Name: Jon Lavigne a.k.a. Thlayli, a.k.a.
damnhippiei
damnhippiei
Age: 31
Years Riding: 1987 to approximately 1998, possibly 1984
if you count the tricks I was trying before I was actually
conscious of BMX. I don't, so 1987 to 1998 and then I
bought myself a new bike last December, and started really
riding (and riding flat) in late February of this year (2004).
if you count the tricks I was trying before I was actually
conscious of BMX. I don't, so 1987 to 1998 and then I
bought myself a new bike last December, and started really
riding (and riding flat) in late February of this year (2004).
Living: I get paid to be a soils & concrete technician for an
engineering firm. I play music for fun and a little profit.
engineering firm. I play music for fun and a little profit.
What got you started?
Well, if I really want to trace it back... of course I do... I learned how to ride a bike later than a lot of kids
normally do, but I learned on my own on another kid's bike. Skipped the whole training wheels thing completely.
I tried to overcompensate after that. Had an old, rusty Stingray that I thoroughly bashed because that was one
<i>ugly</i> bike, and it was already rusty, and I was mean. But I remember stand up, pedalling full bore doing
wheelies halfway across a parking lot. I just kept accelerating. I had an "Open Road" bike at one point, bought
from Sears and Ukai rims came on it stock, that was just as good as any Mongoose of the time. I remember
when I was eleven and I'd jump that thing higher than the older kids at this one dirt spot that was basically a
huge bank to flat ground. I'd get four feet off of that thing. Haunted Curry's bike shop in Nitro, WV for two years
before I was finally able to get a hold of an early '87 Haro Master in con!
junction with copies of BMX Plus and American Freestyler. The pictures and the articles in, of all magazines,
those, got me hooked on the riding aspect of it, and "Project Bolt-On" turned me into a tech semi-junkie.
Well, if I really want to trace it back... of course I do... I learned how to ride a bike later than a lot of kids
normally do, but I learned on my own on another kid's bike. Skipped the whole training wheels thing completely.
I tried to overcompensate after that. Had an old, rusty Stingray that I thoroughly bashed because that was one
<i>ugly</i> bike, and it was already rusty, and I was mean. But I remember stand up, pedalling full bore doing
wheelies halfway across a parking lot. I just kept accelerating. I had an "Open Road" bike at one point, bought
from Sears and Ukai rims came on it stock, that was just as good as any Mongoose of the time. I remember
when I was eleven and I'd jump that thing higher than the older kids at this one dirt spot that was basically a
huge bank to flat ground. I'd get four feet off of that thing. Haunted Curry's bike shop in Nitro, WV for two years
before I was finally able to get a hold of an early '87 Haro Master in con!
junction with copies of BMX Plus and American Freestyler. The pictures and the articles in, of all magazines,
those, got me hooked on the riding aspect of it, and "Project Bolt-On" turned me into a tech semi-junkie.
What inspires you to ride?
Now? Obsession, pure and simple. When I see riding, I want to
ride. When I think about riding, I want to ride. When I just want to
get off my butt and do something, I want to ride. I was off the bike
just long enough for it to really eat into my brain that I wasn't
doing it, and it was bad enough that I'd been "retired" by an injury
and not of my own volition. I've never aspired to be great... just to
have fun being good.
Now? Obsession, pure and simple. When I see riding, I want to
ride. When I think about riding, I want to ride. When I just want to
get off my butt and do something, I want to ride. I was off the bike
just long enough for it to really eat into my brain that I wasn't
doing it, and it was bad enough that I'd been "retired" by an injury
and not of my own volition. I've never aspired to be great... just to
have fun being good.
How did you find out about Vintagebmx?
Gonna tell the whole story here, because I'm long-winded. I type a lot because I don't talk a lot. When I was
contemplating buying a bike, I started looking around the web for information, because that's what I'd been doing
for pretty much the entire time I wasn't riding... surfing the internet, gaining weight little by little. So I got to looking
around, and came upon a little site at http://www.bmxbasics.org that contained an article I'd read in Bicycles
Today back during my racing period... I was NBL all the way... long, long ago. The information contained in that
article, read back when I was 16, had influenced my frame buying criteria all the way up to... well, even now, in
principle. I was flabbergasted in finding that particular article archived that I'd read all the way back then, so I
emailed the author/webmaster there... a guy not named Jim Bosworth, known at VBMX until fairly!
Recently as the infamous JB. After reading pretty much his entire archived body of BMX work, I stumbled into the
links page there, and eventually got to VintageBMX.com from there. One night, in March, in a fit of optimism, I
signed up and started typing too much.
Gonna tell the whole story here, because I'm long-winded. I type a lot because I don't talk a lot. When I was
contemplating buying a bike, I started looking around the web for information, because that's what I'd been doing
for pretty much the entire time I wasn't riding... surfing the internet, gaining weight little by little. So I got to looking
around, and came upon a little site at http://www.bmxbasics.org that contained an article I'd read in Bicycles
Today back during my racing period... I was NBL all the way... long, long ago. The information contained in that
article, read back when I was 16, had influenced my frame buying criteria all the way up to... well, even now, in
principle. I was flabbergasted in finding that particular article archived that I'd read all the way back then, so I
emailed the author/webmaster there... a guy not named Jim Bosworth, known at VBMX until fairly!
Recently as the infamous JB. After reading pretty much his entire archived body of BMX work, I stumbled into the
links page there, and eventually got to VintageBMX.com from there. One night, in March, in a fit of optimism, I
signed up and started typing too much.
Your Favorite Topic?
See, now this is unfair... my favorite topic out of everything. All the message boards I go to? I obviously like to talk
about BMX, with a distinct freestyle slant, but I don't know if that's my favorite thing. I can blabber on and on about
the bass guitar, from a playing standpoint, because I've been a bass player for... I've been saying fourteen years
for two years now. Almost three... but I don't know if that's my favorite. I actually wrote a column last year about
NFL football for an Australian Football website, but I'm not writing it this year just because I never bothered to
start writing them again and sending them in... but I don't know if football would be my favorite topic either. I don't
necessarily LIKE the conversations that get me started at talking about evolutionary biology, so I can't say that's
my favorite topic either... just one I've found I had to learn about as time's gone by. Comic books? Could type
your freakin' eyes out about '!
em, but I go through long periods of not buying or reading new comics, so some of my info's outdated.
Professional wrestling's fun to talk about as well, but I have such a jaded and cynical slant that I can be
excruciatingly cruel. The jaded part doesn't help. And I have to apologize for talking about myself, so that can't be
it. I'd have to say I most enjoy talking about reading comics about bass-playing American Football players in
Australia riding BMX with me in the parking lot outside a pro wrestling show, which contains people who look like
semi-evolved apes, and wrestlers.
See, now this is unfair... my favorite topic out of everything. All the message boards I go to? I obviously like to talk
about BMX, with a distinct freestyle slant, but I don't know if that's my favorite thing. I can blabber on and on about
the bass guitar, from a playing standpoint, because I've been a bass player for... I've been saying fourteen years
for two years now. Almost three... but I don't know if that's my favorite. I actually wrote a column last year about
NFL football for an Australian Football website, but I'm not writing it this year just because I never bothered to
start writing them again and sending them in... but I don't know if football would be my favorite topic either. I don't
necessarily LIKE the conversations that get me started at talking about evolutionary biology, so I can't say that's
my favorite topic either... just one I've found I had to learn about as time's gone by. Comic books? Could type
your freakin' eyes out about '!
em, but I go through long periods of not buying or reading new comics, so some of my info's outdated.
Professional wrestling's fun to talk about as well, but I have such a jaded and cynical slant that I can be
excruciatingly cruel. The jaded part doesn't help. And I have to apologize for talking about myself, so that can't be
it. I'd have to say I most enjoy talking about reading comics about bass-playing American Football players in
Australia riding BMX with me in the parking lot outside a pro wrestling show, which contains people who look like
semi-evolved apes, and wrestlers.
What is your best memory?
My best memories are the ones I look back on. There are a lot of
little things that I look back on fondly... a lot of it more about the
feeling than anything else. Riding around Nitro and, later, Ripley WV
and not caring about anything other than the riding itself. I'm
sometimes particularly proud of getting WV NBL state championships
two years in a row in 17 & Over Novice back when I was racing, but
then I remember that I was in the novice class and most of the time
only raced three or four other people... not that I'm not still proud,
but it would have been nice to race as an expert, at least. But I
always had more fun jumping and riding street anyway... showing off.
All the little compliments I get that I don't ask for on purpose.
My best memories are the ones I look back on. There are a lot of
little things that I look back on fondly... a lot of it more about the
feeling than anything else. Riding around Nitro and, later, Ripley WV
and not caring about anything other than the riding itself. I'm
sometimes particularly proud of getting WV NBL state championships
two years in a row in 17 & Over Novice back when I was racing, but
then I remember that I was in the novice class and most of the time
only raced three or four other people... not that I'm not still proud,
but it would have been nice to race as an expert, at least. But I
always had more fun jumping and riding street anyway... showing off.
All the little compliments I get that I don't ask for on purpose.
What is your hardest trick?
Pulled? I've got a list: When I was riding dirt and street right
before my knee injury, I was doing big 360's and no-footers,
lookbacks and turndowns, the occasional candybar X-up.
Opposite airs and alley-oops have always been favorites for me
when a ramp is involved, as well as lookbacks and turndowns and
a good old-fashioned one-footer invert. Now that I'm on flat,
decades or cyclones are the hardest ones I pull really
consistently. I'm goofy-footed, so all the right-pedal forward tricks
are hard to me. I have to really think about it when I'm getting into
them. But the hardest trick is probably the next one.
Is there a trick you could do now that you couldn't do back in the
day? = Pretty much all the flatland stuff I've been working on.
Never had the patience for flatland back when, so I was always in
the air in some fashion back then. I always wanted decades, but I
never got them until now.
Pulled? I've got a list: When I was riding dirt and street right
before my knee injury, I was doing big 360's and no-footers,
lookbacks and turndowns, the occasional candybar X-up.
Opposite airs and alley-oops have always been favorites for me
when a ramp is involved, as well as lookbacks and turndowns and
a good old-fashioned one-footer invert. Now that I'm on flat,
decades or cyclones are the hardest ones I pull really
consistently. I'm goofy-footed, so all the right-pedal forward tricks
are hard to me. I have to really think about it when I'm getting into
them. But the hardest trick is probably the next one.
Is there a trick you could do now that you couldn't do back in the
day? = Pretty much all the flatland stuff I've been working on.
Never had the patience for flatland back when, so I was always in
the air in some fashion back then. I always wanted decades, but I
never got them until now.
What is your worst memory?
You might think it'd be the knee injury, but it isn't. The knee injury was just anticlimactic, because I'd
thought something like that would actually hurt more. No, what hurt was the day I was walking all over Nitro,
looking and looking and looking for my beautiful blue '87 Haro Master after it disappeared off my front
porch. I walked for hours and hours, for miles, looking for it, anger flowing through my body in between
waves of shame for having decided I could go one day without locking it up. "Knowing" who did it, but never
seeing that person again, and never seeing that bike again. It STILL irks me. Grrr.
You might think it'd be the knee injury, but it isn't. The knee injury was just anticlimactic, because I'd
thought something like that would actually hurt more. No, what hurt was the day I was walking all over Nitro,
looking and looking and looking for my beautiful blue '87 Haro Master after it disappeared off my front
porch. I walked for hours and hours, for miles, looking for it, anger flowing through my body in between
waves of shame for having decided I could go one day without locking it up. "Knowing" who did it, but never
seeing that person again, and never seeing that bike again. It STILL irks me. Grrr.
Are you riding anything else Extreme?
Nope, don't ride anything else. But I have a thing for juggling... I have many many different juggling patterns
I've learned, though nothing I, personally, would consider very spectacular, except maybe the transitions
between regular three-ball juggling and three-ball bounce juggling patterns off the floor. I'm out of practice
with my yo-yo. I'm also learning to do tricks on my bass... :-D
Nope, don't ride anything else. But I have a thing for juggling... I have many many different juggling patterns
I've learned, though nothing I, personally, would consider very spectacular, except maybe the transitions
between regular three-ball juggling and three-ball bounce juggling patterns off the floor. I'm out of practice
with my yo-yo. I'm also learning to do tricks on my bass... :-D
What was your first trick?
Either the aforementioned stand-up speed wheelie, or the first
framestand I did on that '87 Master the day I got it.
Either the aforementioned stand-up speed wheelie, or the first
framestand I did on that '87 Master the day I got it.
