The Flash-BMX Scene
Walking along Regents Canal to Kingsland Road from Hackney - on a dreary cold October night I came across what I thought, from a distance, was an extraordinarily large gang of local kids on bikes.
On closer inspection I found that they weren't the group of territorial thugs I had feared they might be, but were instead a relatively friendly bunch of BMXers setting up two jump ramps. Several guys wearing jeans sagging from their arses, ran here and there, building the ramps out of pieces of wood.
There was a generous crowd of Hoxtonites swilling from bottles, chewing the fat and showing a half-baked interest in proceedings.
I overheard one of the crows criticise a guy that had been pointed out to him by a girl for being 'so generic' - momentarily I felt sick - the girl shrieked with laughter and mocked him for being 'so cruel'.
Chemistry built on sadism.
The police turned up; at first two officers, and then a big van, all illogical it seems, given that the van then reversed back into obscurity - almost as if the whole thing was some ill thought out bit of action in a badly programmed computer game.
Otherwise there were some impressive tricks and moves being pulled - the jumpers or BMXers or whatever you call these practitionres on wheels - put on an awesome spectacle - it was a great way to refresh from what had otherwise been a night of red wine and conversation indoors.
Two kids from the flats across the canal were let out side to watch. They jumped up and down and screamed with excitement.
That's what I love about this place - with so many creative types - you never know what's round the corner.
Questions: Does anyone know if this kind of meet goes on on a regular basis? Any idea who organises these things? When and where the next one is?
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