Big Lily’s Guide to Asia : Part I
This will be the first in a three (it could be four or five yet, I’m not sure yet) part series just generally about anything asian that I like, and basically expose a variety of asian cultures to the bullmix audience. Don’t worry, it won’t be too weird!
Lee ^_^
As bullmix does serve somewhat as a bmx blog, it only seems right to theme the first part of the series around exactly that. So, let me present to you:
PART ONE - GREAT ASIAN BMX RIDERS
Somewhere along the line asians around the world decided to put down their advanced astrophysics homework, leave the sweatshop, or quit working their job at a sushi restaurant, in order to pursue other things in their free time. 99.99999% of the time these leisurely activities would probably involve something such as playing World of Warcraft, but for a small proportion of the other 0.00001%, it may have involved picking up the bmx bike.
Typically, the words ‘asia’ and ‘bmx’ would only take the average rider’s brain as far as Taiwanese bicycle manufacturing. It’s easy to conclude that for some reason there’s been few pro riders in the spotlight from asia. Perhaps this has something to do with cultural values associated with work ethic or general disinterest in ‘sports’ such as skateboarding and bike riding. However, the growth of bmx, coupled with increased development and westernisation of asian cultures has led to the emergence of new riders, scenes and communities into small pockets scattered throughout asia over the past few years.
Here are my top 5 asian bmx riders
1. Brian Terada
Name origin (Japanese): meaning ‘temple rice paddy’; bearers are said to be descended from the Fujiwara clan. The surname is found chiefly in western Honshū and the Kyōto–Ōsaka area.
A tech rider of the mid school era, I first remember seeing him in Etnies Forward (he was also in Road Fools 8), and in a few issues of ridebmx, but it seems as though he disappeared from the spotlight over the last few years. After a few google searches, I did find a recent clip of him in here
2. Pat Wang
Wang is a Chinese family name and one of the most common surnames in the world. Translated into English, Wang literally means ‘King’ or ‘Monarch’
He’s a relatively new name from LA. Kills street and has a cool style. Just landed himself a spot on skavenger flow.
3. Hoang Tran
(According to Dirty Paul, Hoang Tran is a distinctly Vietnamese name, so we’ll roll with that one for now)
The first thing that often comes into people’s minds these days if you mention ‘asian bmxers’ is Hoang Tran. With loose-as-hell barspins, crazy nosemanual abilities and one of the better street tables, he is definately an amazing street rider, but I also remember his old cover on bmx plus as a young aitken wannabe.
Ps. I saw him at 5 dock while he was on the triple six tour and he’s really tiny in real life.
4. Clint Reynolds
To some people’s surprise it turns out that he’s actually half Korean… Amazing anthem II part, master of flow and smoothness, trail style, owns every lawnmower fufanu combo.
5. Matsuken (Ken Matsumoto)
Matsumoto (松本, “base of the pine tree”) is the 16th most common Japanese surname.
Japan has already had a strong flatland scene for a while now, but the street scene seems to have only come into it’s own in the last couple of years. It would have to be the strongest scene in all of asia. Anyhow, matsuken is at the front of this emerging scene and it’ll be cool to see how he progresses in the next few years.
Anyway, if this article sparked any interest in other scenes here’s some interesting blogs to check:
Korea
The Steps
Japan
Zen
Hoods Crew
