Hoppers Night
About 10pm on a Friday night before the Atlanta Lowrider Super Show , I go out to Austell to catch a few of the lowriders in town for a hopper exhibition. I had always seen videos and photos from these type of events and was anxious to catch it in person. I arrived kind of late, but when I arrived nothing had started yet. I can tell everyone had been waiting for awhile with the Modelos in heavy rotation and the West Coast rap on blast in the back ground. After about 30 minutes the guys pulled out the G bodies like boxers getting ready for a title match.
The first car in the air was the white Cutlass from Chicago. Shortly after on the opposite side the red Cutlass hit the air..
After a few rounds between the two they rearranged the setup and hopped side by side. It made for an amazing show watching these 3,000lb cars hop like their weightless and come crashing down to the concrete side by side. The two would often get stuck on the bumper and they would need to pull it back down by hand. Meanwhile the other one would continue to hop inching closer and closer to each other and into the crowd.
After the hoppers took a break, the Atlanta legend Disco Biscuit was driven out by the owner and his two younger sons. Disco Biscuit was a different type of hopper, it was a dancer. And from chatting with the owner he told me that the car has been around since the early 90s and has been rebuilt several times.
Senior handed the controls over to Jr. who could not have been any older then 10. He took the controls and made the Fiesta dance until the pumps caught on fire. The craziest part about that was that his dad the only person not loosing his mind and rushing to put the fire out. He just calmly opened the trunk and fanned the flames out like it was a everyday thing. Meanwhile Jr. was placed on top of the hood for a round of applause from the crowd..
Dad and his 2 sons got back in Disco Biscuit and drove back through the crowd..
After that, there were a few street hoppers that pulled in the circle and hopped…
After a few minutes the S10 lost its ball joints on the front left side..
After a few runs of damaged cars and smoking pumps. It seemed to be break time for everyone. By this time it was pushing midnight, but everyone was tucked away in their corners working to get the hoppers back up and running for the crowd.
While the others made repairs, the crew from Chicago went back at it….
They hopped the car for about a minute straight, and banged the bumper every time until the front suspension gave way, and it came crashing down on the dangling wheel. As the Cutlass rolled out of control the crowd grabbed the car until the owner could get it stationary..
And like a pit crew the builders got to work to get it back together. It looked like the spring dislodged and got caught on the upper mount.
Once the guys from Chicago went down, it looked like everyone started to head out..
It felt great to go and witness something completely new. I already had a huge love and respect for the lowrider scene, but seeing at this level and up close was a completely different experience. This whole exhibition was put together surrounding the Atlanta Lowrider Supershow being held the next day. I overheard a bunch of guys saying how much of a big deal this was in Atlanta. And how things will be different from now on, because the past was full of conflict between groups in the Atlanta Lowrider scene. But the Super Show finally returning to Atlanta was putting an end to all that finally.
