Mirra most skillful rider
The people at Vital BMX held a poll recently. When asked the question, “Who do you think has the most skill on a BMX bike,” the final tally looked like this:
1. Dave Mirra (40.2%)
2. Mike Aitken (25.4%)
3. Jamie Bestwick (19.7%)
4. Edwin Delarosa (14.8%)
August 28th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
dave mirra is the number 1 rider around and its been that way for years. there is no way a any rider can match his skills and concentration.
August 29th, 2006 at 4:03 am
In my opinion Dave is No. 1 closely followed by Ryan Guettler
August 29th, 2006 at 7:35 am
But when the time goes by, Dave is getting old, who can take this no.1 place? any idea guys?
August 29th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
Mirra is the man,& will remain tht way 4 a long time.Osato has mad skills 2.why aint he in tht list.
August 29th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
Corey Martinez…actually, he doesn’t ride vert…Bestwick, who I think is AS old, if not older…hmmm….Josh harrington…Daniel Dehrs, who’s insane…Mirraco should scoop him up. Anyone know what Nigel is/was riding, frame wise??
August 29th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
By far Dave is the best rider of all time hell ya
August 30th, 2006 at 7:37 am
You guys are all correct……but I would like to know when should the people stop riding bmx……..now I am 39, shall i stop right now as sometime I really cannot afford any injury like twisted, crash and bleeding…..etc. Really want to know how the younger think……..
August 30th, 2006 at 11:44 am
Yeah, 9 out of 10 12 year old squidies agree. Better than that old Hoffman guy.
August 30th, 2006 at 3:25 pm
Dave Mirra is my biggest fan. There is no way that no one can be as good as him. Keep up the good work dave.
August 30th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
“Better than that old Hoffman guy.” …..Oh man….know your roots man, Hoffman made vert riding what it is, and Mirra rode for Hoffman….do you see anyone else doing no-handed 900’s? He may not be the best ALL AROUND skill, but just know that he invented 99% of the tricks the riders on that poll do. Get the book ” Ride of my Life” by Mat Hoffman, you learn alot.
Cheers
August 30th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
personally, i dont think mirra is as good as he used to be.
sorry, but thats what i think. theres a lot of up-and-comers, guettler is a pro now and even though he’s had better days, he’s still riding good and hard, just like scotty cranmer and corey bohan and all those other riders. id rank guettler #1 if he could pull it together again like 2005
August 30th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
yeah dave is by far the best but my favorite rider is seth kimbrough or however u spell his namei love his style, what do u guys think about a dual drive bike using the dk dual drive rear hub i did it on my bike u guys should make a production one like that
August 30th, 2006 at 8:43 pm
Dave has the best tricks by far and is the greatest ever but in a couple of years scotty cranmer will be # 1
August 31st, 2006 at 9:51 am
Dave Mirra number 1! Followed by Mike Aitken in 2nd. And Van Homan and Brain Wizmerski for 3rd.
August 31st, 2006 at 11:44 am
Josh, I was being sarcastic. Thus the 12 year old squidies remark. Hoffman is the Godfather of BMX Vert…..&…….RL Osborne was the Godfather of flatland if you ask me. Whatever happened to…..Craig Grasso the origional street rider….anyone? How’s that for roots?
Mirra’s riding speaks for itself. He doesn’t need a goofy poll to tell everyone he has skills. I think it sounds desperate. As far as Mirra being “as good as he used to be” In my opinion Dave just doesn’t look like he is having fun anymore. Relax Dave. You proved yourself. Enjoy life. I think you should go to the next competition on a old bannana seat Stingray with tassels and pull a backflip just because you can. That would speak louder than any poll.
August 31st, 2006 at 4:38 pm
Deep Roots, Those Are Deep Roots my man. I’m all for Mirra rollin’ out in a Stingray…minus the tassles, lol.
Cheers
September 1st, 2006 at 9:29 pm
plz send me a catoalog of stunt bikes.
September 1st, 2006 at 11:48 pm
As good as Mirra is, and he is phenomenal, there is very little originality and or flow in most of his riding…..the same can be said for alot of the park and or dirt riders these days too….like Cranmer and Guettler…they just bomb around the course popping crazy tricks that are starting to become more and more gross to watch as they just cram as much as they can into an air before landing. I’d personally much rather watch a guy like Aitken or Chase Hawk flow a park or dirjumps, their lines are smooth, their tricks are extremely clicked, and they aren’t trying to do ridiculous ugly tricks like frontflips or 360 doublewhips…they make their riding looks good and smooth, and for me thats enough.
September 3rd, 2006 at 7:27 am
MIRRA BIKE CHECK !!!!!! it needs to be posted!!!
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:22 am
if mirra stops, scotty cranmer will be number 1, i’m not a fan of cranmer, but he’s not even 25 and he has done some nice things to
September 5th, 2006 at 7:37 am
Gauch - Finaly someone else said it. I agree There is a whole lot of hucking going on without much style. I’m not denying the difficulty or shock and awe of the do or die tricks but I miss the days when BMX (or freestyle for us ol’ school fools) had flow and style. Ugly indeed. How about we bring back some interesting park and street riding and make a seperate event with a huge ski jump riders can huck off and see how many tailwhips, flips and bar spins they can cram into one air. Like Olympic ski jumping.
September 6th, 2006 at 9:45 am
Dave Mirra’s riding is outstanding, Jaw dropping everytime i watch him.
September 7th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
Dave mirra is by far the smoothest and the most concentrated rider in the BMX scene. Mike Aitken aint far behind though.Mirra need to scoop him up and put him on the team.
September 7th, 2006 at 5:22 pm
it aint much, if it aint dutch
September 7th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
mirra has been the shit forever, since he was killing it on the front wheel back in the day, just remember every kid these days has everything more clicked then aitken or hawk, thats not original or progression, when you get paid to ride you gotto push the sport. Lookbacks and Style tricks can be seen at your local park. Imagine 11 years of xgames with turnsdowns and 180s over the box, not to mention everyone trying to look like girls. With the progression in lightbikes, and foamparks for kids, getting good on a bike is becoming easier, this is why guys like cranmer and garret reynolds are so young which hasnt proved anything, kids will takeover and they will have to prove themselves. mirras been ontop for as long as i can remember, and every year he proves himself and pushes the sport to the next level. Dave is over 30, and still killing it. In the next few years it would be nice to see him travel the world hit up all the spots, hit up Canada, the worlds, get more coverage in props, just not think so much about competing! I like to see that side of him in his riding! maybe even prove that hes not a mechine. Its time to crack open the beers after a session! Peace+Respect just somebmxguy…
September 28th, 2006 at 2:12 pm
hola mirra soy de argentina como va todo por hay jeje chau salu2
November 15th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
Its all about Edwin D. Street fo life, Daves easily the best all round rider though. Keep it up dave
November 21st, 2006 at 7:57 pm
yo guys dave is the best rider aroun and no one is better than he is.I want to be able to do that stuff.I can do a 540 but that is all.
January 3rd, 2007 at 7:34 pm
alright. one, comparing aitken and hawk to girls is by far the stupidet thing ever. i won’t even go into detail, ill just pretend that i never even saw it in the first place. two. ’style” tricks, such as turndowns, lookbacks, etc, can be seen at most parks, its true. but no body can do them exactly like Aitken or Hawk. thats what style is for the most part, that extra something that makes a rider stand out. when i see kids do there “style” tricks, i see them trying to be, but never actually being as good as the pros there stylizing. the park jock mentality of cramming as many trick into a few seconds of airtime is just disgusting. as for mirra, he has zero style, and this poll for just so he see if people were still into him. hopefully riders like eddie cleveland, mike atkin, kimbrough, edwin, hawk, and ian will push the more style than tricks, and hopefully save more then a few people love for having fun on a bike.
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:43 am
I a gree dave ! Style for life !
January 23rd, 2007 at 5:24 pm
hey josh . i agree hoffman made up 99% of the tricks in 1989, but it is now 2006. remember just because you do it first doesn’t mean you do it the best . hoffman was the first to do the flip fakie , jay miron pulled it first. hoffman did the flair first but look at the trick now , it ’s totally different. give credit where credit is due but progression shouldn’t be denied. do you think everyone was supposed to quit because the candybar can-can was taken.
January 23rd, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Mirra is a good rider for sure, there is no dbout about that..
But Van Homan was not on that list.. and he kills everything..
There are so many good riders.. that essentially makes that poll useless.. That poll should be asking, “What BMX rider is most publicized?”.
It’s pretty much whoever gets the best coverage.. that gets the win on these, and think of the riders yet to be named on a list like that..
January 24th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
whoa whoa whoa whoa, Gauch, i’m not sure if you watched mirras warehouse video but he def. kills it, how can you say he has no style? and laz how can you say mirra is just the most publicized rider and not best overall rider? the man has won like 204078987659858756 xgames… that pretty much sums it up right there… the x and gravity games are the best of the best. the man has sinced then learned 360 no handed backflips… i dont see any one else doing those… i think mirra is the man. i do agree that ed (delarosa), mike aitken, van homan, mat berringer, scotty cranmer, and all of them are awsome riders b ut i dont even think they can hold a candle to mirra. and he didnt compare them aitken and hawk to girls, he said they look like girls, and i’m sorry if you wear your pants hugging your jock soo hard that it indents your leg but… thats a little girly to me as well.. i must also add that 360 double whips are far from ugly… and scotty cranmer is far from a rider who tries to huck a bunch of tricks in one air, he maybe be a lunatic but to say he has no style and flow is a bit much just today i was watching a video of him nosedive-bunnyhop 360ing into a 7ft quarterpipe quite effortlessly and not land all sketchy or with no style… i dono you guys need to re-evaluate the pros and maybe take a second look at some video parts… one more thing i must add before i leave… i’m sure mirra will go around and dominate the bmx scene in the rest of the world but he first had to break his sponsorship with haro which pretty much bound him to training and big contests… c’mon now… … now instead of criticizing the style of mirra or any other rider you should go out and try to gain some style of your own… -Dennis
January 24th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
and sorry i gotta add one more thing… why would it be a poll to see if people were still into mirra if it was conducted on vitalbmx.com which last i knew…. mirra wasnt a direct part of
April 1st, 2007 at 9:32 am
Edwin is better than all of them but Dave does have technique
Edwin has more skill and a better style
April 2nd, 2007 at 1:54 pm
i’m all about the flo bro. stretching a hand-can as far as possible is not nearly as sick as pointing your fingers in just the right way. style will always be king!
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Funny how individuals talk about people and style like they’re speaking facts and not just giving thier opinion of what THEY think of someone and/or something they’ll never meet or see in real life. Might as well go back to playing with your toys in your fantasy world of TMNT. Style, teqnique, flow whatever… all of these can not be judged as good or bad. Look at Brian Foster, Robbie Morales, Fuzzy Hall, and Mike Dominguez of old. Some people said they were great and other’s said they sucked but one thing words can never take away is the true facts. What are the true facts? More wins at comps than any other BMX bike rider ever with more earnings also… that’s what. I’m not trying to pull Dave’s leg either cause I prefer a different type of rider but I have to admit that Dave’s riding has inspired me to ride my bike and still does to this day since we are about the same age. So does Hoffman who’s older than I am and still kills it on Vert. So guys… try to not talk (type) down on things you know nothing about until you can look at the situation from both sides and try to drop the hate while your young and use that energy to ride your bike which is all these guys (and now girls) are trying to get you to love in the 1st place.
Peace
April 3rd, 2007 at 6:19 am
Stee’s bro!
June 3rd, 2007 at 1:14 pm
yea i agree that dave is the greatest rider ever.. . .and im always watching him in every comp… . .and Edwin is #2 because he has alot of tricks on streets and for #3 is BRAD SIMMS because he also have a nice and smooth riding skills.. . .^_^.. . .
June 4th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
show em how its done
come out on top
i belive you can do it
p.s.double flair
June 4th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
yea dave has the most shoking tricks (minus spinners 1080XD) but for example out of the old school riders, el jefe garcía, made dirt jumping what it is know, an so on wee could keep on talking but it, but, the new school, ryan G, de la rosa for a few years know, plus a hole bunch of kids that allready know the magic formula at age 13, it’s like it’s always been, pupiles dethroning masters, and that’s the way it’s always gonna be.
dave if you read this, i saw you pull a back flip when I was in 5th grade, and I decided I wanted to be a BMX rider. took me almost 5 years to put a bike together. I ow it to you.
thanks for everything.
screw the polls, just ride it
June 5th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Find a spot, Grind a spot.
What your saying is very true. the only thing i must say is please use spell-check.
Other then that and a few other errors your, right, RIDE!
June 18th, 2007 at 8:48 am
Dave Mirra is a bmx monopoly. Im glad he is off Haro though, Haro is weak, but I’m sure the salary was awesome.
June 18th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Cant believe DMC gets overlooked so often. Hell he was THE man in all disciplines at one time or another. My Overall favourite rider of all time. Who else can do it all like he does. Honestly. WHO???????? And he is forty…..??… years old
June 19th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I all for Dave Mirra going out in a comp with an old pink Stingray with white tires, glittery tassles and a bell.
He’ll win, assuming the bike doesn’t break.
As for best rider, it’s either Mirra or Cranmer.
…
I think Mirra isn’t too concerned about competitions this year because he knows he won’t win as much.
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:47 am
As i rider from way back when some of the mentioned riders were being born,its not fair to compare as style is so differenet from one rider to another.Hoffman will always be rated as the best ever bmx rider,im sure Mirra and Bestwick would both agree as i used to ride with Jamie.Mirra is an unreal rider as is Jamie,also the likes of Wade etc who have so much skill.Mike Spinnner at the moment is doing things noone else is doing so hes worth a mention.Worth more than a mention,the guy is crazy.I must add Joe Johnson who was trying triple whips back in 89,90 at Woodward and the likes of Josh White(GT) who was unreal.If those guys were around today i cant imagine what tricks they would be doing.All the old timers will know what i mean where as the newer riders will be thinking ….Josh ….?….which i find funny.
Final shout goes out to Steven Murray,Get well soon.
August 8th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
The question was who has the most skill on a BMX bike, not who is the best “vert” rider.
The best overall rider in terms of flatland, street, and standard vert riding as well BMX and stunt riding - is DMC. Dennis McCoy has been, at one time or another, the # 1 rider at each level of riding. To this day, I challenge anyone to find more insane flatland riding than McCoy from the late 80’s.
It’s hard to vote against Mirra as the top vert rider of all-time, but the best “OVERALL” man with a bike HAS to be Dennis McCoy.
August 8th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Somebody mentioned Hoffman as the “Godfather of Vert” which I agree with, for the most part.
RL Osborn though as the Godfather of Flatland?? Not so sure.
Eddie Fiola?? Martin Aparijo??
October 12th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
I’ve grown up with “freestyle” and it makes me sick to hear so many people jump onto the latest riders band wagon. Since the dark days of the early to mid nineties, people have proclaimed the guy who is consistently winning contests “the greatest vert rider of all time”. You heard it when Mirra was ripping off wins. You heard it when Simon Tabron was winning. Now you hear it every time you turn on a vert contest and have to listen to the tool bag announcers slobber all over Jamie Bestwick.
None of these guys can even carry Mat Hoffman’s tennis ball he used to jam between his spokes in the 80’s. There is no question that Mat Hoffman is far and away the best vert rider in the history of the sport. As d-piddy said above “hoffman made up 99% of the tricks in 1989, but it is now 2006″. Nevermind it is 2007 and I would jack that 99% up to 100%. The riders today have no creativity. They are simply regurgitating Hoffmans tricks and at a much lower height.
Some idiots point to winnings and medals but Hoffman amassed the majority of his wins when there were no medals or tv time. Winnings back then might consist of a few hunderd dollars. There was no tv contract money or the inflated sponsorship money made possible because of the tv time. The only true comparison is the simple fact that he invented every trick you watch today and no one has done anything original on a vert ramp since.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest. How about some respect for Ron Wilkerson. The man invented the modern vert contest (2-Hip King Of Vert) and park contest (2-Hip King Of Street) as we know it. He was also a great rider for his time. He would occasionaly challenge DMC for best overall rider and pushed the sport on the riding side (nothing air) as well as the business side (2-Hip KOV & 2-Hip Bikes). The man deserves more respect.
Since I mentioned DMC, the man is also grossly underrated. He’s 41 and has reinvented himself as a vert rider when he was known more for his flatland abilities. He was consistently the best overall rider in the sport for as long as I can remember. Most of the flatland tricks out there were invented by him and/or RL Osborn. No one ever mentions what he has done, and continues to do, for the sport.
What about Brian Blyther? He dominated vert before Hoffman turned pro. He could consistently blast 12 ft airs with inferior technology (bike & ramp). Not to mention this guy was the smoothest rider on a vert ramp that the sport will ever see.
I could go on and on about the legends that are forgotten because they existed prior to the “television” era. Josh White, Mike Dominguez, Hugo Gonzales, Eddie Roman, Dave Voelker etc. These guys invented the stuff you are watching on tv without the help of bungy cords or FOAM PITS. These guys would risk life and limb to pull a trick with nothing below them but plywood or concrete. Freakin amazing! What was their motivation? The love of the sport. Not the money or the tv time. The money barely existed and tv time was nonexistent. Back then you had to travel from bike shop to bike shop to find an underground video of your favorite riders.
I know I’ve got off on a tangent but my original point is stop and consider the guys that existed prior to the tv coverage before anointing the next “best rider ever”. Chances are they are just the “best rider at the time”.
November 7th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Dave Mirra is by far the best SKILLED bmx Rider on the planet!
December 18th, 2007 at 10:28 am
He is still the best, the best there was, the best their is, and the best there will ever be.
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:57 am
If any body cares to know ? I am alive. Email me and I am available for interveiws Craig “grassroots ” grasso
February 18th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
yeah sure mirra is a great bmx rider, but he is getting old. there are other riders out the who in my personal opinion are better than dave, for example daniel dhers. this rider from venezuela is amazing at what he does. another amazing rider is scotty cranmer, thi