It never fails, some component of this website "expires" when I'm out of town. Vegas sucks still, in case you were wondering, but we stayed kind of off the strip and the meetings were good. We got to skate a couple times, which is awesome, although it was, no exaggeration, 105 degrees. Like a blow-dryer full power to your face. You have to drink a lot of water when it's like that. I'd wager that I drank upwards of four or five gallons over the course of the week.
Props Rock and Roll Road Fools is coming this week to Modern in Grand Rapids, which is pretty close to here. There are some skeptics regarding the size of this park (it's a lot smaller than the Novi one was), but between Lucero and Thunderlip playing live and the cast of riders signed up for this thing, there's no way it ain't gonna be good. I understand the bowl will be rideable (maybe only for the pros?), so that will add a nice element. I hope some Detroit folks show up--I miss you guys.
I rode downtown Kalamazoo tonight and it was great. There is so much stuff to ride in a small space. The two places in Detroit that I lived didn't have anything to ride. Sure, there were a few spots, but they were really far away and you couldn't really cruise around on your bike and hit different shit. I'm not talking about downtown Detroit, there is a ton of stuff there, but in the suburbs it is slim pickins. Believe it or not, I've progressed (as has BMX) since I lived here 8 years ago and a lot of things I wouldn't have considered riding in the past are all right here, waiting to be shredded. There has been some new stuff built as well.
The Dew Action thing was on TV this weekend and I saw most of the BMX events, except vert, which Jamie Bestwick won. Jamie is awesome. Park was rad and as you probably know, dirt was not rad with a horrible accident. We can only hope for the best for Stephan Murray but I haven't heard or read anything good about his condition. Tragic.
On a positive note, I got to see the full version of the Etnies video, Grounded. It's still not out, officially (there were some music clearance hold ups), but the bonus material is unbelievable (and even longer than the already long video!). The regular video has a couple more parts in it as well (John Heaton has a part, which is great. I love that dude). When I first watched the premier copy last month, I sent Dane Wild an e mail, letting him know that even though his name was in the credits, he didn't appear in the main part of the video. I didn't want him to be dissapointed at the end when the credits started rolling and he hadn't shown up. Not to worry, he has a solid ten tricks/lines in the "Etnies Family" part that are splendid. He's in good company, too, dudes like Justin Inman and Dave Freimuth didn't make the main part of the vid, but have sections in the bonus. Dane is stoked!
I think he's wearing the same Deliverance shirt in the vid. Kris K. photo. I even saw Dane crashing on Fuel TV. I gotta say that it is really weird to see guys I know, like Crandall
and Catfish, on TV every day. They ran that FBM trip from last year a couple weeks ago and showed all the clips with Kelly BAker, sitting there with his whole family, talking about the trip. I'll bet his kids are superstars at school. This is my favorite pic from that trip...
It's Cameron Wood, KB and Mike Corts. Three way attack on a wet ledge. What a fucking blast.