tick, tick, boom
Now Playing: Agent Orange Everything Turns Grey
I came on here to post and saw that Dane made his first blog entry. I'm stoked.

Dane is an integral part of Deliverance and is kind of my polar opposite in terms of age and such things. Thanks Dane.
I swear sometimes I hear the clock ticking aloud. Days like today where every time I sat down for more than a minute I had a hard time standing back up and a bent-over old man posture every time I did. At the same time, I've been on the road a ton lately (hence the lack of posts) and I've been riding a lot of different parks, even though sometimes it's only for a short time. I'm on kind of a mission right now. I've been trying real hard to learn new stuff and kind of break out from where I've been for the last while, riding-wise. I realized a bit ago that the bike I was riding was simply too much for me. The rear end is so short and the head tube is so steep that it made jumping and airs and such kind of awkward and not comfortable for me. The front brake experiment just added to the situation, but again, I'm taking a lot from these trials. It's like an accelerated learning process, sort of. I've been riding my old PW Moto for the last couple weeks and feeling very liberated. In fact, right now it has no brakes at all it feels great. I saw a sticker on the Port-O-John in Florence, Kentucky last week that read "Do You Believe In Liberation?" That's from a Lungfish song and really, the genesis for my "Liberation" tattoo. The sticker was advertising for a sticker "company" of some sort and I attempted to peel it off to re-stick it on my bike. As I did, the tell-tale lameness of paper sticker disintigration became apparent. Whatever that company is, I wouldn't have any stickers done by them. But no brakes, big bars and a 39-13 are very liberating.
All the parks I've ridden lately have had a really high participant level of ratty, dirty kids. I'm no elitist, but shitty kids running around the park, throwing rocks, getting in the way, not skating or riding or even riding scooters...I don't know. Don't you have anything else to do? Where are your parents? I guess I think about such things as a parent myself. Check out Noah's old man steez on this one. I love how he's looking at the camera as he bashes into everything in his path. Noah is the best.
I got the new Props today and it is really good. I skipped the first segment and watched everything after and it is awesome. I think Props should be owed a debt of gratitude for contributing to the progression of BMX. Personally, I know I would still probably be riding Tuff Wheels and doing one handers without it (I know, that's not far off). Both Dane and Matt Sparks had various clips, so that is radical, bro.
The first segment that I went back to was the FBM trip from a few months ago that I've mentioned about a hundred times on here. I couldn't wait to watch it, but I had to be ready, you know? I wasn't let down. It wasn't just me that had an awesome time on that trip. Everything I've read and every person interviewed in this Props talked about it being the most fun trip ever. The hijinx were not down-played. This shot of Kelly Baker (in the Deliverance Big Bear shirt, no less) exemplifies the fun factor

. When you see the video, note Kelly's ahead-of-the-trend-curve orange front wheel. My life changed for the better the minute I met up with those guys.
The new Deliverance goods should be on the scene very soon. New tees and some hats that I'm very excited about are all in production. Here's a shot of Hatfield and Shannon, his girlfriend and the only kind-of employee of Deliverance, in the limited tye-dye shirts at the Kzoo comp.

Those shirts are even more limited now that a bunch of people bought them, but the new logo will be used on several new items, including the hats. Chris looks like a big, happy, bear in this photo...
Sean Rakos is headed back to Michigan to work in a tattoo shop here, so we're all looking forward to riding with him. Solan Foster is down in Louisville this weekend, racing the NBL grands and in contention for a top National Number. I'm stoked for Solan. Every year since I've lived in Detroit, he always tries to get me to go to races, which I rarely do, but I know how much he loves racing and I'm happy that he's been getting to the races and he has been kicking ass.

Finding a new home.
So this is my first post, Scott has allowed me to throw my two cents into this Deliverance blog. I'll start off with whats been up with me lately. I recently moved out of my lovely home in Livonia, Michigan, and struck new ground here in Binghamton, New York. It's been pretty good, i got my own room. Pictured below.

Its pretty nice, its up on the third story, in the attic, i bought an a/c so its nice and chilly at night. Theres also some nice add-on's in the room. Albe's sent me this phone:

Along with some porn, hense the end of the note. Just this week i got a chance to do some bitch work at FBM for a few bucks, which was nice. I got to put together bar-ends and package them as well as hubguards, i need money. I do actually ride my bike once in a while, and i got to check out Penn-Skate, which is a pretty fun park, but i had a few run in's with a local super hero, who made sure he one upped me on every trick i tried. I even tried to do a table like Scott's, but it was no wear close to his perfection:

It's alright, someday, it'll get there. But thats all the news i have from the hole i call home here in Binghamton, Scroll down and check out the video Tyler posted of the K-Zoo Jam, and have fun.

-Dane Wild

Video Daze....
Kzoo video That there's a link to a Kzoo video that Tyler Deshaine put together. I want to once again thank Tyler

(seen here with like-wise awesome supporter, Joe Gall) for his enthusiasm and dedication to the Kzoo events for the last few years. More later...

meet the street
Now Playing: This Bike is a Pipe BombBoard of Tourism
Hopefully you checked out Team Young and Veteran BMX for more pix and info on the Kzoo comp. I simply didn't have a chance to post any more about it. I want to give a shout out to all the sponsors again, because the prizes were off the charts

DK bikes, Terrible One, Albes, Dan's Comp, Empire BMX, Vclub Clothing, Etnies, FBM, Animal and Dave Davenport really hooked it up. Here's another shot of the White Lotus, Luke McGarry, who is the captain of the style council

Also thanks to Chris Hatfield, who took a lot of the photos in the slideshow (I took this one, though). I forgot to mention that Jason Suchen

won the best trick with a 360-whip over the Pizza Hut box and the $200 Division Tattoo gift certificate that went with it. Rich from Division was the head judge even (he qualified as "head judge" because he added up the scores and told me who the winners were).
Since my last post I've driven over a thousand miles, but I did get to ride the Louisville park three times, which was awesome. One late-night session was with Ernesto from Dan's Comp, which was super fun. I also rode the cement park in Florence early one morning, which was great as well. I don't know if I'm just getting up earlier in my old age or what, but the morning session at Louisville and most of my time at the Florence park, I was the only person in the whole place. It's weird to see the giant Louisville park with no one else there. Of course it was fun but it's kind of scary being there by yourself, you know? I'm back on the road later this morning again, so hopefully I'll get some more time in the saddle.
I've recently discovered Vital BMX and created a Deliverance profile. It's like the Myspace of BMX minus the creepiness (so far). Check out my cool friends. Ha ha.
I kind of blindly paid for these DVDs that this guy I don't know said he was going to put tother on Vintage BMX He listed a whole bunch of 80s videos that he was going to transfer from VHS to DVD and I sent him the money for copies of them, hoping they would show up and be legit. It was a couple months ago and I had pretty much forgotten about it, but they were here when I got home from the road. The first one I watched was the 1988 2-Hip series. Ron Wilkerson was the man in charge of 2-Hip and developed the first half-pipe vert contests and the very first "street" contests for BMX. Before Ron it was the American Freestyle Association and their flatland/quarterpipe contests and a few concrete skatepark contests earlier on (when there were still concrete skateparks in the early 80s). I was at most of the 2-Hip contests and it was funny to see myself standing on the decks, shooting photos and such. Much like now, I usually had some kooky get up going. In the very first shot I had a jean jacket and a head band holding back my long skater-bangs. That wasn't so bad, but later in the video it is revealed that I have that upper torso steez going with a pair of above-the-knee shorts. So horrible.
Then we got to the Meet The Street event. This was the very first street contest, almost comperable to the FBM Ghetto Comps of a couple years ago. It was launch ramps and an old car and a dirt bank to wall-ride. It was one of the most fun BMX events of my life and I am proud to say I took second in the "Good" (expert) class with moves like
It's crazy to think that was almost twenty years ago....
The really embarrassing video is called "Freestylin' USA". I've seen it before, but my wife was
absolutely amazed that I appeared in this "music video" for the Metal MCs.
It was this wanna-be beastie boys band and they filmed a video at this event
in Huntington Beach in a parking lot near the beach. The GT "stonehenge" box jump was
there, which was a McGoo creation that rivals the best box jumps at parks
today. I remember it well, Not-that-hot bikini clad babes and these
absolute kooks, lip-synching and rolling around playing unplugged guitars to
their never-gonna-be-a-hit song "Born to Party" (which was a weak attempt at the Beasties "Fight for your right to party"). I appear with
badly-bleached surfer hair and a couple tricks (that I'm honestly not
embarrassed by) 2/3s of the way through the video. I actually saw this video
on TV one time after I had moved back to Michigan. It is so punishing to watch and it makes me thankful that the 80s are long over with.

Jam On It

That's Dave Moon and Luke McGarry doing what they do best. The Kzoo Jam was really fun and shit went down like mad nuts. I have to hit the road right now but I'll try to post later from the road. Click on the Kzoo Slide Show for some photos. If you click on the photos during the show there are captions and shit....
Here are the results, real quick
Beginner
1. Joe Douglas
2. Dustin Eib
3. Chris Molina
4. Dave Waite
5. Tyler Hill (busted his teeth in the first run of the day, bummer)
Intermediate
1. Nathan Lavasser
2. Josh Follet
3. Dillion Bell
4. Cameron Minarovic
Advanced
1. Dave Moon
2. Dane Wild
3. Jeremy Ball
4. Luke McGarry

corporate scum
Now Playing: rightous bros.

new stickers with the new "corporate" logo. Psyched on these. It's difficult to come up with a color that works on all backgrounds. These will look good on almost anything except a green bike, which is what I'm riding, naturally. There's a photo of me on my green bike on Team Young that I'm stoked on. When the flash fired, I was self-conscious about my goofy facial expression, but luckily my arm is in the way. Team Young will be getting their shred on up at the DirtFest deal north of Flint on Saturday. Check it out.
I got the new FBM catalog/zine deal today, which features this Deliverance ad, printed in vivid black and white:

The Kzoo contest is Sunday and it's going to be awesome, I'm pretty sure. There are so many prizes I can't even believe it. The Division Tattoo for best trick is a $200 job! Be there or not....

Ohio
Now Playing: crosby, stills, nash & young ohio

I finally rode the Akron park. I've skated it a couple times, but never got to ride my bike there. It used to be very anti-bike, which is pretty ridiculous considering that the park is built on a hill and it's basically impossible to get speed to hit parts of it on a skateboard. It's also next to a really fun-looking BMX track (a rarity these days). Anyway, I got there early and besides a couple kids coming in and out, I had the whole place to myself and I have decided it's one of my favorite parks. I still get freaked out by the blimp hangar back there though. That thing is just so enormous and ominous and it just seems like it could inhale the world around it. I get really tweaked out just looking at the thing and I know I'm not the only one, right Kelly? There are tons of lines, some good hips and some really fun ledges. I rode it for a couple hours and it was great. From there, I went to my shop in Kent, then, kind of the same way I just never did it with the Akron park, I finally went to the Kent State Memorial at Kent State University. If you don't know, Kent State was the site of the 1970 killing of four college students (and wounding of nine others), who were protesting the invasion of Cambodia. They were shot and killed by American National Guard. Think about that for a minute: Un-armed college students shot dead on a college campus in a small town in Ohio by United States National Guardsmen. One of the truly horrific and ugly pages of American history. Viet Nam was ugly and there seem to be a lot of parallels these days, aren't there?
The actual memorial wasn't much to see, but just being on the nice, tree-filled campus, riding around on my bike, looking for this site and then really sitting down, reading and thinking about it all was very heavy. Yeah, heavy.
I hit a couple more shops on the way home, including Rise Above, in Lorain, Ohio.

This is a brand new shop opened by Chenga legends/locals Dominic and Kerry Sayre. The shop is in the heart of downtown Lorain and it's a cool ass spot. They have tons of skate and BMX goods and it's on the come up. They will have Deliverance product on hand as soon as the new batch of stuff arrives (and there is a lot of new stuff coming down the conveyor belt).
They had some framed magazine covers laid out and about to be mounted on the wall. The relevance to the shop being that they feature Cleveland locals.

The relevance to Deliverance is that both Afro Pat (Plus!) and Anthony Cico (Dig)are both wearing the infamous Born To Lose tee shirt.
The Westland bike "trial session" was last night. I just made it for the last hour but it was really fun. I was told that the park claimed they made more money last night from the bikes than they would have in an entire week of skaters. The park was much bigger than I remembered it (I only looked at it through the fence before) and was super fun. Of course, it was a mad-house with rookie skatepark kids mixed among the who's who of the Detroit BMX scene. I hope they continue to have bike sessions, as it seemed like a very positive event. Of course, the dipshit doing burnouts in his beater car in the parking lot may be a strike against us. I don't want to be the rightous old guy, but come on, you idiot, use your head. It's a "trial" session and if dumbshits like you do dumb shit like that it may be the only time we get to ride the park. Dan Closser was ready to hunt the kid down and strangle him. The no-peg rule is a fair comprimise after having been there. Take a minute and e-mail the Westland Parks & Recreation department at parks@ci.westland.mi.us and tell them thanks for allowing bikes. Like it says on the sign "this is your life".

sparks
Now Playing: The Stooges on vinyl

Matt Sparks is one of the three Deliverance "team" riders. Dane Wild and Chris Hatfield are the other two and I speak of them often in this blog. I don't talk about Sparks a whole lot, mainly because I don't talk to him or see him very often. He's an enigma. Asking Matt if he wanted to be on the Deliverance team was kind of funny. I brought it up and he said something to the effect of "I wanted to ask you about it, but...", which is kind of a typical Matt thing to say "Hey, I've been meaning to call you...". I remember the first time I met him. It must have been '99 and it was at Chenga. He was bomb-dropping off the deck of the ten foot wall-ride corner deal. Insane. I remember it even more because shortly after that day I saw him at TRP where he excitedly reminded me of his Chenga antics. He seemed like a hyper little kid and I guess he was pretty young then, but he's come a long way both in his riding and his personal development. I've probably regressed in both areas in the time since but I want to take this time to say that I'm proud that Matt is part of Deliverance. I always laugh when I think of the Albe's "50% dumb ass + 50% bad ass = 100% Matt Sparks" ad, but I know him well enough to realize he's not a dumb ass at all. He's simply on his own program. And he is a bad ass.
Solan Foster is legend FOD team status on Deliverance and I talked to him today. He took second at the NBL Nationals in Illinois last weekend. Solan rules. I'm glad he's doing well racing because I know he truly enjoys it.
I'm in Ohio right now. Remote posting is pretty exciting for me. Like I'm acomplishing something when I would otherwise just be sitting her watching TV or whatever. This is also the first time I've edited photos from the road and posted them. Yoo hoo, technology! It's weird that Chenga one is gone. I always planned my Cleveland trips around going there. I could have made it to Chenga 2 for the last part of the session, but it would have been a lot of effort to get there for a half an hour or so. Instead, I'm down near Akron and unless it rains or something goofy, I'm going to ride the Akron cement park in the morning before heading south. More important than any of that, though, is that I saw Ken Schneider today. It's the first time I've seen him (I spoke to him on the phone in June) since the "incident" that nearly killed him in March. There is a newspaper clipping posted on the cash register in his shop stating that his attacker has been sentenced to 250 years in prison. That's going easy on him if you ask me. We didn't talk about that specifically, but we had a good conversation and Ken looked awesome and is doing well. He's still not 100% but he is getting progressively better every day. He is very grateful to everyone that contributed to his fund and I am as well. Thanks again to all that took part in the Ken Schneider fund.
Seeing Ken and thinking about all he's been through this year makes me think about how precious life is and how petty and unimportant a lot of my every day "problems" are. They ain't shit. Much love to Ken. He asked about Deliverance and how it has been going. He was one of the first shops to buy product from me when Deliverance started.
New stickers and shirts should be ready for Kzoo.

teenage wasteland
Now Playing: Jim Carrol People Who Died
It seems lately that some of the public parks are coming around to the BMXers. The Brighton park had an "experimental" few days a couple weeks ago where bikes were allowed and now the public cement park in Westland (michigan) is going to allow bikes this Friday, August 11, from 4:30 to 9 pm. No pegs allowed and it's $5. I tried to skate that park one time and couldn't figure out how to get in. It's pretty small but it is cement and I'm sure it would be fun. If you live near, check it out and hopefully it will become a regular session. PS, No pegs is fucking dumb at a cement park, but whatever. I'm not riding pegs right now myself. I'm also running a 39-13. That's right.
Sean Rakos is riding strong again and apparently landing tailwhips like it was nothin' down in Texas, according to FOD Matt Morren. Another FOD, Davey Cooperwasser, is still traveling around Europe and is definitely logging in some miles on the Metro or Eurorail or whatever mode of transport he seeks. Solan called me today about riding at the Waterford track, which is cool because I haven't heard from him in awhile and I was starting to get worried. Solan's hot on the racing circuit this summer. I couldn't make it to Waterford but an hour at Modern was better than not at all. Hatfield and Dan Closser were going to ride the Monroe park tonight. Another public park that is apparently lifting the bike ban.
There are some new custom Deliverance tees in the works, hopefully in time for the Kzoo contest. Peace be with you.

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