We were asked by Ant Ramsey, the guy behind J4 skatepark, if we would be up for organising a jam this autumn. The aim was to do something less formal than the typical comps they host which are often marked by Olympic levels of seriousness. In our formative years, we organised jams under the Hard Dad Products [HDP] banner, and it seemed like a good challenge to see if it were possible to do a HDP jam more than fifteen years since the last one. We approached it as a reunion event that would provide a good reason to get some old friends together, some who would come with a bike and some without. 

To help encourage those long off a 20” wheel bike to attend, we ran an exhibition of photos and videos roughly covering the active years of HDP. The aim was to try to reflect a scene centred on (but not exclusive to) the northwest of England. The predominant contribution came from Northern John’s archive of film, slide and digital photography, but also drew in photos from William McGowan, Kane Casey, Andi Jackson and me. We exhibited over 150 photos taken between 1992 and 2012, featuring the riding, travelling, and antics of a wide range of friends linked to Hard Dad in some way, shape or form. We also collated a series of scene videos from friends near and far to show alongside the photos and to provide a soundtrack to the event. 

Jam Organisers Exhibition setup

HDP Zine 1

Thankfully, people made the effort to come. Plenty of people who hadn’t seen each other for 10 or even 20 years got to catch up and share a tea or a beer. Watching people slowly recognise faces that they’d shared the back of a transit van with on a trip in the distant past was great. Others dusted off bikes and got involved in a riding session in a skatepark closed to kids for the day. The aim in keeping the event aimed at adults only was so older riders, and those who hadn’t ridden for a long time, would feel comfortable having a go. It was so good to see a deck full of old faces, heckling one another and genuinely stoked on the riding they were watching and the session they were part of. Some did one lap of the bowl, others did many. 

We loosely organised jams on the bowl, jump-box and sub-box sections of the park as a way of getting everyone together and creating something of the atmosphere of old that used to spur people on to try things that they weren’t sure were within their capabilities. That tried and tested format has the same effect on people regardless of age and people pushed themselves. Despite the over 18s policy, some people brought their kids to enable their attendance and as a result the age on the deck ranged from 7 to 50-something. Teenage Chase Weighill came with his dad, a HDP friend of old, and ripped the bowl like no one has done before. His riding was, to coin a phrase, fast and loose, and he got a lot of people very excited. There were no prizes, but the jam format got enough people to risk a sore return to work on Monday and try some stuff they hadn’t done in recent memory. Watching old friends step into the unknown and see if they still had a superman or backflip in them is worth a thousand quad-whips at a UCI event.  

The evening rounded off with a BMX pub quiz in the bar at Junction 4. General knowledge, picture, and music rounds incited much racking of brains to remember which riders toured Australia in a play about BMX in 2005, and much debate about which songs went with which sections on Standard Style Cats. The evenings event finished with another dose of nostalgia, but the aim of the event had been to get people together as though BMX is something that is still happening now, regardless of age. It was of course not a unique phenomenon as there are plenty of older riders still out there digging trails, building spots, and putting on events. Getting people back connected to the scene – with or without a bike and however fleetingly – was the intention. In that vein, this jam fulfilled its aim in reminding a few older people how fun riding was, but also showing them how fun it can still be.