We were living in Çorlu. I saw the first BMX in 1984 when I was 8. A kid in the neighborhood had bought one. I remember well, it had red frame&forks with yellow tyres. He was saying “they call this bike a Mountain Bike”. It was a cool bike with 20 inch thick tyres. That summer  I rode a BMX for the first time - a rented BMX for 10 cents per tour. The feeling was so great so I made a longer tour for about 50 meters and the man renting the bike gave me a very bad time. 2 years later we moved to Küçükyalı in Istanbul. While playing outside I saw Ertan Üçkumru doing a wheelie with his white Bisan Freestyle along our street, and that moment I felt like paralysed. What a cool thing it was! First thing I did was to run to my Pinocchio bike dismantling the mud guards to make it look like a BMX!

2 years later in 1988 my life changed with my father’s gift-a Bisan BMX. We had attracted Ertan’s attention with my friend Özgür Doğuç by riding day and night summer and winter. Ertan was older tha us and he had lots of knowledge about BMX. I cnan say I learned all the tricks from Ertan. The BMX fellowship grew day by day in Küçükyalı. Me, Ertan Üçkumru, Özgür Doğuç, Vedat İşçi, Kerim Selçuk, Bülent Öztürk, Boran, Göker, Oğuzhan were my friends with whom we rode in Küçükyalı. Also in the Anatolian side of Istanbul we used to meet with our friends Burçhan Acar, Tolga Şekercioğlu, Serkan Akdamar, and Celal Eskicioğlu.

It was very difficult to access good BMX brands in those years. We used to order with Mail Order, wait for 3-4 months and when the bike arrived we used to split the bike into pieces and share. My first good bike was a pink 88 Haro Sport which used to be Michel Delgado’s once upon a time. After I sold it I bought a 91 GT agressor which I still keep. I had the most fun times of my life on BMX !