Kzoo sesh that I forgot was going on.... (Sean Newton awesome photos dot cromwell)
The White Lotus
The results, I believe, go like this:
Intermediate Best Trick: Jordan Van Dorne (360 off the deck of the six foot quarter and a bunch of other rad shit)
180 Long Jump: Dane Wild (Luke McGarry went further but couldn't pull the rollback). Ben Fisher took scariest incident by breaking is forks off. It was terrifying, but he was okay.
High air on the 3 foot mini: Luke McGarry
Advanced Best Trick: Eric Nyler (I think I messed up his name). He did the sweetest quarter to quarter gap to manual to 180 down the euro. He also did a wall ride to whip, a glorious tail whip disaster and a bunch of other good stuff. Ben Fisher took second with a whip off the top of the wall-ride and lots of other stuff. Trevor Thompson took third with lots of wild stuff, including a huge wall ride over the the window to the mall (it would be right in the center of the "D" in the above pic.
Sean's pics are totally sweet, but here's one I took of the 180 comp.
Dk, Duo and Etnies came through with lots of prizes, I kicked in some Deliverance gear and almost everyone left with something. Everyone got to ride a lot (including me), which was key and injuries were at a minimum, despite the unfortunate occurance of Dave Moon's chronic shoulder dislocation. I feel for you, Dave, I went through the same thing and it sucks.
Thanks to Sean for helping out, as well as Pat Ellis, Bob Hammond, Trevor Thompson and Jason Burnton. Ya'lls nice dudes.
Here's a pic from the window of the Brown Trout Hotel in Boyne Falls, Michigan, where I spent most of last week. The screen makes it look a little goofy, but it was nice to wake up to before standing around all day in the freezing cold all day....
How crazy is it that the listing is under "Bicycle Motocross"? The cool thing is the show is actually the FBM Ghetto Comp, so it's good viewing, but who, besides my nerdy, kooky ass, calls it "Bicycle Motocross"? Is what is.
This is real. This is a friend of mine that works for Etnies. He loves Vegas and apparently Vegas loves him. I'm stoked for him.
I finally rode my bike today. At Modern in GR. I really miss the old Novi Modern days but the GR park is fun. It was the best I've felt in weeks. There is nothing better to me than riding BMX bikes. Even at my advanced age, there is no feeling like floating, sliding or spinning a BMX bike. It's magic. I feel blessed to have discovered BMX at an early age and that I'm still able to enjoy it. I feel bad for people that quit or worse, never started.
...if you found out the writer of your favorite blog had another blog that was even more personal and introspective? I was, but then I read all the entries and I was stoked. The dudes portrayed on that site are the real deal. Living it, you know? I'd like to think that I live it but I really am just lucky that I get to experience a lot of stuff because of my job. Driving to Austin in a weird van pulling a trailer filled with plastic jugs of alternative fuel is living it. Leaving home with no clothes and just buying ratty gear at thrift stores along the way is living it. I'm a wuss. I like thrift store clothes but I have to wash them before I wear them.
My work is finally calming down a bit and I'm happy about it. I haven't ridden my bike since I filmed that video three weeks ago. My bike has a flat tire in the barn and has, I assume, since that night. That is pathetic. "Yeah, I used to ride, but my bike is all messed up and I haven't had time to fix it". I've heard the lame excuses so many times and they make sick. MIne is isn't an excuse, it happens every year during this time. I have a birthday during the same non-riding period and that's extra depressing. No need to worry though, I'm a gonna fix that tire tomorrow and get back at it. We have a jam coming up in two weeks at Modern in Grand Rapids, too...
One of my oldest and dearest friends, Jeff Venekamp, took his sons to the track and Jeffrey came out with the gold!
Winter fucking sucks. I'm over it. I've been sick, my kids are sick, my wife is sick, our daycare lady is now sick and there is so much frickin' snow on the ground it is ridiculous. Two weeks ago, I left for Vegas for a trade show. It was a busy show, which is good for me, but it was in Vegas, which is a horrible place.
Here's a visual re-cap:
Socked in, clocked out. It took almost four hours to get from Detroit to Grand Rapids (a 25 minute flight). Nice.
On a BMX note, Sean Newton, Jeremy Ball, Chris Noble and some others rented out Kzoo last Sunday and produced these great photos (taken by Sean):
I used to watch ABC's Wide World of Sports every weekend. I would make my mom buy TV Guide so I could see what was going to be on that week. All I really wanted to see was Evel Knievel, but some of the other stuff on there was awesome. The Carlsbad MX races, ski-jumping and I really liked Alpine ski racing. It was rad.
Fast forward a lot of years to the X games and "Racer X" ski racing has replaced Boarder X (which was like BMX racing on snow), but I think it's my favorite Winter X games event.
It was total carnage. Freestyle snowmobile jumping is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. It makes FMX look cool almost.
Anyway, it's definitely still winter here.
That's the temp. from inside my van late thursday night on the way home from Cleveland. While there, I got to ride RAys again and it ruled like always. I love that place. Getting home at 3:30 AM wasn't so great though.
I filmed this on Saturday night. I know, I'm a dork. The barn ramps are fun though.
I'm about to be late for my flight to Vegas, so peace out. Have a great week.
Jesse from DK is a super cool cat but Catfish maybe doesn't think so. 
I'm tired of snowblowing, driving in the snow, being holed up inside and being cold, but I cut some turns in the fresh pow yesterday morning 
Sean Newton took this photo of Levi when the weather was nice.
It will be nice again.
I like bikes.
To hell with the rules.
Not sure why, but I have been kind of into basketball lately. I've always liked it. It's definitely my favorite "ball" sport. I think because the dudes actually have style and personality more akin to BMX or skateboarding. Maybe not. Shit, who cares. The Lakers are losing and that makes me happy somehow.
bike rack outside of Amazing Grace in Louisville, an amazing health food store.
I'm on the road. I'm not even sure where I am right now. Somewhere in Indiana. Gas City? It's near Fairmont, the home of James Dean. Again, you've tuned into the "who gives a shit channel". When I left home yesterday it was 16 degrees with lots of snow. On this same trip at this same time of year in the past, I've been pleasantly surprised by the time I got further south that it was significantly warmer and without snow on the ground. Such was the case yesterday. I got to Louisville and it was pushing 40 and nice out. I met up with Ernesto from Dans to do some real work but only after an awesome dinner with Ernesto's wife Beth, Ernesto and Leland from Shitluck. Ernesto was picking up a bunch of the Shitluck/United collaboration frames for Dans. I helped him load them in his car, but didn't actually see a frame. I did see one in Ride UK though and it looked kick ass. What I did see was the new Mutiny HD DVD Stoked on Being Pumped and Animal's Don't Quit Your Day Job 2, both of which were awesome in their own opposite-ends-of-the-spectrum way.
Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning it looked like this
out back of Ernesto's house.
and definitely was not 40 degrees and nice. I've been really lucky in the past with Louisville trips (I go there a few times a year for work) and I can only think of one other time that I wasn't able to ride a little bit at least. Last year at this time Davey Coop and rode in arctic temps but did ride regardless. Speaking of Davey, he has a nice write up and photos on the Team Young site. It's good to see some action over there again.
Burger King is my go-to fast food with the Veggie Whopper, but vending machine Burger King snacks is an all-time low.
I had a long day today of working and driving but by this evening I found my way to the born-again Just Ride skatepark (now) in Muncie, Indiana. The park isn't finished but it is operative and it is going to be fircking awesome when it's done. It's awesome now.
GoGo Reily sent these links to an ancient interview with yours truly. It's kind of crazy how much of a kook I was and how much of a kook I still am in many of the same ways. This was in Invert magazine in 1990. Invert was kind of a predecessor to Ride UK.
Yeah.
