Birthplace: MINNEAPOLIS, MN USA
Tom Haugen: I was 10 years old when I started riding a bike. I got into it because all the kids in the neighborhood had bikes with pegs and I wanted to get one as well. Also, the movie RAD had come out about then and I saw it and was amazed and fascinated. As ridiculous as it sounds, when I saw that movie I knew that that was what I wanted to do with my life. The first bike I ever owned was a Diamond Back Hot Streak. I mowed lawns all summer and saved up. Diamond Back was my favorite company back then and they sponsored my favorite rider - Woody Itson, who, ironically enough, happens to be my boss and friend at GT and later at Giant.
Tom Haugen, www.fatbmx.com, november 2006: 1987 is when I started riding- mowed lawns all summer to buy a Diamond Back Hot Streak. It was lime green, had mags- the whole package.
FLATLANDER.
Tom Haugen: I did start out as a flatlander. From ages 10-16 that was all I did. My first hard trick was a decade. I was riding with kids from school or Trevor Meyer when possible.
AFA.
Tom Haugen: I started competing at age 12. We had local contests that were organized through the AFA (American Freestyle Association). There was one a month and I did that until I was 13.
Ells Bells Dope Ammo video.
STANDARD.
Tom Haugen: I got sponsored when I was 15 as a flatlander. This new bike company called Standard had just begun and I was friends with the owners. They gave me everything they made at that time and that was my first sponsor.
Tom Haugen: After I stopped being a full time flatlander I started riding dirt. I met Chris Anders and Jeremy Fanberg. We didn't really have trails, but we had lots of jumps. I did that from 16-19 and then our jumps got plowed. So we built a mini ramp and a box jump. I transferred my dirt jumping skills to a box jump and learned how to ride a mini ramp.
Tom Haugen: I turned pro when I was 21. I went to Virginia and rode in the X-Trials (8 mai 1998). I entered pro there because I had won a big amateur contest the year before in Indiana and thought that it was time. It wasn't though; I got 35th or something like that in that contest. However, Kip Williamson was there and was working for GT at the time. He saw me ride and saw potential. He told GT to hire me and when I got home from that contest I was on GT. GT was my first formal sponsor in the sense that they paid me, put me in the ads, had me signs contracts, etc.
17th pro street @ Gravity Games, Providence, RI., july 1999.
11th place pro park @ EXPN BS round 2, april 2000, Louisville, KY.
6th place pro park @ CFB round 2, Raleigh, NC, may 2000.
Tom Haugen had some really burly moves like a 360 tailwhip to X-up, but he also did some really tech stuff like a tailwhip to manual on the mini. Tom got 6th
3rd place pro park @ EXPN BS round 3, may 2000, St Petersburg, Floride.
Tom Haugen is what 20 inch bike riding is all about. After he finished his runs in the prelims he rode over to the flatland area and rode flatland until practice for the finals began. Tom went off in the finals. He landed a perfect 360 tailwhip to X-up over the box, a truckdriver over the spine, and a 360 tailwhip over the spine. Mr. Haugen got a well deserved 3rd place.
7th place pro park @ EXPN BS round 4, june 2000, Nashville, TN.
GRAVITY GAMES.
9th pro street @ Gravity Games, Providence, RI., july 2000. Tom Haugen rode great, nailing a perfect tailwhip tailtap on the sub, a barspin nosepick over the spine and his patented tailwhip 360 to x-up over the box. He also threw a barspin catch barspin air on the 1/4 pipe that for some reason he spun upwards instead of downwards for 9th place.
7th place pro park @ EXPN BS round 2, april 2001, Louisville, KY.
Tom Haugen 360 tailwhipped to x-up over the box and barspun 180ed the street spine.
3rd place pro park @ EXPN BS round 3, may 2001, Grand Prairie, Texas.
X-GAMES.
4th place pro park @ X-Games, Philadelphia, august 2001.
MISSION OF NONSENSE.
UGP, Mission Of Nonsense video.
Tom Haugen qualified first with a tech run, pulling the hardest stuff.
4th place pro park @ EXPN BS round 1, april 2002, Grand Prairie, TX.
11th place pro park @ EXPN BS round 2, may 2002, Gwinnett County, GA.
4th place stuntmen park @ CFB round 2, june 2002, Wheatfield, NY.
5th place stuntmen park @ CFB round 3, june 2002, Joliet, IL.
Tom Haugen is a hard trick machine. He has some of the hardest bike manuevers wired more than anybody ever and does them often. In practice the day before the contest he kept doing the same run, huge no-handed 360 over the box, x-up air, tailwhip 360 over the street spine, and barspin onto the vert wall. He did that run, along with a tailwhip to tailtap on the subbox and nosepick and toothpick to barspin stuff on the mini to earn himself a top spot. In the finals he did the same type of stuff, along with a 360 tailwhip to x-up over the box, and 720 tailwhip tailtap to fakie on a quarter.
GRAVITY GAMES.
Bronze medal pro park @ Gravity Games, Cleveland Ohio, august 2002.Tom Haugen did tricks like a superman seatgrab over the box jump, 360 tail whip over the 5ft spine, tailwhip to 540 tail tap on the sub box. Tom had a flawless run full of big tech tricks.
X-GAMES.
18th place pro park @ X-Games, Philadelphia, august 2002.
VANS TRIPLE CROWN.
2nd place pro street at the third and final stop of the Vans Triple Crown of BMX Series, october 2002, Oceanside, CA.
Interview in Dig #27 march 2003. We have a new feature, called "Your Number's Up." We gave Giant rider Tom Haugen some difficult questions to fill in about his life both in and out of riding and learned some interesting things about Tom's life. For instance, Tom rides flatland everyday and someone owes him a lot of money. For more of Tom's numbers, check out his feature in issue 27.
LATIN X-GAMES.
2nd place pro park @ Latin X-Games, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, april 2003.
OFF GIANT.
Dig#30 october 2003: Tom Haugen was apparently dropped from the Giant team. Maybe now he can put FBM stickers on the FBM he's riding...
Tom Haugen: They didn't think I was doing a good enough job representing them. They had a list of reasons; some were valid, some weren't. I disagreed and thought I was doing a fine job. I made my points regarding my performance representing them, but it wasn't enough to sway their decision and they released me from my contract. There is so much I could say about it, but what's done is done.
BMX RIDER UK COVER.
Cover and interview in BMX rider UK #17 december 2003.
Interview in Ride BMX US march 2004.
FREE AGENT.
January 2004, Tom Haugen signed a multi-year deal with Free Agent.
Tom Haugen, www.fatbmx.com, november 2006: Couldn't be better- great communication, they're always willing to do whatever they can for me, and there's a perfect combination of professionlism mixed with friendship. I can honestly say I've never been more content with a sponsor.
INTERVIEW.
Ten questions to Tom Haugen in Transworld BMX september 2004.
Tom Haugen, www.fatbmx.com, november 2006: I moved to Orlando in 2005 and There's a vert ramp ten minutes from my house that I can ride whenever I want. It's indoors and in the air conditioning. Florida is very hot- you can't ride outdoors during the day half the year, so I ended up riding a lot of vert with Rob Nolli and Dave Brumlow. Slowly I got better and it seemed logical to enter vert comps, too.
Haugen had a serious injury in 2006, breaking his tibia, fibula and ankle. That forced him away from competition for several months, but he was able to return by 2007.
www.fatbmx.com, september 2006: The ever dialed Tom Haugen (Snafu/Free Agent) brought the bad news himself:
Tom: I have just gotten hurt and am done for the season. I broke my tibia, fibula and ankle. Had 2 screws put in and am laid up for awhile. I was really looking forward to the Dew Tour final and the Dallas year end LG comp. I also had just bought a ticket to go to Shanghai with DMC and Koji for a comp.
Tom Haugen, www.fatbmx.com, november 2006: The first 6 weeks I was told not to walk. Now I can walk and ride- though just for exercise. Though the bones are now healed, my ligament isn't all the way there, and if I do any actual riding and fall, the screws in my ankle would break and i'd have to start the healing process over again.
thecomeupbmx.net, july 2008: Tom Haugen and Scott Wirch have joined Marcus Tooker and convicted woman beater, Steve Croteau on the Osiris team.
Haugen, who has a residence in Plymouth, spends five to seven hours a day on his bike and another two in the gym to keep up with riders who are younger - some more than a decade younger. He built a reputation as a consistent rider who is as comfortable on ramps as he is on flatland. He has competed in five X Games, three International X Games and seven Gravity Games.
Tanner Markley, vimeo.com, october 2010: Filmed some footage of Tom Haugen over the summer while we were in ohio, almost every trick in the video was first try. Music is by The Cold Beat- Snake Oil.