Old School Sundays with Rich Upjohn / Happy 50th Birthday

Rich Upjohn – KOF – September 1989 from Kieran on Vimeo.

Today is a special day, Rich Upjohn celebrates his 50th birthday!

Let’s go back to 1989, and one of Rich’s flatland runs from the King of Flatland contests that happened regularly in New England. Jamming to the sounds of Madonna, I grew up reading all about these events in Radazine and E-wire ‘zine via Kieran Chapman (who I believe filmed this run too), so it’s so rad to see these runs. Rich is a great rider, and even back in 89’ he is throwing down death trucks, hitchhikers, macaroni to smith out, not to mention the direct entry to forward death with no dead time at all from the half lash (kind of an Rich Upjohn signature move in it itself) and much more with the legendary raditude to boot.

Happy birthday Rich, hope you have a great day!

7 thoughts on “Old School Sundays with Rich Upjohn / Happy 50th Birthday

  1. what a great run!!! we used to call that rolling smith out of ropearoni a “Rolley Poley” think there was a how-to by DMC in an issue of Freestylin’ around this same time give or take a year

  2. Such a great scene! Some of my earliest influence was from Keith M, Adam Murphy and John Cote (probably around 91). Jay we would call that trick a macaroni and cheese. Happy birthday Rich!

  3. Happy belated birthday , Rich ! It was really rad meeting and riding bikes with ya @ the 2017 Flatland Voodoo- Jam -Pre jam . Finally getting to meet ya was an honor considering myself being a huge fan of your riding since the Spin Tech rotor / detangler era , haha….. I think its cool , you having kept on riding , progressing and still adding your signature touch to all your combos throughout the years . Your prelim run @ Flatland Voodoo Jam brought the roof down with every rider , everyone in the entire venue being caught off guard as you were just freestyling through your combos ! Gonzalo Bellianti , Benjamin Zaragosa , and yourself …..the three of yall just had that something extra and quirky to yalls runs that REALLY stood out , in my opinion . During waiting for our runs Bobby Burge and I were like ……DAMN ….his riding is REALLY original and high energy , as you looked like you were just super comfortable , chilling with each combo you dropped ! Youre one of the most rad riders to ever represent the New England BMX scene …….SINCE THE 80s even , Props !

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