I love that a BMX community can exist and thrive anywhere in the world at any given time. It’s like flipping over a random rock in a park and seeing a bunch of tiny creatures crawling around and filming bangers with their friends. For this particular instance, the park is the state of Utah and the random rock is the southwestern city of St. George.
I’m not trying to say that these people live under a rock- it’s just a metaphor for their obscurity. The typical American citizen probably wouldn’t be able to locate St. George on a map but if someone were to say that it’s about a third of the way from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City then they’d get a decent idea. With a population of around 80,000, it’s good to see that there are at least five dedicated riders (this gives us an average of one BMX rider for every 16,000 people… Extrapolate that to the other populations and we can loosely calculate there to be right around 20,000 BMX riders in the United States (with 525 in NYC, 1,418 in Southern California and 55 in ATX… does this sound correct? Anyone want to help out with a national/worldwide count?).
At any rate, out of that small sample of the St. George population there is one guy who put in the time to produce a full-length DVD- Jon Tinsley. Using a single Canon T3i with a kit 18-55mm and a Rokinon fisheye lens on a P&C GearBox with a Neewer CN-160 light when needed, the video is filmed smoothly and properly without many frills or unnecessary flashiness. A DIY pinhole was used for the perspective-shifting stop-motion shots used as B-roll and segue shots- a very nice touch to the entire production. Jon used Adobe Premiere for editing.
Since I first read it, the title of the video posed questions. I drew my own conclusion that it was a jab at the church- like when an atheist octogenarian tells his step-grandson “the only people that need to go to church are newlyweds and nearlydeads” or something to that effect. Turns out it’s a sly comment on the population of the area with many young couples copulating and retreating retirees.
The spots in this region of the country remind me a lot of the small Midwestern town spots that I grew up riding- the loading dock behind the shopping plaza, a clutch stacked ledge setup in the elementary school courtyard and a dialed university nearby. I only recognized a few spots in the entire 20-minute video.
I didn’t recognize one song from the soundtrack, however. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it though. Comprised mostly of resurrected psych-rock, there was at least one song that I looked into. Ultimate Spinach is the only band from the soundtrack that I’ve seen used before.
The riding struck me as very innovative, given the spots being ridden. There were numerous tireslide moves I was psyched on, including one from Jon himself (his first clip I believe). There’s trails footage and some concrete park but the video is mostly street-based. Riley Carroll has a very memorable section with some flowing lines and unique spinning grind maneuvers. Everyone has a different approach with respective visions that complement nicely in this DVD.
Pick up a copy here.
The trailer-
If you have a video you’d like featured on the site, send a copy to 127 E. 5th street, LA, CA 90013.
Push It A Stop 