Let’s start with time and place.
It was the early 90’s. I was a pre-teen growing up in Parma, Ohio — a hellscape of the same house copied and pasted, stretching for roughly twelve miles squared.
Cell phones didn’t exist. The internet wasn’t a thing. Instant connection wasn’t even imaginable.
And therein lay the magic - we were unreachable.
Organized sports weren’t optional — it was just what boys and girls did.
At the time, none of us questioned why. It was simply part of youth. Everyone found (or was told) their “thing”: hockey, basketball, baseball, soccer, art, drama, whatever.
But some of us didn’t fit that mold — so we explored other options…
The Birth of “Alternative”
Alternative sports were just coming onto the scene.
Snowboarding was new. Skateboarding was new-ish. BMX dirt jumping was new, raw and undefined, we didn't invent BMX, we did however invent dirt jumping. Suburban kids were B-Boying.
The music that fueled it all — punk, ska, hip hop, the entrance of gangster rap on suburban kids — it was new.
The fashion? Colorful. Very colorful. Neon was fashion.
The theme? So much new shit — and most of it revolved around culture, not things.
Tech had influence, but not like today. Culture was what permeated everything we did — and it was visceral.
ENTER Dirt Jumping (BMX)
Greenies Trails. Dirt jumps. Woods. Perseverance. Recklessness.
To pedal as fast as humanly possible at an eight-foot-tall jump with a twenty-foot gap — it makes no sense. None.
But to those of us who chase that feeling of being weightless — flying through the air for one or two seconds — it’s an addiction. A lifelong compulsion.
A buzz worth chasing…… 100%
That buzz has led me to strange places and connected me with friends who are still chasing that high together.
Building The World We Wanted
Chasing that thrill meant building dirt jumps — and the side effects of that have lasted a lifetime. Let’s pull that thread.
We’d dig huge holes to build the jumps. Those holes filled with water. The water brought mosquitoes.
We tried bleach. Didn’t work.
So we asked the old guy at the hardware store what to do — and suddenly, we were installing underground PVC pipes, drainage tiles, and connecting putrid puddles into tiny ponds and streams, enhancing the ecosystem we had build for ourselves.
We became pre-teen nation builders, collectively working toward the common good of chasing that high.
The woods needed treehouses, perches high in the branches for photos, chill spots, lookouts.
We were kings of our own world — untouched and uninfluenced by adults.
Digging Dirt, Moving Mountains
Have you ever dug a hole with a shovel and moved a mountain of dirt?
It takes days, sometimes weeks. You’re often alone — just you, a shovel, and ninety-degree heat.
Mosquitoes biting. Operation Ivy, Dead Kennedys, Anti-Flag, NOFX, Beastie Boys, Busta, Biggie, De La, Atmosphere, blasting in your Walkman.
Girls and parties might try to pull you away — but there you stay, in the woods, moving a pile of dirt, hour after hour.
It makes no sense.
But it taught me something about life — that anything was possible if I (we) put in the work.
Small, visceral improvements every day. The woods. The jumps. Our skills.
Back then, it was simple: do the hard thing, move the dirt, chase the high.
Because if the work wasn’t done, no fun would be had.
The “Have Nots”
There’s another side to it — one we didn’t talk about much.
We had not.
We had something, but not much. No money. No real resources.
Those shovels? Stolen.
That property? Not ours.
That bleach? Fell off the back of a truck.
The wood, the tools — all “acquired.”
Or, arranged with the people in power to look the other way.
Shout-out to the old dudes who knew what we were doing and looked the other way. Heroes.
Hindsight Is 20/20
Looking back, those days shaped our lives.
Billy Delfs – Greenies local. Started shooting videos and photos for us. Now a full-time photographer. (All Photos herein provided by Billy)
Pat DeAngelis – Greenies local. Had the style we all aspired to. Now a full-time artist living his dream.
Nate Wessel – Greenies adjacent. The guy who sent it over impossible gaps. Built the world-famous Chenga World. Now builds full-time for himself and Nitro Circus.
Fowl Powell – The earliest industrialist. One of the youngest to start a business. Built Chenga World and Chenga II. Forever a legend, Chenga shaped my childhood.
Andy Kobak – Greenies local. The vanilla gorilla who backflipped everything. Runs his own public-adjustment firm — and still shreds A-Line at Whistler.
Steve Bella – Greenies local. The GOAT with a shovel. Runs a construction company.
Todd Hockinsmith – Greenies local shredder. Runs a successful marine-maintenance company in California.
Drake Miller – Greenies adjacent. Ripper for life. Runs a carpentry company.
Josh Shriver - Greenies adjacent. CO-Lake local. Today he builds anything you can dream up and one of the founding members @ LAND.
And me — Scott Colosimo. Greenies local. Two-time founder at Cleveland CycleWerksand now LAND. Still chasing bigger, harder challenges.
There are ten others I haven’t listed — but most have walked similar paths.
No one was going to give it to us. We took it. Driven by the force dirt jumping left in us — a drive to build a world that doesn’t yet exist.
A life of doing the hard things.
Un-hirable.
Rebels.
Builders.
The Thread That Connects It All
Cheers to all those who’ve impacted me — and pushed me to be better.
To clear that jump no one’s cleared.
To huck your body and mind into something absurd.
To land what everyone said couldn’t be done.
Still chasing the high.
Still moving dirt.
Still flying.
Scott Colosimo is a Cleveland-based designer, builder, and founder of LAND — an electric motorcycle and energy-tech company re-imagining how people move and power their lives. He writes about building, failure, adventure, and the pursuit of freedom.