Jason Parker such an awesome rider, such an awesome dude, moving over to the veterans squad
In 2014 Jason travelled to Japan. He competed at the international bmx flatland contest Flatark. This cross footed Mc Circle was taken at a riding spot in Osaka.
Jason Parker is a very important part of the Freestyle Now squad. His journey to being part of Freestyle Now is a unique story for sure. In the mid 90’s Freestyle Now co founder Shaun Jarvis was doing solo stunt shows. Jason was 15 years old living in Australind when he heard that Freestyle Now (Shaun Jarvis) was going to be at the 1995 Brunswick Junction agricultural show, he was devastated that he could not make it there. Jason almost went to the Perth Royal show in 1996 as he knew Shaun would be performing there, he found a program for the entertainment in the news paper, but unforeseen circumstances rose and he did not make it. Shaun was again at the Brunswick show in 1996 but Jason could not make it there but some of his friends did and told him about it, he was super bummed and just wanted to be able to meet Shaun and see the Freestyle Now show. This was at a time when there were not many riders and no one was riding flatland bmx in Perth. This was at a time of no skateparks and if you found another rider you were lucky. The BMX freestyle scene in Perth was super small. In 1998 Shaun was back at the Brunswick agricultural show and Jason did not make it. In 1999 Shaun returned to the Brunswick Agricultural shows to perform another solo show but by now Jason had moved to Kinross in the northern suburbs of Perth, so he missed out again.
By this time Shaun had started to be the distributor in Australia for the well know flatland products Graveyard, Nankai and Cam Acura. To help promote this distribution an advertisement was placed in a national BMX magazine called Freewheel BMX. In a print mistake the phone number listed was wrong and Jason who was keen to meet other riders rang the phone number. Jason “Is this graveyard products”, old guy on the one end of the phone “Graveyard is some kind of joke” and hangs up. Jason rang that number a few more times and almost put the old guy into a graveyard! Not giving up Jason was determined to get in contact with Freestyle Now so he called a bike shop called Pal and Panther, a popular bmx friendly bike shop who was also a sponsor of Freestyle Now. They happened to have the correct phone number for Freestyle Now and Jason made contact. This was late in 1999. On the first time Jason came to ride with Shaun it was at Shaun’s house in Clarkson, 10 minutes from Kinross. Jason got his mum to bring him up and ride, Jason had some rad tricks and knew what was up with bmx flatland. This was the rider that Shaun was looking for to join Freestyle Now and start doing BMX shows. At the end of the riding session Shaun was showing Jason some photos in the photo album (yes that’s what we used then) One of the photos was of Shaun doing an air on a quarter pipe, Jason recognized it straight away. “That was taken at the Whiteman Park opening, mid show a tram came into the show area and the riders had to stop and wait on top of the ramp” This was correct Jason was at the very first BMX freestyle show that Shaun had been a part of. Mid 1986 before Freestyle Now Shaun was part of the Redline trick team and the very first show they performed was at the opening of Whiteman Park. Jason was only 6 years old at the time. He held that memory of that BMX freestyle show for 13 years. The connection was made 100%
Jason’s first show with Freestyle Now was at the Denmark country fair 26th February 2000. Jason performed constantly for 8 years with Freestyle Now. He even got to perform at the Brunswick Agricultural show 4 times, something he was always pumped about doing. Jason has performed in several Freestyle Now stunt shows since 2008 but his involvement in Freestyle Now had tapered off due to work and life commitments. It’s not as if Jason has ever left Freestyle Now as he never will, this is why we are moving him over to the veterans squad. Jason is a lifer Freestyle Now squad member, his involvement and contribution has been epic.
Be sure to check out Jason’s website profile here
Check out the website archive of all things Jason Parker here
More photos of Jason Parker can be found on out Facebook page here
Jason Parker joined the Freestyle Now squad at the start of 2000 and his first show was at the Denmark Country Fair in February 2000. This was Jason’s second show at the Toodyay Moondyne Festival in May 2000.
This is the photo that Shaun showed Jason when they first met. Shaun at doing a show at Whiteman park in August 1986. Jason was only 6 when he saw the show and 13 years later he got to met Shaun. Both friends were surprised that this actually happened. Was it this show that got Jason into BMX?
Jason joined the back flip club in 2008. Jason had always talked about backflipping the FN box jump but he never really had the chance. Jason had been working in Tom Price when Freestyle Now had the opportunity to perform BMX stunt shows there. So while his workmates looked on Jason threw it down. On this occasion Jason did not pull it and it was a few weeks later when he was in Melbourne at Rampfest that his goal was achieved. What make this even more challenging is Jason is riding a pure flatland style bike, a bike that was never meant to back flip or has the geometry that even would make backflips easier. A pure Jason Parker move right there for sure.
In 2016 Jason surprised many competitors when he arrived at DownUnderGround, telling everyone he has not been riding much and then proceeded to take the win in the expert class like he had been in full training mode, everyone knew that he always tells the truth. That’s a total Jason Parker move right there.
Jason Parker worked fly in fly out at Tom Price for many years. He had one bike at home and one bike in Tom Price. Jason trekked all the way up to the top of Mt Tom Price with his bike and had this perfect decade photo taken with the town of Tom Price in the back ground. Pure radness.
In 2002 Jason got to perform at the Brunswick Junction show, he was pumped, as always.
In 2007 Jason was working in Tom Price. Freestyle Now has a stunt show there so this was super close for Jason. No one nose picks the FN box jump like Jason.
2008 Kojonup show. Shaun Jarvis and Jason Parker double routine on the FN box jump.
Jason entered the video round of the 2016 DownUnderGround video contest. This was filmed while he was in Byron Bay
