Birthplace: New York, NY, USA.
Letter published in Freestylin december 1988.
Brian Tunney, Aberdeen, New Jersey: Today I saw a Haro show with Matt Hoffman, Rick Moliterno, and Joe Gruttola. It was great. Rick just came back from an injury and was riding great. Same with Joe. who was pulling backwards decades. But the most insane ramp rider, Matt Hoffman, was raging. He told me he blacked out in the middle of an air and crashed. He said he thought he had heat stroke, but he still pulled all his rad tricks except the lookdown that he blacked out on. Thanks Matt, Joe. Rick, and The Rhino. It must be hard doing shows in 95 degree weather.
CHRISTMAS.
Brian Tunney: Christmas 1988 was probably my most memorable BMX Christmas. I received the new Dia-Compe Tech 6 locking brake levers and a Dia-Compe 883 Nippon brake from my mom. Then my father arrived with Dyno elbow pads and a GT jersey. I felt like a damn king that morning, doing switzerland squeakers on the dead end of my street adorned with new brakes, elbow pads and the emblem I so heartily endorsed by day and night. And within the next week, I used the money I made from "Santa" to buy some Vision Street Wear clothes.
Brian Tunney, Ride BMX UK january 2007: The first time Kevin Jones did the hitchhiker and backpacker. Bristol, PA, Spring 1989. Flatland changed forever for me from that day forward.
Brian Tunney, digbmx.com, may 2008: This is me at a comp in South Plainfield, NJ in 1990, about 2 minutes from where Brian Foster currently lives. Feel free to poke fun at the shorts, the Airwalk Disaster shoes or the wacky Haro Master with cut-down Peregrine bars. But do take a second to marvel at the giant Steve Martin sticker on the side of my Dyno helmet. Thanks to Adam Guild for the scan.
Brian Tunney, www.expn.com, september 2012: In the fall of 1992, I moved from my father's house in Matawan, N.J. and started college in nearby New Brunswick, N.J. I brought my bike, a dilapidated Haro ground Master with Homeless forks, Bully stem and Redline Flight cranks, and rode when my studies allowed it, usually two or three times a week. I was completely disconnected from the world of freestyle BMX, with exception to BMX Plus! Magazine. Earlier that year, while finishing my senior year of high school, the only other U.S. BMX magazine, Go: The Rider's Manual, ceased publication. No letter was sent out, the magazine simply just stopped showing up in my mailbox. I was not a fan of BMX Plus. Mark Eaton's video series, "Dorkin in York," remained my sole lifeline to the world of BMX that was slowly emerging from a recession and taking on a life of its own. That and the occasional local contest, which by then, had started to dwindle. There was nothing to really inform me of what was happening in BMX. Then, in October of my freshman year of college, my father called. He told me that a new BMX magazine had arrived for me in the mail, called Ride BMX. That weekend, I returned home and dove headfirst into issue one. From what I could gather, former Go contributor Brad McDonald had decided to start his own BMX magazine, and using the subscriber list from Go, he sent out issue one of his new creation. It was 48 pages long, and featured Tim "Fuzzy" Hall on the cover, as well as the first glimpse of Mat Hoffman riding the big ramp in Oklahoma. It wasn't stacked with ads, but the ads included within were enough to reconnect me with rider-owned BMX brands and BMX mail-order shops that stocked the proper goods. BMX was beginning to rebound, and Ride BMX was about to become the focal point from which that rebound grew. According to founding editor Brad McDonald, "The only remaining BMX magazine at that time wasn't very good, so I knew there was a need for someone to make a better magazine. I figured it might as well be me, so Ride was born." He was not pleased with the first issue: "The first issue was terrible in terms of production quality. It was all black and white inside, had bad paper, and the printing was dark. For me as a photographer, it was pretty disappointing. I knew it was a start, but I had ambitions of doing a color magazine on quality paper, not newsprint. Most of all, I wanted the photos to reproduce well. Fortunately, enough people did like it or saw promise." Like it may have been an understatement. The first issue of Ride showed me that BMX was still happening, still evolving and still what I wanted to do. It was motivation, and it became the friend I needed to continue riding on my own. After issue one, it continued to arrive every other month. Issue two showed up some time before the holidays, with Mark Gonzales on the cover doing a one-footed seat grab over a hip on a bike suited for street riding. For the next few years, Brad McDonald edited and published Ride BMX out of his apartment, with help from contributors. Eventually, it grew to the point where he moved into an office, hired additional editors, and eventually started other BMX magazines (including Snap and TransWorld BMX) and a lengthy collection of video releases. Through the years, Ride grew to become the world's most respected BMX magazine, and now, it's reached a milestone which few magazines can ever claim. Ride BMX Magazine issue 185, the October 2012 issue, marks twenty years of Ride BMX. Twenty years ago, Ride BMX Magazine created a legacy that continues to this day. And twenty years ago, had I not received issue one in that mail, there's a good chance I may have hung up the bike for good. Issue one saved me. A sincere thanks to everyone that has worked on Ride BMX throughout the years, including Brad McDonald, Mark Losey, Keith Mulligan, Jared Souney, Chris Hargrave, Steve Buddendeck, Hal Brindley, McGoo, Ryan Fudger, Utah Ryan, Glenn PP Milligan, Jeff Zielinski and anyone I may have missed.
First big road trip to the 1994 BS finals in Chicago.
Cover and interview in Props #18.
Props Groundwork video (a comprehensive guide to modern flatland).
Brian Tunney is doing cool rolling around-the-front-of-the-bike tricks and some cab 360.
Interview in BMX Action #6 april 2001.
WORK.
Brian works for Props Visual compiling music, Duffs shoes as team manager and Dig BMX magazine as an assistant editor and photographer. He also writes for Ride BMX magazine, EXPN.com, Freedom BMX occasionally, and Hoffman Bikes whenever needed. He is learning to edit videos for the CFB shows and Props video magazine.
www.fatbmx.com, january 2009: Brian Tunney has left DigBMX (on good terms) to go work for EXPN.
Filmed and edited by Aaron Nardi. Music: 'Diamond Lightning' by Minus The Bear.
Jim Mckay, thecomeup.com, december 2012: One thing that we can all agree on is that Brian is very good at riding bikes. This new edit features rock solid around-the-world links on both wheels, dialed one handed juggler lines, and my personal favorite, which starts at the 1:00 mark. Very sick. Thoughtful riding here, and worth the watch.