Freestyle BMX History 101 - The birth of Haro.

In 1976 a SoCal kid called Bob, with an eye for style and a steady hand with an X-acto knife, supported his BMX addition by making custom number plates for the sport’s top racers.
The Haro number plate was an instant hit, and went on to become an icon of the sport. Demand for Haro plates was phenomenal, and soon a business was born. More after the jump...


In September of 1978 Bob Osborn saw Haro doing a Rock Walk in the parking lot outside the Wiz Pubs offices during lunch break. Osborn immediately photographed the trick.

The resulting article, "Trick riding... a whole new thing", was published in the January/February 1979 issue of BMXA. Here is a quote from the article: "Haro and Swanguen used to ride Skateboard Heaven in San Diego, trying to out-trick each other. Gradually the tricks evolved out of the skate park bowls and onto the flatlands, where they were refined and improved to fit the new environment." The Rock Walk was not just a step up in difficulty over stunts kids had been doing on bikes for decades, it was an evolutionary leap...and it was BMX-bike specific...meaning it is highly improbable that this trick could have been invented on any other kind of bicycle existing at the time. For the above reasons, and because our research turned up zero evidence of any earlier flatland tricks, the Rock Walk is hereby entered into this history as the first documented flatland freestyle trick.

When he wasn’t designing products for his fast-growing company, Bob killed time by learning tricks on his BMX bike. Freestyle didn’t have a name yet, but it had a founding father. After perfecting his repertoire, Bob took his trick show on the road and a whole new sport was born...Bob Haro invented the style of Flatland BMX.

Interview in the march 1982 issue of BMX Plus!
I like trick riding. I feel like this is something I started - and contrary to other beliefs - trick riding's something I started, and I've got magazines to prove it. I just feel real comfortable at this. I feel that this is my thing - this is my specialty.

By the early 1980’s BMX freestyle was in high gear. To satisfy demand among riders for a bike that could handle the abuse from flatland and ramps, Bob Haro introduced the Original Haro Freestyler. It was another instant Haro hit, and the company named after the man who literally developed a sport found itself on the cutting edge of BMX design and technology...the rest is history