Awards

Hailing from San Diego, and becoming a part of the daily BMX dirt jumping scene, our early freestyle Inductee competed in his first AFA contest in 1984.  Within a year, he’d win first place at the AFA’s King of the Skateparks at Del Mar skate ranch. Not long after scoring that 16 and under Novice win, Skyway Recreation offered him an open spot as their ramp rider on tour.
        …and that is how Skyway teamed up with Eddie Roman.

Whether he was riding wobbly quarterpipes, concrete skateparks or schralpin’ around the Balboa Beach strand, Eddie’s riding kept evolving. It wasn't long before Roman and his S-D locals began taking their tricks to the urban terrain - becoming early influencers to the street scene. The Ninja Drop, rolling backwards tricks, bank to wall rides and waaaay too many foot-plant variations to name here - all became a part of the Roman empire.

Eddie’s shredding sessions were not only accompanied by his Skyway Street-Beat, but also with a Sony 8-millimeter video camera. Having the advantage of Hoover High School’s Video and Visual Arts class, along with the latest, high-tech Video Toaster software, Roman began roamin’ to film his friends and teammates in action. Mat Hoffman, Dave Voelker and Vic Murphy - just to name a few, were often his subjects. But growing up in a pre-YouTube world, getting these clips seen by riders all around the country was a whole lot harder to do.

Eventually, Eddie had filmed enough material to put together his first full length tape - titled Aggro Riding And Kung Fu Fighting; starring himself as “Slick Rick.”  The original BMX flick lived up to its name, and the demand for a sequel was strong. Thus, production of Aggroman began - starring Mat Hoffman. Eddie’s BMX videos eventually out-shined his ahead-of-his-time riding, and after releasing RIDE ON in 1992, he’d go on to film multiple videos for various companies - from 2Hip to GT, including Ride like a Man, Head First, Code 4130, Hammertime and Dead Sailor. 

Eddie's riding, video production and BMX career can be summed up in four words: creative, goofy, innovative and weird. But he helped set the stage for the future of BMX, long before any of us envisioned watching YouTube every day, via the phone in your pocket.