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Wildman BMX History Lesson:
My Uncle Jim took me to the track for the first time in 1981 when I was 9 years old. By the mid-eighties my parents were taking me all over the Midwest to national races. From 1985 to 1990, I was kicking ass and was ranked in the top 3 nationally every year in my age group. The year that put me on the BMX map was 1987 when I won the World Championships as a 15 year old in Orlando, Florida. I backed it up the very next year with another World Title in Santiago, Chile.
In 1990 I graduated high school in Columbus, Ohio and immediately moved out to Southern California. With $1,500 in my pocket, I packed up and headed out West to follow my BMX dreams. When I first got to Cali, I lived in the infamous P.O.W. house with about six other BMXers. Every weekend we’d pile into vehicles and go on road trips to various races and trails. Around that time, organized jump contests were just starting to pop up, but they were usually just a sideshow at the races. In the early 90’s, the BMX industry was at a low point. There were only a handful of riders earning a living from riding. I went a few years earning less than $4,000, but when you’re sharing your house with 6 other guys and eating cans of tuna every day, you learn get by. The first car I bought in Cali was an old retired Postal Jeep for $400. It got me to the trails, but that was about it.
I spent quite a few summers in the early 90’s over in Europe hitting up races and jump contests. I became the European King of Dirt two years in a row and pulled my first 720 at the European Championships in Italy in 1992. In 1994 Haro Bikes sponsored me and offered me a salary of $500 per month. Holy shit! $500 a month just to race and jump my bike? I couldn’t believe it. It felt weird for me to take money for something that I’d be doing regardless. The next 3 years on Haro just got better and better. Co-sponsors came onto the scene and paid me to run their parts, wear their sunglasses, wear their clothes, etc. I was also able to fly to the races and contests instead of driving through the night and camping in the fields. Airfare, rental cars, hotels, food, you name it; it was all paid for. Welcome to Factory Superstar Status!
1995 was the year that BMX dirt jumping really started to boom and get some mainstream coverage. It’s no coincidence that this was also the first year of the ESPN X-Games. Back then it was called the “Extreme Games”. I got 5th at that inaugural contest in Rhode Island and got kicked out the very next year. It was a crazy night where I had a run in with the Rollerblade girl racers. But man, I had a good time… MTV Sports did their first ever segment on BMX & I was one of three rider that they featured. BMX was really starting to blow up. I also won my first ever AA Pro ABA National that year in Reno, NV, right ahead of the legendary Gary Ellis.
In 1997 Huffy gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. The salary was over 5 times the amount I started with Haro just 3 years earlier! It was definitely a gamble though seeing as at that time Huffy was only considered as a K-Mart brand. I definitely took some heat from other riders for riding for such a mainstream company. My five years on Huffy were pretty carefree. It was a super relaxed program where I could travel when and wherever I wanted. I took advantage of the large budget and went to just about every contest and race that I could. They gave me my first signature bike (TL-88) and promoted me to the fullest. One month I had a photo on the cover of USA Today’s sports page and also a photo in the Wall Street Journal. During those years I was also the BMX team manager for JNCO clothes and Arnette sunglasses. I had about five other co-sponsors paying me a monthly salary as well. The money was rolling in from every direction, so I decided to buy a house here in Huntington Beach.
I broke my wrist really bad in Australia at the 1998 World Championships. I had to get 6 frickin’ pins put in and I couldn’t ride for 5 months. After months of therapy, I went to my first race and broke my other hand! Some suckers out there thought my BMX days were over. That fall was the MTV Sport & Music Festival in Memphis, Tennessee. I stayed in a house where they filmed EVRYTHING (Real World style) & they aired the show on MTV. Fights, parties, destruction, naked chicks in the hot tub with me, you name it; it all went down at that MTV house.
But by the end of 1999 I came back and earned the NBL’s A-Pro title. After that year, I really put my efforts back into dirt jumping and hit all of the contests that I could. After a couple of good years on the jump contest scene, the BMX industry started to take a dive. With 9/11, the crappy economy, and the hurting BMX industry, Huffy dropped me at the end of 2001. I started off the first part of 2002 without a bike sponsor and I was paying my own way to the races. Luckily Intruder, a small bike company out of Florida, stepped up in March and paid my expenses to the rest of the year’s races.
In the beginning of 2003 I signed with a new and improved SE Racing. Right after the deal was signed, we went to work on my signature line of “Wildman” bikes. It felt good to have full support once again and have a travel budget that could get me to all of the events of the year. I had my best X-Games placing of my career in the Downhill BMX race where I placed fourth. Later that summer, I got invited to race in Bogota, Colombia for the first time. That was the 17th country that I’ve competed in.
In 2004 I was still runnin’ it full steam ahead. I got on a training program for the first time in my life and I consistently placed in the top three at races across the country. Half way through the year, I was officially hired as the Brand Manager of SE Bikes. It was the first time in my career that I was able to see BMX from the industry’s side. Trips to China & Taiwan, designing products, spec’ing bikes, assembling a team, designing ads, you name it, I was put in charge of everything SE.
I’m fortunate that SE has not only hired me as the Brand Manager, but in 2005 they still sponsor me as a pro rider as well. So in between business trips across the country & the world, I’m still out there rockin’ it on my bike. I may not be as serious as the other guys on the track, but I can guarantee you that I’m probably having more fun. BMX for life…
-Todd
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