Despite the fact that I barely see or talk to the guy, I am a huge Ryan Fudger fan. There's just something about him, a certain je ne sais quoi, that I wholeheartedly appreciate. Maybe it's his no-bs approach to editing and shooting photos for Ride BMX Magazine, or the fact that he seems to have a knack for getting punched in the face all over the world, or just that he hasn't taken the all too familiar route of hanging up the bike once he logged a few years in the BMX industry.
Actually, it's all that and a whole lot more. Fudger just happens to be a sweet dude. After having spent years reading his words and glancing at his photos on the pages of Ride, I figured we should probably get to know some of the people behind one of BMX's longest running and respected editorial institutions. So here's a top fives with Ryan Fudger. Sorry for the butt-kissing intro Ryan.
Top 5 Riders
1. Gary Young
2. Corey Martinez
3. Nathan Williams
4. Morgan Wade
5. Chris Doyle
Top 5 Tricks
1. Going fast
2. Turning
3. Icepicks
4. Scorpions
5. Firecrackers
Top 5 Spots To Ride
1. Ladera Ranch park
2. The middle/elementary school combo in Long Beach
3. Pala Pool (RIP)
4. Battle Ground, Washington
5. Dussledorf College (RIP)
Nuno Oliveira/olivejuuuuice.com
Yes, Fudger still rides. And he's pretty darn good at it too.
Top 5 Things About Working For Ride BMX
1. The freedom to do something creative.
2. The lack of an alarm clock.
3. Free travel to wild places with awesome people.
4. The prestige of being a world class journalist.
5. Having seven years of memories backed up on a shelf for when my memory completely leaves me.
Top 5 Ride BMX Magazine Office Quirks
1. Jeff Z. freaking out about the way expense reports work on a weekly basis. Jeff also doesn't know any of the Transworld Motocross editors' names. He's been here for eight years.
2. Tangents about running an adult magazine instead and how funny the cover lines could be.
3. If I go into Keith's office and turn the light on and off repeatedly, he gets really annoyed/scared/tense. His dad told him it would cause a fire.
4. Fat's Muscle Milk is always mocking my skinny body in the fridge.
5. I've been here for seven years and I still have ex-Ride editor Scott McElwaney's phone number rolodex and whiteboard with "The Rick Thorne Experience" written on it. I always thought he was going to come back and get mad I was sitting at his desk.
Fudger's MySpace
Fudger at home in the San Diego area.
Top 5 Online Arguments You've Partaken In
1. Ron Wilkerson sending out a mass e-mail about how 2-Hip couldn't get a good video review because they don't advertise.
2. Jason "Old School" Ryan calling me a cokehead because he thought since we were acquaintances that I wouldn't give his bad video a bad review.
3. Defending Dirt Bros. or the magazine on BMXboard? Probably just every conversation on BMXboard, haha.
4. I got mad at Adam from thecomeup for some real ignorant things he wrote about NORA Cup a couple years back, but that wasn't really online. We talked over the phone after a few e-mails.
5. The rest are mostly BS from what I remember. I've never vested too much into 'em. I try to keep my mouth shut, but I usually can't help but to correct bad info. And it just shoots downhill from there. Even still, I'm pretty sure I talk s--t to someone on Twitter on a daily basis.
Top 5 Awesome Fat Tony Facts
1. He shaves his butt.
2. He put Japanese symbols on his MySpace page after going to Japan.
3. He's the CEO of his own company.
4. He really hates falling.
5. His real name is Adam Christopher Taylor, but you can call him Fat.
Top 5 Photos You've Shot
1. Sean Burn's opener for his interview. The entire scenario was amazing. At one point a woman walked in with a stripper outfit already on completely white-eyed. She then called her "manager" to tell him that it looked legit.
2. The photo of the Great Wall of China. It's cliché as hell, but one, it looks like a painting from the early 1900's. Two, it looks like someone who knew what they were doing shot it. And three, it's a good reminder of my first time overseas.
3. Gary Young's jump over the pipe. Only because how high he his. I love how people were confused about what he was doing; it's iterally a ten-foot air out of a street transition. That's what winding out a 30-9 gearing will get you, haha.
4. The 2008 NORA Cup opening spread of the crowd. Darryl Nau was the best dude to have on stage and got all 2,000 riders to scream at the top of their lungs. It's one of those photos that commemorate a thousand memories into one photo.
Ride BMX
#5 on the photo list. BK on the cover of Ride.
5. Brian Kachinsky's tooth hanger cover from the July 2008 issue. One of the few times where I knew I was driving to shoot a cover, compounded by the fact that I had already shot a photo of Brian attempting tooth'n El Toro and nearly dying. Other facts: It was a weekday and everyone was driving over a 100 mph in the late afternoon in Southern California traffic to get there. I hadn't been to this rail in over two years and wasn't even 100% sure the rail was still there (and this was five days after El Toro had been torn out). It was at a school, so who really knew if we could even set up. He pulled it first try and I sighed a huge, huge, huge sigh of relief.
Top 5 Movies
Full-on horrible dude movies
1. Predator
2. The Live
3. The Terminator
4. Time Cop
5. Bloodsport
Top 5 Foods
1. Steak
2. Carne Asada Burrito
3. Pho
4. Tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and Italian dressing
5. Special K Red Berries and whole milk
Top 5 Songs
1. Siouxsie and the Banshees Spellbound
2. The Blow Hey Boy
3. Sufjan Stevens All The Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands
4. Violent Femmes 36-24-36
5. Solex The Show Master
Top 5 Good Things About Your Home
1. Front yard, back yard, and a garage.
2. Or are we talking about Long Beach? If so, the massive amount of riders.
3. The ability to pedal from my home to anything I could want, including the beach.
4. Inside the home: two cats that have a total of three eyes.
5. A naked woman in my room at all times.
Top 5 Things To Do This Year
1. Try to leave the country again.
2. Ice a rail bigger than 12 stairs.
3. Get shoes that I actually like.
4. Sell my Volkswagen.
5. Sell a single photo for a shitload of money to a huge corporate company so I can buy a gross, but powerful, American muscle car. Then do an 80-second burnout.
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Contributors
Brian Tunney
This is Brian. He lives in Jersey City, rides BMX bikes often and somehow ended up in the X Games a few times. Facebook him if needed.
Cody York
From Cleveland, Ohio, Cody was raised on a steady diet of backyard jumps and skateparks and his photos have graced the pages of Ride BMX, BMX Plus!, Ride UK, and Dig magazines. Got something to share? cyorkphoto@me.com
Mark Noble
Mark is from the U.K., and has over 28+ years experience in BMX. He has launched, published, edited and written for more BMX mags than you can shake a bike at. He also runs Deluxe BMX.
Nick Ferreira
Nick Ferreira is a BMXer, photographer and zine maker from Taunton, MA. He has been extolling the merits of tucks and tabes in print and online for the better part of the past 10 years.
Pat Nugent
Born and raised on Long Island, the only outlet to BMX that Patrick grew up knowing was racing. For a while, he got into all those weird forms of BMX, but eventually returned to the race scene. He enjoys shooting races and snaking practice laps.
Steve Crandall
Hails from Ithaca, NY, created FBM in '93, paints pictures of eggs, soup and pigeons in his spare time, throws down a mean tabletop.
