1989-1991
- Riders were rejecting the corporate leathers look that was presented in the movie Rad
and freestyle began to enter its low point. It was simply too expensive to continuously go
out and buy new bikes parts once a week. Bikes still wouldn't last more than a year and
pegs and axles still wouldn't stand up to regular treatment, let alone the new abuse that
was being dished out by the increasingly popular street scene. The AFA became a WAS
instead of an IS as it held its last national series of contests.
I had the chance to go to the last AFA Masters competition ever. The AFA had eliminated
ramp riding in the competitions and Ron Wilkerson was holding the 2-Hip King of Vert (KOV)
contests to give vert riders a place to compete. Ron also held some of the first STREET
contests. It was a very disappointing contest, that last Masters event. Maybe 50 riders
total turned out and the weather was cool... the riding was at an all time high, but the
sport itself was at an all time low. If things didn't change soon freestyle wasn't going
to survive. Skate and bike parks didn't exist, competitions were having low turn out and
most of the magazines had gone out of business or were incredibly thin. The coverage
within was limited to the national events and there were no signs of improvement coming
any time soon.
- If you were to pick a LOW year for freestyle this was it. The NBL tried to pick up where
the AFA left off and began to hold freestyle events. Wheels for Wishes- Held in Virginia
will probably be remembered as the highlight of the NBL's attempt at freestyle. Wheel's
for Wishes had a (relatively) HUGE pro purse and was one of the first events to have a big
half-pipe contest in conjunction with a big flatland event. Poor planning meant that the
ramp wasn't done being built until about 5:00PM the day of the contest. The contest didn't
end until about 1:00AM. It had decent rider turnout and a very high level of riding, but
was nothing compared to what used to be the norm for freestyle. It was the best the NBL
would produce. For a couple of years the NBL held flatland only events at various
locations, usually on the East Coast or thereabouts. They always had a very small pro
purse and never had enough of a following to build into something worthwhile.
- Maybe or maybe not- '91 was as bad as '90. Contests didn't exist... riders were far and
few in-between. The NBL held it's last year of freestyle flatland contests. The magazines
were about 20 or 30 pages thick. This was the death of freestyle... Except... there was a
guy named Bill who had an idea on how to make bikes a little better... There was also a
world famous bike rider that was about to pick up where the NBL left off.
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