A Funny Thing Happened On Break One Day...

Here's a montage of photos of Ron Wilkerson, pro freestyler, trick team owner, contest promoter, bike company owner, all around amazing dude.

It was a sunny fall day in a parking lot next to a medium sized industrial building in Torrance, California.  The year was 1986.  I was standing outside the small door with three of my co-workers, Andy Jenkins, Mark "Lew" Lewman, and Craig "Gork" Barrette.  I can't remember what we were talking about.  I was probably snacking on a Coke and a blueberry muffin off the lunch truck.  The four of us were the editorial staff of BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines.

We heard a motorcycle coming up the street, then saw it turn into the parking lot and roll right up to us.  At the helm of road bike was Haro pro freestyler Ron Wilkerson.  That was our first surprise, because he lived in Leucadia, about an hour and a half south.  That's a long ride on Southern California's crazy freeways.  Even crazier, there was what appeared to be a blond, 13-year-old kid on the back of the motorcycle.  We looked at each other in amazement, first wondering what Ron was doing giving a ride to a junior high kid, and then wondering what kind of crazy fool would sit on the back of a motorcycle with Ron in control.  Ron was well known for being pretty crazy, on and off his bike.

He turned off the motorcycle and said, "Hey guys."  Then he pointed to the kid on the back, "This is Spike... Spike Jonze.  He jumped in the van and went on tour with us."  That was the first time the four of us met Spike, who was actually 17 at the time, but looked younger.  The name immediately rang a bell with Lew.  We went inside and Lew led us into the conference room where a bunch of photos were laid out.  FREESTYLIN' had a reader photo contest that we had just judged.  Spike sent in a black and white, 8" X 10" someone had taken of him.  He was doing an air, about four feet out, on a backyard ramp on his bike.  Spike had taken markers and hand-colored the photo, giving it a totally unique look.  He had won a prize for most original or something.  Spike was a BMXer/skater kid from the Rockville, Maryland area, the East Coast hot spot for BMX freestyle then.  We talked for a bit, then got back to work as Ron and Spike headed back South.

If you're not familiar with the name Spike Jonze, let me tell you about a few of the things he's done since.  After I got laid off from the magazines a couple months later, Spike was ultimately hired to fill the spot.  I didn't really click with those guys well, but Spike fit right in.  He became a well known photographer for the magazines.  Andy, Lew, Spike, and another later hire there, Jeff Tremaine, started a boy's lifestyle magazine after the BMX magazines shut down.  Spike went on to produce and direct some low-budget videos for World Skateboards.  Before long, he began directing music videos, including the Beastie Boys "Sabotage" video and Weezer's "Buddy Holly," which he won an MTV award for.  He co-founded the skateboard company Girl.  He went on to direct the feature films, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation.  Yeah, somehow he directed Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep in his second feature film.

Then the World Industries crew was making these crazy home videos of goofy and dangerous stunts.  Spike and Jeff Tremaine morphed those into the Jackass TV series and then the Jackass movie series.  Spike was executive director, and appeared in the movies.  Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, the Jackass movies were huge.  What most people don't realize is that the main three Jackass movies are three of the most profitable movies in the history of film making.  If you look on mentalfloss.com at the list of the 20 most profitable movies of all time, you won't see Jackass.  But you should. With a return on investment of roughly 1280%, it should be #14 on the list, after Beauty and the Beast and before The King's Speech.  Really.  It's a well kept secret in Hollywood that the vast majority of movies actually lose money.  That's why they always tell the "box office gross" of each movie, but never whether it was actually profitable or not.  The three main Jackass movies together cost about $36.5 million to make, and then grossed $254, 270, 880.  Oh... and they were three of the funniest movies of all time.

Making those three crazy movies could easily brand a director for life as not being a legit drama director.  But Spike went on to direct the adaptation of the classic children's book, Where The Wild Things Are and later Her, which was nominated for four Academy Awards.  Spike won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Her, as well.

When average people think of a sport like BMX freestyle, or "bike stunts" as it's known today, they don't think of those crazy riders as being particularly creative.  But much like some other action sports, BMX freestyle and skateboarding require loads of creativity as well as physical skills.  Spike never seemed that much more creative that the rest of the guys in those sports, what seemed to set him apart was that he had the personality, and the balls to simply act on his ideas.  Most people have the ideas and let them drift away.

Now let's go back to that day in the magazine parking lot in 1986.  That little publishing company, Wizard Publications, was a small, but highly creative scene.  The owner, Bob Osborn was a fireman when he started the first magazine.  Seriously, a fireman.  His son, R.L. got into BMX in the 70's, and Bob, or "Oz" as we all knew him, started shooting photos of the races.  Then his daughter Windy started shooting photos as well.  Both were, and still are, great photographers.  What brought the five of us together in the parking lot that day was BMX bike riding.  Andy was an BMX racer, art student, and skateboarder in Wyoming.  He won a bike in a contest in BMX Action, and wrote a cool thank you note to Oz.  Oz liked that little note so much, that he called Andy up to be the editor when he started FREESTYLIN' magazine.

Gork made a name for himself with the Gork Trick Team in Sacramento, featuring the one-of-a-kind-rider John "Dizz" Hicks.  Gork drifted back to BMX racing, and answered the call when a new editor was needed at BMX Action.  Lew took some stationary someone had given him as a gift, and started writing to Andy at FREESTYLIN', talking about underground bands, freestyle, and skateboarding.  He was the obvious pick when Andy needed an assistant editor.

Ron Wilkerson started freestyling while living in San Francisco, then moved to Southern California when he got sponsored by Haro Bikes, named for Bob Haro, who invented the whole sport.

As for me, I started BMX racing and then freestyling while in high school in Boise, Idaho.  A year after graduating, my family moved to San Jose, California.  I started a Xerox zine about BMX freestyle, as a way to meet the great riders in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I became part of the Golden Gate Park scene, best known for pros like Dave Vanderspek, Maurice Meyer, Robert Peterson, and Hugo Gonzales.  My zine was ranked top in the U.S. by FREESTYLIN' in early '86.  When a job as editorial assistant opened up, I got the call.

We'd all been plucked from obscurity because of our interest in BMX and freestyle, and the freestyle scenes we became a part of.  Again, getting involved in a weird, but highly creative little sport brought us all together on that fateful day in Torrance, and led us all to many amazing adventures since.  Though not as amazing as Spike's adventures.  He very well might be an alien.


Here's a short, but great,  interview with the guy I met on break that day in 1986...

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