https://rixinbikes.com/

PRINT MATTERS: An exclusive extract from 'RIDE' by John Buultjens

"Burnt flesh. That’s my first memory."

6 Feb 2019

John Buultjens Adopted Dad Cover

It's not everyone that gets to tell their life story in print, and it pretty much goes without saying that even fewer people get to have a Hollywood movie made about their lives... but not everyone has a story as powerful as that of lifelong BMXer John Buultjens (AKA 'Scottish John'). His journey has been an incredible one, that is more than worthy of any print and big screen adaptation. 

The movie features the early years of John's life from juvenile detention centre to the transition of a new and loving life with an adopted family, and the introduction of BMX to his life and a move away from his serioulsy negative past. John even gets to play his abusive real life father in the movie, whilst his adoptive father is played by none other than Ludacris. Although BMX features heavily thoughout, this is really movie about John's journey and his battle to become a 'good human' against all the odds. 

The following is the introduction and an extract from the first chapter of his book, 'Ride'. The extended story of John's life in his own words...

https://shop.digbmx.com/collections/all-clothing

PROLOGUE

WHAT a ride. I’m standing in Petaluma and can barely believe it. It’s a town in northern California. Just even being here considering the start I had in life is enough. I’ve been through stomach-churning domestic violence and a spell in an unforgiving children’s home. I’ve been mentally scarred and spent most of my youth completely consumed by rage. But I’m here, on the set of a Hollywood movie – and to add to the madness, the entire thing is based on me and my life.

There are cameras whizzing by, booms swinging around and actors getting prepped in their trailers.

Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, one of the stars of the Fast and the Furious film franchise, is playing the man I grew to call dad, Eldridge – who along with his wife Marianna adopted me.

Young rising American actor Shane Graham is playing me.

Fucking hell. It’s almost too much to take in. I really have come full circle. Most of my earliest memories are of being mistreated or beaten by my biological father. I hated that bastard. He’s dead now. I’m having to relive all that pain on set, not only mentally but I’m watching it come to life again – forget magic mushrooms, seeing a film being made about yourself is the most surreal outer body trip you’ll ever experience.

In a strange twist, the director and I settled on the decision that I should play my old man, in a nice little cameo.

Maybe no one else could capture what he was like.

We didn’t subject cinema-goers to a kid being burned alive, something my father did to me.

In the movie, I just throw the boy close to the fire. I couldn’t stomach recreating it fully. It’s one of the few times I guess when the action on screen isn’t a sexed-up version of reality. If I’m being honest, it was the toughest day of my life, but in some ways the most rewarding. There was this massive lift when they finally called cut and my time as that asshole was over. And I’ll admit it. As a youngster, I was an asshole too. I look back in shame at some of the things I did. Can you believe I was embarrassed by the man who adopted me and, along with his wife, offered me a way out?

And here’s the worst part. I was ashamed of his skin colour. I didn’t want anyone to see me with a black guy. I was being given a second chance. So many others never get that. And here was I, about to almost fuck it up because of all the baggage I was carrying – even as a kid. I’d been taught to be racist. If it wasn’t for Eldridge and Marianna’s love, God knows where I’d be. I’d never forget the day they took me to see ET back in 1982. Steven Spielberg’s epic had me transfixed, sitting there in that cinema in Glasgow. It was that scene where the group on their bikes flee the police with ET – I hadn’t a clue what a BMX was. Coming from where I did, it was never on my radar. But I was transfixed. Something inside screamed, ‘this is for me’.

I craved the freedom this little two-wheeled contraption offered.

I was a maniac on the bike. I’d take on all sorts of jumps and stunts. Let’s put it this way, I’ve broken my skull alone four times, and had more concussions than you’ve had hot dinners.

But it wasn’t having a screw loose that was driving me.

It was the pain and negativity from my old life. Now I’m older, I realise riding my BMX was mediation. I was healing my wounds and directing all that rage into a positive outlet. I was good.

But not as natural as the movie portrays – that’s where the screenwriter had a bit of artistic licence.

I wouldn’t call myself a gifted rider. I wasn’t born with supreme talent. But I had determination, due to what I’ve been through and I’ll never take no for an answer – that’s why I made it.

And for me, making it wasn’t about money or fame. It was about happiness. And being able to say, I did it. That moment came for me when I got the call. Asking me to become the global brand manager for Haro Bikes. A lot of the general public might not know Bob Haro. But he’s the godfather and architect of modern BMX riding. He was also the main stuntman in ET. Now, here I was being handed the baton. Bob was the face of BMX. Now, it’s me. Distributing to 80 countries. I sit down regularly with serious big hitters. There are billionaires looking to be part of the sport or sign a deal.

And then, there’s wee Scottish John at the other side of the table – none of them have a clue about where I’ve come from and how my life began.

At Haro we have the biggest budget in the sport to give to the pro riders who I feel deserve it.

Most are far more gifted than I ever was.

In the past few years, my athletes have won gold medals at the X Games and represented their countries in the Olympics.

They’re the best riders in the world. I’m essentially their boss. But I don’t see it that way. I look at it like we’re all Team Haro. And that allows me to make these young riders’ dreams come true. I’m now in control of the BMX company that changed my own life. I’m now the face of the most famous BMX brand on the planet. All I’ve ever had was my passion – and my balls. Now they’ve taken me to the top of my sport. And it’s meant Hollywood called and put my life up on the big screen. I can’t believe I’ve come this far and ended up at a destination so far away and removed from my origins. I’m living the dream, after living a nightmare. Like I said, what a ride.

Chapter 1 - INTO THE FIRE

BURNT flesh. That’s my first memory. Not exactly the normal thing a person remembers from their childhood, and even worse, it was my own.

I began life with my parents – Thomas and Margaret – in Whiteinch. It’s an area in Glasgow, north of the city’s River Clyde, which became a busy hub for shipbuilding during the British Empire’s heyday. Whiteinch itself grew after it became a popular ferry crossing point.Back then I was John Craig. That’s the name I was given when I was born on 16 March 1972 and it’ll become pretty clear why it changed – but let’s put it this way, if I’d stayed John Craig, I wouldn’t be alive now to write this book.Glasgow was going through a tumultuous time and a massive transformation was under way to help rescue thousands of families by setting them up in new housing schemes – all outside the city centre.

They were being shipped out of the old tenement buildings, as the level of deprivation was off the charts with no indoor toilets, a lack of hot water and homes were basically riddled with squalor and unhygienic living conditions.

There was also a famous bin strike in 1975, which saw rubbish piled high, and the rats got so comfortable that the city faced an infestation of the buggers. It got so bad that eventually the army was called in to help resolve the situation.

And we were right in the middle of all that, living in one of these same tenements in what’s known locally as a room and kitchen – two rooms and a toilet. Even calling one of them a kitchen is a stretch, but it did have a sink. At the back of that was a double bed where we all slept huddled together, apart from my dad, who slept in the other room, on his own a lot of the time. So that was our home. We did have pets though, well if you can count the mice that scurried about the place as that.

To be frank, it was a dump and wasn’t much more than a lair for my psycho dad to rule with his violence and bad temper. I think back to living there and what stands out is that it seemed to always be dark and cold.

There were no creature comforts. Nothing to think back on and smile about.

I was the third child to arrive and I was only there for the first three years of my life. My older brother Thomas later told me that he started breaking into bakeries to bring some food home as quite often our cupboards were bare. It was seriously grim. And my only real memory is a horrific one. For a long time I actually wondered if it was a dream. Well, a nightmare would be more appropriate.

But my mother told me in later life that it really did happen. Even now I think back and sometimes say, ‘Surely it didn’t happen like I remember.’ But it did.It happened when I, naive like only a young child can be, was excited to see my dad come home from work – he was a box maker at the shipbuilding firm Yarrow, which manufactured frigates and destroyers for the Royal Navy. Anyway, how was I to know that he’d drunk himself daft on the way back?He was slouched into the chair in our lounge. It was the sort of chair that screamed 1970s. It had that retro mustard felt and those long, narrow wooden arms. If you watch the TV show Mad Men, you’ll see something similar.So he’s sitting there, thinking about God knows what, and I decide to run over. I had barely got my arms around his neck when he saw red. Whether I had startled him or woke him up, I don’t know. I was three for Christ’s sake. But he wanted to make sure I didn’t do it again. He reached over his head, grabbed me around the arms and then hurled me back like a sack of potatoes. I was so small that I flew through the air but as if that wasn’t enough, he had thrown me right in the direction of our two-bar electric fire – which was battling in vain to remove the permanent cold chill of our home. They don’t exist anymore but it was one of the big iron fireplaces, where the bars light up and glow red with heat. And normally you’d have a grille to stop the chance of anyone getting burned or things catching fire.

To continue reading John's Incredible story pick up your copy of RIDE here. 

John Buultjens Rock X 2

Dundee still rocks. From 1989 to 2009.

John Buultjens Movie Crew

Alexander Davis and Shane Alan Graham as John (right) in Ride The Movie.

John Buultjens Movie Legends

Legend status...

Early 90's fakie beef on the site of the Dundee 2018 RIDE movie premiere.

Skinhead beef - John as his birth father in Ride The Movie.

John Buultjens Footplant
John Buultjens Premiere

Movie premiere night in Dundee, Scotland (Dec, 2019) in a cinema on the grounds of an old warehouse that John used to break into to ride.

John will be back in Scotland talking about his book as part of the 'Aye Write!' festival on 16th Mar 2019 (11:30AM - 12:30PM) at the Mitchell Theatre, Glasgow. More info HERE.

John Aye Right

John Buultjens Is Brand Manager at Official DIG Partners: HARO Bikes

Previous

Simple Session 19 - Everything You Need To Know

Final Results, Event Replay, Photos and More

Next

PRODUCTIVITY: Kevin Peraza & The New VANS Old Skool Pro BMX

Endorsing a New BMX-engineered Shoe Design

Related Content

John Buultjens Podcast Screen

The John Buultjens Podcast

DIG X SNAKEBITE

24 Jan 2016
Thumbnail7
Play Button

No Donuts Episode #007

Van Homan, Etnies Chapters, John Buultjens, Big Meltdown

30 Oct 2017
Print Matters Schweppes Z9 A0531

PRINT MATTERS - SCHWEPPES

Buy this instead of that 30ml bottle of vape juice.

16 Sep 2016
Allbutinvincible Hinkens 3

Print Matters: All But Invincible

"We can't be beholden to the masses when it comes to creating art."

25 Jul 2018
Matt Coplon Print Matters Img 0532

Print Matters: Let Me Tell You About The Time...

"Every contributor was effected by BMX in some way throughout their lives."

16 Jan 2017
Print Matters Uphill Work Logan Ostrom By Mikey Almodovar

PRINT MATTERS: Uphill Work

'A Book About Street Riding'

9 Jun 2016
Ride Trailer
Play Button

RIDE Movie Trailer

Ludacris In A Sleeveless Cardigan

5 Apr 2018
John Buultjens Grab
Play Button

Behind The Scenes on 'Ride' The Movie

Forget Braveheart...

9 Nov 2016
Gateways Zine Leader

Print Matters - Gateways

"Gateways is my contribution to the cause of keeping print alive." - Brendan Mulrooney

6 Sep 2017
Frank Ashbridge Ride Pa Bmx Issue One Cover

Print Matters: Ride PA BMX

The First In A Series Of Publications From Pennsylvania

5 Dec 2017
Brian Barnhart Printmatters Golden Hours3 01

Print Matters - 'Golden Hours 3'

On the road again with Brian Barnhart

1 Feb 2017
https://www.sourcebmx.com/?rfsn=4772610.92bf38f

Latest Content

Uq3c Rb T6 G Jghqdefault
Play Button

SEAN GARDNER - SHF

A LOVELY BLEND OF TECH & STYLE

15 Oct 2025
Iycmp Z9z Wchqdefault
Play Button

CLUUT JAM 2025 / 'CASH UP'

Brussels, Belgium

14 Oct 2025
1g VAC Jov5 O Mhqdefault
Play Button
Z M33usz7 D Rghqdefault
Play Button

Snakebite BMX - Jared Souney Podcast

Integral BMX media manisfestation

13 Oct 2025
Me VA43 E Ye T Ahqdefault
Play Button

Vans BMX & Odyssey - PROOF OF BIKING

Enarson, Benegas, Hilder, Loubser, Young, Raekes, Laverde, Grabner and more

10 Oct 2025
6lsi PNAX Kjwhqdefault
Play Button

MURKY - 'Funny How Time Slips Away' DVD

8 Years In The Making

10 Oct 2025
SQJC2u LN8p Uhqdefault
Play Button

DISC 2

MELBOURNE SCENE VIDEO

10 Oct 2025
V76 KAYB Sc M Ihqdefault
Play Button

SAM GRACE - STILL HAVING FUN

FULL THROTTLE BMX!

8 Oct 2025
O87c ja sn Ihqdefault
Play Button

ALEX KENNEDY - PROJECT Xtras

"That pop!"

8 Oct 2025
P Ugc5d Ew U3 Ehqdefault
Play Button

MOTO-TOUR ISSUE 02

UNDER 13 TAIWAN TOUR

8 Oct 2025
WSXC1 AE Nbkhqdefault
Play Button

WAR PARTY - WE OUTSIDE BABY

Renato Rancso, Boyd Hilder, and Raph Jeroma-Williams

8 Oct 2025
0ls M Aewc Qghqdefault
Play Button

Junior Cunha - Brazilian Frequency

His third Subrosa / Shadow video

8 Oct 2025

DIG Partner stores

More Dig This

VANS ODYSSEY 2025 COLLECTION FF RAMP 003

"The inspiration was right in front of our eyes" The story behind the Vans X Odyssey 40 Year Collab

An interview with Nuno Oliveira (Odyssey) and Justin Villano (Vans)

25 Sep 2025
07 2025 Huffy Sledgehammer Launch Project 132

Product Drop: HUFFY Sledgehammer frame

Huffy returns to BMX...

22 Sep 2025
Team kevin peraza boh winner 2025

BATTLE OF HASTING 2025 - TEAM PERAZA TAKES THE WIN

Results, Livestream re-runs, DIG Highlights & more

27 Aug 2025
Dig book cover mock better CROP

DIG - THIS BIKE COULD BE YOUR LIFE - "DOCUMENTING OVER 30 YEARS of D.I.Y. BMX CULTURE" PRE-ORDER NOW OPEN

An all new photo book from DIG focusing on our magazine history and the rise of the mid-school

1 Aug 2025
Thumbnail 2

Product Drop - ODYSSEY '85 Splatter kit

Nord, Walsh stems and Hazard lite rims

29 Jul 2025
Shirt swell k0150m back

Product Drop - KINK 2025 APPAREL

For Fall/Winter

23 Jul 2025
Big boyd black

Product Drop - ODYSSEY BIG BOYD RIMS

Boyd Hilder signature BIG BOYD rims in Black and Coffee.

11 Jun 2025
LOW Street station Saturday Jarvis 1 copy

MONSTER ENERGY 'CASH UP' 2025 - EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

Another Year - New Locations - Even More Jams!

26 May 2025
Street station graphic

STREET STATION RETURNS for 2025

"Not your average BMX jam"

26 May 2025
Vans 11 27 21 014 Bruno Gap wall

BRUNO HOFFMANN INTERVIEW - 'FOREIGN'

"I think the scene is doing good..."

21 Apr 2025
RIXIN BIG APPLE ANGLE RAW ON WHITE 2500

PRODUCTIVITY - RIXIN Big Apple Frame

Billy Perry's signature frame - Built around what he needed.

8 Apr 2025
Rad teaser

Rad Day 2025

Anniversary movie screenings and RAD documentary release.

18 Mar 2025