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Mid School BMX (>87) 1989 to 2003 (<05) => Mid School ( Keep the faith ) => Topic started by: SaMAlex on June 13, 2007, 10:48 AM
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In 1994 I went to California for 3 weeks and stayed with Chris Moeller. While I was there Chris was asked to write an article about the POW house, a house in Westminster, LA, that a load of bikers rented out for a few years. I cant remember who asked him to write it, I think it was one of the guys who used to do freestylin magazine who had gone on to do a men’s lifestyle magazine. Cos Chris was writing this article, we made a point of going to the POW house quite a bit which was great cos there was always stuff going on and usually fun people there. And they had ramps in the garden. I had a great time on that trip and loads of funny things happened, some of which I have been meaning to write about for ages. I’ve also got quite a few pics from the trip.
The other day Loosenut sent me this link cos he thought I’d like to see it. It was the article that Chris had been writing! It was never used as I think the magazine folded before it had a chance. To read it again is great and it’s almost a journal of my trip. This made me get round to scanning my photos and post them up.
The article quite bit full on, there is talk of hard drug and Booze abuse, strip bars, arrests, fighting, oh … and some BMX too. If you don’t think you wanna read this kind of thing then don’t follow the link. If you do, please read it first cos the pictures will make more sense. It’s quite long but way funny and very interesting if you were riding at that time. Hopefully my photos will add something to it.
Hope you enjoy.
http://dischord.org/blog/2004/01/25/pow-house/
Moeller and Paul Green hanging out at the S&M warehouse.
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/warehouse2.jpg)
Moeller and Scooter Jay doing some product development on a wooden hammer
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/warehouse1.jpg)
S&Ms T-shirt printing setup (with mini ramp)
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/Screenprinting.jpg)
The POW ramps and jumps
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/POWramps2.jpg)
Moeller skating the POW ramp with Griffin in the background
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/POWramps1.jpg)
Moeller adding some spice to Povahs run
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/Povah2.jpg)
Moeller and Timmy Ball at the HB house
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/HBHouse1.jpg)
Crusins’ Caddy
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/Crusin.jpg)
Treanor takin a ride
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/KT.jpg)
THE Clymer ramp building night!
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/Clymerramp1.jpg)
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/Clymerramp2.jpg)
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/Clymerramp3.jpg)
The Vagas trip (5 hour drive through the night in the back of a pickup)
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/Vegastrip.jpg)
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/Vegasrace2.jpg)
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/Vegasrace1.jpg)
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/VegasDrivin.jpg)
The poo ramp
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/VegasRamp.jpg)
The SF trip (I went up there to meet Geoff Cain who was working at WAL at that time)
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/r313/alexleech/trips/SFshot.jpg)
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top thread again alex,and wicked pics mate cheers for sharing them :4_17_5:
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man I loved that story, I was there about 6 months before and it was chaos then
I remember sitting up with Clymer all night while he tried to fix up a GT bike for a demo he was doing, basically we drank all night while he tried hard to true some wheels - good times!!
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great days.
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WOW. What an awesome trip. From the 'dark' days of BMX - thanks for sharing Alex.
That pic on the Strip in Vegas of the bikes in front of Treasure Island fooking rocks. I love it.
And how painfully cool is that Caddy?!
:smitten:
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That pic on the Strip in Vegas of the bikes in front of Treasure Island fooking rocks. I love it.
My bike is the one with the lever on the left (front brake) and the Oakley O-wings grips. I used to get them from Hotwheels for £1 a pair. I got through loads of them, they were really thin and I loved them.
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Shame you haven't got a big box of them now...you'd be a very rich man.
:daumenhoch:
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Shame you haven't got a big box of them now...you'd be a very rich man.
Hotwheels told me they had 100s of them so I didnt bother stocking up.
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"tried to take a shit on the coping but couldnt get his butthole high enough"
diamonds there alex :daumenhoch:
fascinating
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great story and pics. i remember seeing an article on the POW house in BMX Plus and it gave the impression they were all well behaved, this has restored my faith!
did someone live under that ramp?
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nice one alex ... the good times
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cheers alex, always like to read your threads :daumenhoch:
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Great stuff.
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Wicked stuff :daumenhoch:
Would be good to see if you had anymore pics of John Povah shredding, I hear he might be over for the Empire of Dirt doobry that's going on :daumenhoch:
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that story is great.
i was told i should sleep in my bathroom for a night to accustom me to the pow house, i think sleeping in a skip for a month would have been more appropriate.
i have a ton of pics from the house too, alas i have no scanner :'(
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alas i have no scanner :'(
i have a scanner here you can borrow, i really wanna see these
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you still have my pic of moeller wrapped up in clingfilm i lent you in about 1997!! :D
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ok punks. went out and bought a scanner today, purely to get some old pics out there. while on the subject of the pow house, heres a pic of dave clymers bed.
(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/y202/teamsano/usa/pow/clymersbed.jpg)
his sleeping area is in the centre of the pic against the wall, and consisted of clothes for a bed/mattress/bedsheets. you can spot his dyno lid in amongst the mess. im sure he shared this room with steve emig at the time. ive got some more old pics that ill fire up when i get time, but scanning/hosting is a timely excercise.
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clean sort then clymer? :LolLolLolLol:
jesus it looks like someone robbed the place,
love the "wank mag" on the trunk/table,
is that a "crack-whore" he's got stashed under the "chair",
is he actually in there in the photo?
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That was in the house tho, right? Cos things got worse when he moved to the shed. I guess while he was in the house, Steve Emig was doing his bit to keep the room clean!
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hahahaha!!!
that house was a serious hole, I remember there were old pizza boxes all over the living room floor to try and stop the carpet getting wrecked
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yeah, that was in the house, not positive if he shared with emig, but the other half of the room was nowhere near as bad. he only moved into the shed cos he couldnt afford full rent to have a room anymore.
if i recall correct the roomy's were-
griffin/foster
lawan/darrin mitchell
sal/moeller
clymer/emig
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(http://www.radbmx.co.uk/archive/albums/y202/teamsano/usa/pow/powhouse.jpg)
heres a pic of the offending living room. thats mike griffin and sal sitting down , with nick coombes in the background.
note the tidy floor, which was always in that state, and the wallpaper which consisted of magazine pics of anyone who'd stayed at the house.
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i was there a few months after that and it was definitely much worse, you couldn't see the carpet
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Grant, are those two facts in any way linked? ::)