Welcome to Midwest Freestyle website. If you remember the Old School Bmx and Freestyle days, you will remember lots of crazy things like jumping off houses, tire jumps, lake jumps and anything that we could dream of.
The three riders above doing some very cool brake endo, s (yes, they were cool back then) from left to right are Bob Zabel, Dale Matson and Martin Schlesinger. This took place in the 80's in Aquator Park in Blaine, MN.
The truth is, I have tons of pictures of bmx racing, jumping, thrashing, crashing, freestyle and misc. from the 70's to???. We will show the best quality for the photo’s and maybe some video’s and feeds. I would really love to upload as many riders and information from the 80's as I can. Also, if you had a bmx bike and entered in the Midwest Freestyle Series please email with your story.
You may find yourself or someone you know being talked about or shown a picture of. You also may have a picture you want me to publish. Just let me know. Anyway, most of the stuff you’re going to see is from riders in the Midwest as we actually had some sweet ramps, cool riders and lots of Jam sessions!
Looking back over the years, BMX and freestyle has come a long way from jumping off curbs, bunnyhopping onto cars, using culverts as halfpipes and seeing how crazy you can get. Now I see the sport is in the x-games and Olympics with young riders doing things only Gumby should be doing. The reality is the sport has gone so far so fast, it only seems as though the only thing left is higher ramps and more jumps, or perfecting already invented tricks. The Midwest has spawned many riders over the years and I have enjoyed talking to some lately and boy have we aged! We have lost hair, gained a little poncho and have really slowed down but the personalities are still the same. The landscapes have changed as well, as it looks like the days of quarter pipes, halfpipes in driveways as you drive around the suburbs have been replaced by mass produced mini skate parks.
Dale Matson