Armchair quarterpipes.
Now Playing: the cure why can't I be you?
Yes, I'm listening to the Cure. One of my guilty pleasures. Please note the flyer for the Kzoo contest below has a bunch of sponsors on it now, including DK, FBM, Vclub clothing, Team Young, Animal and Terrible One. That's some good shit! Rich from Division tattoo is offering a free tattoo to the winner of the Best Trick event, which is really cool. You may also notice the logos of Dans Comp, Albe's and Empire mail order shops. Peace and love and everyone living in harmony! I'm so stoked about this. There are already enough prizes to make this contest totally kick ass. For real. That's not even counting the Deliverance and Etnies stuff. This one is gonna be good.
I don't watch traditional sports on TV but when the X games, Dew Action Sports and all the that comes on I am a regular armchair quarterback, swearing at the judges, cheering on the good guys and getting all crazy by myself in the living room in the middle of the night. Travis Pastrana with a double MX backflip? Please. Kevin Robinson's double flair was ridiculous and I am really happy for the guy. I've met him a few times and he is a sincere, friendly dude and I know he works hard at his vert riding. That shit is no joke. As a BMX purist though, I really spit Budweiser out of my mouth when I saw this:

Morgan Wade's insane transfer across the entire course like it was nothin'! He is insane and insanely good. Last year I called BS on Scott Cranmer not winning but this year I'm calling BS on him winning and Morgan not. Oh well. It was radical, either way.
The TRP contest was on Saturday and was off the chains. I got there just in time to get drafted for Advanced class judging and it was ridiculous. I guess I can relate to what the X games judges were going through because it is tough to compare wild styles to dialed smiles, you know? The TRP format has one run in the rhythm room and one run in the "street" room, which is a cool format. When it was over, Alan Schmalz was unquestionably the winner. He drove home the point with this full-length ice-pick across the wall in the street room.

Matt Carmichael is an O.G. TRP rat kid that is now a full grown adult ripper. He dabbled a few times but his shit was out of control, most notably this front flip over the little street spine to flat!

Sparks had some incredible lines as well, but kept it in sparks mode by only pulling a few key moves.

Sparks rules. Sparks' Etnies/Deliverance/Albe's team mate Dane Wild held his own before leaving town again for Binghampton. Hatfield took these photos between hot laps and Bud Lights in the parking lot. A dude from Illinois, Sam Spadey (something like that) got second with some nutty lines and tech trickery. It was cool to see a non-local coming up with new stuff. His buddy big Greg ran a Cheng Shin and shook the building with some hot licks as well. Hopefully those dudes will show up at Kzoo.
When TRP first opened, Steve Byrnes was a rollerblader, but now he works at Woodward and is super good on the two wheeler. He came dangerously close to pulling a double whip out of the quarter to wedge set up, landing one-footed about ten times. Steve's buddy Justin Bayless won Best Trick with a bar-spin to ice pick to hop-over to fakie on the hitching post. That's a tough one right there. The contest was fun and everyone got to ride, which is what it's all about. Good job TRPeople. There's better coverage and more photos of the TRP gig at Team Young