doushbag parking
Now Playing: NOFX: Bob
"Doushbag parking" was painted on one of the decks at the Akron cement park when I was there last week.  I thought that was really funny.   There is always funny graffiti at skateparks.   I meant to take a pic of it, but only got this one on the way out.

The "Air Dock" freaks me out.  It is so huge and ominous.  I know I've written about it before, but I still get kind of nauseous looking at it.  That Metlife blimp with Snoopy on the nose landed while I was there.  I'm going to speculate that landing a blimp is no easy task.  THere was a whole crew of people on the ground, running all over the place, trying to grab the ropes to bring it in.  I imagine the blimp was in action on a Thursday afternoon for the big golf tournament that was going on in Akron.  I don't follow golf, but I wish I did so I would have known to come to town another day.  I paid $130 for a smoked out hotel room at midnight!  So bummed.  I almost always stay at Super 8 and pay 40-60 dollars, which is living large compared to the sleazy motels I used to stay in when I was super poor and on the road.   I should have stayed at the Super 8 up by Chenga--the new Chenga, which is by the old Chenga, kind of.  I rode it.  It's nuts!   I didn't know what to think or do for the first hour or so.  I just rode around, overwhelmed, feeling like a dork.  I took a break and asked "Juicer" if he wanted to shoot some photos.  I know he's super good from the old Chenga and also from Rays.  He kindly obliged and went to work busting out insane trick after trick.  I just wanted him to do some basic stuff!

This huge fufanu came right after this tailwhip on the step-up/step-down oddity...

Then, this ridiculous wall-tap out over the 10 foot vert wall (with four feet of pure vert!) in the bowl...

After that, some over-vert carves in the capsule...

He did all this stuff like it was nothing.

Here's a couple over-view shots:

After shooting the photos, I kind of calmed down and really had a good time.  Chenga57 is awesome!   There were some dudes from St. Louis there as well and it was fun riding with them.   They were on a big road trip (they are the people in the over-view shots too).

    The next morning I rode the Akron park for a bit, followed by a long day of visiting shops for work.  The last skate shop I went to was in Oberlin, Ohio, a small town west of Cleveland.  On the way into town, I noticed a lot of good terrain.  After my shop visit and before my five  hour drive back home (it's a lot further to Cleveland after the move!), I stopped to cruise around a bit and get my blood flowing before the long drive.  I was only on my bike for a minute when I heard "Hey, how's it going?".  I turned around and saw a dude picking up his bike.  A real BMX bike.  I said hello as his two buddies rolled up.    Vince, Jeremy and Justin (I think I got their names right) proceeded to take me on a short tour of the area, including a rad spot called "The Octagon" (it was octagon-shaped, go figure).  These dudes were real cool and it was a fun session.  We hit a bunch of good stuff in 45 minutes and I'm sure there's a bunch more there.  Just meeting dudes on the street and having them take me around felt like the old days, when you had an instant bond with someone if they had a BMX bike or a skateboard.  Not like today, when there's usually a weird vibe and ass-sniffing ritual like unfamiliar dogs checking each other out to see who's coolest.  Vince took this pic of me about five minutes after we met. 

And  here's a shot of Jeremy, who is turning "the big 2-0", according to Vince.

I thought about isomethign as we were riding, how weird, by normal social standards (whatever those are), that this group of 20  year olds just happen to meet this older guy on the street and take him around to ride their local spots, all in celebration of the 20 inch BMX bike.  Obviously, they knew I was older than they were, but I'm sure they would have been way off if there were to have guessed my actual age (double theirs!).  Funny, yet fairly normal by BMX standards.   Warms my heart.  Here's a shot of my unbroken Stairmaster.  I had a little scare last week, but it turned out to be a paint issue....

By the by, I still love the term "Bicycle Motocross", even if really doesn't apply to much these days.

   And I've decided that I hate the X games.  When the BMX dudes are wearing uniforms and my wife's uncle and my mom both ask me if I saw the "skateboarder wreck" on the same day, it's gone too far.  I also really, really hate that "my events" are pre-empted by shit like baseball games, NASCAR and the football hall of fame... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

39-13
Now Playing: Judas Priest: Hell Bent For leather

This is a pic of Kelly Baker, winding out his 39-13 at the FBM Belmar event this past weekend.  Kelly had 20 years on most of his competition and took on the monster jumps in style.  This photo tells a real story.  Look at how stoked everyone is and you can tell, just from this single frame, that Kelly is in full torque mode.  He told me he changed his gear the morning of the event.  That is the racer in him coming out.  Here's his recap (which he didn't intend for me to post--sorry KB) "I checked out the jumps and worked on them muddy friday nite and partied. a bunch of dudes came home and tented in our yard. sat mornin i put a 39 on the front. you had to pedal down the sidewalk and then down a bumpy alley. the jumps were monsters. they felt really good but you really had to pedal for them past random drunk people. i havent pedalled that hard since the 80's. lots of good riders wouldnt mess with them. some of the ams were awsome and some i dont know what they were thinkin. they would slip a pedal 3 times and still hit the jump , do a tailwhip right into the back side (*SCARY)." 

    Kelly's family was there, cheering him on.  I can't imagine how proud they were of him.  On an additional old guy sidenote, Brian Foster won the event, and he just turned 35!   Old dudes holding it down!  Photo used without permission by Vic Bettencort.  Thanks Vic.

 

Low Res
Now Playing: bad religion: we're only gonna die....

I took my 17 year old brother-in-law and his buddy to the Warped Tour in Detroit on Friday.  I went to the first few years of this event and it was always fun, but either I'm too old or the bands are just too crappy now.  I came up with a few alternate names for the event:

Shitty Kid Fest

Bad Tats R Us Fest

 I Came to Warped Tour with my Parents Fest

I Don't get out of the House Much Fest

1.   Dad, you're cramping my style.

2.  Division/Harley Davidson BMX shows were a highlight!  Synchronized backflips are no joke!

3.  I read a review of this band, Vincent Black Shadow.  It said they sounded like Black Sabbath with Iggy Pop singing.  I think the reviewer must have had the wrong CD playing.  They are a crappy new wave band and this girl didn't sound like Iggy.  The guitar player was hilarious.  High School Theatre major on speed.  I couldn't get a good photo of him with my phone (I need to break out the real cameras more often, I suppose).

4.  Ratty tats.

5.  Matts Sparks and Carmickle.  I finally spelled Matt C's name correctly thanks to his tattoo.    Sparks was on injured reserve but MC wowed the crowd with dangerous front flips.

6.  Use the Force

7.  black clothes make you look thinner (I should know).

8.  Quinn Semling, Wisconsin's finest.

9.   The fact that the oldest band there was by far the best (and had the biggest crowd) is a statement on modern music.  Bad Religion is good. 

10.  Mom, I told you to walk ten feet behind me.

    I must be getting old.  I was bored out of my mind for most of the day.  The BMX shows were great.  Micah ate Catfish, then bought me lunch.  Thanks dude.

   I took Noah to a Chopper event at the local dragstrip.  THere wasn't much going on, but he liked the bikes.  We bailed and went to the motocross track up the street.   He thought it was awesome and I thought "I want to do this!". 

Last night, myself, my friend PJ and my brother-in-law met up with Sean Newton, Levi Brown and Kenny Oliver, as well as Kenny's six year old son, Adam, at Western.  I love to ride street, but usually do so by myself.  It was a blast to ride with such an eclectic crew.  Western is so fun.  Jeff Degryse built a bunch of stuff there, including a dirt quarter and a fun step-up over a rickety old fence.  These pix were not taken on any of his creations, however.

PJ used to be a little kid that hung out at my Dad's bike shop in the 80s.  Now he's a grown ass man* but he's getting back into BMX and it was fun to ride with him. 

Kenny Oliver is an old dude like me that used to race at the track back in the early 80s.  I've seen him at Kzoo events a couple times but this is the first time we've ridden together. He was going nuts on his "Freeride" bike.  That's his kid, getting stoked on his old man.

Sean Newton and Levi are my most frequent riding bros since the move.  They are mellow dudes and fun to ride with.  Levi was floating these 3s on the flyout with much style.  Sean took all these photos, too.    The Western session was so fun and I am so sore today.  I love it.

   Here are some pix of the new public park in Grand Haven. 

Todd Britton was instrumental in having this park be bike friendly.  Grand Haven is on Lake Michigan and is a cool place to visit.  This park makes it a grand slam. 

*grown ass man is a Catfish term, used without permission. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MEMEMEMEME
Now Playing: Bob Dylan: Shelter From the Storm

This post is all about me!  pictures of me, stories about me, my opinions, my way on the highway, bitch!

That's me, driving down the highway.

Here's me shredding! Kris K took this photo at Modern (I have a stockpile).

And here's a painting of my chest tattoo.  Dude, I'm awesome.

Rich from Division Tattoo is opening a new gallery and store on the corner of Woodward and 9 mile in Ferndale.  I'm going to do some custom, one-off Deliverance shirts to sell there, as well as some "art".  I have a hard time calling my projects art.  Shit ain't that great.  It may be open already.  I live out in the country now.  I'm a little out of touch.  Bar Bags and belts are being produced as I type this and new shirt graphics are in the works.  I think the "Deliverance Project" logo on the opening page is destined for stickerdom. 

    The Belmar dirt jump comp this weekend promises to be a doozy.  FOD and Kzoo madman Luke White Lotus McGarry is traveling there with some other dudes.  Shit will be great.  See FBM for more details.

    I got the new Props Mega Tour 6 today.  Dane Wild is on the Albes crew and representing Deliverance with several sweet clips.  Thanks Dane.   Here's a photo of Dane's new dog.

That is a cute fuckin' dog right there.  Here's a funny pic of our dogs, being terrorized by Noah.  Check out the look of horror on Mia's face!

...and Kelly Baker represents Deliverance more than any other person, including the creator of said project.  Give that mothafucka a raise!

 

 

 

NOMOREBITCHING
Now Playing: David Bowie: Queen Bitch

Chris Hatfield went under the knife last week to get his ankle repaired.  This was taken at a better time, a few months ago at Modern.   Man, I miss that park.  Get well soon, Chris.  Kris K photo.

Here's a photo of Bob Hammond, taken by Sean Newton, at Kyle's trails in my new hometown of Otsego.  Sean is back on his bike after a severe noggin knock a while ago.  We rode Kzoo last night and it was awesome.

Here's another of Tyler Deshaine.  Clicked!  I rode Kzoo with him last week.

My wife and I went to see Poison the other night.

I'm too punk rock to admit that they were good, but CC Deville is awesome. 

Her'e's another shot of Lucero that I took at the Rock and Roll Road Fools last month to balance out the musical references in this post.

The public park in Grand Haven, Michigan opens this week.  It looks awesome.   I'm waiting for Todd Britton to send me pics (hint hint).  Todd personally raised almost two thousand dollars for this park and went to a million meetings to insure that bikes would be allowed.  Thanks Todd!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grave Digger
Now Playing: Born Against: 9 years later

 Not too much super exciting going on here.  Lots of this

a few days ago, which resulted in this:

I never in my life imagined putting a hundred dollars worth of gas into anything besides a semi or a motorhome or a tank.  I had a rented cargo van, making trips back and forth to Detroit to get the rest of our stuff moved.  It was tough.  I did get to see Chris.  He gave me a ride and a bootleg copy of 8 minute Abs, then we ate Hare Krishna food.  I need to start using the 8 minute abs ASAP.  He's scheduled for surgery on his ankle tomorrow, so keep him in your thoughts and wish him the best.   Davey Coop helped me out in a big way, as always, and is experimenting with a new look

Thanks dude.   I haven't seen any other BMXers in almost a week, but I have been working hard on my trails.  The first set/berm combo is fun and the over/under set is well under way.  Still on the freeride MTB, but they'll be ready for the 20 incher soon.   I did ride Kzoo one day last week for a bit and it was fun.  THe White Lotus, Luke McGarry, was there, along with Nate Hoff.  Nate used to live in Jackson and take care of the legendary Jackson trails.  He used to have a job as a grave digger too.  Not just for a week or anything, either, but his job was digging graves.  Gnarly.  I was thinking about Nate as I was cutting out the "under" in my new section.  It's long and grave-like, but not six feet deep.

     Burger King is one of very few vegetarian options when you're on the road and on the cheap.  Thanks BK, for taking the bold step of offering the BK Veggie burger:

 

 

   
 

 

 

 

fibia
Now Playing: David Bowie Ziggy Stardust

I called Chris Hatfield today to see if his ankle was still hurting him after the trails incident a week ago.  I guess it is--he has a broken fibia!  Dammit.  I'm really bummed for him.  He may have to have surgery, even.  He's in good spirits and being positive, so that will go a long way in his recovery.  In some good news, Chris' buddy and FOD Dan Closser has an awesome shot in the new Dig BMX mag.  It was taken by Beeler Van Orman while Dan was on his 12,000 mile odyssey this past winter.  Dan is a true nomad.  He is currently in Ecuador!

    Local trail boss Kyle Kling sent over these pix of the Ball brothers, riding the legendary Ravine in Ft Wayne, Indiana

That's Jered with the headless horseman lookback and Jeremy grabbin' his knobbies.  Kyle also sent this pic of Noah, fitting right in at the trails last week....

My wife is going to love that one...

     Here on the scorching hot earth, I've been working hard on trails of my own.  I have one functioning set of doubles and I made some progress on a berm tonight.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I've only jumped them on my Freeride MTN bike though (cut me some slack, the ground is super rough).   For real though dog.   

   Also, please check www.albes.com and www.fbmbmx.com to see how you can contribute to the Stephen Murray fund (or just to see how awesome these guys are with their contributions!).  BMX people are good ones.  Congratulations to Flip from Albe's and his wife on the birth of their second baby this past weekend!

Hillbilly huck fest
Yesterday, the fourth, Noah, my bro-in-law Chris, my buddy PJ and I headed back to Dowagiac, then over to Eau Claire (don't ask) to  hopefully see a dude jump his bike over a rumoured five cars.   We drove the hour  plus and  found a place to park.  Eau Clair is a little town in way SW Michigan.  They have a Cherry Festival on the 4th, apparently and there hundreds of people milling around and parade floats leaving the area as we pulled in.  My connection told me this dude was jumping at 2pm.  It was ten of with no jumps in site (I had seen the monstrosities a week earlier, so there was no missing them).  PJ asked one of the vest-equipped cops when the dude was going to jump his bike and he knew nothing.  Just as I was thinking it was a complete waste of time, a John Deere came rolling down the street with the landing ramp in tow...

A few minutes later, "Psycho" and his sidekick were doing manuals and 180s to warm the crowd up.    Their flatland skills were pretty minimal but the ramp set up was impressive.  The take off was 8 feet tall with a super steep tranny.  The landing was just as tall with a flat bank landing and short "safety deck".  It looked so sketchy, but not as sketchy as homeboy's bike

The Fit frame is legit but I can't imagine the thinking in not having a seat (or why you would need four pegs to jump ramp to ramp).  No brakes either, making it even nuttier.  He walked up the ramp and got the crowd pumped, no PA or anything.  Lots of bro-hugs and hand shakes and he was off.  Psycho's first jump was so hairball!

He over-shot it by a long way, landing about 3/4 down the landing.  He kind of buckled, but held on.  It was nuts.  He jumped again and over-shot it again, but still pulled it.   He kept moving the ramps further apart and the jumps actually got better. 

 

I was thinking an awful lot about his forks and how old they might have been, but the hillfolk didn't care none....

I was super-impressed by the ballsy jump, but his announcement to "comeback at 7 or 8 and I'm gonna jump 60 feet" was bullshit.  We drove all the way down there to see his warm up jumps!  I got a call later on that he was going pretty big, but 60 feet seems like a stretch (no pun intended).  The kids were pumped....

PJ Danhoff took the jump pix...

 

 

 

 

 

 

more wine

This is a long post, so I decided to break it up (there's a post below if you haven't seen this yet).  

Chris Hatfield, Fro Ardelean and Matt Carmichael came to town on Sunday for a little camping/riding adventure.  They ended up way south of here on a wild-goose nest chase Saturday night, but made it in on Sunday morn.  We headed down to the Dowagiac park and as always, had the whole place to ourselves.  This is a weird, poorly built park that is really fun, despite the shortcomings.   The weather was perfect and the boys wasted no time...

Matt pulled this hang five on the first try, about ten minutes after waking up in the back of the van and 35 minutes after eating a ham sandwich from a gas station.

Fro was on a mission.  He had lines and jibs all over the place, including this gnarly spine wide-side transfer.  Flyin' blind and bombin' in.  Nice.

No, Fuzzy wasn't there.  It's Fro again.  Tweeked!

Matt is more pro than the guys that built this sketchy ass quarter.

It was nice to see homage to a lost friend...

R.I.P. Glenn Seals.

   Hatfield had some sick whips over the hip (and a couple hefty bails, natch) and I even pulled a couple things I hadn't before.  We called it and hit the road. 

    We got back home for a home-cooked dinner by Mrs. Towne.  We were all starving and it was awesome.  Afterward, we took Noah and headed up to the KyTy trails.  Noah had a great time and thanks to Nick and Hatfield for hanging out with him while daddy took a few runs.  That night we had our first fire in the pit out back and the boys camped.  They went to the beach the next day (only about 45 minutes to Lake Michigan from here) while I worked, then back to the trails.  We were having an awesome session until we heard Chris yelling.  I've seen Chris crash hard a hundred times and never make a sound, so when he was screaming profanities it was really scary.  He rolled his ankle really badly after bailing out of a three over the last set.  I just talked to him, and it's not looking too good, but, in his words "that's the life of a bike rider".  Here he is being wheeled out of the woods.

That was a bummer end to a really fun couple of days.  Carmichael got it on tape but no one needs to see it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

box of wine

   Road Fools one came out right when I started getting heavily back into BMX in 1997.  I managed to find a copy and was blown away.  I had not been paying much attention to BMX and the things that were happening in this video were amazing.  More than that, the crew aboard that motorhome made BMX seem fun to me again.  Maybe even more fun than it had ever been.  I spent a lot of late nights watching Road Fools in our little apartment in Kalamazoo.  For whatever reason, we used to buy cheap boxed wine back then and I drained the bag from many while my enthusiasm for BMX was being renewed.

    Fast forward almost ten years and Road Fools is near my new home with live bands performing along a crew of the best guys in BMX.   The Modern park in Grand Rapids is a little small, but with the bowl opened up and good vibes everywhere it was an awesome event.  Thunderlip played first and they were great.  I felt kind of bad for them.  They are definitely a "let's get drunk at the bar and go nuts while this band gets nuts on stage" kind of band, but they were playing on the flatbottom of a mini ramp in a mall skatepark at 7 pm.  They jammed regardless.  By the time Lucero played, the crowd had either figured out how to loosen up or the stashed drinks had started taking effect.  

 

Lucero was great.  I was up front, taking photos and checking out the chaos as they rolled through their "hits".  There were random, drunk people (not bike riders), careening all over the "stage". It was awesome.  I had to leave stage right and go get my bike when it took a weird, frat-boy like turn, shirts came off and arm-in-arm singalongs started going down, but I suppose Lucero is used to that.  They are good sports and continued with their brand of country-twinged rock and roll.   It was a pretty casual session, which seems impossible when shit like this was happening:

Watching Mike Aitken destroy the bowl was incredible.  I could watch him ride that every day for a year and still have the same "OH MY GOD!" reaction every time he aired the hip or cranked full speed across the deck to roll in.  It was great. 

Here, my new hometown homie, Tyler Deshaine airs the corner pocket while Lucero Ben looks on.   The dudes from Lucero are genuinely nice guys.  This was the second time I've had the chance to talk to them and they are super friendly and sincere.  Makes me like their band even more.  So much good stuff went down and anyone that wanted to got to take runs all night.  It was great.  It was good to see some Eastside boys in the house as well.  Jason Burton was still riding at 11:45 pm, before driving all the way back home, then getting up for work at 6 am the next day.

I feel like I hang out with Crandall and Catfish all the time, since they are on TV every day (which my son Noah insists on watching constantly "B! B! B!" he says when he wants to see bikes), but it was even better to see them in person.  Crandall rules.  I hope he's still okay after this whole trip is over....

Lucero anc Crandall pics by me, Riding photos by Sean Newton. 

More later...