The trio, who rode together under the Rocky Mountain Fro Riders banner in the mid to late Nineties, introduced the world to a different style of riding. One where the focus was on flowy style, steep descents and big drops rather than Lycra-clad racing. They were originally to be coined the “Freeriders” but one of Rocky's competitors was attempting to trademark the term, and to avoid a legal wrangle, the “Froriders” were born.
FRO Rider magazine ad circa 1997.
Collectively known as “The Godfathers of Freeride”, these Kamloops boys threw away the spandex and toeclips that were de rigueur, donned their hockey jerseys and pointed their bikes into the unknown. “Steeps, chutes, big drops and natural trannies, nothing was built up in those days, so we just looked for the nuggets and went for it”, says Brett Tippie. “I was racing snowboardcross and GS on the National Team for Burton on the World Cup Circuit in the ‘90’s, and the Kamloops sandpits was where I boarded in the summer for training. I was an avid mountain biker too, so it just seemed like a natural progression to carve my bike down the slopes and jump off things”.
Thus a new era had begun. “Greg Stump, a legendary ski movie producer, (Blizzard of Ahhh’s) wanted to make an MTB film, and Richie (former Canadian Pro BMX Champion and pro freeskier) and I filmed “Pulp Traction” in 1995, followed by “Tao of Riding” in 1996, and two years later we teamed up with Christian Begin and Bjorn Enga, fellow powder hounds, and Wade, a crossover from the Canada Cup Downhill circuit, to make “Kranked 1”.
Tippie sending it Kamloops style.
The rest is history and they went on to appear in hundreds of international magazines and countless pivotal mountain bike movies (Kranked being THE movie series of the time followed by NWD, by Derek Westurlund, upon their release of NWD1 a few years later).
Wade - smooth as butta.
With their backgrounds in skiing, snowboarding and BMX, they "put the culture in and pulled the competition out", according to Canadian Olympian Andreas Hestler, who nominated them for induction. Richie said, “In a way, I always thought it would get big, at least I hoped it would. I had been a skier, and I saw how big that got, and I thought we could do the same thing on mountain bikes.”
Richie schleying it.
"Viva the Fro Riders and the new attitude. Biking is for all, and all for fun”. Rock and Roll...literally.
“It wasn’t really all about how big or sick we could go, but where we could take these bikes, and what we could ride on them that wasn’t normal.” said Wade. These three have been inducted for the joint venture and strength it took to be who they wanted to be and stand up in the face of the unknown to pioneer a new way of biking. An old interview sums the trio up probably the best; Richie the Professional, Wade the Natural, and Tippie the Rockstar. They were the first to travel abroad and film unknown gems, to ride unimaginable terrain, and take it completely to the next level. Perhaps it can be best summed up as this:
TEQUILA TONIGHT, TOMORROW WE RIDE!!!
Tippie with some 1993 gravel pit steeze.
Also being inducted are Mountain Bike Action photographer John Ker, Alan Bonds – who was involved in the original 'klunker' racing scene in Marin County, California, from which the modern mountain bike was born – and Jim Wannamaker, of Kenda USA, who has been recognised for his work as an ambassador for the sport.
The Hall Of Fame would like to invite everybody at Interbike, Las Vegas to attend The Froriders induction into the MTB Hall of Fame Wednesday Sept. 22 at Rm. 106/107 at the Sands Convention Center (down the hall from Interbike) at 6:00pm. Some speeches, laughs and free admission too!
p.s. rode with Tippie yesterday and the guy was still sending it! doing lines that I know over 90% of shore riders won't do and he was going for it no hesitation!
PS. Not hating on "pinityoufairy" loads of other people are probably the same.
And you're right, the gravelboarding photo is awesome.
Hats off to you all.
Nothing more to say really... Huge props to you three (amongst others as well) for showing us a new way to go having fun with our bikes out there.