There were races, but there were also trackstand competitions, backwards circles contests, and a trick competition—an event that started out with five people on a good night, a humble sort of affair, and became a catalyst for a FGFS movement that unfolded across several continents in the years that followed.
On the East Coast, New York City is where FGFS really took hold. The large and diverse bike and skate scene along with endless urban features was a perfect breeding ground. According to Ed Glazar, a rider, writer, and photographer that documented a lot of the early trick riding, “[The photo at left] is kind of the birth of the scene in NYC. It was an event under the BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) called Skidface in 2007.” The 2008 NYC Bicycle Film Festival had a number of FGFS films, and a number of side events bringing people together at an important period of growth of the genre.
“We used to be able to show up to alleycats and they would have a trick comp as well,” said Jason Clary. “We were able to be competitive in trick comp with the bikes that we raced on.”
There was a market explosion, even if the riders truly pushing the limits remained a relatively small group. Everyone from the niche bike companies like GRIME, BreakBrake, Livery Design Gruppe, and Blackmarket, to longstanding brands with BMX roots, like Volume and SE Bikes, along with the most traditional names in cycling, including Specialized and Redline, who, along with so many others, presented FGFS riders with bikes designed to do all the tricks they’d been mastering.