SEAN: Oh, they’re not going to?

SFBG: That’s what I heard. Did you hear otherwise?

SEAN: No. I was just going to wait until it was done and see what the vibe was like and just kind of smooth my way in there, like, early in the morning or something. Try to avoid any kind of drama--I figure that place is gonna be pretty crowded. Looks like a good set-up, though. I like all this multi-level stuff. Looks super fun.

SFBG: I haven’t even been by it yet, which is funny, because I work right by there. Is it poured yet?

SEAN: Yeah, everything…there’s a lot of concrete already. I think they probably still pouring the main, big bowl--there’s like a cloverleaf bowl.

SFBG: People are hitting it already?

SEAN: Probably. I don’t want to get banned from it before it’s even done. I go by there every once in awhile just to see what the progress is. I’m like, “Man, I hope this is not going to be bullshit.” We finally get a park after all these years…

SFBG: You mean you hope the actual layout isn’t going to be bullshit, or the vibe--the anti-bike thing?

SEAN: Just the politics and all that. I think a lot of it depends on who builds the parks, like they put a warranty on the park as long as bikes aren’t allowed in or something like that. It’s weird.

SFBG: Well, what do you think about that? If they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars pouring a park and things happen to it, they should repair it, don’t you think?

SEAN: Yeah, it’s like a basketball net doesn’t last forever. There’s going to be some maintenance involved. It probably isn’t going to be a big deal, I wouldn’t think. It’s just these old school skaters that are like, “We fought for it and you guys didn’t do shit.”

SFBG: Did any BMXers go to those meetings?

SEAN: There’s just not as many of us, and nobody’s organized, nobody knows how to network. There used to be this dude that ran a website called BRO [Editor’s note: BMX Riders Organization--the site is still there at www.bmxriders.org, but hasn’t been updated since 2006].

More Clock Tower locals killing it on flat

SFBG: Yeah, JP Bail, right?

SEAN: Well, I knew Sam [Pederson]. He kind of just washed his hands of it, eventually. Got a girlfriend and married her and I didn’t see him for years after that. That was the only form of networking there was, at that point, to even hear about these meetings. I went to the ones at Alameda when I was available.

SFBG: Alameda’s still technically bike unfriendly, right?

SEAN: Yeah, it’s iffy. You get the cops driving by. I think it’s just up to them, whether they’re bored or what.

SFBG: I’ve been hassled there before, but I’ve never really been ticketed.

SEAN: Yeah, I’ve had one ticket, but that was five years ago.

SFBG: Did you pay it?

SEAN: Yeah, I think it was 150 bucks.

SFBG: Jesus. What do you think about the ongoing battle between bikers and skaters.

SEAN: Shit, I don’t know. I just kind of pick my spots wisely, I guess, and try to avoid that kind of stuff. It’s irritating to me because I’ve been skating my whole life and I don’t feel like I have to prove it to these 13-year-olds whether I skate or not to make me valid, you know? I think it boils down to just etiquette moreso than who-knows-what.

SFBG: So you still skate?

SEAN: I do occasionally, but I end up getting the same stupid injury that made me want to quit to begin with. I try to just be agile on it. I’ll skate a mini ramp, but I won’t go, like, attack a big set of stairs or anything like that anymore. My ankles are fucked from skateboarding.

SFBG: What kind of interactions have you had with skateboarders, just riding around town?

SEAN: I’ve had a few problems with the ones at Embarcadero, but it’s pretty easy to like, just punk ‘em, I guess. I just get in their face and start yelling. I make ‘em sit down. I’ve benched kids. Not even kids, so much, like 19-year-old, 20-year-old dudes and stuff. I’m like, “I’ve never seen you here before, because I’m here every fuckin’ day, and if you come straight at me while I’m in the middle of a trick, that’s your dumb ass.” You know? “Go the fuck over there and sit the fuck down until I’m done riding, and then you can skate again. If I see you skating, I’m gonna fuckin’ clothesline you.” You know? Shit like that. They go and sit down. You’ve got to be Tony Montana on their ass, I guess.

SFBG: This is down on the Embarcadero, but the Clock Tower, right?

SEAN: Yeah. It’s always a battle down there, especially the weekends. I don’t know. It’s kind of stupid, but, I stand my ground. I’m always right--I stay within a contained area. I’m not running into pedestrians and shit like that.

SFBG: Do they clown you when you’re doing flatland tricks?

SEAN: They just come at you, you know? They’re obsessed with ollieing over these little manhole covers or whatever, and where I ride is kind of close to one of them. I’m like, “Dude, go play with someone else’s manhole, you know?” Why does it have to be the one I’m riding next to? You’ve got the whole damned area and I’m just taking up a small, little circle. I start out mellow, but if they do it repeatedly, I know they’re fucking with me, so that’s when I get in their face. Kind of give ‘em a couple strikes or whatever, then I blow up. I don’t know. I don’t feel like picking fights with everybody down there.

The Clock Tower flat scene is on lockdown. No nibblers, please.

SFBG: Are you friends with any of the skaters that ride down there on the regular? Are there skaters that you see a lot that you’re cool with?

SEAN: Yeah, totally. The guys that are actually are the regulars, I know most of them and they’re all super chill. And I think that, to an extent, they tell the other skater, “Okay, just avoid that little area where those guys are.” I mean, we were there first, anyway. I rode that place before it was even built, and all those guys were at Pier 7. And then when they got the boot from there they just came right to my spot and just mobbed it. And I’m like, “No, I’m not havin’ it. That’s bullshit.”

SFBG: Yeah, but there’s a lot of vibe like that from skaters, too, saying that BMXers blow up spots.

SEAN: Yeah, like the Muni place. That’s starting to get kinda…I’ve heard some skaters talkin’ shit under their breath like when we go buy, like when you show up in a big pack with video cameras, they’ll vibe you or whatever.

SFBG: What Muni place?

SEAN: Third and Army.

SFBG: Oh, yeah, yeah. I heard they tore the transition out of that.

SEAN: They probably did. I heard they just installed a handrail right in the middle of it, a little flat rail. Quikreted some other thing. I don’t know--I never really liked that spot. It’s kind of a nibbler spot.

SFBG: Yeah, it’s pretty weird. What do you think the general public’s idea of BMXers is?

SEAN: People are probably pretty irritated, the way we ride around with no brakes, cut ‘em off--all the close calls and everything. Runnin’ lights and shit. I don’t know, it’s kind of rebellious. I realize that more now that I’m getting older. Sometimes I look like a damn fool runnin’ around with a bunch of 20-year-olds, but it’s still pretty fun. I can’t give it up. I tried to quit years ago when I broke my elbo for the fifth time, but that couldn’t even stop me. Fuck. It’s got me. I don’t know.

SFBG: This question might not be answerable, but why do you think you ride?

SEAN: [Pause.]

SFBG: Bad vibes, busted elbows.

SEAN: I don’t know. It just kind of completes my life, I guess. I get kind of spastic if I don’t have an outlet for releasing energy or trying to be creative. I do a lot of music stuff, but there’s just nothing physical about it. So I’ll work on a song and I’ll just have to go away and go ride, ‘cause I just got--Aagh!--a burst of energy or whatever. It’s just something that has every aspect of things that I like. It covers everything. It’s exercise; it’s transportation; it’s creativity. It offers a lot.

SFBG: What do you think of the First Rule jams that Kweli’s throwing?

SEAN: Actually, I started that. I built the ramps for the first one, and kind of got the guys together to try to help out and everything. Koit kind of just took the ball and ran with it. I was like, “Is there a product or a service we’re offering? I’m down to help out with this, but I don’t really know what we’re promoting.” But it kind of turned into just a jam where people meet up, which is cool, too. It was kind of a pain in the early days to build ramps from nothing. Nobody wanted to put in any money. It was just kind of too ghetto. And we had it in Hunter’s Point, which was the most ghetto thing about it.

Flatland is no easy trip

SFBG: When was the first one?

SEAN: It was about three years ago, I think.

SFBG: You know how there was the LA one. When that was on the Come Up, people were like, “those jams suck--they’re just going to get spots shut down.” What do you think about that?

SEAN: I’m kind of mixed on that. I don’t necessarily riding with that many people if it’s not going to be a secure, chill location. I don’t feel like riding around getting kicked out of everywhere, ‘cause that’s what’s happened here now. I can’t even get a session at the Library anymore because it’s been so blown out. Places like that, if it wasn’t for those kind of jams would probably go unnoticed in small packs. They kind of put the magnifying glass on things we like. It’s good and bad. It doesn’t seem to be a respectful thing, like calling it “Project Mayhem” and all that, trying to be like Fight Club. It’s that rebellious thing, I guess. That I can’t outgrow.

SFBG: For me, the last Oakland jam was the first one I’ve been on. It’s such a trip for me to see that many people riding. I mostly ride by myself. I don’t really hit downtown a lot. For me it was kind of reassuring to see that there was that big a scene.

SEAN: Totally, yeah. It’s a good thing that people who probably live down the street from one another and didn’t even know it get a chance to meet. Or people that you thought quit, it’s good to see them again. It’s good for socializing, mostly, but as far as riding goes I’d rather be in a pack of four or five people at the most. I get a little more out of it, get to ride more instead of taking a pedal at something and stopping ‘cause there’s eight or nine guys coming right at you.