User:Edwonka

My name is Edward "Wonka" Laforte. I'm 21 years old, born and raised in New York City, where I currently reside. At the age of 17, I purchased my first Fixed gear conversion and became a bike messenger. With a BMX state of mind, I cruised the familiar streets, where i've always done tricks, whether it was on a board, bike, or blades, and started "tricking" on my bike while working. In February of 2008, I was in a nearly fatal accident. I was hit by a van while I was riding on my bike. The summer of 2008 is when FGFS really caught my interest. I started to take the sport serious, and simultaneously the sport itself began to progress. It wasn't just about track stands,skids or backwards circles anymore. In the winter of 2009, I got sponsored by GOrilla Bicycles, which gave me the opportunity to travel and film around the world. After a year run with GOrilla, I felt I needed to be more directly involved with the growing FGFS community and market, and decided to leave GOrilla. In early 2010, Mike Schmitt,Joey Krillz, and I decided to start our own company called THE GRIME. We wanted our company to be based off of companies like FBM and other extreme sport companies. We went from creating and selling t-shirts to frames to bike parts. Two bicycle film festivals later, my friends and I had our own bicycle company. As of today, we're still helping to push the sport more and more everyday and it feels great!