In September ‘96 Dean opened the doors to SK8 and Ride and we finally had a new home. That place was crazy with the bar/restaurant next to the park. We ran an opening jam there that included cheerleaders….
Seb Bennerson
Name?
Seb Bennerson
Age?
44
Bike?
WTP Revolver, Hoffman kneesavers, sometimes a freecoaster. All the rest is pretty standard fare.
Why the hell would you want to ride that?
Its a more relaxed frame than most these days. Not too short on the back end or steep on the front so better for the big ramp. When I started out kneesavers screamed freestyle to me so when these came out I had to ride them, plus the bend on them is perfect. I just like the silence of a freecoaster, all you hear are the tyres on the ramp.
Never stopped, New Starter or Comeback King?
Never stopped
Where do you ride?
The vert in Taunton, Rampworld and Spit and Sawdust in Cardiff, Creation occasionally and the parks in Bristol. Dean Lane is 5 mins from my house. First park I ever rode was St George.
When did you start riding?
January ‘91 so just turned 30 years.
My earliest memory for the Bristol scene was an “Invert magazine scene check that featured Larry Bull and Jason Davis” – Were these guys key influences to the early scene in Bristol?
I never met Larry as I didn’t start riding with Jason and the guys until ‘92. Jay was definitely a big influence, I guess he was the top pro in town and was over to the states a lot riding so brought a lot of things back each time he went. Whether it was new sponsors, clothes, music, whatever, we seemed to hear about it from him before anyone else. He never came across as the big dog though, he was cool to 15 year old me!
You were a big part of the BCR scene BITD. Tell us a little about the group and how you all got together?
It was already a group of 6 or 7 guys who rode regularly before I met them, the likes of Paul Brown, Del Walker, Stu Evans, Ira Rainey, Pastie and of course Jay. I’d seen them ride at St George when I was starting out but was pretty shy so didn’t really speak to them then. I was riding the bowls at Dean Lane one afternoon early ‘92 and Jay rocked up with a couple of the others, by this point I knew who he was from seeing photos in Invert so was trying all my best moves ha ha! We got chatting, he gave me his number and said if you want to ride give me a shout.
I was blown away that a pro was so cool to some random kid at the park and so I started hanging out with them when they were riding all the parks in Bristol. After that I began going on little missions with them to other spots like that crazy spine in Weston, Bath and the vert at Street, then on to comps such as the early Backyard jams and KOC. All those guys were 5 or 6 years older than me and I’d led a bit of a sheltered life so it was an eye opener hanging out with them. Piss taking and drinking kind of went hand in hand once I was old enough to get away with being in the pub, we’d ride hard then go to Mr Popes (old Bristol metal pub, sadly long gone), we weren’t called the Bristol Cider Riders for nothing!
How did that then turn from a bunch of riders into something bigger ie – the BCR holding comps/jams and producing videos?
In ‘94 a new park had been built in Taunton which we spent a fair bit of time riding as it was really different to most other spots we rode. I think it was probably Ira who came up with the idea for the first jam over a pint or two. We’d seen Backyard and a few others run successful jams and it seemed like a great way to get a few more people out for a session.
We stuck an ad for it in Ride, managed to get a cider firm to sponsor us a case for first place in pro, bought a case of apple tango for first place in amateur, got a few bits and bobs from distributors for the rest of the prizes and turned up at the park on the day to see what would happen. Turnout for that was really good with the likes of Simon Tabron, Steve Geall and Rob Ridge making the trip, along with a load of locals and guys we knew from around the southwest. Had a little write up in Ride and that was that until the following year.
By the time ‘95 came around Bath added a vert ramp to the ace mini they already had so it was a no brainer to do a jam there. The park was a lot bigger so we could run mini, jumpbox and vert comps all on the same day, with am, expert and pro in each group. Sadly the council in their infinite wisdom took sections of the vert ramp out earlier in the summer due to a risk assessment or some such bollocks so we just ended up running mini and jumpbox.
Cider for the top prizes again and a bigger turnout than Taunton meant we had had to do another when the vert was back up and running. We were riding Bath a lot that year so added a few more names to the list of guys who were regularly sessioning. James Moon and his friends started hanging out by this point and Dean Thomas, who started SK8 and Ride, was already on board.
The following year the jam was off the hook! Dean was making plans to get SK8 and Ride off the ground but it wouldn’t be ready until later in the year so we went all out for the Bath jam. It was a two day comp with vert, mini and jumpbox, am and expert on the Saturday, a pub booked with bands on Saturday night and all the pro comps on the Sunday. The weather was blinding and the crowds were massive.
If you don’t know the skatepark in Bath it is situated in a huge park, next to a kids play area so there were loads of people who had no idea what was happening stopping to watch, it was nuts! Rider turnout was awesome, the level of riding was crazy, we made the local tv news, and everyone got sunburnt. It couldn’t have gone any better. And yes first place pro was still a case of cider, although we’d moved on to engraved tankards as well so you had something to drink it out of.
That year we hooked up with Matthew Dyer to produce the infamous BCR on the VCR vid. This was filmed mainly over ‘96 and covered a lot of what we were up to along with footage from KOC and Backyard, the Bath jam, the first jam at SK8 and Ride and a load of us fucking about. It’s a great vid of the times and I still watch it on occasionally, I think it may be on BMXMDB, certainly takes me back to carefree times!
In September ‘96 Dean opened the doors to SK8 and Ride and we finally had a new home. That place was crazy with the bar/restaurant next to the park. We ran an opening jam there that included cheerleaders, live feed to a wall of t.v.s in the bar and one of the best vert comps I’ve ever seen. Jay, Simon, Stephan Geisler, Zach, Browner, Mike Mullen and Jamie smashing it. That clip of Jamie hitting 14’ out of an 11’ ramp will never get old!
The end of the line for the jams was a three comp series run over 1997. These were all pretty savage two day affairs covering vert, spine, and street/box with am, expert and pro again, plenty of partying in between and good times.
Where did the riders form the BCR ride mostly?
Where we rode changed over the years, mainly due to chasing vert when we could get to it. Early on it was the ramp at Street, which had been extended using Jay’s old backyard ramp, until it got trashed. We’d ride the old indoor ramp at Worcester quite regularly in the early days, especially in the winter.
All the parks in Bristol, each of which have changed a lot since then, like Lockleaze, St George and Dean Lane. Bath obviously, then random missions to places like Steve Geall’s ramp down Bournemouth way. I remember one trip being squashed into the back of a Fiesta with three bikes to find a vert ramp in the middle of a field near Barnstaple once, happy days
My first trip to the states was with Ira and Egg in’94 when I was 17. We went to the BS comp in Oklahoma, then roadtripped down to the 9th street jumps in Austin and on to Thrasherland in Phoenix, probably the hottest session, temperature wise, I’ve ever ridden!
The whole Bristol scene was huge during the early to mid 90’s and it felt almost as important as placed like Hastings. But then it seemed to fade away somewhat. Would you agree? What made the scene stop growing?
That’s a good question. I wouldn’t agree that it stopped growing, everywhere else just caught up. When SK8 and Ride opened there were only a handful of indoor parks in the country so it was crazy busy from day one, and didn’t really start to slow down until 4 or 5 years later. We’d get regular visits from riders like Carlo, the guys from Saltash and the Union until parks opened up more local to them. We had crews that would come from Taunton, Swindon, Cheltenham, etc arrive on a Friday night and not leave until Sunday night!
1998 was probably the last big year we had although we didn’t run any comps. Trips to Backyard, the crazy times at the worlds in Portugal and KOC, which was massive that year, so we were still travelling together but things were changing in Bristol. Jay had finally managed to get a work permit to move to the states, Simon moved down to Cornwall a couple of years later, Ira had moved on to other things and real life, family, work, whatever, had claimed most of the other guys so their riding time was getting less and less.
Dean had decided to sell the park and follow Jay to Phoenix so while it was still a cool place to hang the vibe wasn’t quite the same. The focus had shifted away from riding vert as the pool of guys into it had shrunk by quite a bit so I was riding more mini and park, and this was beginning to be mirrored in the wider world of bmx.
From a personal perspective bmx was going in a direction I wasn’t entirely comfortable with either. When I started out in the early ‘90s bmx was on it’s arse, there were next to no riders, bikes were made of toffee and comps were very few and far between, and I loved it!
What that meant was if you rode you rode because you loved it and, or perhaps despite, the fact most people thought it was deeply uncool because of the association with uniforms or ‘kids bikes’ or whatever I thought it was the best thing going. When it started picking up again through the mid/late ‘90s, and got back into more mainstream culture through things like the x games and corporate sponsorship for comps from the likes of Red Bull, more and more people were picking up bikes.
This was good in terms of money available for new parks, sponsors for riders etc. but it also meant the things that I liked about it were changing a lot i.e. big ramp riding was being slowly pushed out by the ‘cooler’ disciplines like street, park and dirt and the tight knit feeling of bmxers all in it together was disappearing and being replaced with a lot more ‘cliqueiness’. It had gone from a small group of like minded individuals who didn’t give a fuck what other people thought to something that you could find on regular tv in the space of 6 or 7 years.
It’s probably the contrarian in me that went off going to comps just because they got too big, even though the riding level and trick progression had never been higher. That KOC in ‘98 had something like 100 riders in qualifying for park and I just found it so tedious, which isn’t really fair on the guys riding, it’s more that I couldn’t make it gel with what I loved when I started out.
The BCR could get a little wild at times. Did the partying and booze sometimes get in the way of the riding?
Ha ha, yes, sometimes. If you want stories you’ll have to ask me in person but I will say there were times I rode when I shouldn’t have, and times I didn’t ride when I should have.
How did you originally get started riding vert?
It’s all to do with a photo I saw in the second mag I ever bought. I’d only been riding a month before I fucked my knee up so was laid up at home with a copy of Invert. It had a report from a 2hip KOV from Thrasherland and there was this full page photo of Hoffman, doing a turndown so clicked and so upside down that I knew that was what I wanted to do on a bike. At the time I had no idea how or what it would involve but that image has stuck with me for 30 years.
I feel like vert has become a huge part of your riding now and you see to be committed to progressing your riding. Did you make a conscious decision that you wanted to focus on vert?
I always wanted to ride vert, but I didn’t always have one available to ride. Now I have two within an hour of where I live so I don’t have any excuses. For the last 15/20 years all I’ve ridden has been mini and park and while that’s fun it doesn’t give back in the same way. To ride vert well I have to commit to it, to the exclusion of a lot of other riding, but I’m happy with that.
Where do you ride Vert now?
Primarily Taunton, although the new ramp at Spit and Sawdust in Cardiff is fantastic. I can’t wait for a day there with no wind! Creation is good, Hawke is ok but a fair drive, along with Southsea and Skaterham.
Can it be a little lonely being a vert rider these days? (as there’s not many who are brave enough to ride vert).
Now I know how flatlanders feel, ha ha! Personally it doesn’t really bother me that I don’t have a huge group of people to session with, although one or two more wouldn’t hurt. I mainly ride with Mark as he is as into pushing as much as me so we feed off each other when we’re riding. If you have too many people on the deck it takes too long to get a run, conversely as it’s usually just the two of us you get worn out pretty quickly. There are quite a few skaters and inliners who use Taunton too and those guys are cool to session with. I do ride it on my own sometimes but if no one else is about I don’t tend to push it.
The risk factor with vert is huge!! Is this something that’s you are more aware of now you’re an older rider?
Risk is what you make it. I don’t tend to go all out for something without plenty of build up beforehand. I’m always aware of the risks but age doesn’t make much of a difference to that, you’ll still hit the ground the same if you’re 44 or 18. I find riding vert to be very much to do with how your mental attitude is, confidence comes with time on the ramp and there is no substitute for that.
How have you done for injuries recently and how do they impact your confidence and approach?
I don’t get hurt as often as I did when I was younger, I was always getting smashed up through the ‘90s. I’ve broken over 30 bones through the years but you can do that dropping in a mini as easily as falling from a vert.
The last serious one was in the foam pit at Rampworld, ended up with three broken ribs and a punctured lung for my trouble. Funnily enough that one was what got me back into riding vert. I couldn’t jump or ride mini for a while as it was too much strain on my back and chest so went and had a roll around the vert bowl in Bath, vert is a lot easier on your body as long as you don’t crash so it was good therapy.
Then Taunton got built and here we are. I’ve taken a few slams there and bust a couple of ribs but nothing too serious. I find the worst thing about injuries is the enforced time off, knowing it’s going to take a while to get back to where you were, let alone start progressing again.
What part of your vert riding are you most happy with?
That’s a hard one to answer. On one hand I’m stoked I can get some height, inverts look good and I can boot a few variations, but there’s always room to go higher, stretch a bit more, learn new tricks. I guess that’s what keeps me coming back. The list is never finished.
What part of your vert riding are you least happy with?
I never really do lip tricks, and don’t like doing them much as they scare the crap out of me, but they always look rad when other people do them. I also need to get back on the 540s, it’s been too long.
How do you approach vert riding progression? It seems like its one aspect of the sport that takes so so long to master!!
Start small! Whenever I’m trying something new I’ll tickle about with it a few feet out to get a feel for it before taking it higher and stretching more. I’m pretty much past caring about learning whips, flairs and barspins but I love all the limbless stuff. If you’ve seen the 540 vid you’ll see what I mean.
The worldwide Vert community seems very strong. Is there a good vibe amongst the guys who ride vert?
That’s one of the very few pluses from social media. I see guys shredding in Brazil, Australia, France, the States, that I would never hear about otherwise as there is pretty much zero other coverage. Remember back in the early ‘90s when if you saw another rider going down the street you’d stop and talk to them as it was such a rare thing? That’s what the it’s like on the deck of a vert ramp. If you’ve made it that far then you’re cool, it’s not really about how good you are.
Would you like to see more Vert contests in the UK?
I think that they had it about right with five rounds planned for the UK Vert Series last year. The last one at Skaterham before everything got shut down was so good. As they’d done away with it being a comp as such without points and places so there was no pressure to perform.
I feel that helped people ride well as they were so relaxed about it all. The vibe on the deck was killer, everyone shouting each other on like it was back in the ‘90s and that really made it special. That isn’t just for the old bastards group either, the little kids just getting started get the same response as the pros. I think that as the vert community is such a small part of bmx everyone who goes to one of these jams really wants to be there and that just makes the atmosphere so good. I really hope they can get at least one or two events going on this year. It would be nice if KOC could go ahead as that’s been great to go back to but I guess it’s far too early to tell. There will be a jam at Taunton whatever.
Do you feel vert riding is dying? And if so, what can be done to promote it?
Not really, although there aren’t as many riders or ramps as I’d like. Over the last few years the trend of parks taking out vert ramps was pretty sad but understandable. From a purely business perspective they don’t make a lot of sense in relation to how much area they need, and putting one in that’s too small or narrow is self defeating.
It was a surprise to see the one in Taunton be put up especially as it was built by the council but it proves that it can be done. Vert has been a bit niche for quite a while now and comps that used to make a big deal of it, like the x games for example, have marginalised it almost to the point where you might as well just have a demo. Park seems to have taken over and it is certainly more relatable to your average rider than a 14ft halfpipe.
I think a series in the states like the old BS comps would do a lot of good. The US is still where a lot of people look to see what’s hot and if vert is being pushed more there then it will filter out everywhere else, although having said that I like it being small.
In this country the vert series do a great job of showing just how inclusive vert is. No one is saying it’s easy to get into but if you show a bit of willing you’ll find everyone in the scene is stoked to see you have a go.
What would you like to see happening in BMX to help encourage riders to ride vert more often?
I kind of feel I’ve answered this above but I will add that the only way to progress on vert is to ride it regularly, and by that I mean like once or twice a week, not every month or 6 months. It is one of those things that is cumulative and I know that having not ridden it since November that when I get back to it it’ll take a week or two of sessions until I’m feeling comfortable again. This just isn’t like riding jumps or mini ramp where you can more or less pick up where you left off no matter how long it’s been.
I also think riders could be a bit more proactive about it. If you’re lucky enough to have a local ramp try having regular sessions on the same day each week, if other people know there’s going to be riders there on the ramp they may be more willing to have a go and stick with it.
Do you do any exercise or stretching to help with BMX fitness and/or injury prevention?
Sometimes. In the winter when I can’t ride much then I do work out and a bit of yoga/stretching. That lasts until riding really kicks off in spring although I really ought to carry it on all the time. I don’t tend to stretch before I ride, I just take it easy for the first few runs.
What about Eating and Booze? Do you try to watch these so you can keep on riding BMX?
I don’t drink anywhere near what I used to back in the day, these days I’m three pints max and off to bed. If I’m riding the next day then I won’t bother. I’ve never really had to watch what I eat, my physique hovers around racing snake most of the time.
How do you fit riding in with work/life/family/whatever?
I have a very understanding wife! I generally ride in the evenings after work as most weekends are for family, unless it’s been booked in well in advance. I’m also self employed which means I have a bit of flexibility work wise but if I don’t work I don’t get paid. I have insurance if it goes tits up but generally if I can walk I can work.
Any last words?
It’s funny to look back at those days as they were such a blast, remembering all the people and good times. I’ve lived in Bristol all my life so over the years I’ve been riding the changes that have happened in the scene here are like a microcosm of the wider bmx world-the growth and decline of indoor parks, changes in fashions and popularity of different riding styles, people coming and going in the scene, and sometimes coming back- but it’s all bmx and I still love it the same as when I was 14. 20 years ago non-riding friends and family would ask when I was going to be done with riding but that stopped a while ago, now it’s just part of who I am.
There’s a huge list of people who’ve been cool, helped me out or bought me drinks over the years so if you have thanks, that list is too long to put down here but I’m going to single a few out. Mum for putting up with all those phone calls you’d get on a Sunday afternoon telling you I was in A&E again. Iain, the guy who built the ramps for SK8 and Ride, who took me on when I could barely swing a hammer. Susie and the kids for letting this big kid carry on chasing dreams.
A special mention for Simon Tabron, he went above and beyond for me back then helping get me sponsored. If you’ve got a few spare thoughts, send them his way, as after a proper shit year he is on the slow road to recovery.
If you have the opportunity to give vert a go, do it. It may make you crap your pants but it might just set them on fire too. There is seriously nothing like it on a bmx.
P.S. If anyone has a copy of that photo of Hoffman, Feb or March ‘91 Invert mag I think, please send one over, too many house moves mean mine got lost years ago.
