Ken De Graaf

In the early 1980s, something extraordinary was happening in Australian BMX. Alongside the racing — the gates, the motos, the trophy dashes — a new discipline was taking hold. Flatland. Ramps. Street style. Freestyle BMX had arrived, and one of its most passionate and dedicated pioneers was a young New South Wales rider named Ken De Graaf.

Ken started as a racer — and a good one. Multiple junior and senior expert titles came his way as he came through the ranks. But when freestyle BMX entered his orbit, something clicked. The creativity, the expression, the pure performance of it — it spoke to something racing couldn’t fully satisfy. And so Ken made the leap.

By the mid-1980s, he had become one of the most recognisable freestyle riders in the country — competing across flatland, ramps, and park in some of Australia’s earliest freestyle competitions. As co-founder of the Street Freaks Freestyle Team, and later as a member of the Australian Freestyle Team, Ken helped define the look, style, and culture of Australian freestyle BMX during its formative years.

The sponsorships followed — Rockdale Cycles, BMX International, Converse, and even Coca-Cola saw in Ken exactly what they were looking for: a skilled athlete and a compelling face for a new wave of youth culture. Magazine features spread his name and image across the country. Television and commercial appearances brought freestyle BMX into living rooms and shopping centres for the very first time.

But it was the shows — the live performances — that were Ken’s real legacy. Between 1985 and 1992, he performed an estimated one thousand freestyle shows across Australia. One thousand. Think about what that means — one thousand crowds, one thousand moments where a child watched in awe and thought: I want to do that.

The centrepiece of that era was Expo 88 in Brisbane — the 1988 World Expo — where Ken and his teammates performed in front of thousands of spectators, introducing freestyle BMX to a mainstream audience many of whom had never seen anything like it.

Decades later, Ken De Graaf is still riding. Still part of the community that made him. That lifelong love for the sport, for the people in it, is the true measure of a man.

Ken De Graaf didn’t just ride freestyle BMX in Australia during its golden era. He helped build it, shape it, and share it with the world.

Tonight, we welcome Ken De Graaf into the Australian BMX Hall Of Fame.