Looking Back Now:
I think the Snow Mountain Bike race that I did in the X-games ranks up there as one of the top 10 of the gayest events that I’ve ever competed in. The whole race & event was goofy. But I couldn’t really complain too much seeing as it was still an all expense paid trip to a Southern California ski resort (Big Bear) for the weekend.

I remember this was where I met Shaun Palmer for the first time. Some dude was talking to me in the X-Games registration trailer. He knew my name, but I didn’t recognize him. Then as I was walking out, I was like “Yo, nice to talk with ya. What’s your name?” He said “Shaun Palmer.” Classic.

Photo:
The ESPN head honchos weren’t too psyched when I did my run in my own version of a “skinsuit.” At least they didn’t kick me out this time!

At night, there was a Pro race & jump contest. I got 3rd in the race & won $242. Stoked! I entered the jump contest & I jumped good, but didn’t qualify. Ali & a couple of her friends came to the race. She looks a lot better than I remember. (She’s the flight attendant that I met last month flying to the ABA Grands)

At night, I gave Huffy a verbal agreement that I will ride for them next year & they handed me a $1,000 signing bonus check. Cool! After everyone left the arena (at 11:30pm), Randy Stumpfhauser & I did a Huffy photo shoot in Huffy uniform & riding a carbon fiber Huffy bike. I finally got to bed at 1am.

Looking Back Now:
I was still riding for Haro at this race. So it’s kind of funny that I did a “sneaky photoshoot” with Huffy late in the night after everyone left the arena. When I was riding for Haro, I never thought I would leave them & ride for anyone else. But Haro didn’t offer me any salary raise going into my 4th year of riding for them. And Huffy came at me with $1,000 more per month, plus a signing bonus, and higher bonuses for magazine photos & top finishes. So it was kind of a “no brainer” to ride for Huffy.

Believe you me, a lot of people made fun of me for riding for Huffy. Everyone thought that they would pull out of BMX in two years. But I ended up riding for them for 5 years, so it was a good decision.

A funny story about the girl, Ali: I met her on the plane on the way to the ABA Grands the month earlier. She was a flight attendant. In all of the 100′s and 100′s of thousands of miles I’ve flown, she’s the only flight attendant that I’ve ever met up with later. I guess I’m too busy sleeping on most flights.

So the next day at the race, I crashed my brains out when the front end of my bike snapped off when I jumped these triples. This was my final race on Haro. Here’s what I wrote in my journal entry the next day:

Actual Journal Entry from December 29, 1996:
AA Pro motos: 2nd- 5th- 7th -I was winning my 3rd moto & cased the big triples down the 2nd straight & the front end of my bike snapped off. I face planted & was knocked out cold. I got carried off on a stretcher, but I don’t remember it. My crash scared a lot of people. They thought I was really, really hurt. It was probably one of the worst crashes that I’ve ever had.

Photo:
Wouldn’t ya know it? I think the “Haro Gods” were getting back at me for quitting the team.

Looking Back Now:
I completely remember this phone call. I was like “Wow! Mat Hoffman just called & asked me to ride for him. Cool!” But at the time, Haro was paying me quite nicely. And if I recall, the whole Hoffman sponsorship deal was contingent on Reeboks sponsoring the team with their action sports shoe brand called “Boks.” Anybody remember Boks? I think they came & went pretty quick. The big money Boks team deal never happened, but Hoffman still sponsored some BMX racers anyway . Chris Breen & Lawan Cunningham were the two dudes who raced for Hoffman for a couple of years. But Hoffman’s whole BMX race sponsorhip program only lasted a couple of years.

That’s funny that I was talking about the high postin’ Southern California girls over 12 years ago. Shoot, ain’t a damn thing changed since 1996!
Photo
This pic was taken of Mirra & I over in Cologne, Germany in 1996 at the Freestyle World Championsips. Somehow I wonthe dirt jump contest that year with an x-up flip being the raddest trick I threw down. My how things have changed over the last 12 years!

Looking Back Now:
Back in the mid 90′s, you could always find Losey at just about any So Cal BMX track doing photoshoots for BMX Plus magazine or for various companies. Remember, this was the mid 90′s when sponsors were pouring in from every direction. He was probably doing a photoshoot with Neal for Pro Forks or Powerbar or Arnette or Tioga or any other company that was padding up pro racers wallets at the time.John Paul & McGoo used to rent a house with some other guys in Huntington Beach. It was known to be the party spot from time to time. This night was classic as they hired a midget as the night’s entertainment. Nice! Who needs strippers when you can have a midget? I snuck out of there right when the cops came. I can’t remember why the midget got arrested. I think it had something to do with being “S.I.P.” (Short In Public)

Photo
That’s Keith Trainor showing the midget some love out back on the trampoline. Keith really wanted to take the midget home with him. So I’m sure he was bummed that the midget left in a cop car.

We got some beer & went to some Nike party & ate & picked up free stuff that they gave to all of us “athletes.” Then we went back to the dorms & hung out with all the other dirt jumpers & some local girls that we met earlier. Later at night, the downhill Rollerblade team manager lady bitches started coming up to our floor & yelling at us to be quiet every 5 minutes. So when we were all leaving, we were going down the stairs & I was yelling “Rollerblade Faggots” super loud. Security started chasing me & the team manager lady tried to grab me while I was running from them. I ran right through her & then the security guard tackled me & next thing I know, the cop are there & she’s talking about pressing assault charges against me. The security guard’s head was bleeding & stuff.

The ESPN big wigs were called & woken up out of bed at midnight. They came in and they kicked me out of the X-Games. Shit! Then the Hoffman crew had to come & pick me up because they kicked me out of the dorms as well. So I had to stay at their hotel back in Newport. The ESPN people want me to get on a plane tomorrow. But I’m gonna stay. Man, I really messed up! I can’t believe it. While I was waiting for the Hoffman crew, I met this girl named Lacy & hooked up with her a bit behind this big curtain in the room that they were holding me in.

Looking Back Now:
For some reason, getting “kicked out of the X-Games” has been one of my biggest claims to fame. Shoot, it was even printed on the back of one of my JNCO trading cards. “First athlete to ever get kicked out of ESPN X-Games.” Man, that shit is funny.

The whole night was just a bunch of us BMXers being BMXers. It wasn’t our fault that they put the downhill rollerblade girls on the floor beneath us. The ESPN scheduling department should have known to keep the rollerblade girls far from the BMX dirt jumpers.

A lot of other funny stuff happened at this 2nd ever X-Games after this night. One is that ESPN wanted to kick me out of town. They told me that they wanted me to leave town & if they saw me again, they would have me arrested. Yeah right. What the heck was this? The wild, wild West? But they did take all of my credentials & they said that if they found me at the X-Games or in any of the dorms (where they put up all of the athletes) then they would have me arrested for trespassing. So for the rest of the week, I was always in some sort of disguise & sneaking around using other people’s credentials. I had no place to stay, so for the next week I stayed in Robo Morales’s truck & some local girls’ houses who I had met there. I felt like a freakin’ vagabond.

The whole story is kind of funny now. But it wasn’t so funny when it happened. It was only the 2nd year of the X-Games. And the year before, I placed 5th. At these contests back in the day, it was almost a given that they would air a bunch of my runs on TV. So when I told my sponsor (Haro), they fined me $500. And it sucked as well to call my parents & tell them that I wouldn’t be in the contest or on TV.

Like I said, it sucked then, but it’s a pretty funny story now. “First person to ever get kicked out of the X-Games.” Nobody else can claim that!

Photo:
If you remember anything from the mid 90′s, you probably remember The Macho Man all over TV “Snapping a Slim Jim! The Macho Man meets the Wildman. While Mirra dies laughing in the background!

Looking Back Now:
I remember this being a really, really fun day. I had done other commercials in the past were I was œjust one of the other riders in the shoot. But for this commercial, it was just me being filmed for the entire commercial. I was treated a bit more like the œstar of the show. And the riding was so incredibly fun. I couldn’t believe that I was getting paid to have fun bombing down the mountain in the snow & jumping these big snow doubles on my mountain bike.

The funniest part of the filming was the crashes that I would have way down the hill after I had already passed the cameras. The rollers that they had made went on forever way down the hill. So after I would do a jump in front of the cameras, then I had zillion huge rollers to navigate while I was trying to stop. And this usually ended in carnage. Luckily, they had a snow mobile waiting for me at the bottom every time for my ride back up.

This commercial ended up being a 30 second commercial with only me in it & I even had a speaking part. The commercial went straight to Europe though & never aired in the USA. Later that summer I spent some time in England & I saw the commercial on TV. So that was cool to actually see myself on a commercial while walking by the TV. They paid me a one-time œBuy Out fee of over $6,000 because it was to never air in the USA. So I never got residual payments each time it aired. The day of filming was a blast & I got paid a bunch of money. How cool was that?

A funny thing to note is that on the next day (a Saturday), I flew out of Reno at 7am, got to LAX at 8:30am & drove an hour & a half up to Bakersfield, CA for an ABA National race. I got there at 10:45am & just caught the end of practice & then raced at 11am. Man, I just couldn’t ride enough back in these days!

Photo:
You should’ve have seen my trying to stop after each of these jumps. I was basically a rag doll tumbling down the mountain. And yeah, yeah, I know I’m doing a stiff “turn bar.” But the conditions were a bit snowy, ya know.

Looking Back Now:
Yeah! Spring Break freestyle contest in South Padre Island! Any freestyle contest at a spring break location right on the beach was always a guaranteed good time. How about the name of the contest? “Destination Extreme” Man, that sounds so cheesy. I remember seeing Tony Hawk skate at this contest. I thought he was only an old school 80′s skater. But after a few years of winning the X-Games, he quickly became one of the action sports richest dudes.

Dave Mirra & I were both sponsored by Haro in the mid 90′s. I’m not quite sure why we didn’t have a room reserved this night. I guess the Haro budget was a little slim. But it’s kind of funny that we actually slept in our rental car. It’s safe to say that I haven’t slept in the trunk of a car since then and I can only assume that Mirra hasn’t slept in the back seat in quite a while. We did have a hotel for the rest of out trip. I think Mirra went on to win the contest. And I went on to crash a whole bunch in my runs & didn’t qualify to the finals. But I did score a photo on the cover of BMX Plus doing a handplant over a handrail. That’s right. A handplant back in the mid 90′s. I pulled my first one back in 1991.

Photo
Ramp to ramp flair transfer? If you would’ve seen all the bikini clad girls in the stands, you would’ve done some wild stuff too!

Looking Back Now:
Ahhh, the good ol’ days of shooting commercials & making easy money! I used to be a member of S.A.G (Screen Actors Guild) back in the day. I was only ever in a handful of commercials, but they were always easy money. They were always long days, but easy money.

This commercial shoot wasn’t all too exciting. First of all, I was riding a mountain bike all day. And second, the only thing we did all day was riding through staged traffic. I can’t remember the exact pay scale to be in a commercial, but it was something like this: $650 for the 8hr day, $175/hr for overtime, and $250 for other weird “union” pay. They probably paid me $150 for having to drive to LA for the shoot, $100 for using my own bike, and $50 for using my own clothes. Yeah, just like I said: Easy money.

Just my luck though, my face was not visible once the actual commercial aired. So I didn’t get to sit back, relax, & count the money when the residual checks came in. I remember Brian Lopes telling me that he made over $30,000 on a Mtn Dew commercial he was in. Oh wells, $1,300 for the day still wasn’t too bad.

Photo
See all those people, cars & stuff in the background behind me? It was all part of the commercial shoot. The day consisted of probably 30 people from the production crew, 50 “extras”, 20 cars, caterers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and 4 of us riding. And 10 hours of filming. All of this equaled to a clip in the commercial that was about 4 seconds long. Once it was all edited & aired on TV the only thing you could see of me was my shoulder as I was riding next to one of the other guys. Damn. I’m always getting edited out of stuff. Just like the “Rob & Big” show that aired the other night.

Looking Back Now
This goes down as one of those nights that I will NEVER forget. Home invasion robbery? That’s the stuff you typically see on the news. But this time it was happening to me with guns pointing at me and all. Now before you ask, I am not telling you who XXXX and XXXX are. So don’t ask. They were Brian & I’s roommates at the time

XXXX and XXXX were basically just selling weed to their friends. But one of their friends told the wrong friend who told their wrong friends with guns. And just like that. The next thing you know, I’m working on my bike in the garage & all of the sudden I’ve got 4 guns pointing at my head! My whole world/life closed in the minute that they rolled in with guns and shut the garage door behind them. I was like, “Uh oh.” At first I thought they came to steal my bike. I was SO pissed! I had got my bike stolen a week earlier and I was building up a new one that I had just picked up at Haro earlier that day.

They were real quick to tape me all up in the garage and run into the house and shut all the blinds, lock the doors, rip the phones out of the walls, etc. They rummaged through everything looking for any $ and weed. We were quite fortunate that nobody was hurt or killed for that matter. Well, Brian got whacked in the head with a gun. But at least nobody got shot. But man, they stole my sunglasses! Ha ha….

This photo has nothing to do with the night of the robbery. But man, the end result could have been WAY worse than this. Good thing we didn’t end up as a nightly new story.

Looking Back Now
Did you know that the X-Games were originally called the “Extreme Games?” This was the first one that they ever had. None of us knew what to expect. I remember that some guys got invited (like Brian Foster and Matt Pohlkamp) and they didn’t even show up! The dirt contest was on a Tuesday night, so I flew in on Sunday night after a race in Waterford. MI & then flew out on Thursday to another race in Evansville, IN.

What was so cool about the first couple of “Extreme Games” is that ESPN put ALL of the athletes in the local dorms. So we would all get together every night and go out and cause trouble. They would typically have parties for us in the local clubs as well. Keep in mind that first place was $5,000, not $50,000 like nowadays. And it wasn’t so much of a TV spectacle as it is now. So everything was more relaxed & there weren’t security guards everywhere at the contest and it was even free for people to come in and watch.

Ahh, nothing like “a dope girl in the stands” wanting to meet me! Too bad I had to leave the next day for a race in Evansville. Kennan Harkin was quick to inform me later that he swooped in on her the next night. Oh wells, that’s the life of a BMXer.

Check out an excerpt from my journal entry from the night before:
Then all of us went out to some club. I got kicked out for stealing beer from behind the bar. But I snuck back in. Later, Dave Mirra got in a fight with a bouncer and I jumped in & got carried out with everyone else. Then when we were out in front of the club, we started acting silly. We were doing some “Extreme” pissing on the club entrance. As we were leaving, the cops just pulled up. But we were out of there. Good timing.”

Man, how much trouble did we cause back in the day!? It’s safe to say that nowadays you won’t see Dave Mirra fighting bouncers at the X-Games parties. And you won’t see me pissing on the front door of nightclubs. Man, I can’t believe none of us ever got arrested! Dave and I were teammates on haro at the time. Oh, and I ALWAYS used to try to steal beer from bars back in the day.

One thing to note at this first “Extreme Games” is that there was no BMX street contest. Only skate street & Rollerblade street. I’m not quite sure how that happened.

Photo
Check out the one jump madness! Yeah, that’s right. Pedal down the roll-in and sprint across the field and blast that ONE jump! That’s how it all began at the first ever Extreme Games.