You often hear about how the early Road Fools and Baco videos were pivotal for older riders. About Road Fools shaped their own riding, stylings, and general outlook on our culture. That so and so grew dreads to be like Joe Rich or listened to This Bike is a Pipe Bomb because of Props. In this perspective people like Stew Johnson become a sort of cultural figure to us. Someone who set the standard of ideology and tastes to countless young kids looking to make a certain style their own. Testimony from all the pros who live and breath that era of time in BMX is proof of that statement. How many of those pros do you think have transitioned into camo jogger and Earl Sweatshirt?
I was a bit too young for that era. It kind of already passed by the time I got into riding. Hip hop had a small following cause of the Animal videos but by then BMX was becoming a lot bigger. Not quite the size it is today with the internet and all but big enough where it wasn’t just a few videos from Props coming out. Even though I took in a lot of the Prop’s feel, like I listen to Jawbreaker. To me personally Shook was what really made an imprint to my young impressionable BMX psyche.
The early Shook series by Chad Shackleford were masterpieces. I’ve always been art kid growing up and for me personally the creative direction that Chad took with Shook was what I needed to really tie those two passions together. Before Chad I don’t anyone really even attempted to push an artistical direction into BMX videos. A lot of them were just following the formula that Props set before them. Clean cut editing and filming with little frills. A real documentarian approach that showed BMX in the way Stew envisioned it I imagine. And everyone was doing just that or more or less the same as far as I’m concerned! Chad had frills, he had a lot of them and it definitely showed in the end product. His filming was superb, his editing was even better. It was something different that I think a lot of people really enjoyed at the end of the day. The titles, motions graphics, little themes and what not all played into a video you were really excited to see cause you know you’ve never seen anything like it before or after. Each Shook was very unique from the one before and it was something that I think gave strength to the series.
This Justin Simpson section was one of my favorites. I talk about how riders represent a certain era and I think young Justin Simpson does that. Hard rock. Bandannas. Chenga. Van Homan like riding. This guy grew up in the generation before and it really shows. The riding is best described as classic. Plus the ender was such a gnarly setup.
Justin Simpson
Nobody Rides For Free by Ratt
Shook - Ruff Draft (2005)
Edited by Chad Shackleford