A Legend Bike Co. rider history page. Heavy first-hand record on bobharo.com, oldschoolmags.com, and bmxsociety.com; cross-checked against Wikipedia, the official Haro Bikes history, 23mag.com, theharofreestyler.com, DIG BMX, BMX Weekly, and the period BMX press.

Bob Haro

"The Godfather of Freestyle" · born June 29, 1958, Pasadena, California · ABA BMX Hall of Fame, 1987

At a glance

Born
June 29, 1958, Pasadena, California. Raised in San Diego. The Haro surname comes from the town of Haro in Spain's La Rioja region.

Nicknames
"The Godfather of Freestyle" · "The Godfather of BMX Freestyle"

Known for
Founder of Haro Designs / Haro Bikes · Co-founder of the BMX Action Trick Team with R.L. Osborn, 1979–1980 · Designed the 1982 Haro Freestyler — the first frame and fork ever built specifically for freestyle — manufactured for him at Torker · BMX Action magazine staff artist starting 1977 · Stunt rider in the BMX chase scene in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) · Choreographed the bike-and-dove sequence at the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony

Major honors
ABA BMX Hall of Fame, 1987 · Designer of the first freestyle-specific frame and fork (1982 Haro Freestyler) · Founder of the first dedicated freestyle bike company (Haro Designs, 1978) · Co-founder of the first BMX trick team · Author of the 1983 instructional book Freestyle Moves · His September 1978 Rock Walk is the earliest documented BMX flatland trick

Active years on a bike
Approximately 1976–1984. Stopped riding after four knee surgeries in 1984. Still on a bike for demos and events today; runs bobharo.com as his current design and product home.

Most riders are remembered for one thing. A team. A frame. A title. Bob Haro is the rare one you can flat-out call the founder of a sport, because he didn't pick one piece — he built all of them. The art that made BMX look like its own thing on the page. The trick team that proved people would pay to watch riders do tricks. The bike that could actually survive those tricks. The company that sold it. The tour that drove it into towns that had never laid eyes on any of this. The movie scene that put a BMX bike in front of every kid in America. He was 23 when the 1982 Freestyler hit. Twenty-nine when the Hall of Fame called.

Pasadena to San Diego — motocross trophies and a brother's bike

Bob Haro was born June 29, 1958 in Pasadena, California, and raised in San Diego. Oldest of four kids. He came up the way most California kids his age did — motocross first, bicycles second. Through his sophomore year of high school he raced motocross. His dad bought him a Honda 100, he stripped it down, and he ran the events hard enough to stack up over 50 motocross trophies by 1975. When the money for motorcycle racing dried up, he picked up BMX around 1976, on his brother's bike.

Spring Valley, 1976 — the first Factory Plates

In 1976, Bob started making custom number plates for racers at the San Diego tracks. The early ones were simple. He'd take a blank Preston Petty motocross plate — the unbreakable plastic ones that were standard in motocross — and stick hand-cut sheet vinyl numbers and graphics onto it. Then demand picked up, and he started molding his own plates on his mother's kitchen stove. The whole thing ran out of his parents' house.

In the summer of 1977, the cartoons and illustrations he'd been mailing to BMX Action on spec landed in front of publisher Bob Osborn. Osborn brought him in as Wizard Publications' staff artist. Bob was 19.

August 1978 — the founding ad

The official Haro founding date is August 1978. That month, BMX Action ran a small black-and-white feature in its Products column for "Haro's Factory Plates" — $6 each, shipping included. By the May 1979 issue, the cover of BMX Action showed five of the six pros pictured running Haro Factory Plates. Inside of months he was the number-plate brand of BMX.

Bob's own line about that ad: "The demand from the first ad in BMXA was enormous, and from it, my company was born."

The Rock Walk, the BMX Action Trick Team, and the start of freestyle

While Bob was selling plates and drawing for BMX Action, he was riding too — but not racing. He and his neighborhood friend John Swanguen had been carving the smooth concrete bowls at Skate Heaven Skate Park in San Diego, dragging skateboard lines over onto BMX bikes. In September 1978, Bob Osborn shot a photo of Bob Haro doing what Haro called a Rock Walk in a schoolyard near the BMX Action offices in Torrance. That photo gets cited as the first documented BMX flatland trick.

Another early trick traces back to an even plainer afternoon. By the account in Freestylin' II: The Book (Mark Lewman and Craig "Gork" Barrette, Wizard Publications, 1987) — published roughly nine years after the fact, putting the story around 1978 — Bob rode his 26-inch beach cruiser into a skatepark, rolled up a bowl wall, and came back down backwards: a move skaters already had a name for, the fakie. The book credits that afternoon as the root of the modern "fakie air."

In 1979, R.L. Osborn and Bob Haro — the publisher's son and the magazine's staff artist, both already messing around with tricks — started practicing together for real. They called themselves the BMX Action Trick Team. Their first public show was at the ABA Winternationals in February 1980, in Chandler, Arizona. That's the date most people point to as the start of organized BMX freestyle.

In early 1981, Bob left the trick team to focus on his own brand. R.L. brought in BMX Action test rider Mike Buff as his new partner, and the BMX Action Trick Team rolled on under R.L. through 1985.

Summer 1981 — the first Haro Freestyle Tour

Next came a national tour. Bob teamed up with Bob Morales — a rider with serious ramp skills — and Bob's younger brother Ron. The three of them packed into a brightly painted Dodge Ram van with a portable plexiglass quarterpipe in the back and rolled out of Torrance in June 1981. Vans, Oakley, and Off Shore Surf apparel put up the money. Eighteen thousand miles. Three months. Coast to coast and back.

All those long drives gave Bob and Bob Morales hours to chew on one problem. Every freestyle rider was snapping race frames. A race bike is built for a 30-second sprint on dirt. Tricks ask for something else entirely. By the time the Dodge rolled back into Torrance in September 1981, Bob had the bike sketched in his head.

Fall 1981 — Bob takes the Freestyler to Torker

Bob's frame sponsor at the time was Torker, in Fullerton, California — the company I own and run today. In the fall of 1981, Bob walked his sketches and his specs into the Torker offices. Torker said yes. They built a prototype for Bob and a second for Bob Morales. The two of them rode those prototypes around San Diego-area skateparks all winter, tuning the geometry. By spring 1982 the design was locked.

The Haro Freestyler launched in summer 1982. Chrome plated, with a graphic package Bob designed himself. The first frame and fork ever built specifically for BMX freestyle. Original Torker-built Freestylers carry serial numbers ending in "F."

Before the Freestyler, you rode freestyle on whatever race bike you had until it cracked. After the Freestyler, freestyle had its own bike. The other brands followed inside of two years — GT launched the Performer (designed for Eddie Fiola), and Hutch, Redline, and the rest all rolled out freestyle-specific frames. The discipline went from a sideshow inside BMX racing to its own market with its own gear. That whole shift starts with the 1982 Haro Freestyler.

1982 — five days on the set of E.T.

That same year, Steven Spielberg was finishing E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The film's big chase scene needed BMX riders. Bob got hired as a stunt rider and spent five days on the set, doubling for the kids in the chase. The film released June 11, 1982, became the highest-grossing movie of the year, and put a whole generation of kids on BMX bikes. That chase scene is one of the most-watched pieces of BMX riding ever filmed.

1984 — the next generation: Master, Sport, and Mike Dominguez

By 1984 the company was sourcing its own frame production — the Torker-built Freestyler era ended in 1983 — and launched two of the most important freestyle frames ever built: the Haro Master (Bob's flatland-focused frame) and the Haro Sport, the first signature freestyle bike, designed for and ridden by 14-year-old vert prodigy Mike Dominguez. The team kept growing through the mid-1980s — Dennis McCoy, Ron Wilkerson, Brian Blyther, Dave Nourie, Joe Johnson, Rick Moliterno. A teenager named Mat Hoffman later did his first 900 on a Haro Sport.

Bob himself stopped riding in 1984 after four knee surgeries. He stayed on at Haro as the design and creative lead, but the riding side of his life was done.

1986–1987 — the sale to West Coast Cycle, and the Hall of Fame

In 1986–87, Bob sold Haro Designs to West Coast Cycle. He stayed on under contract for several years after that as a designer and brand voice. In 1987, the American Bicycle Association inducted him into the ABA BMX Hall of Fame. He was 29 years old.

1993 to today — Haro Design, Axio, and a second career

In 1993, Bob founded Haro Design, Inc. — a design and branding firm. The client list ran deep: Red Bull, Vans, Oakley, Nike, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Ducati Motorcycles. He also started his own performance-luggage brand, Axio, which made tech and power-sports cases. He grew it and sold it in 2009.

In 2008 and 2012, he served as spokesperson and creative design partner for the U.S. Olympic BMX teams through Nike 6.0. In 2012 he choreographed the bike-and-dove sequence in the London Olympic Games opening ceremony — one of the most-watched ceremonies in television history.

Today he runs Bob Haro Design out of bobharo.com, selling art prints, apparel, the 40th Anniversary Factory Plates package, and limited-run product. The 2005 documentary Joe Kid on a Stingray features him as one of the major voices on the history of the sport.

What separates Bob Haro from everyone else

Most BMX legacies are built on one thing. Bob Haro's is a different animal, because he made four separate things that didn't exist before he made them:

The first dedicated BMX number plate as a category-defining product (Haro Factory Plates, 1976–1978).
The first organized BMX trick team performing as the headline act (BMX Action Trick Team with R.L. Osborn, 1979–1980 debut).
The first frame and fork built specifically for freestyle (Haro Freestyler, designed 1981, launched summer 1982).
The first dedicated freestyle bike company (Haro Designs, 1978-present).

Legacy

Bob Haro is the rider every freestyler on earth owes some piece of their sport to. He drew the look. He started the team. He toured the country. He designed the bike. He sold the bike. He founded the company. He rode in the movie that turned BMX into a cultural moment. And he did most of it before he was 25.

The Godfather of Freestyle isn't marketing copy. It's just accurate. Everything that came after — the Master, the Sport, the King of Vert, the X Games, BMX at the Olympics in 2008, Charlotte Worthington's Tokyo gold in 2021 — all of it traces back to a kid in Spring Valley cutting vinyl numbers and a $6 ad in BMX Action.

Sources

Bob Haro Design, "The Bob Haro Story" (bobharo.com/pages/my-story). Bob Haro Design, "Factory Plates" (bobharo.com/pages/factory-plates). Wikipedia, "Bob Haro." oldschoolmags.com, "Bob Haro Art" + the "BMX Action Trick Team" summary. oldschoolmags.com magazine archive — August 1978 BMX Action with the founding Haro's Factory Plates feature, the May 1979 BMX Action cover. BMX Society community forums — "30 Years of the HARO Freestyler," "Happy 60th Birthday Bob Haro," "The Rockwalk by Bob Haro," and the Bob Haro artwork thread. theharofreestyler.com era-by-era history. BMX Weekly, "Bob Haro's Factory Plates 40th Anniversary Package" (December 2, 2017). DIG BMX, "Haro's First Generation and the Rise of BMX Freestyle" (April 14, 2020). 23mag.com Bob Haro biography. Torker Racing, "The #1 BMX Factory Team in America" (the Torker / Haro Freestyler manufacturing relationship). Mark Lewman and Craig "Gork" Barrette, Freestylin' II: The Book (Wizard Publications, 1987) — the beach-cruiser fakie origin story. Joe Kid on a Stingray (2005 documentary, dir. Mark Eaton). Personal correspondence with Bill Ryan for the Torker / Haro Freestyler manufacturing context.

Bob Haro and Legend Bike Co.

Bob isn't a Legend Bike Co. co-founder, but three of the brand stories Legend is preserving run straight through him. Haro Designs built the first freestyle-specific frame and turned freestyle into a sport. Torker — owned and operated by Bill Ryan today — built the 1982 Haro Freestyler in Fullerton. And the Trick Team partnership with R.L. Osborn built the first organized BMX freestyle act in the world.

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Bob Haro

At a glance

Pasadena to San Diego — motocross trophies and a brother's bike

Spring Valley, 1976 — the first Factory Plates

August 1978 — the founding ad

The Rock Walk, the BMX Action Trick Team, and the start of freestyle

Summer 1981 — the first Haro Freestyle Tour

Fall 1981 — Bob takes the Freestyler to Torker

1982 — five days on the set of E.T.

1984 — the next generation: Master, Sport, and Mike Dominguez

1986–1987 — the sale to West Coast Cycle, and the Hall of Fame

1993 to today — Haro Design, Axio, and a second career

What separates Bob Haro from everyone else

Legacy

Sources

Bob Haro and Legend Bike Co.

Read more on Legend Bike Co.

Country/region

Bob Haro

At a glance

Pasadena to San Diego — motocross trophies and a brother's bike

Spring Valley, 1976 — the first Factory Plates

August 1978 — the founding ad

The Rock Walk, the BMX Action Trick Team, and the start of freestyle

Summer 1981 — the first Haro Freestyle Tour

Fall 1981 — Bob takes the Freestyler to Torker

1982 — five days on the set of E.T.

1984 — the next generation: Master, Sport, and Mike Dominguez

1986–1987 — the sale to West Coast Cycle, and the Hall of Fame

1993 to today — Haro Design, Axio, and a second career

What separates Bob Haro from everyone else

Legacy

Sources

Bob Haro and Legend Bike Co.

Read more on Legend Bike Co.

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