Joe, Ruben, & friends enjoying some camping and cement parks in the rockies. Put together by Joe. Great watch.

CULTCREW/baskeep01 from Cult Crew on Vimeo.

Bas Keep shreds the T-1 ramp while Joe Rich captures it. Sadly this will probably be the last we see of him for a bit after he got hurt at the Nike 6.0 contest last weekend.

So awesome that this is finally online. Part one includes the intro and sections from Aaron Ross, Joe Rich, and Garrett Byrnes. If there’s anyone out there who’s never seen this video, sit back and enjoy some quality BMX. The next chunk will be available in a week.

Joe Rich has a nice little Q&A up on Dig.

I’m going to assume a lot of you haven’t seen this. And that’s okay, because it’s old as hell, but here are some reasons you should watch it even if you’re 14:

1) The riders. Joe Rich, Taj Mihelich, Jimmy Levan, Dave Freimuth, Robbie Morales, Sandy Carson, and Derek Adams. Everyone listed is a legendary rider and nearly everyone involved went on to form their own companies or become involved in the business side of BMX.

2) The riding. Jimmy Levan jumps The Church Gap in here, a monster of a gap even by today’s standards, and Joe Rich does some of the first ever backwards handrails.

3) The antics. More so than any recent Road Fools, there is a lot more “lifestyle” footage included in this issue and you really get an idea of how the crew got along which is what made the RF series so compelling early on.

You can check the second half of Road Fools 1 after the jump, and I just updated the Road Fools 5 post with the 3rd and final section, so go watch that too.
Continue reading Road Fools 1. >

These days, Joe is something like a BMX shaman, spoken of more than he is seen. And any time you hear his name, you know he will be spoken of in the highest regard. This bio is fascinating because it shows what it took to get Joe to the place he is in his life now, and unsurprisingly, he comes off as just as down to earth and at peace as he does now. Also he was worried about Y2K.

ESPN has a good interview up with Joe Rich about his Andalucia video series.

Joe Rich just sent this through:

“Six weeks, 1 regluar sized back pack for each of the 2 of us, 1 super 8mm camera, 1 DV video camera, 1 35mm film photo camera, 2 bmx bikes, $400 in train tickets each = 1 amazing adventure. We had the most basic of plans . . . Leave Malaga, Spain by train, and arrive in Prague (Czech Republic) six weeks later. No day was ever mapped out before hand. We’d take a train to a new city, leave the station upon arrival, and see what we could get into. Some cities we stayed for days, others just over night. “Chance” and “Wonder” were our co-pilots. Exploration and adventure go hand in hand, add in our loose schedule and we had ourselves one amazing journey . . . .

This trip was taken by myself and Ruben Alcantara almost 5 years ago. It was put out along with an Etnies Road Trip video that came with Dig issue number 52. Because it was being burned on a hard copy, I had to use different music for the second half of the Train Trip. This was the music I originally edited it with. This played all last year on the Bicycle Film Festival Tour around the world. I’ve gotten a number of requests to put this up online. So here it is, Freaky Friday February 19th, 2010. Enjoy !”

They played this at the Bicycle Film Festival over the Summer before they played the FBM documentary and I was shocked by how good it was even all these years later. If Ruben isn’t in your discussion about the best riders of all time, you have a problem. This video holds a little place in my heart too because it was the cause of the first “Take down that video” email I ever got, courtesy of someone at Dig, I can’t really remember who.

Joe Rich sent this over. Chase Hawk is amazing and watching him do motowhips over and over in slow-mo really draws attention to how much control he’s got.

“Almost 13 months ago, Chase and I filmed this next bit. Oddly enough, we managed to complete the finished vid in just one weeks time after being asked to do it. If you know the both Chase and myself, you’ll understand what kind of an accomplishment that was. ha ha ha . . .. Anyhow, Fox Racing had asked if we could film a ” how-to ” do a whipper. Chase sits amongst the top group of dudes that can whip em with as they should be whipped. I used one of my favorite “Explosions in the Sky” songs, which came from a limited edition cd that you could only purchase at one of their actual shows while they were on tour. The song fit perfectly. I tried and tried to get a confirmation from them to use the music, but I never heard back. So, that’s why Fox could never put this edit out. And we didn’t want the music changed, so it sat . . . . . The hardest part with the little project was recording the talking stuff. I always like to dig a little deeper when it comes to people talking. And I knew that Chase has chosen the path of riding the way he does through different influences throughout his life of riding bikes. So, sit back and enjoy the different ways a bike can be moved when you know the secrets. Cheers ”

Previously: Chase Hawk Burning His Hand Off

T1 just put up this old commercial that many of you will remember from Props. Here’s Joe’s description:

“Damn, watching this sure does bring back some memories. Different times for sure. This was the very first edit I did after learning the editing basics of Final Cut. I had a string of injuries that began at the end of 2000 and ran the course of almost 2 years. Learning about video editing. The very first clip in this was so insane. Garrett Byrnes is one amazing dude! You have no idea. Not only the actual dropping in part, but the amount of work it took to find this place. Amazing to say the least. Hope y’all enjoy this little piece of T1’s past. Cheers !”

Classic shit.