just to see how good I can get riding from one place to another. Some people don't understand me. Well, I don't understand them. Ride to death."  Vic Murphy. D.B.I.

Issue 20 of FAT-'zine came out in the fall of 1990 right after we had finished another FAT-JAM (report in #21). We traveled around in the summer and visited the World Championships in Trier, a few VANS shows in Germany, went to the ECC in Slagharen, and we had a few lakejump sessions when it got really hot. Interviewed people this time were Jason Jessee, Joop "Sloop" Smulders, Raymond Tabak, Frank Schnuetgen, and Dan Hubbard. We also had reports from the UK King Of Vert, a street jam in Aalborg, Denmark, the 2-Hip comps in the USA, and a full report from the contest in Cologne, Germany.

You know what I like about all these FAT-'zines? it gives me a nice timeline of things that happened years ago. I couldn't really remember when we started putting on the extra FAT-JAM to start off the season. Now I know. 22 April 1990. This means we've done a "Mini-FAT-JAM" for 18 years now. It was dubbed Mini-FAT-JAM as it was a smaller version of the actual FAT-JAM. Mario Schepers seriously messed up his ankle by going  Sky Hi after being towed by a moped to get some extra speed. It was nuts and the pictures show it. We still talk about it every time we hang out at OJA and the pics help remember. What else did we have in this issue?
6 airs by Mat Hoffman on that Coca Cola quarterpipe in Bercy and boy did he go high. Frans Swinkels got an interview, and we made a photo trip around the world starting in the USA and ending in France. We went to Nantes, France for a contest, and the Pingel-Maier duo took care of the Tropica Contest #2. The poster was a fold out promotional piece to wear a helmet. Zonder Helm, Kop Kapot. 

With 92 pages we were allowed to call this a double issue. Most 'zines at that time did not have more than 48 pages and FAT was establishing a name for itself in the underground BMX media world. Mat Hoffman made the cover and rightfully so. He had just performed a trick in Bercy that noone had seen before. A backflip on a quarterpipe! And not a low one either. Way out of the top of the Coca Cola quarter pipes. Sick!

We're getting more American stuff in the 'zine so from now on the FAT issues should become more interesting for our American visitors. Ralf Maier and Frank Schnuetgen did a Cali trip in the winter of '89/'90 and showed what it was like down there (page28 - p33). Vic Murphy wrote a story about the 2-HIp comp at Trend. Mark and Chris Noble sent some Cali stuff from their trip and we also had an interview with 2 Hip announcer Kevin Martin. The other interviews in the double issue are with Klaus Dyba, Thomas Fritscher and Patrick

Cover boy Ralf Maier is turning 40 next week. Fucking 40! I had many good trips with Ralf Maier. Most of them are covered in the issues of FAT-'zine. Ralf got an interview in issue 16 and so did Vic Murphy, Mike Golden, Sander Cornelissen and Gerrit Koornwinder. Back in 1990 you sent a letter to the other side of the world with the questions you had. You were hoping in a few weeks you would see a reply. Vic came through with the answers and I typed them out. He even put some pics in the envelop so I xeroxed them and then sent the pics back to him. Gotta love the e-mail of present time. Matt Pingel contributed a lot of pages and went sandboarding. We had reports on a skate comp in Valkenswaard, a freestyle contest in Leiden, the Wath Jam, Spanjer's skate comp in Hengelo, and a concert report about the Digital Underground. The free sticker came from Invert magazine (UK, now RIDE). We checked "The U" which was a crazy dirt spot where you rolled down a huge hill and did a fly-out at the end. We reviewed the following 'zines in issue # 16: UHS, RIDE -'zine, RADAzine, Albert 'zine and Mental Chaos. Remember those?

It was the late '80-s when issue number 15 came out and these items made it on the RAD side of the RAD-LAME list:  Bresie'Z, Robert's graffitied Renault 14, Speedfreaks video, Vla, Divorze Posse's Demo Tape (that's a cassette by the way....), A Full PO Box, Watching Jason Ellis cutting Mike Canning's hair, Prantl's 360 at the Energie hal, English riders visiting the Leiden freestyle contest, DP's Black Medallion, Advertisers, D-signs designs, On Edge Apparel, DJ Kid Sundance, Tye Dye shirts, 'zines, Lambert's Harley, Mini-ramp Hengelo and Double seatpost clamps.

Man, most of these things aren't too hot any longer but back in 1989 they made it on the RAD list. To see what made it on the Lame side, turn to page 17. We have a Jason Ellis interview in issue 15,  a street sk8 comp in Eindhoven, 540 sequence of Albert Moonen, the Circus came to town and brought 2 BMX-ers from England, The Cologne contest Number 2 took place at the Jugendpark, Merijn Bonte got

The first double issue of FAT-'zine. With 88 pages it was also twice the size of most 'zines back in the day. Issue 13+14 featured over 150 photos. The quality was terrible but at least it brought the message across. The typewriter was still doing its job but the ink ribbon was fading. I loved freshly new ink ribbons as it also had a white line up top that you could use to correct the typos. But more than once the machine got stuck behind a photo and the letter didn't line up correctly and you had to bring out the Tipp-Ex to change things. It was horrible compared to the computers we use today. FAT-'zine was getting a structure with an editorial, contents page, news section, staff list, RAD-Lame section etc. and the double issue had the following features: Lageja contest, Freestyle contest in wherever, Bart & Martijn Deijkers interview, free VANS sticker, Kees Lemmens interview, Phantasialand report where some American riders were doing shows, Incertitude concert review, 8th Muenster Mastership report, Albert Retey interview, Amsterdam skate trip, Tropica and StokeBros

With 48 pages this was a skinny issue of FAT-'zine. We're still inthe year 1989 and we went to Paris, France for the BMX Freestyle World Championships. The pages got messed up a little. It was pretty tricky to put the pages in order and then Joop had to be on top of it too when he stapled the 'zines together.Kees Lemmens wrote a report about a session in Den Haag, Erlangen, Germany was covered by Matt Pingel,and  Haluk did the Tropica contest. We had an interview with the very talented Scott Carroll (RIP), and Lars from Mars wrote a story about bikers and skaters riding together. We drove over to Uden fr a street skate contest which was won by Dirk Winkelman.  We checked out De La Soul live in Eindhoven and this report was followed by the Paris World's article. Stephan Prantl was interviewed (page 42-43) and we had an anti-drinking campaign sticker (Drank maakt meer kapot dan je lief is) in issue number 11. Still a lot of stuff was put onto the 48 pages and like every week you get to flip through it page by page. 

Lee Reynolds made the cover of issue # 10 of FAT-'zine. He had not seen it until recently when he found it online. That's why we're putting these things on the internet. Those who did not save anything from back in the day still have a way to flip through the pages; digitally. It's 1989 and we made it to the Mega Free event in Paris. We started working the "press pass scam" to get into places for free and to get backstage. Paul brought a suitcase, long jacket and a baret to impress the security guards and it worked. When he opened up the suitcase backstage his bottle of Coca Cola and bag of chips rolled out, but he was in! That game never stopped. Back to the issue:
Carl Inkpen reported from a competition in Farnham, UK, Pingel went to Rom skatepark. We had 6 'zine reviews (Liberty, ACK, Spazum, Shred Zone, Mayhem and R.A.H.F.). There was no Photoshop back then but there were scissors and glue to make a double air on page 15-16. We traveled to Roncq, France for a contest and had a good time as usual.

Did you ever have a cover of a magazine? Yes I did, FAT-'zine issue 9 right here. Putting yourself on the cover is pretty lame but what the heck, make your own (maga)zine and you have that control too. The photo was taken at an event in Amsterdam and "street riding" was a new thing. We got plenty of cool artwork again from our friends at school. Somehow they never got caught. The StokeBros sent over a few pages and again we brought the news in the Believe it, or not!? pages. It's 1989 and a photo caption says that Paul is back on the freestyle scene. A comeback in 1989! Paul also went to see Suicidal Tendencies twice and reports about it. Issue #9 has 'Zine reviews (Sketchy, Fractured and Zenith) and Lars from Mars also wrote a story that you can find on page 18. We did a lot in 1988 and have 7 pages covering the places we went. The free sticker page was filled with a terrible Airwalk freestyle team sticker but hey, it was free. We went to a BDP concert in Eindhoven (P. 29-30) and went back to the University of Duesseldorf to ride the brick banks. The year was 1989. Jeroen Hoogaerts (RIP) and Ron Wilkerson both got interviews. We did

Issue 8 is the 8th issue of 1988. Not bad at all after the first issue (in 1987) was made as a joke. # 8 had 52 pages and on the cover were Albert Moonen, Jason Hassel and Thomas Fritscher. Frans Swinkels and I went to France this time for a contest in dad's Lada. The Germany posse mede it too. Paul went to see a MDC/SNFU & Afflict show in Eindhoven. Dave Vanderspek died in 1988 which shocked everyone. Lars from Mars wrote down his thoughts on a  rainy and sleepless night and sent it in. It showed up on page 18. Pingel went to England and visited the Chingford ramp. Ralf Maier reports from a contest in Bern, Switzerland and Albert Moonen went to the 2-HIp King of Vert in Washington DC and brought us all the latest news and gossip. Back in the day there was no internet guys! Issue 8 had a Joe Johnson interview. On the question "What do you hate" he answered: "When I am staying at Dennis McCoy's house and I have to fix his bike for food." Haha. We took another trip to Amsterdam with the Divorze posse to visit a concert. This time RunDMC, Public Enemy and Derek B and DJ Scratch. Yoyoyo! Matt Pingel itw too and the RAD-LAME list.

We made a lot of them 'zines back then. There was no plan really but this was issue number 7 and it is still 1988. It's the issue that covers the first FAT-JAM. Riding street in 1988 was a new thing. Having a car on the course was exciting for the street guys, and thrashing it afterwards was a good time. Check the sequence at the end of the issue. Joachim Mulkens came through with more incredible artwork that he finished during regular school lessons. So good. He's a cop now but could have easily made his money doing comics or whatever. Issue 7 has an interview with Sander Nieuwenhuis who still is our best Dutch vert rider. Pat Wirz contributes a report about the AFA Masters round 6 in Ohio where Joe Johnson did a tailwhip on a quarterpipe 4 feet out! Matt Pingel went to London and visited Southbank. We got a free General Bicycles sticker this time. Jeff Hedges gets a BIO, we visited a MC Marvellous and DJ Cash Money concert and made a trip to Cologne for a contest. It must have been our first time as it took one hour to get from the train station to the Jugendpark. 

The colour of the cover changed with every issue. I sometimes checked on the cover color before Joop started photocopying but at times I couldn't be bothered and found out when the 'zines were done. It's still 1988 and Carlo Griggs scores the cover. Jamie Cameron took the photo and 20 years later Jamie is working for Carlo over at Proper Bikes. Nice one. The 'zine is starting to look professional with an official editorial page, contents page, and articles. Interviews in issue 6 come from Tommy Guerrero, Dennis McCoy, Rick Allison and Robert Moeller. There's a photo of Axel Reichertz flatlanding with a fullface. Paul, Menno and I did a Coca Cola commercial and made easy money. Frank Peeters reports about the Titus Cup, Le Clip provided the free sticker, we went to Bonn for a contest at Mathias Rechenburg's place, we cruised over to Den Haag for a sk8 contest, we visited Tropica in Germany and also discovered the banks at the University of Duesseldorf (1988!). The Stokebros are starting to make a presence and Olli contributed a nice drawing of Alf.

It was 1988, the year after the Tizer World Championships in England and the IFN had called for the Tizer World Cup. My plan was to get a ride from Robert Moeller after the Trier contest but while over there they told me there was no space for me in their car. I bought a single train ticket to England from Trier, Germany and had 10 pounds left for food. Luckily I got the leftover bag of bread from the contest so I did not starve. My sleeping bag was the bike bag again so I wouldn't have to pay for my bike on the train. 14 hours later I arrived in Manchester. Read the contest report in issue 5 of FAT-'zine. We have interviews too with street pioneer Dave Slade, Carlo Griggs, Steve Giberson, Chris Potts and Jeff Cotter. They've got some funny things to say. The 'Zines scene was getting big and we have reviews from Euthanasia (Jamie Cameron), COW (Mike Rose), Crucial Mania, Totally Intense (Effy), The 'Zine (Pat Wirz), Damage (Dave Slade) and Decade 'zine (Thomas Fritscher, Bresie, Thrasher and Geisser). The free sticker was provided by FAT-'zine. Yes we had stickers back then.