If you remember that moment the spanner came out and the trainer wheels came off, when that grown-up hand let go of your seat and you realised you could fly on your own; if you know what it felt like, in that moment, when neurons flared, blazing indelible trails across the star fields of your psyche to the battlefield of your young heart; you’re one of the lucky ones. For you and I, two-wheeled love will never die and we both know how powerful a vehicle of nostalgia these objects of our affection can be…

Freestyle BMX was a revolution in bicycle history. In the late 70s and 80s Bob Haro and his contemporaries defied conventions and gravity alike, raising the roof on our conception of cool as they built the foundations upon which modern BMX now sustains itself. Freestyle spread like wildfire in the 80s, all around the world sparks ignited, in big cities and small towns alike. It didn’t matter where you came from, it didn’t matter how much money you had or what language you spoke; freestyle was a new language all of its own, spawning a unique and lasting camaraderie between its exponents and, in some, a dedication that would last decades.

Here in Brisbane, Australia, a group of local heroes were blazing their own freestyle trail and making the memories that would become ‘Unscene History’. The brainchild of one of those very local riders, Ross Lavender, Unscene History is a project that brings together a myriad of memories from Brisbane’s freestyle movement in the mid 80s to mid 90s. Rare frames and complete bikes, team apparel, photos, videos, competition results, notes and personal accounts from his fellow Brisbane freestylers make up what is to be an extraordinary collage of Brisbane’s freestyle roots. Ross explains, “the idea here is to step into a historical museum of sorts – look at frames people once rode, clothes they wore, see them in photos and in video, learn about how everything and everyone came together as a family.”

Unscene History comes alive with a free exhibit at Juggler’s Art Space in Fortitude Valley on the weekend of October 26-27, 2013. Among other things, the exhibit will feature the some of the bikes our local freestyle riders rode, the gear they wore and unpublished photos of Brisbane’s freestyle underground from the riders’ own personal collections.

The exhibit is just the beginning for Unscene History. Photographing and scanning every keepsake from his carefully pieced together timeline, when complete, Ross plans to present his extensive collection of local freestyle history to the QLD State Library for their archives. An online database of all Australian freestyle competition results from ’85-’95 is to follow in 2014, along with a book Ross is writing inspired by the Unscene History project in order to “tell a more personal story of the whole scene” .

This one’s for the lucky ones. Get along to the exhibit and give those nostalgic hairs on the back of your neck something to stand up for.

Don’t forget to tell all your friends and visit www.unscenehistory.com for more about the project and the upcoming exhibit.

Above: Left to right – Todd Neville & Conrad Gibbs watch Brad ‘B.T.’ MacDonald hop one of the South Bank water features.

Above: Michael Canfield taking pictures of Clint Millar riding the fence. On a side note this was one of the first times Clint sessioned the city on his Prody frame. More information on Prody at the Unscene Exhibit. Photo courtesy of Anthony Brown.

Above: Glynn Hicks at Beenleigh, 1985. Photograph courtesy of Steve Smith.