Bart de Jong
Name: William LaRoque aka Larock
Hometown: Long Beach, CA
What's your earliest memory of BMX?
Larock: Seeing On Any Sunday for the first time and wanting an MX kit for my hand me down Lime Green StingRay.
Who were some of the BMX riders that you admired back in the day?
Larock: That’s a tough one! I was kind of Partial to the SE Factory Boys because they had such close ties to Long Beach, BUMS track was less than a mile away from where I grew up. Scot, Thomsen & PK of course. But who could deny the Panther, Dain, Utterback, King, Atherton and all of the others that graced the pages of our favorite magazines.
Name: Jon Western
Hometown: Birmingham, UK
What's your current Bike?
Jon Western: My current race bike is a Meybo BMX, Custom gold over raw finish done by SuperBike Dan, with jmcbmx.com decals as I raced for JMC in the UK national series a few years ago. Carla Jansan (Jim Melton's daughter) runs jmcbmx.com and when I started racing JMC we discussed the idea of designing a modern version of the old JMC kit. Ian MacArthur helped with the kit design which was then signed off by Carla. A number of versions of it were made for me in white, black, gold and yellow. If anyone has ever wondered why "Once we were" is on the back of the race shirt, it's Ian's business and there to recognise his help with the design. I'll call him a sponsor as it sounds more factory (lol).
What's your earliest memory of BMX?
Jon Western: When I was about 9 years old, a friend got a Piranha BMX so I asked my dad for a BMX, he got me one called an ALPINA from a local discount centre, at the time I was really into a motorbike trials show called Junior Kick Start, I used to try and emulate what I saw, I soon snapped the frame.
Since 2016, the Union Cycliste Internationale and Hurricane Group have been working together to support the development of BMX Freestyle and offer the best conditions for progression to riders. The accomplishments achieved so far in both BMX Freestyle Park and Flatland, have encouraged both parties to continue their collaboration until 2028. Hurricane Group and the Union Cycliste Internationale announced today that they have signed a new collaboration agreement until 2028. Initiated in 2016, this partnership began with the introduction of the UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cups exclusively at FISE World Series stages and in 2018 extended to include the BMX Flatland World Cups also.
*ROUND 2* SKYSCRAPER GAME OF BIKE - MATT RAY VS HIGH DESERT - BMX
"10 minute video of riders in London. Nathan, Ben, Rory and I (Luiz Laet) started this project like 7 months ago, the idea was film everyone who was riding, good rider bad rider, just enjoy BMX and film the local scene.
We’ve got 10 minutes of raw Alex Hiam clips for your viewing pleasure. Including a bunch of unseen clips that didn’t end up being used for Take A Ticket.
Name: Paul de Jong
Hometown: Aarle-Rixtel
Started riding BMX in: 1971 but real BMX Bike in 1979
Number of bikes in the collection: Don’t have a clue, at least 15 nice ones
Do you have any bikes from the '50-s when the first people started racing BMX in The Netherlands?
Paul de Jong: Yes I have a 1950 Schwinn girls beachcruiser from Mom, who was jumping doubles in the 50’s when BMX was popular in the Netherlands. Before you “Americans” are going to reply on this: Ignaz Schwinn is from Europe fyi.
What makes you decide to start a certain bike building project?
Name: Arjan Ellens
Age: 24
Hometown: Utrecht, Netherlands
Sponsors/hook-ups: BMX Amsterdam, Boost Pumptracks, Masters Of Dirt, Team DTX13
How does it feel to have a fresh new bike?
Arjan Ellens: A fresh new bike makes me super excited to ride it and it feels dailed!
How long did it take for you to get used to it?
*ROUND 2* SKYSCRAPER GAME OF BIKE - CHAD KERLEY VS ETHAN CORRIERE - BMX
Long time FIT International team member Florent Soulas is a remarkable bike rider, especially when you consider he lives a family life with 3 kids, works a full-time job as an organic gardener and then goes out and slays it on his bike like this.
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.