The BMX club in this deprived area of south London has produced one champion after another, and its success is celebrated in a new documentary, 1 Way Up
Peckham teenagers have picked up a bad reputation in recent years fuelled by regular reports of gang-related violence, the 2011 riots, and absurd gestures such as MP Harriet Harman wearing a stab vest to tour the area in 2008. But now they're getting a reputation of a different kind. In the past decade, the deprived south London district has produced a string of national, British and even world BMX champions, male and female all thanks to one grassroots club: Peckham BMX. The club's improbable story is told in a new documentary, 1 Way Up, which has its premiere tomorrow (in Peckham, of course).
"We've changed the face of youth round here," says CK Flash, the club's founder. Well built, deep-voiced, hair clipped into a millimetre-perfect fade, Flash is something of a local legend. He raced himself as a child, before becoming a renowned radio DJ, breaking acts such as Dizzee Rascal, Wiley and Miss Dynamite. In 2004, he was asked to help set up a demonstration race on an overgrown patch of wasteland in Peckham. With a strimmer, a handful of riders and some hard-won council funds, he set about creating a modest track. "When it was dark in winter, I went to B&Q and bought decorating lights," says Flash. "I ran the wire from somebody's house across the road."
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 13 hours ago.
Peckham teenagers have picked up a bad reputation in recent years fuelled by regular reports of gang-related violence, the 2011 riots, and absurd gestures such as MP Harriet Harman wearing a stab vest to tour the area in 2008. But now they're getting a reputation of a different kind. In the past decade, the deprived south London district has produced a string of national, British and even world BMX champions, male and female all thanks to one grassroots club: Peckham BMX. The club's improbable story is told in a new documentary, 1 Way Up, which has its premiere tomorrow (in Peckham, of course).
"We've changed the face of youth round here," says CK Flash, the club's founder. Well built, deep-voiced, hair clipped into a millimetre-perfect fade, Flash is something of a local legend. He raced himself as a child, before becoming a renowned radio DJ, breaking acts such as Dizzee Rascal, Wiley and Miss Dynamite. In 2004, he was asked to help set up a demonstration race on an overgrown patch of wasteland in Peckham. With a strimmer, a handful of riders and some hard-won council funds, he set about creating a modest track. "When it was dark in winter, I went to B&Q and bought decorating lights," says Flash. "I ran the wire from somebody's house across the road."
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 13 hours ago.