Fit Life

Fit Life is a full-length team video from Fit Bike Co, released on DVD in 2007 and filmed and edited by Brian Wizmerski and Ryan Navazio. It features the Fit team of the period, which included Mike Aitken, Chase Hawk, Van Homan, Brian Foster and Edwin DeLaRosa, riding trails, street and park. The video is remembered for the strength of its roster, which gathered several of the most influential riders of the 2000s under one brand at a time when a team DVD was still a major event.

Background

Fit Bike Co grew out of S&M Bikes in Southern California at the end of the 1990s, and through the 2000s it assembled one of the most respected teams in BMX. Rather than chase contest results, Fit signed riders known for style and for their standing among other riders. By the middle of the decade the team was a who's who of the sport.

A full-length video was the natural way to show that. Brian Wizmerski and Ryan Navazio filmed and edited Fit Life, and it was released on DVD in 2007, a year after Animal's All Day and a few years before free online video changed how riders watched footage.

Contents and sections

Fit Life follows the standard team video format: rider sections cut to music, with team and friends footage between them.

• Mike Aitken. Trails and street with the flowing style that had made him one of the most admired riders of the decade.
• Brian Foster. A trails rider with a racing background, known for speed and for the height and extension of his jumping.
• Van Homan. Street riding from the rider whose Criminal Mischief section had set the standard for the discipline at the start of the decade.
• Chase Hawk. Trails and transition from the Austin rider.
• Edwin DeLaRosa and Tom White. A split street section that closes the video, filmed across the United States with some footage from Barcelona.
• The rest of the team. Sections from Robbie Morales, Justin Inman, Eddie Cleveland and Chase Dehart, covering the full range of the brand's riding.

The terrain is broad. Dirt jumps and trails, concrete parks, ramps and street spots all appear, reflecting a team that was deliberately not built around a single discipline.

Standout parts

Mike Aitken's section is the most referenced. It confirmed his reputation as one of the most stylish riders in BMX, with trails and street riding that looked effortless. It is one of the last full sections he filmed before a serious head injury at the Dew Tour in September 2008, which gives it added weight for many viewers. He recovered, was riding again by 2009, and went on to open Anthem II in 2010.

Van Homan's section shows a rider who had been at the top of street riding for the better part of a decade still finding big, difficult things to do. His approach, favouring large gaps, rails and commitment over technical combinations, contrasts with the technical street riding that was emerging at the same time.

Chase Hawk's section shows the speed and carving style he became known for.

Edwin DeLaRosa and Tom White close the video with a shared street section. DeLaRosa had already made his name with Animal in Can I Eat? (2004) and All Day (2006), and the split brings that New York street approach to a Fit video.

Brian Foster's trails riding rounds out the video, showing how much speed and height a set of dirt jumps can be ridden with.

Impact and legacy

Fit Life is a record of a team at its peak. Several of its riders are now considered among the most influential in BMX history, and this video captures them together at a moment when the brand's roster was at its strongest.

Fit followed it with Stay Fit in 2009, but Fit Life is the one most riders remember from the brand's DVD years. Over the following years, Fit and other brands moved more of their video output online. For how that shift unfolded, see the web edit era.

Several riders from this video later left Fit to form or join Cult, whose own full-length Talk Is Cheap in 2012 continued the team video tradition.

Related

• Fit Bike Co and S&M Bikes
• Mike Aitken, Chase Hawk, Van Homan, Brian Foster and Edwin DeLaRosa
• Anthem II: Stew Johnson's 2010 video, opened by Mike Aitken
• Criminal Mischief: Van Homan's earlier landmark section
• Talk Is Cheap: the Cult video that followed
• Trails, street and park