I grew up in Thief River Falls during the 80's. Not much of scene I know but we didn't care. It was all about the ridin.
20yrs later....It's fun to go back and look at pictures remember glory days. Then a friend turned me on to this site and holy crap the memories came back. Well alot of em anyway.
I see posts from Springer and Ditchweed talkin bout events and people that I remember. Makes me wonder do I know some of you guys?? So can I ask some help fillin in the blanks???
Where are they now ???

Grand Forks spring of 88. Red River TV sponsored a contest. I met a lot of good riders from the northland. Rod Steiger from Shelly Mn. Crazy enough to try anything. Nice guy, had a halfpipe in front of the barn on his farm.
Bob LaFavor from Fargo. He hooked me up with a subscription to a small publication called The 'Zine. I spent a week at a cousins in Pine Island and got to hang out with the guys that put it out and ride ramps at thier place. Way cool people. Who were they?? Anyone remember them. Ditchweed I'm countin on you to help a bit. From one of your posts you talked about Kurt Schmidt and MFS comps. That was the week of MFS Round VI. At least thats whats on my trophy. I got to see Kurt Schmidt absolutely shred. I think I've got some pics of him from that comp around here somewhere.
Anyone remeber those guys, are they still around. Are any of you on here??

It's really cool that I'm not the only one that enjoys lookin back to when life was all about who could bust the biggest air or pull the latest trick. This site Rocks!!!

Brent

Pine Island.... I used to hang there a bit too. I'm from Waseca, but I went to Rochester to ride, and the guys from Rochester went there sometimes.. Pat Wirz was the guy that put out The Zine ( I still have every copy )
I even stayed at Pat's apartment about 3 years ago, in Hollywood for the Joe Kid preimer.. He's still a cool guy, but has seemed to disappeared in the last few years.

Brent,
Welcome to the site!

Kurt Schmidt posts on VBMX as Krt from time to time, and the O.G. Rochester crew from back in the day ( Gregg STRIKE, Chris " Sac" Grande, Pat "ZINE" Wirz )has even been on here a few times....but if you really want to find all the Old school MN bmx'ers and Freestylers, come to this thing next weekend -

Minnesota Faction WINTER BLAST II- CLICK HERE!!!

Hey KOP. If you have every copy of "The Zine" can you check and see if there's one with a guy in a Haro uniform on a black Master doing a Whirlwind (spastic no-handed backyard) on the cover. If so that was me from a comp in St. Paul. I think it was "The Zine" that had that, but I'm not sure. I'd LOVE to get a copy of that somehow.

Hey thanks .... The Mn Faction Winter Blast would be... well, a blast. Unfortunatly I am unable to go. My band is playin in the Alexandria area all weekend. And yes, it's alot of 80's rock--go figure. I missed the Condo Classic this year also for the same reason.

I camped next to the show at rockford last year. That was a cool walk thru time. Part of me wishes I still had some of my old stuff in new condition. But then again puting it to use was why loved it so much. I still have my old ride ( at least for another day or so)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...E:IT&ih=018
It killing me to let it go, but my son is in to racing the way I was into freestyle and he wants to go to Kearney, so heres his golden ticket. But, it would also be great to see it again as a restoration...

If you can make/find any coppies of "the Zine" I would love to see one again.
I'll definately check out the MN Faction, I've got to find out if there are any plates/Jerseys left.

B

There is actually a website that has every issue of the zine on it.. Every page.. it's pretty stoke. But I know Strike knows the website.. if he'll chime in....

The Zine - Every issue.

Thanks to Pat Wirz for scanning and hosting them.

Pat Wirz & Nick Wirz are really cool. Pat was on our freestyle team, I'll post a few pics of him below. I think I have some pics of Nick somewhere, I just don't know where they are lol.


Pat Wirz on the right, me on the left and the saC (Chris Grande) in the middle.
Photo by KoP


Pat in his garage.
Photo by strike


Pat on The Zine ramps.
Photo by strike


Pat snow jumping over my car.
Photo by strike


Pat in Columbus (when the AFA was there)
Photo by strike


Our freestyle team, Pat is wearing the funky shorts on the right.
Photo uncredited

Oh man, and to answer "where are they now", the last I knew, Pat was living in Hollywood and Nick was somewhere in Nor. Cal, San Francisco I believe.

Also, Ted Meyer was involved in The 'Zine. Pat told me where he was and what he was doing, but I can't recall right off hand.

Thanks STRIKE. That is an awesome site. The link for "leave a message" doesn't work. Anyone know how to get ahold of him to try to get a copy of one of the issues?

I have a few pictures from the one contest I was at and there is one with a whole bunch of people in a big group shot. I'll have to check again, but I think Pat is in there too.

I'm almost positive he isn't making copies anymore, although if you want to make your own (clicking on the pages makes them fairly large) I'm sure it would be possible. I have his email address but he doesn't seem to be responding to it, so it might be out of date.

Thanks Strike!! Photos were awesome. The picture of Pat jumping your car was taken at his place. Must have been the winter before I was down there. They was an 8' Qtr to the right of the small one with a canyon in between.

They coolest thing about the guys down there was, if you rode, you were good enough to hang with! Didn't matter if you've known eachother for years, or just met. Kinda seems like it's still that way on here!
They introduced me to quite a few guys at thier house and at the MFA comp in St Paul. Quite possibly you, KoP or Sac. Hard to believe it's been 20yrs.

The site with Zine archives was great. Again thanks!! Cool to see those again. If you look on the front of my stem on the Ebay pics, there is a green "The Zine" sticker still intact on it.

I'll try and get some pics on, if I can find them, from back then.

B

Yeah, baby!!! The 'Zine. I like issue #13. That KOP is one sexy beast. Remember the 'zine "Motivate"? I think Chad Muller put that one out. Some pretty cool Minnesota stuff in there. Hey Ditch, how's that new baby doing?

STINES!

Hey man! Nice to see ya round these parts again. The new baby is doing great!

You making it to the Winter Blast II on Saturday? Bring King Of Pizza with you!

The ZINE ruled....I even made into 1 issue...I was so stoked about that BITD.

Undone, where is your band playing in Alex.? I'm gonna be up there this week checking out a barn full of bikes in Garfield.

You're welcome guys, glad I could help out. Stines, that shot of KoP will go down in history, it seems like it was yesterday.

"Undone, where is your band playing in Alex.? I'm gonna be up there this week checking out a barn full of bikes in Garfield."


Were at Trophy's in Nelson. on Fri. Between Alex and Osakis on 27
Sat were up in Urbank its about 15+ miles north of Garfield
And Sunday, Bug-A-Boo Bay in Alex.
here's a link or two
www.nastyhabit.net
www.myspace.com/nastyhabit

Is that the lot of "pre-war, it will fill up your truck" stuff that was on C-list? Could be some gems!
If you make it out one night, there'll be a cold one waiting...

B

That picture of me.. Remember how hot it was that day? I remember alot of us stayed over, and there was a Haro show that day. But these trails by the house had to be rode... That is just a big flyout i'm doing, landing on flat of course. That bike I had was such junk. I always rode junk. Two different colored mags, old Haro frame. But it worked.. Yeah, 20 years.

That picture of me.. Remember how hot it was that day? I remember alot of us stayed over, and there was a Haro show that day. But these trails by the house had to be rode... That is just a big flyout i'm doing, landing on flat of course. That bike I had was such junk. I always rode junk. Two different colored mags, old Haro frame. But it worked.. Yeah, 20 years.

Yeah, I think it got up to 99f that day iirc, we stayed at John Mulhouse's place, man those were the days. Road trips, crashing in people's basements, riding all day and night.

yeah, that's for sure. That's what we were all about, and he a great time doing it... Where did life go wrong? I think girls ruin everything.. LOL

Yeah, that message board was just filled with dumb bot spam, it never really worked to begin with. I just sent out a couple of emails to addresses I have for Pat, we'll see if anything comes of it.

When we went out to Hollywood to visit, he seemed like the same Pat, we always knew.. Seems weird he's just disappear...

Nah, he's probably just got some girl stuff going on or job related things etc. We'll see if I get any replies from him...I'm listening to Fugazi for good luck.

If nothing else I'll try to call him if I can find his number.

That pic of the KOP is rad...
Me and Ditch hung out in the ROC last Friday night, I swear it's like hanging with one of my high school bros!
All those pics are so rad, summers 87 and 88 rocked when it came to freestyle/skating/ramps. Having a car changed the way I looked at things, the launch ramp in the trunk and hit the road. Lake jumping, riding at the school... good times!

I talked to Pat this morning, he's just living life out in LA, so all is well. He said he's been scanning some old school pics he has and will hopefully post them soon.

I'll be posting more MFS contest footage at my site over the next couple of months!

http://krtschmidt.com/blog

Those were the good times for sure!

Strike, the pics brought back good memories! That pic of the Team at Beltline Schwinn blew me away! I don't think I have ever seen that one! I think that was our first show we ever did, cuz I remember we had blue TFT team shirts made for the other shows we did at Beltline!

I know I have some more pics I can post up too. I'll see if I can dig them out.

The Zine rocked.

MFS contests rocked.

Haro shows set the standard and revitalized all of our appetites to progress our riding! Unreal!

saC

Any body know where and what Scott Puhl (Tim Kwade's cousin??), or Alden Frostad ( on the cover of Issue 7 The Zine) are or what they are doing know???

Here's a group shot from the Jan 88 contest.

From left to right in front row is:

Bob Lehn, Chris Romeo, Rick Moliterno, me (with goofy hat and covering injured mouth). The others I know for sure in the shot are Tremir something-or-other, Pete Bushman (what a great dude), Chris Nies, Bart ????. Who knows? Some of you guys, or people you know might be the others in the picture.

NOW, who is behind me? Is that Pat? Was never sure who that was. Looks like the other pics posted of Pat.



And here's my "Zine" claim to fame from that contest.

Yeah Tremir Johnson from Cedar Rapids, IA is in there and I think that's Scott Puhl (Ugly FIsh) with the dark hair behind you.
Matt Wilson could do the best Whirlwinds ever!!!!
True That!!!
Did you ever come down to Moline and ride in a pavilion in some park. (Had to move the tables out of the way)?

All the time. Matt Wilson...dat be me. Thanks for the compliment.

Who are you?

The pavilion, right behind channel 6 (or 8 or whatever) news station was the place to ride for awhile there in bad weather. Went there tons.

My name is Guy Horsey.
I rode in Moline alot, but mostly at those tennis courts.
Have you ever been to the Rockford event, are you going this year?

I remember riding with you Guy. Those tennis courts (the ones down that long hill are the ones I think youi're talking about) were the main riding spot. For 3 yrs or so, the quad cities was the weekly destination for me and Bob Lehn. Rode with Romeo, Bushman, and Moliterno all the time.

Never been to the Rockford event. Contemplating it this year...again, but not sure.

Thanks for helping with those names. Do you know Bart's last name?

Heh, I was at that MFS contest when all you Iowa dudes showed up, what a bunch of great riders! Like Guy said, that's Scott Puhl with the dark hair behind you in the photo. IIRC Scott showed up at one of our Minnesota Faction gatherings, but I didn't get much of an opportunity to talk with him.

I recall Guy being at one of those contests and people whispering "that's Guy Horsey, he's sponsored by Hutch...he's really good", and you were!

I'm not sure what Alden Frostad is up to, but it sure looks like he's a real estate agent for REMAX. It looks like him but I'm not positive.