Re Print: 'That' Albie Bennett Crash - In His Own Words

"I apologized but they wanted to eat my heart."

13 Mar 2015

Words by Albie Bennett Portrait by Jeff Allen Originally printed in DIG 72 September 2009

This particular Sunday started like most summer days. I met up with the people I usually ride with and we had already been riding for a good amount of the day. Half of the crew had already left to go home and we were about to go our separate ways as we were passing by the prudential center. Burns and I had talked about the 360 and since the area wasn't crowded and I hadn't eaten shit earlier, I was feeling up to it. We went up the stairs and scoped it out.

After a brief encounter with a penguin lady decked out in Mickey Mouse attire I felt ready to give it a go. Busby set up on top of an electrical box while Kyle stood at the bottom and Burns stood at the top to make sure that I didn't smash into anyone. I went down the sidewalk to my starting point and waited for the signal to start pedaling. I waited for some pedestrians to pass and got a thumbs-up from Burns. Without hesitation I started pedaling at the set and the next thing I know I'm spinning in the air.

One day Albie and I were sitting on the sidewalk in Boston, a little lad no more than eight or nine walked by with his mother. He looked over at Albie then turned to his mom and said, "Mom look at that thing." As if Albie was not a human being. I can only imagine what these two woman were thinking had caused them to fall on their asses. I highly doubt they expected to see that "thing" smiling at them asking if they were alright. - Jeff Allen

Everything felt perfect until my wheels made contact with the ground and I looked up to see my landing. To my surprise a mother and daughter were walking right in front of me and were completely oblivious of the immediate danger they were in. I tried to turn out of the way but I was going to fast to make the turn and ended up skidding right into them, knocking them over like a pair of porcelain dolls. At first I thought I had killed the daughter and that the mother was going to die of a hear attack in my crotch, but surprisingly, they were fine, just really pissed off. I apologized but they wanted to eat my heart. They were screaming at me, calling me an idiotic son of a bitch. They continued their name calling while Busby tried to sneak out of there unnoticed, but once they saw him they started screaming for security. Kyle, Burns and I went in one direction, while Busby scattered in another. We all met up in a park about a mile away, watched the footage, and almost died laughing. Where did the women come from? I don't know, and neither does anyone there who witnessed it. It's almost as if they appeared out of thin air. Either way, it's an entertaining clip.

Video Vault - Albie Bennett "Off the Map 2"

The whole story of that classic section as told by Sean Burns - More Info

To my surprise a mother and daughter were walking right in front of me and were completely oblivious of the immediate danger they were in. I tried to turn out of the way but I was going to fast to make the turn and ended up skidding right into them, knocking them over like a pair of porcelain dolls.

"From high school leather hero to college town lysergic weirdo… Albie Bennett's Off the Map 2 part has a book of it's own behind it. In 2005 we would wait for Albie to get out of school to go film clips for OTM2. The Bell would ring and he would come out the door and down the front steps of Brookline High in a leather jacket with a ton of babes all around him. Shaking off girls and then firing out eighteen stair bunny hops all in the same hour. This is all no exaggeration either. For the next couple of years, every holiday season and school break Albie would come back home from going to college in Towson, MD. Only on the vacation get away weekends that Albie was home from school, would him and Matt Busby (Off the Map creator) get together and shoot stuff for the video." - Sean Burns

Read the rest of Sean's Behind the scenes story of filming with Albie here...