The state of BMX bunnyhops, summer 2023. All three of these are bunnyhops, and they just won BMX Best Trick in Street at the X-Games. Think about that.
It was the fall of 1981, and I was riding the school bus from my house out in the Centennial subdivision, to Boise High School, in downtown Boise. I was leaning against the window, on the right side of the bus, on a rainy fall day. We passed over the Boise River, next to Boise State University, which even us locals didn't take seriously then. The joke for seniors was, "Are you going to college?" "No, I'm going to Boise State." Where BS comes before U. The now famous blue football field was regular green grass then, and that was where our high school team played their games. We only had a practice field by the school.
As the bus crossed the next intersection, by the Morrison-Knudsen main offices, there was a big mud puddle in front of the high curb. The puddle was about three feet across. A young guy on a BMX bike, probably headed towards the junior high, raced along side the school bus below me. He effortlessly pulled the bike up into the air, sailed over the three foot puddle, and landed perfectly smooth on the high curb. The little move blew my fucking mind. That's the first bunnyhop I ever remember seeing in real life. That was a year and a half before my family moved out to the trailer park where I got into BMX. I don't know who the rider was, but seeing that perfectly smooth bunnyhop out the school bus window in 1981, blew my mind then as much as the tricks in the video above blow my mind now.
Several months later, I entered a bike-a-thon to raise money for some cause. I had a tan ten speed that I planned to ride at a 5 minute per mile pace for the full 18 miles. I did just that. About 12 miles into that bike-a-thon, a kid on a BMX bike passed me. We were out in a rural part of town, near Barber park. Ahead of us, there was a cardboard box sitting in the road. Just and empty box, about a foot square. The BMX guy was ahead of me, coasting along, dropcrank. He saw the box, and began pedaling. He effortlessly bunnyhopped the box. Again, that blew my mind. I didn't know any BMX riders then. It was a couple of months before I moved out to the trailer park where I got into BMX (sitting at about 43 degrees, of lattitude, just sayin'). That's the second bunnyhop I remember seeing in my life. The unknown BMX rider pedaled on ahead of me, leaving me to my slow steady pace.
Bunnyhops are what first attracted me to BMX, before I even got into it. I learned them myself, about a year later.
In the last few years, as my hundreds of blog posts have added up, a handful of people have told me, "I started reading one of your posts last night, and got sucked down the rabbit hole." There's this idea I've had for several years now, since I have a bunch of blogs. Now I'm finally doing it. Are you up for a trip down the Rabbit Hole? If so, click the link below. Bon voyage.
When you follow the link, there will be another link at the bottom of that post, to continue on down the rabbit hole. Enjoy.
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