Ediz TENŞİ
I was born in 1973 at Bakırkoy. My first bmx bike was purchased in one of the office supply shops in Atakoy 1. District in 1985 by one my relatives. It was such a beautiful bike. An Italian bike, Vivi, red and yellow colored bike was astonishing. When I was riding the bike in the neighborhood, everybody was surrounding me and the bike and asking if they can borrowmthe bike forma short ride. I was so nervous to lend the bike to my firends to be honest :). The bike had red tuff wheels and looked great.
In those years, communication technology wasn’t great and none were actually aware of the others. My father and I were going to Ataköy to ride. Ataköy was having wide roads, well organised green residential area and it was perfect for cycling. Everybody were going there for cycling. In one of those days, I have came across one of my primary school friend Sinan Okay. He was also riding a BMX bike and his bike was also very beatiful. He told me that there are couple of kids living in Atakoy also riding BMX bikes like us and proposed to introduce me to them. Many thanks to him the he got me into the BMX community.
The kids I met, shortly after the conversation with Sinan, were kids lived in other countries, and able to have pro BMX bikes . They somehow found each other and created their own small BMX community. They also had a gang called Raddogs. The gang was established by Murat, Kemal and Enver. They all came from other countries, and thanks to them we were avare of this BMX culture. The first videos, magazines and pro bikes were brought to the scene thanks to them. I was in secondary school at that time and some of my other friends were also interested in this sport as well. Cem was in this Atakoy group and also in my class, we tried to introduce some of our other friends to the sport. Oğuz and Ahmet was another two kids sharing the same enthusiasm. We were improving much faster by hanging out together. We even arranged a show for a shoe store in Bakirkoy. Everything was great but the school.
I was completely surrounded by BMX. I was quite happy with the situation but my mother was complaining about my new life style. She was blaming the bike for my bad grades at school. She was also afraid of me getting injured but relieved by my being away from any kind of bad habits.
BMX was getting more and more advanced in those years, and some of the bicycle manufacturers started to manufacture BMX bikes. The first company ever produced a BMX bike in Turkey was Bisan. It wasn't that great but looked beautiful. Beldesan was also trying to respond Bisan's attacks. The company brought 3 pro riders and set a half pipe at Gulhane Park for the first ever BMX show in Turkey!
That show and those 3 riders had a great effect on us to improve ourselves. We had never seen a half pipe before. Watching those pro riders with my bare eyes was unbelievable. We had a great friendship at that week with the French riders, and I also purchased one the bikes they brought to Turkey. My father always supported me. It was another great story how my father managed to collect the money to purchase that bike, a Haro Sport, for me. Thanks to my father, I had my first pro bike. Hasan Doğan was the general manager of Beldesan Bike Company at that time. He recognised our efforts and enthusiasm and gave us the ramps used for the show at Gulhane Park. Thanks to him we had the first ramps ever manufactured in Turkey. He was a great man, may he rest in peace.
Thanks to the supporting adults in our surrounding, we managed to place the ramps to Ataköy and managed to improve ourselves to a great extent. The ramps were the first ever ramps of Turkey and the after the erection of the ramps, Ataköy had become a freestyle heaven.
There were many people coming to the area from all around Istanbul.
As well as BMX'ers, skateborders, inliners were meeting at those ramps and hung out. The ramps became an extreme sports place. We heard there were other rides on Asian side and Prince Islands. We invited them to the ramps and became good friends. The community enhanced greatly. During 90's, TV channels, magazines and newspapers interviewed and hosted us on their shows. Tv commericals and bike shows were good income sources for some of us at that time. Also public recognition made us feel very special. I wad a very bad injury at that time and I had to quit riding.
In 2004 I received a phone call from a Turkish Cycling Federation. Federation told me that BMX race became an olympic discipline and a national team is aimed to be formed for 2008 olympics. Federation asked me to be the BMX division coordinator. It was an unbeliavable position for me, but unfortunately I couldn't accept it due to my personal reasons. It was still a very sad memory for me. In 2007 I tried to establish a webpage to gather the riders in Turkey but it was a little too much work for a man who works wery long shifts. In 2012 Eurosport asked me to narrate BMX races. I also hold a jury position in 2013-2014-2015 Extreme Fest.
My aim is to introduce new talents to the sport with the experience and help Turkish athletes to be competitive in all disciplines of the international BMX competitions.
