Let’s talk about Dave Osato. If there ever was a guy who was ahead of his time, it was Osato. Dave came from a generation of ramp riders with front brakes and full pads, but his influence had much wider scope than that. I’d be willing to bet that most people don’t even think about some of the ways he’s pushed different aspects of riding, so I’ve scoured Youtube for some poorly compressed old footage and compiled a simple list.
Dave Osato was the first person to tailwhip out of a manual, he was one of the first to take hop whips down stair sets. Before Stevie Churchill was doing 3 whips down large stair sets (or attending middle school), Osato did a bunnyhop 3 whip into a bank at Metro Jam. Dave Osato did a tailwhip out of a feeble grind twelve Roadfools ago. All of these things are easy to forget, because none of them became common until Osato had already moved on to other tricks.
Harry Main and Mark Webb have made a game out of trying to one up each other with ridiculous tricks in and out of nosepicks. Osato was doing barspins into nosepicks in the ’90s. He did a tailwhip into one in 2003. He did a tailwhip to nosepick whip in an old Hevil trailer shortly after that and if I’m not mistaken, he did a double whip to tailtap about the same time. When opposite tricks weren’t much of a thing, Osato did an opposite 3 whip over a spine.
Beyond these two overarching areas of influence, Osato has continually managed to do impossible tricks that don’t even make sense, like whatever’s going on in the video below (note the stage of the Tenpack warehouse for time period).
Dave Osato also did the greatest nosepick of all time.
that just made my saturday morning with a park full of scooter kids here at the shop sooo much better..
Great post! A legend of a rider, awesome to see him still getting much respect.
And you can definitely tell he rode a bit of a flatland with that “greatest nosepick of all time”
Dave Osato is the only person I ever saw do a 270 to toothpick. Search for a bike check he did, it’s on ride’s website. Also his banger in We The People’s first DVD was a tailwhip to nosepick and another tailwhip before hopping back in. People are just doing those now.
DAVE is the MAN!! Everyone should take a hard look at these video’s and maybe go back to the drawing board and try to think up stuff that no one else has done before. GOOD luck. It would be great to see Dave and Jason make a video together again.
That whip to fufanu at the backyard jam still stands out in my mind as one of the craziest things ever done on a bmx! Fuck yeah Dave!!
jeremy you gotta find his gravity games winning run in 2002 ish, when he rode to crazytrain, it was totally fucking amazing, and i’ll never forget it for sure!!
Osato’s part in BMXmen is still one of my faves. over tooth tailwhip and back on a spine, crazy! I’ll never forget riding with him at Jarek’s in the Basic days when I just started and those crazy Ten Pack mini sessions with him and Jay. So Awesome