Craig "gOrk" Barrette

The Editor Known by One Name at BMX Action and the ABA

A Legend Bike Co. industry page · sources: gOrk's own interviews with bmxultra.com and FatBMX, Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, and the National BMX Hall of Fame

At a glance

Real name Craig Barrette
Role BMX racer, freestyle show promoter, magazine editor and photographer, industry marketing executive
Scene Sacramento and Northern California BMX, mid-1970s; Southern California magazine world, mid-1980s; ABA and Redline/Seattle Bike Supply, 1990s–2010s
Magazines BMX Action (editor, 1985–1989), American BMXer / BMXer (editor and photographer, 1990s)
Known for One of the last editors of BMX Action, a decade running the ABA's member magazine, over a decade in Redline marketing, and a 2010 National BMX Hall of Fame induction

Most people in BMX go by their name. Craig Barrette goes by one word: gOrk, spelled with a small g and a capital O because, in his own telling, he simply liked the way it looked. Under that name he edited two of the sport's defining magazines a decade apart, spent more than ten years in marketing at one of BMX's oldest brands, and became enough of an institution that the National BMX Hall of Fame inducted him under a single nickname in 2010.

Sacramento, "Gorking," and a Back Brace

Barrette grew up in Sacramento, California, part of a neighborhood pack of kids who hung around the same bike shop, the California Pedaler, and rode BMX from the mid-1970s on. He first heard of BMX in 1975 and ran his first race in 1976 in nearby Roseville, then raced all over Northern California through his teens. The nickname predates the racing story everyone remembers. As an eighth grader he was fitted with a back brace for scoliosis, worn through high school, that pressed up against his chin — the same sensation as a neighborhood prank called "gorking," a sharp uppercut under the chin the local kids used on each other. Barrette got dubbed "The Main Gork" for constantly getting gorked by his own brace, and the name stuck for good. He has said the small-g, capital-O styling was simply a stylistic choice, nothing more.

From Racing to Freestyle Shows

Barrette's own National BMX Hall of Fame citation credits him with racing at a national level, including a run as UBR national number one in the sidehack class three years running. By the mid-1980s he had moved into freestyle, meeting rider John "Dizz" Hicks — who would go on to a run on the CW Racing freestyle team — at a Sacramento gas station where Barrette worked before heading south to chase a job in the BMX industry. The two formed a freestyle team the same night they met. Barrette also put in time in the warehouse at CW Racing, work his Hall of Fame citation lists alongside his racing and editing career.

The Bogmaster and the Job at BMX Action

Barrette's first publication was a photocopied zine called The Bogmaster, a newsletter he put together for his freestyle team in the mid-1980s. That zine is what got him a job at BMX Action, where he became editor in 1985 and held the position through 1989, one of the magazine's final editors before Wizard Publications folded it into GO. He has also credited himself with co-writing "FREESTYLIN' II: THE BOOK" during this period.

A Decade Running the ABA's Member Magazine

Barrette moved to the American Bicycle Association and spent the 1990s as editor and photographer of the ABA's membership magazine, published across those years as American BMXer and then simply BMXer. He held that job for about ten years, covering ABA nationals and building the magazine's look — much of the ABA website's early artwork and scans, by his own account, were his work too. He left the ABA in 1999.

Redline, Seattle Bike Supply, and Back Again

In 1999 Barrette joined Seattle Bike Supply as marketing director for its flagship brand, Redline, a job he described at the time as a natural extension of magazine work — building catalogs, flyers and sponsorship programs instead of monthly issues. He spent eleven years there before leaving in June 2011 to rejoin the ABA, this time as chief communications officer, not long after the ABA had merged with the NBL to form USA BMX.

Building the BMX Museum

In his most recent public interviews, Barrette describes shifting his day-to-day work from PULL magazine — the current name for the member magazine he once edited — to building out the BMX Museum inside USA BMX's Tulsa, Oklahoma headquarters, curating exhibits that trace the sport from its earliest days through the present, including donated bikes and gear from Hall of Famers and national champions.

National BMX Hall of Fame, 2010

Barrette was inducted into the National BMX Hall of Fame in 2010 in the BMX Industry category. The official citation notes that "few industries have a person so well known and respected that one name suffices in identifying them," crediting his racing, freestyle show promotion, warehouse work at CW Racing, and editorship of both BMX Action and the ABA's BMXer as reasons he "made his mark on nearly every era" of the sport.

Where the public record runs thin

Exact dates for Barrette's freestyle-show years and his time in the CW Racing warehouse are not pinned down beyond his Hall of Fame citation and his own interview references — no full timeline of that period turned up in the sources checked for this page. The specific years he spent building out the Tulsa BMX Museum, and his current title at USA BMX, are described only in general terms in his most recent published interview and are not independently dated here.

Where Craig "gOrk" Barrette fits in the bigger story

Magazines: BMX Action Magazine, American BMXer. Sanctions: ABA, USA BMX. Brands: Redline. The bigger arc is in our History of BMX series.

Sources

gOrk (Craig Barrette), interviewed by bmxultra.com, "Redline with gOrk," April 20, 2000 — first-person account of his Sacramento upbringing, the origin of the gOrk nickname, his BMX Action and ABA editorship, and his move to Redline (primary source). gOrk (Craig Barrette), interviewed by FatBMX, "The gOrk (aka Craig Barrette) interview: A new role at USABMX," fatbmx.com — first-person account of his current role and the Tulsa BMX Museum (primary source). Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, "BMX Hall of Fame Inductees Announced," August 13, 2010 — official National BMX Hall of Fame 2010 induction citation. Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, "Craig 'Gork' Barrette Leaving SBS for ABA," June 1, 2011. Legend Bike Co., "American BMXer — The ABA's Member Magazine," legendbikeco.com/pages/american-bmxer-magazine-history — corroborating detail on his tenure at the ABA's member magazine. oldschoolmags.com and bmxsociety.com were checked directly for additional period coverage; both returned general BMX Action and BMXer archive material consistent with the details above rather than additional primary facts about Barrette specifically.