Andy Jenkins

The Freestylin' Editor Who Became a Skateboard Art Director

A Legend Bike Co. industry page · sources: Andy Jenkins' own account in the BMX Society interview, Legend Bike Co.'s Freestylin' Magazine history, and skateboard-industry press

At a glance

Role BMX racer, then founding editor of Freestylin' magazine, then artist and art director
Scene Southern California BMX magazine world, 1984–1989; skateboard graphics and publishing, 1986 to today
Magazines Freestylin' (founding editor, 1984), Homeboy (Wizard Publications)
Known for Editing Freestylin' from age 20, hiring Mark Lewman and Spike Jonze, co-founding Bend Press, and a long run as art director and creative director at Girl Skateboards and its sister brands

Andy Jenkins was 20 years old, fresh out of a commercial art school in Wyoming, when he took over a BMX magazine that hadn't published its first issue yet. He'd never worked in publishing. He'd never written a professional word. What he had was a drawing, a thank-you note, and a mentor willing to bet on instinct. That bet built Freestylin' magazine's voice, launched three well-known careers in youth media, and eventually carried Jenkins out of BMX altogether and into three decades near the top of skateboard graphic design.

From an Air Force Base to a BMX Track He Helped Build

Jenkins grew up moving. His father was a career Air Force enlisted man, and the family landed in Florida, Michigan, Mississippi and Spain before settling at F.E. Warren Air Force Base outside Cheyenne, Wyoming, when Jenkins was about to start fifth grade. He got into BMX around age 12 or 13, first jumping a stripped-down five-speed street bike, then following a magazine's coverage of motocross into the real thing. In 1978 he and his friends talked the base into letting them build a BMX track — a rough, self-taught downhill course cribbed from photos in California magazines. By 1979 the ABA had reached nearby Laramie, and Jenkins was racing for real. He moved up to expert quickly and finished 1980 with the number 2 plate in his district, riding a red DG Rooster with ACS Z-rims and Redline V-bars.

The Drawing Contest That Changed His Life

Jenkins carried his art habit straight into his BMX habit. Every school project — logos, ads, layouts — turned into something BMX-related, to the point where teachers questioned how narrow his focus had become. He entered BMX Action's reader art contest every year it ran, and in 1983, while enrolled in commercial art school in Denver, he finally won it. The prize was a blue aluminum 24-inch Race Inc. cruiser. Jenkins was stoked enough to sit down and write a thank-you letter to publisher Bob Osborn — known to the staff as "Oz" — and, on a whim, tucked in a resume. He hadn't even meant to apply for anything. There was nothing open to apply for yet.

Osborn called him directly. Wizard Publications was starting a new freestyle magazine, and he wanted to try Jenkins out as editor. Jenkins wrote a sample article — a fake alley-oop-airs piece built around rider Mike Dominguez — and passed the audition. In March 1984, at 20 years old, he left a Denver blizzard and landed in Torrance, California, moving in among a staff that included R.L. Osborn. He had no publishing background and no professional writing experience. Osborn and managing editor Steve Giberson taught him the job in real time, red pen and all.

Building Freestylin'

The magazine Jenkins was hired to edit became Freestylin', Wizard's freestyle-focused spinoff of BMX Action. About a year into the job, with the magazine growing, Jenkins hired Mark Lewman, who had been sending the magazine long, funny, rambling letters since it started. About a year after that, he hired a teenager from Rockville BMX named Spike Jonze, on the strength of stories about him and a run of funny postcards. The three young editors — Jenkins, Lewman and Jonze — ran the magazine's voice and photography through its best-remembered years, effectively living at Wizard's Torrance offices during deadlines.

Jenkins also ran a side hustle in self-publishing throughout this period. In 1986 he started a xeroxed zine with his bandmates called R.I.P. to promote their band; when the band lost interest, he renamed it Bend and kept going on his own. That zine became the seed of Bend Press, the small publishing outfit Jenkins still runs, which put out his 1994 debut book, a collection of letters titled "I Check The Mail Only When Certain It Has Arrived," followed by Mike Daily's novel "Valley."

Homeboy, and the End of the Wizard Years

By the mid-1980s Wizard Publications had grown to include BMXA, Freestylin', an adult bike title, and, starting in the winter of 1987, Homeboy — a skate-and-lifestyle magazine Jenkins moved to almost full time. When Homeboy folded, Jenkins was let go, almost exactly five years to the day after he'd started at Wizard in March 1984. He had already begun freelancing skateboard graphics and working as a "Wrench Pilot" for Transworld before the magazine work ran out. He, Lewman and Jonze later revived the spirit of Homeboy by starting Dirt magazine together.

From Bend Press to Girl Skateboards

Jenkins moved fully into skateboard graphics as the BMX magazine business contracted. He joined Girl Skateboards as its art director, work that grew into creative direction across the Crailtap family of brands — Girl, Chocolate, Fourstar Clothing, Royal Trucks and Lakai Footwear. He built out Girl's in-house creative department and founded the Art Dump artist collective, drawing in illustrators including Geoff McFetridge, Evan Hecox and Kevin Lyons. He has held that role for decades and describes it as steady, ongoing work rather than a career pivot — art was something he did before BMX or skateboarding entered his life at all, learned early from watching his painter father work.

Jenkins has stayed loosely connected to BMX along the way. He designed graphics for the 2011 ESPN documentary on Mat Hoffman, produced by former GO magazine art director Jeff Tremaine's company, Dickhouse Productions, and still keeps a couple of BMX bikes for occasional riding.

Where the public record runs thin

Exact titles on Wizard's mastheads shifted over Freestylin's run, and Jenkins is described in different places as "editor" and "managing editor" — Legend Bike Co.'s own Freestylin' history flags the same ambiguity. The precise year Jenkins joined Girl Skateboards as art director is reported as 1994 in trade coverage, but that date is not confirmed in Jenkins' own first-person interview material checked for this page. His full filmography and gallery-show history as a fine artist are extensive and not fully itemized here.

Where Andy Jenkins fits in the bigger story

Magazines: Freestylin' Magazine, BMX Action Magazine, GO Magazine. People: Bob Osborn, R.L. Osborn, Mat Hoffman. The bigger arc is in our History of BMX series.

Sources

Andy Jenkins, interviewed by Steve Brothers, BMX Society, bmxsociety.com — first-person account of the BMX Action art contest, the hire at Freestylin', hiring Lewman and Jonze, Bend Press, and his career at Girl Skateboards (primary source). Legend Bike Co., "Freestylin' Magazine — The Wizard Publications Title That Made Freestyle a Culture," legendbikeco.com/pages/freestylin-magazine-history — corroborating detail on Jenkins' hire and the Freestylin' masthead. The Daily Board, "Andy Jenkins, artist & art director of Girl Skateboards," thedailyboard.co — Girl Skateboards hire date and creative-director scope across Crailtap brands. meetandyjenkins.com — artist biography and Bend Press history. The No Comply Network, "Andy Jenkins: Fully Illustrated Interview," nocomplynetwork.com. oldschoolmags.com and bmxsociety.com's broader archive were checked directly for additional period Freestylin' masthead material; both returned general magazine-archive content consistent with the details above rather than additional primary facts.