Here's a preliminary flyer for two mini ramp contests. The TRP one is the "outside the box" contest, utilizing the mini, the little mini, the new hip, the street spine and the wall ride next to the mini. In other words, the mini plus the ramps directly connected to it.
the TRP comp is jam format, opens at 11 pm with the jam at midnight.
Kzoo comp is jam format, session starts at 4 pm (this is a regular session) with the mini ramp jam starting at 9 pm.
Sponsored by Deliverance, VeteranBMX.com and...?

Happy Birthday to Deliverance Team riders Dane Wild and Matt Carmichael. I wonder if Matt knows he's on the team yet?
I'm off to SoCal bro in the morning, have a kick ass week....

More or Less or less
Now Playing: This Bike is a Pipe Bomb Board of Tourism
Like I do most things, I decided in the 11th hour that I could squeeze one more thing into this art show...

This finished product is what I originally envisioned. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing, but I'm happy with how it came out. At least with this I did all of it. The let-down part of the skull wheel is that the skull is a halloween decoration that I painted. Weak.
I'm going to California on monday, bro, so this is probably the last of my posts for a bit. The posts have been scarce lately but there is a reason for it, at least. I am hoarding lots of photos and other formats for upcoming projects. I am the king of over-exposure, generally, but this time around I am committed to keeping at least part of the program sacred.
I was in Cleveland/Akron yesterday for real work and spent the later hours at Rays, which is fucking awesome! The outter loop with the big boxes provided some overdue air time and the rest of the park is no less incredible. I brought my "freeride" mountain bike to dink around on the trials obstacles. It was fun, but only in a "If I didn't ride BMX, I could still have fun on a mountain bike" kind of way. I even hit the foam pit a few times. I have some serious germ-phobe issues, but I overcame those to twinkle-toe it into the foam. As has been the case more than once in the past, I hurt myself in the foam because I was landing in foam The dead-stop landing of a big 360 was awfully hard on the old wrist. Oh well.
I had an interesting experience while on the deck of the foam pit. There was a group of three moutain bike dudes jumping into the foam. They were jumping real high and doing these horrible superman bailers that they never would have pulled over a real box. One of them was real insistent on small talk and asked how old I was. I told him and he said "I thought you were older, but not that old!" I dropped in and did my shitty turn-down, came back and he was still hung up on it. "I can't believe you're that old. You're the reason I still ride!" It was his attempt at a compliment but it was depressing. "How come you aren't riding a mountain bike?" Like I was supposed to be because of my elder status. Sorry guy, I just haven't lowered my standards that much yet. Rays is awesome and I had a great time. Afro Pat was there for a bit and it's always good to see him. FOD Lurch from Cleveland is another old guy that is still down for the cause and it was real fun to follow him through the rhythm.
I didn't even bring my camera to Ray's so this photo of FOD Davey Cooperwasser balling it up at TRP will have to suffice for now....

PS I ate Hare Krishna food with FOD MIke O'Bryan today. Go easy on the guy as he re-emerges into the everyday scene...

junkyart
Now Playing: Wrangler Brutes
Kelly Baker's on the FBM site rockin' the Big Bear tee. I'll be honest, I get tired of a lot of my own designs, but the Big Bear(which I hardly designed, I stole it), is one of my all-time favorites. Kelly's apparently getting soft in his old age, judging by the color scheme of that bike...
I have a piece of "art" (that might be a stretch) that is going to be in an art show this weekend at Plus Skateboard Shop in Farmington, Michigan. BMXers barging on the skate scene again!

There are a couple more pix on the opening page of the site.
The Deliverance bandanas are finally done after months of production hold ups. Hopefully I'll have product in hand shortly. Stay gooned.

ricky carmickle
Now Playing: Ramones
There is some awesome footage of Deliverance team rider Matt Sparks on the Team Young site. I just decided that Matt Carmichael is the newest Deliverance Factory Team Rider. I haven't talked to him about it yet, but if he's down, I'm down. Homie is a shredder, a cool dude and goes bigger than Jupiter. Welcome to the team, Matt. Speaking of unauthorized team riders, Lavar/Deliverance collaborator Dan Closser is on the injured list with a 3rd degree seperated shoulder after going OTB at an undisclosed location. Dan has a inter-continental road trip of mega-mileage proportions coming up soon, so get well quick buddy. I had the pleasure of riding with O.G. Deliverance riders Matt Sivalleli and Solan Foster today, at two different intervals. Matt was laying it down at the River Bends public offering during unseasonably terrific conditions and Solan later made the scene at the Modern enterprise. Previous post stars Tyler D and Jeremy B, along with LudaChris from Battle Creek were in the Novi vicinity as well, making for a banger of a session. Good times. Dane Wild was there, celebrating both his 19th birthday and a growth spurt. Dane's development is on the downside of the growth curve due to a poor diet. Dane and Sparks both have clips and whips in the new Props 62. FOD Joe Gall got lots of comical airtime for the Kink Demo Derby too...

technical difficulties, 2001 style
Now Playing: Lungfish Jonah
It seems like the Internet used to short-circuit a lot more a few years ago. "My intraweb is down" was a common excuse in 2001. My innernet was down yesterday and up until a little while ago. Turns out that the only thing "down" was where I sat my guitar yesterday after taking a "jam break" (a.k.a. "hack attack"). Seems I sat my axe on the on/off switch on the ol' power strip for one of the many plug-in components. Some day computers won't use wires or cables.
Here are a couple pix from FOD Tyler Deshaine, from the recent trip he and Jeremy Ball took to Austin...

Both of these pix were taken at the reportedly insane OKC Matt Hoffman park. That's Tyler with the invert and Jeremy exploding out of the sun. There are mini-ramp events in the works, stay tuned. More news later...

flailing and whailing
Now Playing: Minutemen The Cheerleader

A week between posts makes one weak. Deliverance is my "night time" project. I have a real job and a family that keeps me real busy. I love doing Deliverance stuff but sometimes finding the time for such things as blog entries is difficult. I got tired of my 80s-aqua colored bike, as I knew I would and with the weather clock clicking rapidly I managed to lay down a new coat of paint. I honestly still liked the aqua but a lot of people are on the same color and I just couldn't take it any more. I guess the red isn't totally original either but there is nothing new under the sun, literally, when it comes to the color wheel. The gyro (Snafu Mobeous) is a long story that I would rather not get into. I will say that I am really fucking sick of working on my bike right now.
Matt Sparks won best trick at the big Flow contest in Ohio this past weekend (Flip from Albes should be posting pix soon. Sparks also got a clip in the opening intro to the new Props, which is awesome. I couldn't tell you if he had more clips inside or not because I had to go to bed before I finished watching it because I stayed up real late working on my damn bike that still isn't running.
I got some interesting replies to the win a free Bar Bag contest, but Minnesota's Bill Sympson won it all with the correct answers of "Supersuckers Born With a Tail" and Crandall's demonic phone number. Froseph Ardelean took his Bar Bag to a more long distance level with this road bike application

Fro's good buddy Chris Hatfiled scared all of really good when his chain broke at Modern on Sunday. He was cranking full speed toward the hip and his chain gave way right before the "A" ramp. Luckily, he got his hands out as he was falling, but the old "into the face of the ramp" trick can be hard on the old mug. He was somehow okay and even continued riding sans the busted drivetrain. What a trooper.
I've been trying to play guitar for years and am still terrible at it. I stopped at a pawn shop in Flint last week that had some extremely good deals and came up on this:

I bought the amp a couple days later at a place called "Junkyard Guitars" in Royal Oak. This is a cool spot if you're in the area. I didn't even notice this at first, but I couldn't be more stoked...

I don't aspire to play any Metallica licks, but you gotta love the phantom image of good metal done badly.

the best of times in the worst of times
I mentioned the passing of Dave Fawley (sorry for botching his name before) last week. A sad and tragic event indeed. In the worst of times, however, sometimes the best in people comes out. Dave's friends put together a benefit jam at TRP on Friday night that was a huge success. Tons of people: riders and non-riders, young and old, mountain bikers and BMX dudes that had maybe never even seen a skatepark, along with a huge group of area shredders came together in honor of Dave and to help raise money for his family. 100% of the door went to the benefit, which was very cool of the folks from TRP. Sean Rakos designed and printed some awesome shirts that sold out in less than five minutes and some stuff was raffled off that helped raise a little more. Dave had a lot of friends and some of them were giving it their all with his spirit in mind.

"New York" Dave was a good friend of Dave Fawley's and unleashed a display of complete madness. He took it so hard on this giant gap to ledge so many times. Sparks was on hand as well, putting on a show that I'm sure the non-riders in attendence are still trying to figure out.

Joe Gall took those photos with my camera while I got it all on tape. There are tons of photos and great coverage on Veteran BMX and Team Young. It is nice to know that such a sad event can bring people together for such a good time. I'm sure Dave would have liked it that way. I just want to extend my sympathy to Sean, Davey Coop, 40 oz. Dan, JR, Thomas, Otto, NY Dave and all the rest of the people whose lives were made better by knowing Dave....
I didn't make back to TRP on Saturday for the Veteran's Day jam, but that looked like a good time as well. See the sites above for more info on that. Deliverance was a sponsor of that event and was well represented with the likes of Dane Wild's Porter-ish antics:

Flip from Albe's took that shot in between skid variations.

Birthday Boy
Now Playing: David Bowie Ziggy Stardust
I have a bunch of stuff to post later, but for now, please join me in wishing FOD Kelly Baker happy birthday! I write about Kelly a lot on this blog and there are many reasons: He's a kick ass rider, a huge supporter of Deliverance, a dude I can relate to in a lot of ways and at the same time, am completely dumbfounded by (ha!). Most of all, Kelly is a true friend and a great person. He celebrated this big day by hanging out with his family, playing board games from the 60's and riding children's bicycles with his children. Here's to you, buddy.

It's not polite to discuss people's age. Just know that Kelly has joined an elite club of BMX dudes. These photos were both taken back when Kelly was in his thirties....

Sad times
The owner of Imperial Bike Shop in Saline, Michigan, Dave Famley, passed away on Friday. I didn't know him that well personally, but FODs Sean Rakos and Davey Coop were good friends with him and always involved in the shop. There is going to be a fundraiser session this Friday night, 11/10, at TRP in Dearborn. I don't know the specifics, other than I assume it starts at 11pm. If you can spare some extra money, it will be donated to Dave's family to help with costs during this sad time. My heart goes out to Dave's family and friends...

full circle psycho
Now Playing: Lucero Hello Sadness
Vision Hip Sacks were huge in the late '80s. These goofy little belted sachels held everything from keys, film, tools, weed, granola bars, you name it. They are now considered lame. I hope no one in the year 2019 is writing this same type of thing about the "Bar Bag" that came out in 2006

I know, we've been calling it the "man bag", but it really is a handlebar bag and it would be handy for riding your bike to the bar. I'm pretty siked on the "ZeroNine Technology" integrated into the straps, which keeps it from flopping around

It fits really well, is easy to put on and take off, has a belt-loop if you want to get really daring and it holds a lot of stuff.

There is a bigger version of this photo somewhere on this website and the first person to e mail me with the answer to these two questions gets a free bag:
What song is playing on that Ipod?
What is Crandall's phone number, according to the phone in the pic?
I'm serious about this. stowne@twmi.rr.com
The belts came out really cool as well.

Dans Comp has the Draft Dodger hats and Test Pattern shirts in stock. Last Call Distribution has all the new shirts and a bunch of stuff if you have a shop and are interested in getting Deliverance product and Albe's has the Bar Bags and some new shirts in stock. Hook it up, son!
After my public badgering of Sparks and Dane, I noticed that Dane had some Deliverance stickers on his top tube. I saw Sparks the next day and he asked if I had any stickers, but didn't mention the blog. I realized too, that neither Dan Closser or Chris Hatfield really have any Deliverance stickers on their bikes, so I apologize to Dane and Sparks for not coming down on Dan and Chris as well. I guess the team is going to be me, Solan, Kelly B, Crandall and half the kids at Modern and TRP who are representing. Sparks, Dane, Hatfield and Dan are all off the team. Sorry guys.
Sparks is riding a 22 pound bike with 1.75 tires front and rear. Hatfield pointed out the ridiculousness of this in that Sparks is stronger than a retarded gorilla. Coincidence or irony? Don't carve too hard on that front tire, buddy. I love Sparks...okay, he's back on the team. Wait, Dane is back on as well, since he put stickers on. Hatfield and Dan are out to pasture. They are getting old anyway.
I got the Fitlife Video and it is amazing For real. It opens with the gnarliest slam section, then goes into part after part of unbelievable riding with very little BS. Chase Hawk is one of my favorite riders and his part is incredible. Van Homan seemed to calm it down a notch after his amazing early video parts and subsequent knee injuries, but his part in this proves that he has not let up one bit. Just F-ing going for it! Brian Foster is dear to me with his racing background, veteran status and flowing style. His part makes BMX seem like the most fun thing a person could ever do. It is, isn't it? The Edwin/Tom White split part is kick ass, Chase Dehart's part is rad and the Eddie Cleveland part is stunning. The big surprise standout to me is Justin Inman. His skills have never been questioned, but his part in Fitlife is so F-ing good! I replayed his 360 to snapped table so many times, pausing it at the pinnacle. This eloquent move is my single favorite trick in the entire video. Such beautiful style. And speaking of style, we can not overlook the ender with no surrender, Mike Aitkin. His style, attack and commitment are a fitting end to this video. Mike kills it. The friends and family part is good too, with some big moves and keep-it-real-ability of the H.M.F.I.C., Robbie Morales. Rob-O is a stand up dude and there is no one more devoted to BMX than Big Bob. I often think of something he says in Road Fools 2 when he's arguing with Rooftop "This is all I know". So true. Fitlife is the best video I've seen in ages (and I watch them all). I even made my wife watch Mike Aitkin's part...