::MATCH VIDEOZINE NEWS::
1-31-06: For those of you who missed The Gathering, Justin from Lucent Productions has already got a short segment online for your benefit. Check it out here... (right click + save as)
Kathy Sessler also sent in some pics of Jamie Goldman, who was the overall
champ for the weekend. Read his
report here...and check out the pics:
-Goldman flipping the gap
at Skate Barn
-Goldman native american air
-Goldman 360-ing the spine
(he flipped the spine, too)
-Goldman flipping the step-down
-Another shot of Goldman flipping
the step-down, check out his front wheel in the rafters
We might as well move to Aptos, CA now...Alex Reveles is the next super-shredder to come out of that crew (he won expert dirt and is improving at light speed lately), which brings the Aptos crew one step closer to being the only scene with a double-digit roster of pro riders.
Our spanish tour guide and world champ trials rider-turned-street rider, David Cachon, has signed with Mondraker bikes for 2006. He's also riding for Atomlab, Fox and Marzocchi. FUFANU // TABLE
Wayne Goss made The Cut with Cannondale for 2006...I saw him tailwhip this weekend like it was no big thing. Can't wait to see what else he has in store this year with the C-dale crew!
Jim Dellavalle was also at The Gathering this year and is going to be with Mountain Cycle for a second year. MC is just down the street from us here and it sounds like they've got a bunch of stuff up their sleeves for this year. Come to Big Wheels night this Sunday and see for yourself, they've been bringing the slopestyle bike for everyone to play with.
----
1-30-06: I don't even know where to begin with this one...The Gathering was out of control. It wasn't like the typical contest where you know in advance who is going to do what...it seemed like EVERYBODY had something up their sleeve. Chase is barrel-rolling gaps, Paul Bas/Goldman/McCaul are backflipping step downs, Phil Sundbaum is 3-whipping and his brother Andy is double tailwhipping, Travis Erickson is hucking front flips and Andrew Carpenter is doing 720s and 540s brakeless. This year's Gathering was the cure for the common contest.
Here are the pics...big thanks to Nina and Dan Drain for snapping these. I was running around like crazy as usual trying to get it all on video. After scrolling through some of the footage already, I am happy to announce that the loud "BRAAAAHP" that happened when Phil Sundbaum's rear tire hit the roof of the Skate Barn is totally audible on my footage.
Here come the pics:
-Porter's new Haro (Porter
learned flips over spines in his pro final run...he also stuck an opposite tailwhip
to pedals in the finals)
-Joe Prisel showed up at The
Gathering looking like Grizzly Adams. I thought he should've made the pro
park final, he was killing it.
-The pro crowd on day
one
-Evan Holmgren made the finals in dirt
but lacerated his spleen at the park contest (so far I've heard reports
that he's ok)
-I don't know who this guy
is, but he was riding expert and tried a front flip
-Here's the full view of the
dirt course
-Yours truly and Hylands completely
stunned by the pro dirt final practice session
-Phil Sundbaum mid-360 tailwhip
on dirt, he eventually broke both
his thumbs by the end of the night
-Cameron McCaul backflipping down
the step-down gap
-Peanut is going to be riding for
Eastern Bikes this year
-McCaul barspin
-Jamie Goldman 360ing the roll in
-A shot of the dirt course from the
"VIP Room"
-Eric Davies and Cameron Zink
-Hi, my name is Phil Sundbaum and
I'm going to win pro park with two broken thumbs
-I don't know what's happening
here...Carter ambushed me and Nina snapped the pic
-Jordie Lunn representing the Canuckistanians
-Hacksaw and Eric Davies in the
VIP Room
-Nate Blades, Carter, Eric
and Hacksaw in the VIP
-Sadie Davies showing off her new kicks
-The Deity crew
-Carter table at the Skate Barn
-The new Blk Market RIOT frame...the
production frame is going to be offered up in raw with a matte clear coat (and
a few colors, too)
-Leigh Ramsdell from Eastern was
in attendance checking out the 26" scene
-Hacksaw and Seth Lolli
-This gap got SESSIONED at the event.
Everyone was unloading on it...barrel rolls (Chase), tuck no-handers (Peanut)
and 360s were at the top of the list.
-Ebbett flowing the spine
-Travis Erickson was
trying front flips at the park event and got one around, but the landing
was so mellow that his hands blew off the bars. Either way, it was epic and
a sign of things to come from Travis.
-Here are three shots of the Space Needle that I took the day after the event:
ONE TWO
THREE
Go to GOHUCKYOURSELF.COM for the event results! Also, check out DeclineMagazine.com, they've got a bunch of video clips and pics on their website. Scott and Spomer were on hand with the new issue and it's solid. They have Voreis, Vanderham and Eric Carter writing the columns that Zink/Cowan/Lopes used to write.
Thanks to the GHY crew for putting on another great event...now it's time to catch up on sleep and finish off Match 8!
----
1-26-06: I picked up Nate Blades from the airport last night and he was showing me how much of a gamble he took with the flight. Not even boxed up, Nate zip-tied his wheels together (with discs still installed) and handed his precious wheels to the powers that be at Southwest Airlines. Amazingly enough, on his arrival to Portland, his wheels were perfectly fine.
Anyways, we're headed up to Seattle right now...see you all at The Gathering! Here's a pic of Carter Holland from Rye Airfield to tide over those of you that aren't going to be with us in Seattle this weekend.
----
1-25-06: I got this e-mail from Dave Smutok last night: "This past month has been the worst ever. At Taunton skatepark on Dec 27th, I was done riding and just rode half way up a quater then pulled a manual down it and started looping out. When I grabbed my brake I guess there was an air bubble, cause it didn't work. I put my foot down and it made a few loud cracks and pops. I was surprised because I wasn't even going that fast. I went to the ER and stayed in the hospital until Dec 31st. I had surgery on the 29th...The verdict was that my tibia broke into many pieces 2 inches above the ankle joint, then my ankle dislocated which caused 2 pieces to chip off my Tibula. So I got a plate w/ 7 screws putting my Fib. back together and 2 screws reattaching the chips to my tibula. I attached some pics from about 2 weeks after surgery. So I will have 100% recovery with time. 12 weeks total on crutches, almost 4 down 9 to go. I will be able to start riding by the end of April. I will do a lot of cross-country and road riding to strengthen my leg again. School is going alright, its hard to go party at a crowded bar with crutches but I'm getting by. I got a handicap parking pass for campus so I drive right to the building, which is dope. I also got these sweet crampon type tips for my crutches in the snow and ice."
Heal up soon Dave!! I am bummed that he's hurt, he was a lot of fun to shoot with last year because the guy shreds nonstop and is nasty on two wheels. I think he has clips in almost every section of Match 8 as a result. Here's one of him doing a truckdriver at Woodward. This is his FIRST truckdriver on a ramp, look how clean it is! Get well soon, Smutok!!
FSA just announced their Gravity Team for 2006. Porter is the team manager and the other guys on the team are as follows: Phil Sundbaum, Randy Spangler, Evan Holmgren, Ben Boyko, Dylan Tremblay, Dave Smutok and Chris VanDine. The Gravity line is a full line of components like bars, stems, cranks, headsets, and seatposts, designed to take the abuse that freeriders are dishing out! Check out Porter's bike this weekend at The Gathering, he'll be sporting the full kit...here's the full press release if you want to read more.
Speaking of components, Eric from Deity Components just sent me to pics of his latest builds. This is his wife Sadie's Sinister Splinter MX rig with the grey Deity kit (which is supposed to be available within the next few weeks, I think) and Eric's charcoal grey Blk Mrkt frame. Check out the white Atomlab rims on his bike, they're made of "un-obtainium"...haha
----
1-24-06: Kyle Ebbett, flip-to-manual at Rye Airfield (right click + save as)! This is going to be in Match 8, Justin Schroth shot it at Big Wheels this year.
Here's an e-mag that a bunch of riders in Chile put together...Cedric is down there for a 4X race, so their next issue should be "interesting."
Only a couple more days until The Gathering...I heard that Lenosky cancelled his flight to Seattle because the Coldplay concert was sold out. I guess we'll see if it's fact or fiction on Friday.
Justin at Lucent Productions put together a video with some footage that he had lying around from this winter's indoor park sessions. Check it out here. It must be 80s day, because when I posted this update I was listening to Europe "The Final Countdown"...
Check out the cover for Modestbike Four!
So...occasionally I check the webstats for the Match page. Sometimes if people link to the site, I can go check out the link and see what people are saying or where the pics are being reposted (feel free to do that, by the way, I don't mind). But, today I got an entertaining link. It's just a profile from some girl in Canada, but in her profile page, she says that SHE WANTS TO MARRY CAM MCCAUL! Yeah Cam, hook it up!!
Alright, since I slacked off and didn't post up a top ten list for 2005 stuff, I was thinking about maybe getting everyone to participate in a TOP TEN CAMERA PHONE PICS OF 2005. E-mail me your best pics (they don't have to be 100% bike related, just entertaining) and I'll sort them out. Deadline is next Friday!! Get on it!
----
1-23-06: Check this out....bmx is getting out of hand!
Speaking of getting out of hand, here's some madness from the Super
Sessions event at Woodward West:
-Aaron Lutze (that's me) backflip
-Steven Bafus, no-foot can backflip
on RESI...this was so ridiculous in person. He took it a few times but eventually
rode away..
Last night we had yet another successful Big Wheels Night. The crew keeps growing...next week we'll all be at The Gathering, but the following Sunday, it's on again! The Tonic Fabrications guys brought out their new Fall Guy prototype with a mid-bb and an integrated headset. They were also running the new Profile Madera cranks/hubs (I built the back wheel at Ride-This!) If you haven't checked out that Madera rear hub, you should...it's super tech!
Doug from The FRONJ dropped me a line the other day to let me know that not only was it George Ryan's birthday, but his mother's as well. So I guess Happy Birthday to half of the Ryan family!! I heard that George finally got his wrist fixed over the winter, too, so heal up soon GNR!
----
1-20-06: Happy Birthday George Ryan and Rob Lindberg!!
Here's a few pics of a new indoor dirt park that is opening up in Germany. Big thanks to Ben Kijack for the hookup on the pics!
----
1-19-06: Here are some pics from Anson Wellington, he competed
in a contest in NYC and was the only bike guy there. I think he placed 3rd in
this contest...check it out (and remember that he's not riding with any brakes,
either!)
-->Anson airing it out, table,
bunnyhop/tuck over cement bench
and 50/50 down the rail
Here's a handful of screen shots from the Banger in the Hangar contest that
went down last month at Woodward:
-Adam Hauck tire grab air
-Travis Erickson tuck no-hander
off the wedge
-Smutok truckdriver (get
well soon, Smutok!)
-Bearclaw boosting out of the bowl...this
looks so cool on video, wait until you see it!
Deity Components just released a new hoodie, titled "Retribution", check it out here...
----
1-18-06: Carter Holland sent me some fresh pics of his new
Riot prototype in action. Justin Kozman shot these beauties:
-Carter table at Rick's house
ONE-TWO
-Carter boosted higher than all
the local pros out of this dirt quarter, except for Nasty (but since that's
Nasty's house in the background, Iwould expect him to boost this thing every
day).
Big props to Steven Bafus on his first full-page Diamondback ad!! *I TOLD YOU GUYS* this kid p3wns it!!
Match 8 editing is coming along, I'm knee-deep in epic Canon XL2 footage right now, courtesy of Don Hampton. We are still looking for legal music to use in the video, so if anyone has any music hookups, please e-mail me with the info!
----
1-17-06: Here are some pics from the first park contest in
Poland. I don't know any of these guys' names, but from the looks of it, it
was an exciting contest! Check out the pics:
-Miniramp wallride
-360 sequence
-Backflip transfer gone wrong
-Barspin to tailtap
-Handplant
-50/50 grind
Match 8 is coming together...I have a bunch of footage of Ryan Smith going into this issue, loads of tech style. I put together a short clip of his "easy" tech lines that we shot on the roadtrip earlier this year. You'll have to pick up Match 8 to see the hard tech stuff.
Adam Hauck hooked me up some more pics from that abandoned school that he found. Maybe he's trying to make up for taking my lunch money in Whistler. Either way, look how high this kid is going on the wall, waaaaaay above the bleachers...if only this school would've let Adam tailwhip during recess, it might not have been abandoned!
I posted this kind of late yesterday, so if you didn't catch this on the previous post, check it out now. Ian Millar just got back from Japan and posted all of his pics on a new website: www.deeplikepow.com
Holy crap, I just saw this online....worlds fastest bike! Oh, and check out my new computer. These things were supposed to come out in 2004...(read the caption for a good laugh)
----
1-16-06: RaysMTB hosted a jam this weekend with Jeff Lenosky, which capped off with Jeff gracefully giving his bike away to the raffle winner. Jeff had this to say about the winner: "The anticipation was at an all time high as we drew the final ticket and the winner was a local kid named Joe Koenigsmark. This was my forth trip to Ray's, and every time I've been there Joe, his brother Austin and their dad have also been there, riding and helping out at the park. I was psyched to see the bike go to such a nice kid, especially since he's a local and it was replacing an STP he bought used at the end of last season and was looking a little rough."
After I got Jeff's e-mail, Ray sent me a spy photo of Jeff's XC bike along with this text: "Aaron, Jeff brought his XC bike in to the park during his visit. This is not a joke, that is his normal seatpost setting. Everyone was asking where Paul Bunyon was this weekend. I thought you might get a kick out of it."
Big Wheels night went off last night...we had 28 riders out, including Slope Sistair organizer (and new Portland local) Stephanie Nychka. Everyone was killing it as usual! I heard a rumor that we might have some super pros coming out to the indoor park next Wednesday.
Adam Hauck dropped me a line to tell me that he found an abandoned school in New Jersey with ramps in it. Here's proof. Also, if you haven't seen this yet, it's a video of Adam taking my lunch money.
Ian Millar is back from Japan and he has a new website that will certainly entertain all of you shred-stickers out there. Deeplikepow.com!
Lastly, we here at Match Videozine would like to give Danny Brodie a big pat on the back. Raise your glass to this man, and from now on it's just DAN Brodie.
----
1-14-06: You are looking at Match-exclusive photos of the
first prototype Black
Market RIOT frame. Carter will most likely have this frame at The
Gathering for further inspection. He says that it's "perfect, just
needs a few tweaks" so it shouldn't be long before Black Market rules the
world.
-Carter's Riot frame
-Riot BB
-Riot headtube
-Riot seatstay
-The new Underboss stem
----
1-13-06: Happy Friday the 13th to all of you! In the spirit of the 13th, I have some news from Deity. They are having a contest for the limited edition Misfits shirts. If you're a Misfits fan, swing over to the Deity site and enter the contest to win the shirt. Also, while you're there, check out the new media page, there's a piece on Donahue that's pretty sweet. In other Deity news, the new grey parts should be out by the end of the month!
The Gathering information is posted on GoHuckYourself.com, including pics of the course layout as well as information for hotels and stuff. Also, if you live far away, my friend Dan found this website for Frontier Airlines that has ridiculously cheap flights. See you at The Gathering!
Also, it's my friend Dan's birthday on Friday the 27th (first day of the Gathering). I would REALLY like to organize a field trip to Wing Dome after the dirt event to celebrate with Dan and EVERYONE is invited!! Find me on Friday and we'll get plans dialed in for the birthday session. For those of you who have just gotten onto the Match program, Dan was on the cover of Match 3. If you want a piece of history, e-mail Don @ DH Productions and ask him to dig it out of the attic in the DH office!
Check out this teaser...I'm not exactly sure what this vid is going to look like, but judging by the sponsor and rider lists, it should be amazing. Thanks to my bro Stijn in Belgium for the hookup!
I got a picture of Anthony Deangelis
sent from Porter's phone the other day and this was his reply to my return
e-mail:
yeah, thats an indoor pool in durango! it was me, anthony, and clif. anthony
is tattoo lou's son, hes rad and clif owns pedal the peaks bike shop in durango.
we rode for like 15 minutes and then got trespassing tickets from the cops.
it was worth it though. its a 13 foot deep oververt pool, so fun!
Justin Schroth is taking time off his Imperial to absolutely kill it on his pit bike. The best thing is that when he comes to The Gathering, he'll probably be able to fit his entire bike in his suitcase without even taking his wheels off....hahaha
Chris Ratcliff sent me this link to an English video...this is what's up over in the UK, it's a mix of street and trials stuff (read:SUPER TECH). Go to this site and download the TM2 video.
----
1-12-06: Ha! I scored a server to post video clips on!! Here's
two good ones to get it started (right click + save as):
-One angle of
Cam McCaul's gap in Utah (same one in the picture above)
-Adam Hauck
taking my lunch money
McCaul, Goldman and
Watts were in Vegas shooting for a TV show, here are a bunch of pics, courtesy
of Kathy Sessler:
-McCaul superman seatgrab
-McCaul flipping his fully
-Goldman 1-ft table
-Goldman shredding the go kart
-Greg Watts flip
-Goldman no foot can
-Goldman x-up 1-ft backflip
----
1-11-06: The biggest news today is that PAUL BASAGOITIA'S WEBSITE is now online. Go check it out!
Here are some screen captures from the trip to Utah with Porter/McCaul/Goldman/Watts:
-McCaul no foot can
-Greg Watts did this 10' drop
and his front wheel managed to find some REALLY soft dirt...ouch
-Porter mid-flair
-McCaul superman seatgrab
-Sequence of McCaul's canyon gap
from the lip of the takeoff
Rays MTB is having a Giant event this weekend and Lenosky is raffling off his very own bike. If you're over 6'5" and looking for a bike that actually fits you, now is the time to head to Cleveland!!!
Don Hampton and Aaron Chase both got interviewed in Edge Online Magazine while they were over in London. You can download the mag at this site. Thanks for the Match plug, DH!
Stump503 has a bunch of pics from Big Wheels on their website. Erik is finally healing up after that unfortunate topside-berm-to-roadgap-to-hit-by-car accident at the end of last season. They say that pain inspires good art, so if that's the case, the '06 Stump503 stuff should be off the hook!
----
1-10-06: The editing frenzy continues! More screen shots...plus, check out this sweet South Park version of Carter Holland. I made it especially for his MySpace page! Thanks Katie for the hookup on THIS LINK.
-Crankworx spectators
-George Ryan mid-360 at Lenosky's Links
Jam
-Smutok table at Lenosky's
(get well soon, buddy)
-Bearclaw's 360 from Crankworx
-Trond Hansen about to eat it
hard
-Chase and Taylor Sage
If anyone has Crankworx footage, we're looking for more stuff to add to the Match segment. E-mail me (aaron at matchvideozine.com) if you have any good Crankworx footage (must be DV footage). THANKS!
----
1-9-06: Big wheels night went off last night! We had a great
turnout and everyone had an awesome time. The boys from Mountain Cycle were
in full force and they brought the new Slopestyle bike out. I got to ride the
track and the ramps with it...it's so good...let me just say that it rides just
as good as it looks! Here's a few pics from the night:
-The racetrack
-Heat 1 of the races
-Matt McNutt demonstrating proper
curved wall steez
-Landon was seriously boosting
OUT of the curved wall
-The crew ran a train on
the curved wall at the end of the night
Here's the flyer for Big Wheels with all the info if anyone else is interested in joining us on Sunday nights this winter.
----
1-8-06: Here are a few more nuggets before I head over to
Big Wheels night...a couple pics from Rye Airfield's Big Wheels comp. How fitting!
-Carter Holland table
-Cam McCaul tailwhip
-Smokey walltap
----
1-7-06: Here it comes...Match 8 editing is underway. I've got some screen shots from the Black Market Bikes Team section and Monster Park for today's update. Also, before I post the pics...I know a bunch of you were looking for those Manitou Gold Label Jump forks in WHITE. They come in black only, except we managed to score some white ones at the shop here...so if you need a WHITE Manitou fork to make your bike look pretty...look no further! Use the coupon code: PB1006 when you order and you'll get 10% off, too..
Alright, back to business, here's the pics I promised!
-Adam Hauck railride to 180
-Adam Hauck, tailwhip
out of a 2' grass bank
-Adam Hauck, pedal
stall on the most rideable building in New Jersey!
-Paul Basagoitia testing
out his tailwhip drop theory at Monster Park
-Thomas Vanderham superman
at Monster Park
-Morgan Meredith demonstrating
to me why the pics in Bike Mag are always so clear
-When Cam Zink crashed,
I threw up a little bit in my mouth, wait until you see this clip on video...ridiculous...a
double scorpion!
Ian Millar left me a message the other day, he was stuck in some Japanese airport. He said that Modestbike Issue Four is done and will be sent out as soon as he gets back to Whistler. I got a sneak peak at the issue and it's incredible. If you don't have a subscription to this mag, YOU SERIOUSLY NEED TO. Ben Boyko has an amazing interview in this issue...they shot almost the entire interview in the rain and it's still smokin'...
----
1-5-06: Happy 2006...I hope you all had a good 2005, I need to compile some sort of "best of" list for '05, we had all sorts of interesting times (most of which ended up on this website for all of your amusement). For the past few days, I've been stuck dealing with airports, fog and extreme delays, so now that I'm back in Portland I have a bunch of catching up to do. This is the official calm-before-the-storm...the "reign of terror" that we know as the final stages of editing is on the brink. I'm hoping to have the bulk of it done by the time The Gathering rolls around, that way I can celebrate with everybody.
Big ups to Porter for sticking the deal with Haro! He's also helping out with the Gravity program this year and from the looks of things, it's going to be awesome.
Carter Holland mentioned that he might have one of the new Riot prototype frames done in time for The Gathering. I've also been working on a new bike, check it out and let me know what you think. I bet I could boost dirt jumps like a mofo on this thing!!
The Red Bull Bike Battle: Baltimore DVD is out!! I did the cover art for it and I'm psyched on the way it came out...the vid definitely captured the event, it's super-pro. Check it out...DH-Productions.com.
I am really happy to announce that Ian Hylands has redone his website...not only that, but he made this new area called "Chronicles" which is like the "backstage pass" for all of his trips. It has stories and a bunch of pics and Ian says that he'll be continually updating it as his travels continue!! Check it out!!
----
12-29-05: I hope you all had a good Christmas and got bombared with presents. I got some cool stuff, most notably a joke book filled with some sweet jokes (all the guys who have been on roadtrips with me in the past year are groaning right now).
I have some catching-up to do on the news front...here goes:
-E.Thirteen has introduced a new website. You can check the site
here or read the full press release
here.
-Rays MTB is going to have a big event in February, check out the flyer here.
-We are starting a "Big Wheels" night in Portland with the help of all the local companies. Check out the flyer here. The Big Wheels night is going to be held at the same place we did the Ride-This Traffic Jam, except they have a bunch more ramps now.
Jim Dellavalle recently returned from a freeriding trip to Israel. I will post his update shortly.
Justin Schroth is killing it on his small bike. I saw a video of him riding recently and while it looks kind of goofy, its pretty impressive what he can do on that little thing. They are working on a follow-up video to his NEMBA award-winning "Size Doesn't Matter".
Rumor has it that Dave Smutok looped out on a manual down a quarterpipe and possibly dislocated his ankle last week at Taunton skatepark. Get well soon Dave!
If you scored a whole pile of cash from Santa this year, swing on over to Ride-This.com and get 10% off your order by using this coupon code: PB1006.
Don't forget about The Gathering, less than a month until it all goes down! Go to GoHuckYourself.com for more details...also, Coldplay is going to be in Seattle on the 25th of January, so swing over to the Pacific Northwest a couple days early...you might even see Lenosky in the mosh pit!
----
12-19-05: Eric Porter wants you all to know that "Walk The Line" is an amazing movie and that everyone should see it, even if you aren't a Johnny Cash fan.
I'm on my way to San Francisco...hope you all have a good Christmas or whatever they're calling it this year.
----
12-16-05: How about another batch of screen captures? I couldn't
let Ryan Smith steal all the thunder for this roadtrip, Joe Prisel and Hannah
Steffens threw down just as hard! Here's proof:
-Hannah Steffens wallride
-Tech department, paging Joe Prisel...360
tailtap to barspin out on the roof of RaysMTB.
-I took some time out
from holding the camera to fakie wallride
-Ryan Smith fufanu-ing into
the rafters at The Flow Skatepark (soon to be a Big Lots store)
I'm pretty sure the Japanese guys copied and pasted my update about DH and AC's trip to London, but I can't be sure. If ONLY I had paid attention in Japanese class!
Less than 10 days until Christmas. I made a top ten list on Ride-This of Christmas stuff, check it out if you are still trying to decide what to get your loved ones...
Speaking of sweet Christmas presents, I just posted an article on PinkBike about the 2006 Black Market frames...I have been riding mine a lot lately and I absolutely love it...I switched to a 21" top tube when the '06 frames came out and I can nose-in on jumps a lot better now. I was even jumping the box at the local park backwards on Wednesday night.
If you're surfing and need something to keep you occupied, this website is a good place to start (unless you were born after 1985).
----
12-15-05: Here's another tech treat from Ryan Smith. 180-rollback-to half-cab-to manual-to 180-to half cab out. For the record, Ryan did a bunch of big manly moves on this roadtrip...but you can download a picture of a no-foot can anywhere. I haven't seen many guys throw tech the way Ryan does, so that's why I'm bombarding you with it.
Rennie's big distance gap is going to be on TV this Saturday...check the Jeep website for more info!
Nigel Page has a Tonic Fabrications Fall Guy built up...I rode one of these bikes not too long ago and it was super comfortable. Tonic Fab is a group of Portland engineers who are really good at designing cool stuff and then actually making it happen (versus just leaving the drawing on the napkin). They're doing a track frame and Landon (he also works at Mtn Cycle and designed the slopestyle bike that everyone is drooling over) was showing me this deal for his Manitou fork where he managed to lower it down to 60mm...I think they've got a few other tidbits, check out the Tonic Fab website for more info!
----
12-14-05: Contest reports....The Gathering is going down in Renton, WA again this year...everything is confirmed and ready to go. GoHuckYourself.com for more information! We will be there with bells on (again) to support the event. Also, we're all going to Wing Dome with a huge crew of guys, so start saving up for your very own #7!! EVERYONE IS INVITED and the cameras will be rolling!!!
Here is info about the Winter Splinter event that went down in Atlanta...Ryan Smith apparently got hurt right before the event started, so in light of that, I'm going to show you a sequence that Ryan banged out on our cross-country roadtrip (featured in Match 8 which I'm working on right now). 180 down a tight ledge to rollback (two backpedals) then halfcab barspin out.
Victor just informed me that some lady was skydiving yesterday and her chute didn't open...she landed in a cement parking lot and LIVED! Dave Weagle is already in negotiations with her to develop a suspension chassis based on her twenty thousand foot freefall to flat. Not really.
----
12-13-05: Hope you all had a decent weekend...mine was good because we finally bought a TV. Three months of surviving on a 9" screen (thanks for the hookup Clark!) and we had to upgrade. We're now proudly rocking a 20" flatscreen and the DVD player is running strong!
Don Hampton hooked me up with pics of his latest trip with Aaron Chase to London...they went over for the Freesports Film Festival to show Counterparts and the mountain bike crowd was the biggest in attendance! Hampton and Chase got interviewed by all sorts of mags and TV shows, including CNBC!
Pics from London:
-Chase being interviewed
-Chase signing autographs 1
2
-Chase photoshoot 1
2
-I'm not sure if this is a real
photo or if Hampton pulled a fast one on me and scanned a postcard
-Hampton and Chase doing some
Q&A after the showing
-What do you think this interviewer's
voice sounds like? Ron Burgandy with a James Bond accent...YIKES!
-Hampton being interviewed
-The line for the Counterparts
showing was out the door!
-It wouldn't be a MatchVideozine post
without a token food shot. I wonder if anyone tried the bottom special?
If you still haven't gotten bike parts for all of your lovely family members,
Ride-This can ship stuff
out in time for Christmas even if you procrastinate until next Wednesday! If
you've been reading the Match site for a while now and STILL haven't seen Match
Videozine, now is the time to go pick it up!!
----
12-9-05: How was that for an update? I took yesterday off from updating since that last one needed some time to sink in. Lots of mayhem and stuff in one monster update.
Anyways, back to it...here's the news/entertainment for today:
-Cam Zink is officially
on Deity Components...check his bike photo from the big update to see the
goods
-Shino sent me a bunch of photos of another Black Market build. This
may be the most entertaining series of MOB pics yet...
-Video
trailer of some canadian kids on the east side
-Screen
grabs from the past week on NSMB, courtesy of Ryan Denehy
-Go to RaysMTB and click on
the new video, it shows off ALL of the new indoor goodness...I want to go
back!!
-Here's a sweet
video of T-Sage and Kyle Strait that was e-mailed to me by the coolest mofo
out there (click the thumbnails below the video area)
-OMG THIS IS SOOOOOO SWEET!!!SHIFT11111
-This vid is courtesy of Eric Porter...these
kids are going to give Ryan Leech a run for his money
-Justin Schroth is making a follow-up to his Nemba Video Award Winning movie
"Size Doesn't Matter". Go
to his website and check it out. I have video clips on my computer of Justin
boosting spines on that bike..
Portland locals...The Shadow Conspiracy movie is going to be shown at Goods tomorrow night at 7pm...
Here are two photos of Jamie Goldman from the Super Sessions courtesy of Kathy Sessler...also, Jamie got 6th place at the Banger In The Hangar last week and he wrote out his favorite thing about the runs of each person in the top ten. Enjoy:
10. Carter Holland: As usual Carter was airing the poop out of the quarters
9. Joe Prisel: 540 quarter to sub
7.Cameron McCaul: Jump off your bike front flip 360 into the foam
7.J.D. Swanguen: Backward manual over the deck of the box jump
6.Jamie Goldman: Hip flip over the quarter to bank hip
5.Dave Smutok: Truck driver over the box jump
3.Adam Hauck: Tailwhip air on super small quarter
3.Aaron Chase: Fufanu on sub box to immediate 3 on big spine
2. Phil Sundbaum: Tailwhip on quarter to bank hip
1. Darren Berrecloth: You’ve probably all heard about the road gap so I
will go with the 360 table over the spine.
----
12-7-05: Who's ready to make Matchvideozine.com history? Ready for the biggest update ever? Hopefully the interweb doesn't crumble under the massive size of this update. Here goes...
So basically the reason I haven't posted over the past week is because I've been in California at the Super Sessions Jam, which was a small invitational deal with some of my most-favorite riders. The Super Session ended with "The Banger in the Hangar" contest which was a pro-only skatepark contest.
First day...Harookz and Steve
Bafus showed up in Portland
and we drove down to California. Unfortunately, the big mountains between PDX
and ProCal had other plans for us. Observe:
-Whiteout in the mountains
-Putting chains on the car
-Bafus with a different
kind of "chain inspection"
-Harookz rockin' spinners
-Mountains in Cali
-Harookz and Bafus rocking
the chains
-More snow
-Check out what this trucker probably
stepped in
We spent the night in San Francisco at Nina's parents house (THANK YOU!!) and woke up early again to finish the drive to BroCal. We arrived early afternoon at The Oilfields to meet up with Mike Flaherty and the rest of the Super Sessions crew. Nobody was happier than me to be in warm weather!
-Pablo's CUSTOM CAMO Razr phone!
-Geekhouse's '06 frame, called
the Wormtown
-Kyle Ebbett's new Scott bike
-Nate Adams chillin'
-Ian Hylands clean shaven
(GASP!)
-Danny Brody table
-Nate Adams bike
-Harookz found this "flossing"
object in Brody's car
-Ebbett getting some sweet payback
on Adams
-Steve Bafus 1ft-table
and one more
-Scott Hart's Black Market build
-Here's a picture of a picture
being taken
After a full session at The Oilfields, we headed back to a hotel in Valencia
and went out for a night on the town, including a stop at Docs, which is where
I'm assuming the Decline crew frequents, due to the fact that everytime I go
there, they're there. Party pics:
-Harookz getting blurry
-Nate Adams initiating Steve
Bafus
-Nate Adams getting lost
(I hope)
-Spomer and I with sweet matching
shirts
-Harookz killing the dart scene
-Adams getting hosed
-Zink and Spomer getting
a little too close at the end of the night
-Scott Hart somehow got covered
in mustard and was not stoked!
The next day we drove down to Cowan's house for a dirt jam. The jumps are soooo
much bigger in person, props to everyone for manning up and throwing down. I
only took a few pics today because I was shooting a ton of video..
-Pacific Ocean
-Bafus, Zink and Watts
-The U-Haul that carried all the bikes...sweet
graphics
-Greg Watts new Fisher bike
After another night in Valencia, we headed towards Woodward West for the Banger
in the Hangar. I was riding a bunch on the first (practice) day, which unfortunately
included a train with Harookz through some dirt jumps that didn't
end so well.
-Mojave, CA where they launched
that weird spaceship thing
-Steve Bafus coming ridiculously
close to getting front flips
-Windmills on the drive to Woodward
-Joe Prisel with his new invisible
bike frame
-Carter Holland quenching his
thirst
-The bikes
-The "other Carter"
-Spomer getting nasty
-Pro bmxer Chris Arriaga is now on
26" wheels
-Kyle Strait superwhip into the
foam
-Cameron Zink's new bike
-Bearclaw's bike
-Smutok Superman 360 into foam
-The deck at Woodward
-Chase nosepick
-Adam Hauck representing Ride-This
T-Sage called out Evan Holmgren for his 24" rear wheel, so Evan took the 26" challenge by doing a 360 on T-Sage's 26-equipped bike.
-Phil Sundbaum dwarfed
his Black Market frame but it didn't stop him from absolutely DESTROYING
it.
-Here's a good example: one-handed
fufanu on a 7' quarter
-Donahue, Arriaga, Hacksaw
-Mad Dog's older brother JD is a ripper!! Holy
crap this kid learns tricks so fast..
-Yo T-Sage, Gary Ellis called...he
wants his shirt back
-George Ryan flair
-Neil Meier attempted a barspin on this
gap during the contest...ridiculous
-Rider meeting
-Woodward panoramic
-Final results
-Our cabin 1 2
-We bowled after the event...and Carter
ran the pool table, too..
The next morning we rode Woodward and I went upside-down. We cut the session
short so everyone could head back to Valencia in time to get cleaned up in time
for the Decline party. More party pics:
-The Decline front office area
-Griz getting nasty on the 50s out front
-American and Canadian Griz
finally met and it got pretty wild
-Beer pong team Denehy
-Chase's jersey in the front office
-Hans Rey and me (stoooooked)
-Beer pong team Chase
-Bearclaw signing autographsfor
the ladies
-Carter Holland and Kathy Sessler
-Porter's new mustache-in-training
-Adam Hauck, George Ryan and Jamie
Goldman
-Gully and Harookz
-Mike Flaherty and T-Sage
-Greg Watts is stoked
-The party crew
-GNR signing autographs
-Lenosky about to get
dealt with at Beer Pong
-Clay Porter and yours truly
-Evan Holmgren,"So THAT'S
how he does 360 road gaps!!!"
-Sundbaum getting ripped
....and again
-Nate Adams and me
-Harookz and Brian Lopes (for
the record, GNR chickened out of being in this photo)
-Clay Porter and Harookz
-Ebbett got tarred and feathered at the party, here's
the pre-tar/feathering photo
-Birdman all tarred and feathered...the
post-feathering photo
-American Griz goes mullet hunting
-Hans Rey and Phil Sundbaum
-CHRIS VAN DINE, WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES???
It was a great night with everyone at the Decline party...big thanks to the H3 crew for hooking it up! Also thanks to Bearclaw for hooking up our hotel room with late-night pizza. Good times..
The next morning after everyone recovered, we packed up and started heading
north. My crew of Harookz and Steve Bafus were the lead car, followed by Travis
Erickson and Phil Sundbaum in their truck and a VW Golf loaded with rowdy
Canadians. Our plan was to swing up to San Francisco for the night, then
check out the area and potentially ride in the morning.
On the way to San Francisco, Mike Reid showed everyone why he is so sweet. He
SHOTGUNNED TWO Monsters at a gas stop along the way. The
Canadians said that he fell asleep for a couple hours afterwards, but I'm pretty
sure that it was just his heart that stopped beating for a bit.
Either way, San Francisco was EPIC. We checked out the area and decided to take a quick tour of Alcatraz. After our return we hit some street spots and packed up and headed home. BIG THANKS to Nina's parents again for hooking up 9 dirty boys for the night. The highlight was when Phil Sundbaum found this huge triangle (like the kind that they use to call the cowbodys for dinner or whatever) hanging on the wall. The Canadians were in a seperate room in the basement and were all still asleep, so I fired up the video camera and we crept downstairs and gave the Canadians a nice little wakeup call. Look for this gem in the bonus features of a future Match.
Here's the pics from The Rock:
-San Francisco skyline
-I tested out the plumbing in
the cells
-Griz and I did a little
re-inacting
-Alcatraz island
-SanFran view
-The warning from the boat
-Al Capone's cell
-The crew of tourists
-Alcatraz prison from the
outside
-Bay Bridge from Alcatraz
-Alcatraz Island sign
-Cell block D
-Golden Gate bridge from the
boat
-What's left of the old
warden's house + the Bay Bridge
-Alcatraz view
-The cell
We all learned a ton from the audio tour at Alcatraz...later in the afternoon
we found each other quoting facts back and forth to each other. Definitely a
worthy use of $16. Go there if you get a chance, it's amazing.
On the walk home from the tour, we came across one of those tin men who get all painted up and act like statues. Phil Sundbaum made the mistake of taking a photo of the guy without putting money in his tip jar and he got SUPER AGGRO on Phil and nearly started a fight. Anyone who is covering themselves in metallic paint to make money probably isn't holding a full deck in the first place, but stepping up to a 6'6" brut like Phil is beyond sanity in so many ways! Thankfully Phil is the nicest guy on the planet and there was no need for a confrontation, but it added just one more entertaining footnote to the trip.
WHEW!! That's it. This has officially been the biggest update EVER on Matchvideozine.com. Even after all of the photos were resized, it took me almost two hours to type in all the code and stuff for this. I hope you all enjoyed it! BIG BIG BIG THANKS to Mike Flaherty, Carter Holland, Nina's parents, Decline Magazine, Steve Bafus, Red Bull, Mike Reid, Harookz and everyone else that made this trip awesome!!
----
12-6-05: We're back from Cali! Get ready for a HUGE update (bigger than the Interbike update, I think). The Super Session prior to the Banger In The Hanger was out of control...tons of shredding with the top dogs and lots of crazy stunts. I even went upside-down on my bicycle! Big thanks to Mike Flaherty of Atomlab for organizing the event and also to all the professionals that showed up and threw down.
----
11-26-05: Match 8 editing has begun...after two days of technical glitches and frustration, Harookz and Steve Bafus showed up and we are heading down to California for a few days of shredding prior to the Woodward West contest. Harookz has a laptop with him, so we should be dialed on updates while we're on the road. If for some reason this site stops being updated for a few days, try this: www.harookz.com
Here's a few pics from the video capturing so far...pics from our cross country
roadtrip in April:
-Hannah Steffans backflip
-Joe Prisel barspin gap
-Ryan Smith manual to barspin
I was going to put another Ryan Smith clip on the site, but there was no way to sum up a 360 to abubaca to full cab to half cab crankflip out on just one screen capture.
----
11-23-05: Here's a picture of a double backflip on a motorcycle.
----
11-23-05: We are getting really close to being able to drop a relatively big announcement, hopefully by next week we will have all the particulars dialed in. Stay tuned. Here's a hint: we're going somewhere with a ridiculous crew of riders.
In the meantime, I would recommend not cuddling with any llamas...read the story if you get bored, this guy got DEALT WITH.
Woodward West is holding a contest on Friday December 2nd. Go HERE for all the info!
If you're flying to California for this contest, you might want to invest in an iGuy...check him out, there's even an interesting spot to put the USB cable!
Here's a link to a video trailer for the movie "Life" which features Hacksaw and a bunch of other rippers...
I'm starting to import and capture clips for Match 8. I will get some screen shots going in the next few days so you can check out the progress. There is some insanity captured on these DV tapes...
----
11-22-05: Sorry for the lack of updates...I was in Wisconsin visiting family and decided to take a little vacation from updating the website. Thankfully I have all kinds of content saved up so I'm about to make up for the lack of updates right now!
First things first, Wisconsin was the best. The FIRST thing I did was go out and score as much REAL cheese as humanly possible. I never really thought too much about how good the cheese is in Wisconsin until I left. You are all missing out and you don't even know it. Real cheese is so much better than you can even imagine.
Next, I know a lot of people have been wondering about the Woodward contest. Here is a link to ALL of the info you'll need. It's going to be sponsored by Red Bull, so it should be good times. I'm roadtripping down there and I think we might be doing a more indepth roadtrip on the way back up to the northwest.
Jaromir Spesny from the Czech Republic checked in with some pics of the new 4X track in Prague. He said that there is going to be a big event there on May 1st...1st place gets 3,000 euros...it's a couple days before the World Cup in Spain, I guess.
I remember when unicycles first started doing trials...we all thought it was kind of cool but it always looked like a circus act (pretty bad for trials riders to be calling out something else to be a circus act..haha). I guess they have invaded the skateparks now too...
Aaron Chase got his new bike from Cannondale and he's stoked! It says "Mrs. Chase" and "Mr. Chase" on it...here's a pic of him testing it out...although I don't think that's Mrs. Chase on the back...
Here's another Black Market build, courtesy of Ian Kidder.
I'm currently proofreading Modestbike Issue 4 right now and there really aren't any words to describe how ridiculous is it (so I shall be forced to make one up: scrumchalescent). The Ben Boyko interview photos are OUT OF CONTROL...hopefully we get to see more of Ben this year because he rips! I'm almost finished proofreading and then I think it's nearly ready to go to print. You guys are going to be stoked when this comes out, guaranteed.
Check out the trailer for "Rollin' Again", a video by Christian Forster, our bro overseas. The entire video is going to be available for free online...also check out FrontLine Mag.
----
11-16-05: Happy birthday Nina!
There is going to be a London screening of Counterparts at the Freesports
Film Festival at 6:20pm, Thursday December 8th.
Prince Charles Cinema
7 Leicester Place
Leicester Square
Soho
London
Johnny Waddell is back on the Syndicate for 2006. Here's
the press release!
Ian Hylands hooked me up with a photo for the cover of Match 8. Everyone who has seen it so far has been stoked on it, but I'm not going to post it just yet. The photo is kind of a statement to show the growth of Match Videozine with issue 8 and I'm really excited to see where things are headed. I'm sure that it won't disappoint!
I'm headed to Wisconsin tomorrow to spend some time with the family...my friend Alex hooked me up with a pillow for the flight...and if anyone is headed to London, I would recommend picking one of these up for the flight as well.
Check out the Bicycle Rockers website, there is a pretty good vid up there of the boys shredding some dirt. Go here and prepare to soil yourself...courtesy of Chris Ackrigg!!
----
11-15-05: Top three TRUE but absolutely insane things I've heard in the past week:
1. Carter Holland rode a dirt jumping contest in Compton, complete with a shootout
(like a real one...with guns and stuff)
2. Tony Osusky got booted from a skatepark in Arizona by a helicopter police
unit with a spotlight
3. Anson Wellington was featured in the December issue of Penthouse Magazine
There was a big jam up north in Ontario, check out this shot of a crazy handplant drop that went down...more pics on Myope and Dropmachine. Big thanks to Gooch for the heads up on the photo galleries!
----
11-14-05: Do you like jumping park? Do you go to jumping park today? I sure as heck did, and after I was done, I refreshed myself with this bad boy that I scored at an asian market here in Portland. I thought it was Red Bull at first, but apparently not. Either way, I was stoked because it tasted like Dimetapp and had the Fit Bikes logo on it, too. I think the best part was that it only cost me $.69 and it gave me a swift kick in the arse for the rest of the day. I'm going to go back and get a case, I think.
Guess which bmx pro is riding this mountain bike?
----
11-12-05: Why, yes I do! Thank you for asking!
----
11-11-05: I went to Goods BMX for the Vult "4,5,6" premiere last night and learned two things: 1. Ryan Sher is a foot shorter than I thought he was, and 2. Bruce Crisman is a foot taller than I thought. The vid was pretty decent, a lot of the pros in the video were actually at the premiere so that was cool. Patrick Lavalley and I held it down for the mtb scene...
I was reading the Haro website the other day after all the riders shuffled on and off their team and I noticed that their mountain bikes are actually listed as "ATB", a term that I thought disappeared in the 80s. Upon further inspection, I realized that I was the one in the wrong...Haros are ALL Terrain Bicycles, check it out. My bad guys, thanks for staying on top of things.
Speaking of "news to me", I didn't think this was real but Victor proved me wrong...Abba Zaba, you my only friend...
Mike Gooch checked in from the T.dot with some pics...big table and a transfer line...Gooch is headed to some top-secret contest at Muskoka Woods this weekend, hopefully we'll get a report and some pics.
----
11-10-05: Let's start the day off with a few movie teasers...AntiGravity 2 and Earthed 3. That's Chris Ackrigg doing the trials stuff in Earthed 3 if you're interested. Chris Ackrigg is amazing...he's been in the trials scene for a loooooong time and has always had a sick style.
Here is a link to a bunch of pics of Rennie's big gap down under, courtesy of Chris Herron.
There is a movie premiere for a new bmx movie from Vult tonight at GOODS if anyone in the PDX area is interested...click here for the info.
Oh yeah, if you want some mid-week entertainment, swing over to 2Six, where T-Sage is claiming that Chuck Norris frequently enters beginner karate classes, just so he can "accidentally" beat up little kids.
----
11-9-05: Here's a link to some more pictures from RaysMTB opening weekend, courtesy of William Kirk (the same guy that hooked us up earlier this week).
Also, check out a pic that Seb from Simtra Bikes sent me...check the site to see what they're working on.
----
11-8-05: If you've got some free time, go check out Timo's website. I got to hang out with Timo this year after Monster Park and he's super cool...I think his site might possibly be the best pro rider website in mountain biking. Check it out-->TIMOPRITZEL.COM
----
11-8-05: If you live near Paris, France, you're stoked right now. Check out this new park that's being built in the area...according to our French connection Ben Kijack, it's near a pretty sweet indoor park too.
Steve Peat is officially on the Santa Cruz Syndicate for the next few years, Greg Watts is officially on Gary Fisher, Cam Zink is officially on Haro, and Kyle Ebbett is officially on Scott Bikes for 2006.
If you're getting bored waiting for me to finish editing Match 8, we got copies of NWD: Unchained in at the shop today...this vid should hold you over until M8 is wrapped. In other Match 8 news, we've got footage of a mountain biker doing a 50-50 grind down a rail to barspin out (among other stuff...the riding we've got locked down in #8 is by far the most ridiculous to date).
----
11-7-05: Ask and ye shall receive, here's the photo hookup
from the weekend at RaysMTB,
courtesy of William Kirk:
-Cam McCaul suicide no-hander on
the best spine ever
-Cam McCaul curved wallride
-Aaron Chase nosepick on the
spine
-Jamie Goldman downside
footplant
-Kyle Ebbett table over the spine
on his new Scott bike
-Kyle Ebbett pedal stall
Here's a couple more pics, courtesy of Craig Robinson, who is filming for Ryan
Denehy's new flick, "The Big Deal":
-Pedal pick
-Loading dock boost
And if you're a northwesterner, here's a link to a vid(right click and save as) that is coming out soon from a local videographer. Coverage of all the NW events of '05 including the Ride-This Traffic Jam, Crankworx, The Gathering, and DH racing action! There is a premiere coming soon, here's the info...
----
11-6-05: For those of you not in Ohio enjoying opening weekend at Rays, I have a small consolation prize for you. Here's an article ABOUT Rays MTB park that was featured in Fortune Magazine! Spread One, Spread Two. I will post links to photos from the weekend as soon as I have them!
I was doing some posting on PinkBike recently and was confronted by the impact this website has on some of the people reading it. I never knew that it went to this level, but after reading this I got even more inspired to keep this thing going. Thanks Eric for the inspiration...
----
11-5-05: Holy crap. Go to Ryan Leech's website and dig up his 'easter egg' clip (I'll give you a hint, it's on the "products page", just move your mouse around until you find the spot). It's a video of him riding on a freakin' cable...RIDICULOUS!! Go check it out now and make sure your parents aren't standing around because you will have no choice but to break into a cussing fit when you see this!
----
11-4-05: I got a preview of what Bender's 100-foot drop is going to look like. Download the video clip here.
Check out the Mike Flaherty interview if you haven't already. Pass the link along to your bros so everyone can check it out...I'm super psyched on the way it came out...Mike did a great job with the questions. Thumbs up!
This weekend is opening weekend at Rays MTB. If you're in the area, go check it out! Gary Fisher's newest rider, Greg Watts is probably flipwhipping the step-up hip as I type this.
My new baby arrived this week at the shop. Black Market '06! The new frames aren't much different than last years (why mess with perfection?) except the rear end is wider so you run bigger tires and also there is a brace for the disc brakes. There is a new color, too: olive green. I will post pics of my bike when it's all built up.
----
11-3-05: Check out the MIKE FLAHERTY INTERVIEW. I'm going to be working on a bunch more of interviews with guys like Mike, I'll be sure to post them up here when they are complete. Enjoy!
The Bicycle Rockers are working on a new site, but at the moment there is a news page. Check it out!
----
11-3-05: Today is Harookz's last full day in Oregon...it's been fun! I guess we both have to get back to work, although his trip down here was pretty productive for both of us.
I'm working on an interview with Mike Flaherty (Atomlab) for the Ride-This site...it should be up within the next few hours. I just have to do some editing and photo-resizing and it'll be done. This is probably one of my favorite interviews that I've done so far and I'm stoked on the way it's coming out.
Nathan Rennie did up the huge gap in Australia...it came out to 121 feet (which, for those of you following along is actually $726 worth of Gardenburger subs from Subway, not $684 as we originally estimated). Unfortunately the Guiness Book of Records classified it as "unofficial" because Rennie's front wheel flatted on the landing and he "blew up" (their words, not mine) which separated his shoulder and smashed his favorite TLD helmet. Congrats on NOT-DYING, Nathan! 121 feet is burrrrrrrrrrly! Also, the release said "Nathan is elated with his effort and feels the setup could be used for much bigger jumps in the future."
Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?? Snake River Canyon Gap here we come!
----
11-2-05: This is a public service announcement to let everyone know that Hell has officially frozen over. DIRT MAGAZINE has given an extremely positive review to a street video! That's right, Match Videozine #7 was apparently well-liked by the staff at Dirt. Dirt Magazine had this stigma for a while of not being supportive of street and park riding, but it appears as though they have turned the corner. Thumbs up guys, thanks for recognizing us and thanks for such a great review! If you're coming to the Match site for the first time from Dirt Magazine, thanks for visiting and you can pick up your copy of Match 7 RIGHT HERE. Don't forget to bookmark the Match site, we update more than ANYONE else in the entire sport of mountain biking! ha ha..
Cam McCaul and his crew are working hard on a follow-up to TopSoil...check out their new teaser here. I shot one of the clips of Cam from the Links Jump Jam...he was absolutely destroying Lenosky's backyard while I had his camera in my hand. Cam is getting ridiculous these days..
Harookz is still enjoying his vacation in Oregon and he has been camera-free for four days! We've been doing our best to keep him on "vacation" from "working" by showing him all of the entertaining spots in Portland. He also put in some time packing boxes at the Ride-This shop yesterday, so if you ordered something recently, there is a good chance that it was packed by our guest shipper, Harookz!
Chase is back from his honeymoon in Hawaii and ready to shred! I just want to take a second and say a huge congrats to Aaron and Kara on their wedding and I wish them the best of luck. I've stayed at their place a few times and hung out quite a bit and they are really great together. Congrats AC and Kara!! Check out the Decline website for videos and stuff from the wedding, including Lenosky's best man speech!
----
10-31-05: Happy Halloween! I hope you all have fun tonight terrorizing the neighborhoods...
Speaking of terrorizing neighborhoods, Don Hampton got a new toy...check out his new bobcat. DH got it to line up some landscaping jobs on his property but I doubt it will be long before he has some sweet trails kicking around his yard!
Big GET WELL SOON to Eric from Stump503. Eric annihilated his collarbone after a little accident at Meldrum Bar (dirt jumps in Portland). He came into this huge berm by the road waaaay too fast and topsided into the road and got nailed by oncoming traffic...thankfully he managed to escape with just a few scratches and a pretty beat collarbone. They say that artists in pain come up with the best art, so the Stump503 stuff for next year should be pretty sweet.
Make sure to mark off a few dates on your calendars:
-November 5th and 6th RAYS
MTB Opening Weekend from 10am to 10pm (also, they are doing a 100% payout
for a best trick contest...$15 to enter)
-December 2nd and 3rd (Woodward West contest...more info as soon as everything
gets dialed)
-The Gathering, January 27th-28th (Info
at GoHuckYourself.com)
Nathan Rennie is preparing to do that 114' jump in the next few days...according to the reports that I've heard (thanks Kathy), he is literally in the middle of nowhere doing this jump...something like 30km from any sign of civilization!
----
10-30-05: Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been away from all forms of communication over the past week while I've shown both my parents and Nina's parents around the state of Oregon. They're home and now Harookz is here to visit for a few days!! Charge up the digi...entertainment is on the way! In the meantime, here's a GUEST UPDATE from Harookz:
Wussup everyone, this is Harookz
reporting for Matchvideozine, staight outta the Ride-This
shop in Oregon. So far I've met both Aaron and Nina's parents, checked out some
amazing beaches, saw the largest Spruce Tree in North America in the pouring
rain, shot the most amazing photo EVER with Aaron's dad's camera (half the picture
shows my left hand which was protecting the lens from getting wet... I am never
going to hear the end of this....), things are going well out here! The highlight
of the trip so far is when Aaron's dad enlightened me on french fries... apparently
Americans don't put gravy on their french fries... what's up with that...EH???
I'm about to grab dinner, catch a movie, then meet up with Eric and Sadie Davies
from DEITY Components...
I'm worried about my liver...
----
10-26-05: Today's big news....CATFISH IS BACK. For the uninformed, Catfish is our favorite trash-talking bmxer (also the bmx road team manager for DK). Catfish makes T-Sage look like Stuart Smalley. Don't believe me? Dig through his archives.
----
10-25-05: Syndicate rider Nathan Rennie is calling out a 114-foot
gap down under. Red Bull is hooking him up with a ramp and they found the perfect
spot to get it done.
- Pics of the ramp: 1 2
3
Good luck dude! 114 feet is pretty far...if you lined up footlong Gardenburger subs from Subway that entire distance, it would cost you $684.
Evan Holmgren is off Banshee Bikes for next year...if anyone's looking to hook up a freerider/dirt genius that will click 360 tables over anything (including nasty waterfalls with huge drops), Evan's your man. Drop me a line and I'll give you his contact info. Either way, enjoy the pics! 1 2 3 4
If anyone is looking for riding shoes, we've got the hookup on Lake Shoes over at Ride-This. Chase, Lenosky, Basagoitia, Voreis, Romaniuk, and VanDine all killed it in these shoes this year, so you know they're legit...most of the shoes we've got here in the shop are like $50/pair.
Also, Decline FINALLY updated their website! Check out all the updates...
----
10-24-05: We may not be as photographically-inclined as Modestbike,
but even the blind chicken
finds the feed once in a while. Here's the desktop
version for all you cubicle-sitters out there. This
is Mt Hood, about an hour from the Ride-This
shop...we took a trip there yesterday to check it out and it was epic. The east
coast doesn't have ANYTHING on the west coast when it comes to scenery like
this (sorry guys).
-Mt Hood 1 2
3 4
5 6
-Sunset at Mt Hood
-Pixel and yours truly
-Pixel, Nina and me
Harookz is planning to swing down for a visit next week, so we may have even more epic pictures after that!
My friend Jaromir Spesny over in Czech sent me this vid that he put together with Petr Kraus and a few other guys (click on the link for the Simplicity vid). There are some pretty good nuggets in there, check it out!
----
10-23-05: Here's an entertaining story...Christian and I conned our way out of seeing "Elizabethtown" with our girlfriends by hooking them up to go to it together while we went to see Doom. Their movie started about thirty minutes before ours did...so we're watching previews and all of sudden our girls walk in and sit next to us. Chris and I were like "We told you that movie was going to suck!" They apparently walked into the wrong Elizabethtown theater and thought they were late...but 30 minutes later the movie ended! So not only did we get out of watching that movie but we will never have to see it because they already know how it ends! WHEW!!
Even better was that Doom did not suck! It was a legit action film...we wanted to see it just for the novelty of the fact that we've both spent countless hours playing Doom (as I imagine most of you reading this have). I figured that it would be kind of cheesy like every other movie made of out a video game, but Doom was legit. Lots of blood, guts and unapologetic gore!! The Rock even drops a few F-bombs! I'm not going to recommend it to anyone who isn't already psyched on Doom, but if you are already pumped to see this movie, you won't be disappointed.
----
10-22-05: I guess Freeride Entertainment is doing BMX vids now. We all drooled over these jumps at Crankworx this year, thankfully someone put them to use. Check it out.
----
10-22-05: Here is a vid for the weekend...Sebbe from Sweden killin' it on his Blk Mrkt MOB frame.
----
10-21-05: I see London, I see (Jamie Goldman killing it in)
France! The Jamie Goldman tour
of destruction continued in France at a contest that involved jumping off a
ramp into water (which, if you know your Goldman/McCaul/Watts trivia, is how
they learn all of their tricks--off a ramp into Cam's pool). Jamie got 2nd in
the water jumping contest and 3rd in the dirt contest. Check out the pics (photo
credit: Damien Rosso):
-Jamie in the water
-Tailwhip
-No foot can
-Flip whip
The guy who won the water jumping contest won it with a double backflip 360. I read the press release and it sounded more like a list from Dave Mirra BMX on Playstation...props to Jamie for surviving French food and still managing to podium in both events!
----
10-20-05: Glen sent me one more shot of Hacksaw's photo session in Reno. How epic is this gap?! YEAH HACKSAW!!!
----
10-20-05: Don Hampton is shooting a new video for pit bikes, although most of the riders are guys from the Chain Reaction series...yesterday they did a shoot with Travis Pastrana and Jim DeChamp. Hampton says that they had to quit mid-day because the bikes and bodies were starting to fail. Check out the mayhem!
Hacksaw sent me a shot of his new Evil Sovereign in action. That's Glen shooting the "real" photo.
In a little over a week, Halloween will be upon us. Harookz is coming down to visit for that week but neither one of us can decide what to dress up as for Halloween. I suggested Nicky and Paris Hilton, but I don't think Harookz was feeling it. Any suggestions?
The contest at Woodward West is going to be pretty sweet. It got moved to Friday December 2nd and there is going to be a big party on Saturday night...the Decline/Marzocchi Christmas party...so it should be an awesome weekend. I know that Woodward is going to offer up cabins to rent out for the contest, I will post more info when I have it!
"I like my coffee black, just like my metal!"
----
10-19-05: Check out this site...Hans Rey started a charity to get bikes to people in need. Wheels 4 Life.
Stump503 posted a short video of team rider Aaron Nachtrab on their site, shot/edited by Patrick Lavalley. Really well done, plus it's the 5-0-3 being well represented! (503 is the Portland area code in case you were wondering..)
Rumor has it that Kirt Vories is the newest proud owner of an indoor garage skatepark.
Hacksaw is killing it out the mountains outside of Reno. Pic 1 Pic 2 by TOMO.
----
10-18-05: There is going to be a contest at Woodward West on the weekend of December 3rd. Mark it on your calendars, I think this one is going to be big! I will post more info about it when I have all the info confirmed. I will be there shooting (and hopefully riding, too!) for Match 9.
The DV tapes came in from DH...check them out. This may not look like a ton of DV tapes, but consider that before I even get to think about editing the footage, I have about three hours worth of time PER TAPE, so we're looking at roughly 99 hours worth of work that I have to do in the next few months before I can even start dropping them on the timeline to edit. FUN!
It's going to be worth it....just look back over the past 8 months of posts on the Match site...all of that stuff is in Match 8...Monster Park, Crankworx, District Ride, Teva Speed Trials, Sea Otter, Traffic Jam, Utah with Porter/McCaul, Links Jam, Rye Airfield, Roadtrip with Hannah, Ryan Smith, Joe Prisel, Portland to Whistler roadtrip, and a bunch of stuff from Timo, Adam Hauck, Carter Holland and the rest of the Blk Mrkt team.
----
10-17-05: Wow....what a sweet weekend. Back to the roots...good friends and good riding. This weekend was so necessary after all the internet drama that's been going down lately. Big thumbs up to everyone at GoHuckYourself.com (especially Steve Cominski and Travis Erickson for hooking me up) for an amazing time in Seattle.
I have a crap-ton of photos...also, go to PinkBike to see the full story that I wrote, with more pics and stuff.
FRIDAY (NWD 6 Premiere):
-Swag toss 1 2
-Phil Sundbaum and yours truly
SATURDAY (Preparation for the jam):
-They had to carry a disproportionately
heavy grill across this stream
to get it to the jumps...thankfully Phil Sundbaum is the size of a tank.
-Check out all the meat for the jam.
Travis and Phil both work at the HQ for Jack In The Box, so they hooked it up!
-We spent Saturday night at Travis's house watching Team America and Ong
Bak Thai Warrior (see this movie, it's a crazy fighting movie with NO SPECIAL
EFFECTS....it's absolutely insane) and Evan
was trying to check this other sketchy video out, too. We
scored a couple pizzas and just chilled out for the night.
SUNDAY (Softies Jam):
-Write this down: S-T-E-V-E
B-A-F-U-S. This kid is NASTY.
He rides for Diamondback
and is a shredder. He scored
2nd place at the jam and absolutely destroyed it. X-up
no footed cans!!
-We started the morning out with our
bikes mysteriously stuck in the trees. I suggested that perhaps it was done
to keep the bears away. Mike Metzger
helped everyone retrieve their bikes, but when Danny
Brodie came outside, he couldn't find the ladder (that I hid around the
side of the house) so he had to be extra resourceful.
SOFTIES JAM PICS:
-Steve Cominski and Phil Sundbaum
getting the grill going
-The crowd at Softies
-The new Mountain Cycle in action,
by Portland local Aaron Nachtrab
(he was shredding, i just suck at taking pictures)
-Phil Sundbaum 360
-Tonic Fab's Fall Guy
with some modified Tuff wheels
(with 20mm thru-axles!)
-Andy Sundbaum took the duties
as head chef after a tailwhip gone wrong
-The Softies jumps
-Trevor Knesal from Diamondback brought
his bike to the jam...the font on the stickers is the same one in Napoleon
Dynamite--in fact, the production designer from Napoleon Dynamite e-mailed him
the font!
-Evan Holmgren signing autographs
-Two pics of the crew at Softies...there
were twice as many riders as in these pics...the
other half were riding when I snapped these pics
-Danny Brodie rocking out his true
colors
-Joe Perrizo mid-suicide no hander
-Steve Bafus and Joe Perrizo
-Danny Brodie trying to touch
his tire to his shoulder
-Mike Metzger with the "amputee
air"
Top Five:
1. Phil Sundbaum
2. Steve Bafus
3. Travis Erickson
4. Danny Brodie
5. Joe Perrizo
Go to PinkBike for the full story and a couple more pics...big thanks to everyone at GoHuckYourself.com, FSA, ProTec, 661, Transition Bikes, Simple Bikes, Serfas, GHY Bikes and especially to Softies' trail boss Travis Erickson for making this event happen.
----
10-14-05: I'm on my way out the door to the NWD Premiere in Seattle right now, then Carter Holland is flying into Seattle tomorrow for the Softies Jam on Sunday. It should be a great weekend...unfortunately, I doubt I'll have internet access until Monday morning. If you're not going to Softies and you're not going to Aaron Chase's wedding, you're out of luck for the weekend! I'm sure Monday's update will be worth the wait, though.
Big congrats in advance to Aaron Chase and Kara on their wedding back east this weekend! I wonder what Lenosky is going to say during the best man speech? Do you think they'll have one of those Red Bull bars at the reception like they do at all the other Red Bull "events"?
----
10-13-05: The Chain Reaction box set is in at DH Productions! Go here to pick up your metal collector's tin packed chock full 'o' east coast gnar. I've seen all of the new stuff and it looks dope. Hampton made these mega-mix segments for all the top riders that highlight their segments over the previous five vids (with some new footage tossed in each rider's segment for good measure). There is a complete extra disc with tons of bonus features, like AC's trip to Australia/Japan, Jaromir Spesny and Petr Kraus's video "Real Night in Prague" plus a bunch of extra stuff that was a little too risque for the original Chain Reaction series.
Here's a video from Christian Forster (the guy behind TrailDevils.ch) from the Red Bull District Ride. Right click and save as!
Big thumbs up to Eric and Sadie Davies from Deity Components, it's their ten year anniversary today!
I just got the word that my dad brought a plate of vegetables to work yesterday for his birthday in honor of his vegan son. That's the report. Oh yeah, I'm vegan this month solely for the purpose of not being dragged to the Wing Dome in Seattle this weekend for another bout with the #7 wings.
----
10-12-05: Happy birthday Dad!
Tarek sent out all the press
info for the Red Bull District Ride. Here's the Word
document version of the press release for anyone that missed it and here
are all the pics:
-Blick/Chase with the Oakley
Sick-O Trick Win
-Chase
-Chase on the spine
-Chris Smith
-Joscha Forstreuter
-the judges
-Paul Basagoitia on the
wall
-Podium shot
-Rennie doing his 360-flatspin
-Trond Hansen doing the castle
drop
-Timo finishing with classic
Timo style
-Trond Hansen flair
-Thomas Vanderham
-Geoff Gulevich
-Paul Basagoitia 360-whip
This weekend is the Softies Jam in Seattle...I'm definitely going and I think Carter Holland is flying up for it as well. If you're in the northwest, swing by Softies on Sunday! Otherwise, sit tight and I'll post pics on Monday morning...
----
10-11-05: For those of you who have been riding bikes for over a decade, the name Chris McNutt may ring a bell. Chris is one of my good buddies and was a super dialed trials guy from the east coast (who now lives across the street from me in Portland). Anyways, Chris's band "To Fall Victim" played last night and we went to check it out. Here are some pics from the show...1 2 3 4 5 6 7
----
10-10-05: BLACK MARKET 2006!!! Start drooling riiiiiiiiiight..........NOW...
----
10-10-05: I guess fall is here...although Portland certainly doesn't agree. The weather here is still nice...either way, here's a good track for chillin' out while the leaves change: Mogwai "I know you are but what am I". They used this track in an Etnies ad once for Taj Mihelich (who has been rumored to be investigating mtb).
Match Videozine Issue 6 is now on TotalVid, so you can download the entire video onto your computer and check it out. If you haven't seen it yet, this is a pretty cost-effective way to watch it.
Here are some Interbike pics courtesy of Lisa Sher...random pics...and the Deity booth...
If you haven't been to the 2Six website yet, now's the time to go. T-Sage is updating the "news" section on a daily basis. There's a hilarious picture of Kyle Strait on there from a few days ago...check it out if you need to inject some comedy into your daily routine!
----
10-7-05: Here's another shot of Atomlab rider Chris Teutsch...photo ©Action Media Int'l. /Nick Ciotti. Chris shut down all the huckers in Zion according to the reports. We're going to track him down later this year and get the scoop in person when the Atomlab/Blk Mrkt jam goes down.
Joe Prisel continues to kill it at Rays MTB. The new setup there looks super sick, don't forget to mark down their opening weekend on your calendar. RaysMTB is going to have a big re-opening party on November 5th and 6th from 10am to 10pm. Joe Prisel is also going to be putting on riding clinics every Saturday (I think it's from 3 to 6pm, but call Rays first to confirm) throughout the winter. I can attest to Joe's skills as a teacher...he used to be a Woodward counselor and he is really good at breaking it down. He also taught me how to dirt jump, which is quite the feat for a trials rider!!
----
10-6-05: Northwest guys...mark the weekend of October 14-16th on your calendar. Friday there is going to be a New World Disorder: Unchained premiere in the Seattle area and then there is a jam at Softies on Sunday. Go to GHY to get the info...I'm planning to be there shooting and hopefully riding as well. My advice, if they ask you to stick around for wing night on Monday, RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN. Scroll down a couple months if you want to see what happened to me (and the rest of our crew) on GHY's Wing Night.
Cam McCaul is up in Whistler riding the Red Bull Elevation jumps right now...remember those crazy huge jumps that everyone was drooling over in Whistler? Cam is double-barspinning and no foot can flipping them right now.
Oh yeah, also...The Gathering is going to happen on the weekend of January 27th-28th. Same venues (I think new courses for both park and dirt)...Keep your eyes on the GHY site. They are still looking for sponsors at the event, so if you're reading this and you want to help make this event happen, go to the site and track down Steve or AJ.
I'm getting a new cell phone tomorrow with a 503 number...so anyone trying to get a hold of me in the next few weeks while I switch phones, just call the Ride-This shop and ask for me (866-972-3800).
----
10-6-05: The boys from Mountain Cycle drove across town to the Ride-This shop with their new toy...I got a much closer look at the bike and rode around the parking lot on it. Goooooooood.....sooo good....it feels really nimble just carving manuals and stuff, I can't wait to dirt jump and ride some trails on it. Thanks Landon and Rob for making my day!!
----
10-5-05: Jamie Goldman hooked up a three-year deal to be part of the Santa Cruz Syndicate...check out the full report here. I love this quote from Jamie: "I can't believe that one decision I made when I was 12 about not wanting to pick up dog poop decided what would become my life."
Match 8 editing is going to begin in the next week or two...all I can say is that if you haven't seen Adam Hauck ride yet, he'll be your new favorite rider after Issue 8 is released. This kid KILLS it.
----
10-4-05: The only thing I heard about the Zion freeride festival post-Interbike was that Chris Teutch killed everything in sight.
Hey, next time you see Geoff Gulevich, ask him if he knows where this hole came from.
Ride-This prez and customer service guru Victor Sandrin is recovering from a recent knee injury...here's a pic of him shredding the gnar prior to his crash. Rider-owned!!
Speaking of freeride and crashing...the rumor is that Bender is going for a 100 foot drop. Is anyone trying to stop this guy? I'm all about progression, but doing DOUBLE what the record is for a drop....yeah, this isn't going to be good.
Anyone out there looking for a Geekhouse frame, they are being discounted heavily to make room for the next batch. $399 for a steel street frame...Geekhouse bikes.
----
10-3-05: I was sitting on this info for tomorrow but I'm going
to just let it out a day early...here's the info from Cowan's Jump Jam:
1. Cameron McCaul (double barspin)
2. Paul Basagoitia (360-whip)
3. Kyle Strait (double tailwhip)
4. John Cowan (truckdriver)
5. Greg Watts (barspin flip and *best trick*: flipwhip)
Swing on over to the video section of Decline's website to check out clips of the insanity!
----
10-3-05: Here comes the Interbike update. Where to start...this was actually my first time at Interbike and it did not disappoint. Harookz and I were on a mission to get a trip going for January and it looks like it's going to go down. More details as we get things confirmed, but this is going to be HUGE.
"New World Disorder: Unchained" premiered at Interbike and the party was packed. I saw a bunch of homeys that I hadn't seen in a while (see pics of us throwing down at PinkBike). To be honest it had mixed reviews in the next-day buzz. I thought it had some good riding (Chase, Lenosky, Berrecloth and of course Paul B came through strong) and some relatively repetitive stuff from the rest of the riders.
Here are pics from Interbike:
1. Venetian: This is where we stayed,
check out the views night/day...sick
fountains and everything...best
part is that you didn't even have to leave this building to go to the show.
I think I was indoor for like 48 hours straight.
2. Chain Reaction Box Set: Hampton rolled out the Chain Reaction box set at Interbike...all 5 videos plus a complete extra bonus disc of bonus features including "best of/megamix" sequences of all the main riders. I think it will cost $39.99 and should be available now!
3. Black Market: Carter came through with the new Underboss stem and a few modifications (like this rear booster) to an already-perfect frame. Blk Mrkt is also coming out with a new frame called the "Riot" which will basically be a lower-cost version of the MOB.
4. Deity: GREY!!! Deity rolled out a new color for their bar/stem/cranks at Interbike plus new seats and endcaps...unfortunately they were only grey for the first few hours, after that they were completely covered in drool. These pics don't do them justice...the grey parts are HOT!! They will be out in January...here's a pic of Harookz and Eric Davies (the man behind Deity)
5. Evil/E.Thirteen: Hottest booth at Interbike. Why? Check the flatscreen, fool!
6. Bike Magazine: Morgan was running around handing out Bike Mag "Interbike Survival Kits"
7. SIC: SIC came out super strong this year...new I-beam seats, grips, burly cranks and a barrage of color combos for their stems, including COLOR CAMO!
8. SRAM: Aside from rolling out some super-sick Black Box stuff, SRAM had these robot things built up...some japanese artist put them together. How dope are these?? Check out the new single-crown freeride fork...sticker placement by Ryder Kasprick!
9. Atomlab: Let me just say before I start this section of the update that Mike Flaherty is one of my favorite people in the mountain bike industry--he does so much to support the riders and the industry that you may never see or hear, but he is hooking it up (everyone who knows Mike is nodding their heads right now). Additionally, if you're not running Atomlab wheels, you seriously need to rethink your situation. I have a set of DHRs and I will NEVER give them up.
Alright, Atomlab booth...new Aircorp pedals (pic 2)...Jesme Cig bars, General Issue frame and Trailpimp frame, full stack of bars
10. Mountain Cycle: Landon, the same guy who designed/built the Tonic frames, was able to unleash his creativity on the new slopestyle bike. I ride with Landon on a regular basis and he's a ripper, so it was no suprise to me to see a super sick bike from him. Hopefully we can take it out to The Grotto sometime soon for a test!
11. Thanks for reading this far. Here are two pics of females spotted in Vegas:
-Body paint randomly milling
around the show
-Anyone see Nate Adams
or Gareth Dyer in this pic? Me neither.
12. Oakley: T-Sage and Harookz posing with Oakley's 2006 riding gear.
13. New street bikes: GT, Eastern, Diamondback (dropout). Good to see that everyone got the memo about 16" chainstays. The 2006 Chase 1 from Cannondale also has a super tight back end, but I didn't get a chance to snap a pic of it.
14. Giant: The STP is back again with some new colors. Lenosky is going to have a signature version of the bike (I think it's blue). I rode an STP all last year and it was pretty fun. We did a test of it in Match 6 as well.
15. T-Sage: T-Sage signed a multi-million dollar deal (plus he gets a Millenium Falcon as a sign-on bonus). I have no idea which company actually agreed to this, but T-Sage is well worth it! Speaking of T-Sage, read his interview in the new Decline. Honestly, I had a hard time disagreeing with a lot of the stuff he had to say. T-Sage calls it like he sees it...which becomes necessary from time to time.
16. Tioga: Chrome pedals...I spotted these gems on my way through the show..
17. Scott Hart pointing out the WORST Photoshop job in the history of print. As a Photoshop artist, I was extra-bummed. Get the Azonic catalog to see this hack job in person. Hey, Azonic...drop me a line next time you need some work done!
18. GNR and the Fronj rented scooters for the show and spent their time in their scooters heckling everyone else who was forced to walk from booth to booth.
19. Harookz was in full effect representing SURREY, BC. Also, his photos of Gully were up on display at the Cove booth.
20. Dakine. Chico was showing off this new plaid backpack...Dakine is another Portland company, so hopefully we can sneak in there sometime soon for a tour.
Congrats for reading all of this, it's the end of the update. I am pretty sure that this is the biggest update in Match Videozine history.
----
10-1-05: I just got back from Interbike...over 100 photos to share with you guys...sit tight while I update the site...in the meantime check out Harookz's site and PinkBike. Good times..
----
9-28-05: This just in...Decline's newest issue has been officially weighed and the result is: 1.57 lbs. Holy crap. Check out pics of the mag on Decline's website.
Also, there is a website for the Red Bull District Ride, check it out...big thumbs up to Chase and Ride-This team rider Paul Basagoitia for his 2nd place finish!
----
9-27-05: Eric Porter called me from the In-N-Out drive thru in Vegas yesterday to let me know that he was about to get down on a double-double. Forget the Vegas strip, if I would've known there was an In-N-Out in Vegas, I would've blown my money there on previous trips instead at the blackjack table!
We are leaving bright and early from Portland tomorrow for Vegas...I am borrowing a nicer digital camera with a big memory card, so look for some mega-updates in the next week.
Black Market MOB frames for 2006 are going to have a few improvements (not that they aren't near-perfect already). The biggest news is more tire clearance and a brake brace...pics to come, I'm going to build up an all-black '06 MOB frame post-Vegas. I have been riding my Black Market all year and I absolutely love it...Decline just gave the MOB frame the two-thumbs-up in their new mag (which I hear is absolutely amazing...Carter said it weighs like 5 pounds--the mag, that is).
Here are two pics of Sebbe from Sweden (another happy Blk Mrkt owner) enjoying his ride: Tailwhip...Fufanu
Seth Lolli's grill fund is gathering momentum, although his medical bills are pretty staggering. Almost $10,000 to cover that crash and the aftermath. Go here to help out our brother in need. And all of you guys that are gambling in Vegas this week, remember that it's good karma (which equals good luck at the tables) to give your winnings to a good cause.
See you in VEGAS!!
----
9-26-05: Interbike is here!! I won't officially be in Vegas until Wednesday, so until then, check out the PinkBike gallery...
If you are going to Interbike, Smith
Optics is having a "Stompdown"...here's the deal:
Bring your brand name, non-Smith Optics sunglasses to booth #3345 on Thursday
from 4-6pm, stomp them into oblivion and Smith will replace them with a pair
of their shades on the spot for FREE. Hang with the Smith pro team, imbibe in
adult beverages and crush your competing brand sunglasses.
TWO-6!!! Your favorite hessians now have their own website. Wouldn't it be funny if they had a forum and T-Sage had to kick people off it?
Oregon continues to be amazing...Nina, Pixel and I checked out Cannon Beach this weekend...remember the movie Goonies? This is where they filmed it! We also checked out the USA's largest Spruce tree on the drive to the beach. The true topper to the weekend was the Friday night sushi session at Clark McNutt's house. Clark bought a bunch of fish and sliced it up, my girl Nina made the rice and put the fish on it, and I shredded the world's first Sushi Burrito!
Go here to check out some video clips of Chase, Paul B and Kyle Strait's runs at the Red Bull District Ride.
----
9-25-05: Aaron Chase won the Red Bull District Ride! He also won the best trick contest! That's all the information we have at this point. Thumbs up, AC!!
----
9-24-05: More pics from Ray's MTB courtesy of park builder Joe Prisel! Check them out: Joe-1 Joe-2 Joe-3. RaysMTB is going to have a big re-opening party on November 5th and 6th from 10am to 10pm. Even if you don't live in Cleveland, put this weekend on your calendar because this place is worth the visit!!
----
9-23-05 #2: Ahhhh...this is why I love Interbike time so much...check out this new steed from Mountain Cycle. It's a slopestyle-specific bike...sub-16" chainstays, 100mm of travel, 13" seat tube, and it's designed to work with 4" to 6" forks.
----
9-23-05: Check out the SUAT website...there is a new video on there from the street crew in Chile.
I know a lot of people were trying to track down those Tioga Urban tires that Carter Holland rides...if you need them, here's the hookup.
Interbike is less than a week away! The rumors are starting to float all over the place about team changes and stuff like that...less than a week until we can confirm everything and post it up here.
RaysMTB park in Cleveland got quite the facelift over the summer! Check out the pics of the "new" park...new skatepark area, a side-by-side pump track, more jumps...it looks super fun! If you haven't been to this park yet, GO!!
Ryan Denehy of The Eastern Front is sending ALL PROCEEDS from online sales of The New Deal from now until next Friday to Seth's New Grill Donation Fund. If you don't have a copy of The New Deal yet, now would be a good time to order it!
----
9-22-05: Ah, so there is actually a REAL collection being setup to help Seth get on top of his medical bills from that nasty crash at Rye Airfield! Go here to lend our bro a hand...and for you sick #$*^&%s, there is a clip of Seth's crash. I almost threw up when I heard the sound of his head hitting the concrete...get well soon Seth!
I forgot to mention that the new run of Black Market frames are going to have more tire clearance...I think they will be out shortly, Carter said that they were getting tubes in and starting to weld when I talked to him the other day. There are still a couple frames left if anyone is interested in getting a frame ASAP.
Hans Rey sent me the hookup of a guy doing front flips in Italy. Check out the video here, and if you can read Italian, go here to check out the full site. Thanks Hans!!
Did anyone else see that Jet Blue thing on TV last night? Gnar. In light of that (and the fact that a lot of people reading this will probably be flying to Interbike soon), I'm putting together a top five list of things to do on an airplane besides watch DirectTV of your plane landing itself:
1. iPod: Overseer-Wreckage
"Sparks" (best track ever for floating in the clouds)
2. Put your finger on the window, close one eye, and watch your finger move
across the land directly below. Not on the horizon. Watch how fast your finger
passes objects. That's how fast you are moving. (Thanks Crailtap)
3. Mile-high club, anyone?
4. Write text messages to every single person in your phone book while your
Treo is in non-transmit mode.
5. Try to pee standing up in the bathroom while the airplane is experiencing
turbulence.
----
9-21-05: WORLD EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS!! Here is the new Black Market stem, named the "Underboss". The Underboss is 197g, CNC engraved logos and has 50mm reach and is 1/2" tall. Carter says that the 1/2" height is meant to take the place of the spacers that most people run under their stems. The stem will come in silver or black and be available in the next few months.
You saw it here first!! Exclusive photos of the Underboss! Sent to my Treo and posted here..check it out at Interbike!
----
9-21-05: Everyone has been sweating us on how we all got broke off over the weekend. Victor came up short on a hip riding some DH, Matt ground off his knuckles doing "air circles" over a jump at Meldrum Bar and I stood up really fast into the spike of a candleabra. I had just finished a sweet injury-free dirt jump session and then I broke myself off just chillin' afterwards.
Speaking of other people on their road to recovery, I got an e-mail from Seth Lolli the other day...you may remember that Seth completely annihilated his face a couple weeks ago at Rye Airfield. Here's the latest: The swelling on the broken nose went way down and my mouth is feeling alot better though I still need some teeth. I got some cowbone put in my bone since mine got all chipped up and crap so after that heals in 3/4 months I should be able to get real implants put in.
I really think we should start a collection to get Seth some metal instead of boring white teeth, maybe Doug Fink can let him borrow his?
Check out the first shots of the Giant STP on this HCOR thread.
Here's another link for new bike pics! Union Street Bikes...American made street frames...check them out!
----
9-19-05: It was a pretty messy weekend here in Portland...the Ride-This staff took it hard...Victor tore up his knee, Matt McNutt ground off his knuckles and I gashed my head open. Good times all around!
At least the view here is good! Multnomah Falls...check it out...only thirty minutes from the shop!
Big congrats to Brian Baldis (rider/product guy from Mongoose) on the birth of his son Tyler! Brian's job at Mongoose is to create dope bikes for the youth market, so maybe we'll see a youth-sized Ritual in development??
Click here if you want to see pics of shop that I'm working at now!
----
9-16-05: Big news today! We uncovered a development bike for harvesting junior riders...I knew it!!
Also, speaking of big news...how about The Big Deal? Ryan Denehy's new flick will be out by Sea Otter and you can expect the first teaser to be out in two weeks.
Interbike is coming up and I will actually be there this year. Believe it or not, this will be my first time in attendance, so I'm psyched for sure. We are going to do a report from Interbike in Match 8 with special guest host, Jeff Lenosky. I heard that the Deity booth is going to be off the hook this year, I'm going to try to run across town and get a sneak peak later today...
----
9-15-05: Welcome back! This has been the longest span of non-updates in the history of the Match Videozine website...but for good reason! 4300 miles after Rye Airfield, I have arrived in Portland, Oregon. We made a few stops along the way, including San Francisco! We also met up with Porter along Hwy 80 to help him move into his new pad in Park City, UT. He had all kinds of problems along the way, including a blown tire, leaky transmission, bee stings, etc. Thankfully all was well once he pulled into his driveway.
After moving into our apartment in Portland and getting my stuff setup here at the Ride-This shop, our next order of business was to pick up our new dog. Meet Pixel! He's only two months old right now and peeing all over the place, but I think he might be a strong candidate for shop dog once we housebreak him..
Thanks for your patience over the past two weeks while I switched coasts. Here
are some pics that I received during my absence:
-Matt McNutt boosting a ridiculous
gap in Oregon...look at the bottom of the pic, you can see Clark's head...Matt
is up there..
-Zio Ziegler casing a roadgap
in Pacifica...photo by Rik Rogers
-Seth Lolli doing a 360? at Rye Airfield
Eastern Front fashonista Ryan Denehy is now a college student. He text messaged me frantically after getting charged $550 for his first semester's books. "Get used to it buddy" was my reply. Good thing he went low-budget on the dorm room: audio//entertainment center
Match Videozine is in the process of something big right now...hopefully we will have a big announcement after Interbike. Stay tuned!
----
9-2-05: Update from the road: We made it to Wisconsin successfully! Nina and I packed my car so full that we couldn't even see out of any of the windows and drove straight back to Wisconsin to hang out in my hometown for the weekend. Upon arrival I honored the Wisconsin custom of treating all new arrivals to deep-fried cheese curds. Honestly, they are the best things ever...ask anyone who's visited me in Wisconsin! Jeff Lenosky actually gets cross with me when I come back to the east coast without cheese curds for him, so you know they're tasty!
On the drive home we randomly stopped at a Dennys in Youngstown, Ohio for dinner. I didn't think much of it until I realized that it was the same Dennys we got kicked out of on the Match 5 roadtrip!
I'd like to say a big thanks to all of my ex-friends who voted for a president whose financial interests are in bed with the oil industry. Thanks guys! Side note: I picked the wrong week to drive across the country!
We are going to drive west on 80 and stop to see some friends along the way...we might be in Denver to see Dan Drain, then over to Park City to see the newly-engaged Eric Porter at his new house, then over to Reno for a night out with Hacksaw, then out to San Fran for the weekend and up to Portland! I will try to update the site whenever possible along the way, otherwise I will just do a monster update when we arrive in Portland.
Speaking of updated sites, check out HAROOKZ's new website!
I mentioned the other day that Seth Lolli went down super hard at Rye. Check out this thread on HCOR about his grill, there is a before and after pic in there. Get well soon buddy!!
Lastly, we lost a friend last week. For any of you old-school trials riders like me, you remember Randy Vancil, one of the top east coast event organizers. His wife Sandy passed away suddenly last week from a brain aneurysm at the age of 39. If you knew the Vancil family you are super bummed right now because Sandy was super cool. She will be missed and our hearts and thoughts are with Randy right now.
----
8-31-05: Rye Airfield turned out to be a great contest this year. I honestly didn't know what to expect since Chase and Lenosky were in Europe, Porter was hurt and a bunch of people were busy doing other stuff...but the pros who did come to the event totally threw down and made the event good!
Seth Lolli crashed real hard on his face and broke out his toof and his nose, thankfully he is doing pretty well. Here is the top five for the Rye finals (which was a top 8 pro jam...super nutty!)
1. Dave Smutok
2. Adam Hauck
3. Nick Soloninka
4. Joe Prisel
5. Cameron McCaul
Adam Hauck tailwhipped out of the wallride on the back wall for the win in best trick. Nick Soloninka threw down a perfect tailwhip to tailtap and Kyle Ebbett did a flip to manual on the deck of the hip/wedge area by the fence. Joe Prisel was riding super strong in both runs and flipped from the mushroom to the opposite wedge...the pro final jam was ten minutes of some of the best riding I've seen at a park contest in a while...thankfully we had more than one camera rolling because there was tons of good stuff going down all at once!
After Rye we packed up my car and headed back to JFK Airport and Newark to drop off Carter and Adam. Carter fit his entire Black Market MOB into this tiny little bag, it was absolutely amazing!
Today is my last official day at DH Productions...although I will continue to direct/edit Match Videozine and DH Productions will continue to executive produce and distribute Match, I won't be in the office as much...we're essentially going back to the old setup. I want to say a big thank you to both Don and Darice Hampton for everything they've done for me this year and all of the support with Match Videozine. After work today I'm headed out to Portland, Oregon to be the marketing guy for Ride-This.com, so I'll be doing all kinds of good stuff with that (wait until you see the stuff I have up my sleeve!). Match Videozine will continue to progress...I will continue to update this site after the move (hopefully back online next week) and keep your eyes on the Ride-This site because I'll be working on that one too!
----
8-26-05: We've been on the road for the past few days with Carter Holland and Adam Hauck, shooting street and dirt, drawing blood and acting introspective. On the way to New Jersey to pick up Carter and Adam, I stopped in Bloomsburg, PA to see my good friend JJ Gregorowicz. After visiting his girlfriend's dojo (it's like a gym for karate people if you didn't know), we brought home some goods to employ later in the night.
Check this out, JJ's mom lives on top of this really steep hill. It's three blocks from the top to the bottom and this garbage truck was parked at the top of the hill with the air brake on. To make a long story short, the brake line blew and the truck barrelled downhill, eventually smashing into this house, hitting the gas line, and making everything go BOOM!! Crazy, huh? Thankfully no one got hurt..
----
8-26-05: COUNTERPARTS IS NOW AVAILABLE!!! Go to dh-productions.com and order your copy today...and grab a copy of Match 7 while you're there!
I am headed to Dirty Jersey today today to meet up with Carter Holland and Adam Hauck to do some shooting between now and Rye. We're going to hit dirt and street between NYC and Boston for the next few days...knowing these guys it should be a pretty ridiculous weekend of insane riding!
If you've read this far in the post without ordering your copy of Counterparts, do it now! I've seen the entire video almost into the triple digits and it still owns. I got the biggest kick out of Chris Clark's segment in the bonus, it's hilarious...the bonus features on Counterparts completely compliment an already amazing vid.
----
8-24-05: Busy day today...Hampton and I got on the road super early this morning after crashing at Lenosky's house post-jam. Last night was fun (but thankfully not as crazy as last year!!) We loaded up the RedBull Pinz and headed out for some pizza...and celebrated a good day of riding!
Speaking of celebrating, Eric Porter just got engaged the day before the jump jam. Big congrats to Porter and good luck with the move out to Utah! Porter is moving to Park City a few days before I head across the country for Portland, so we're going to try to swing by his new pad to check out his new steez!
My roommate from college and good buddy Matt just got hired as a sales rep for Miller Beer and was at some big festival in Wisconsin and got interviewed...check out the last paragraph of this news story. Does this sound familiar? Matt was my number one celebratory influence through college, glad to hear that he's still going strong!
Lenosky and Chase are on an airplane to Amsterdam right now...they are going to be over there with Freeride Entertainment shooting for their next segment in New World Disorder. They are only overseas for a week, but during that week they are going to travel from Amsterdam to France, hitting up spots along the way!
Thanks to everyone that reminded me that the "Surfer Song" by Flip Nixon was Bearclaw's part in Kranked!
Speaking of Bearclaw, check out this picture from NSMB....Bearclaw 360ing the road gap at Crankworx. Remember that one South Park episode where there was the one note that the kids played on their recorders that made everyone soil themselves? This is like the bike version of that episode.
IDUN has a revamp on their site and their new 2005 spring line is up and available. IDUN hooked me up with some threads and they are really solid...good materials, good fit, etc. Check them out!
----
8-23-05: Links Jam Update...I am sitting in Lenosky's backyard updating this site while the party rages in the backyard. Here are pics from today:
-The Red Bull stash for today
-The backyard
-The velvet rope/bouncer for the Jump Jam
-Cam McCaul's new Trek Jack frame
-Ryan Denehy enforcing the dress code
-Ebbett cut his hair into a mohawk...Kara and Hylands hooked him up with four egg whites and a can of Aqua Net
-The Pinzgauer
-Smutok on re-entry from the miniramp
The Jam was a success...they had a doubles competition today and it ended up in a tie between Aaron Chase/George Ryan and Cameron McCaul/Hacksaw. For the tie-breaker, the riders switched bikes and did one more run. Chase and GNR took the win with a run peppered with 360s. Adam Hauck also tailwhipped out of the potato chip ramp after the doubles contest. Lastly, there was a long jump competition, which was won by Joe Haley with a 34' jump.
----
8-22-05: After spending the last 29 days on the road, I finally made it back to my apartment in Pennsylvania around midnight last night. How was I greeted? By ambulances and haggard dudes bleeding all over my front steps! Some guy stumbled out of the bar next to my apartment, tripped and broke his hip on my front steps (or something like that). So there I was, standing outside my apartment with my arms full of luggage from the trip and some random dude is lying on my porch bleeding all over it! Thankfully there was an ambulance nearby and they hauled him off on a stretcher and everything appeared to be alright...never a dull moment...the only upside was that once I finally got up to my apartment, I found out that my new next door neighbor installed wireless internet while I was out! Thanks buddy!!
Hampton and I are headed out to Lenosky's Jump Jam tomorrow morning...J-Lo has wireless at his house, so expect a full update with a jam report and pictures tomorrow night. Jeff redid his yard so it's more than just trails. He has a new mini-ramp and a bunch of other "sessionable" stuff to ride (in addition to his trails, qtr/sub/roll-in and curved wall). His backyard evolves every year so it should be great to see what goes down this year.
Decline Magazine reviewed Match 7 and I am stoked on what they had to say:
"Do you ever wonder why the guys at e.thirteen and Evil Bikes have funny accents and wear glasses? Get Match Videozine 7. Have you ever wanted to learn abubacas from Jeff Lenosky, but didn't want to go to New Jersey to ask how? Get Match Videozine 7. Did you miss the Gathering contest in Renton, Washington last winter, but wish you could've been there to see it? Get Match Videozine 7. Did you need to see proof that Dave Smutok should have won Bike Battle or ever wished there was an indoor mountain bike park with skinnies and box jumps in Cleveland, Ohio, but never knew where to find out about it? Get Match Videozine 7. If you didn't know that members of Mushroomhead ride bikes, want to find out why Nigel Quarless has one of the sickest jobs in all of Canada or you and your sister have a bet regarding Jim DeChamp and his nosepicks on kinky statues in Spain, then get Match Videozine 7. There are so many answers to life's big questions in Match Videozine 7 that it'd be a shame to let them pass you by. Aaron Lutze and Don Hampton really put the 'video' in videozine and Match 7 might be the best match to date. Music is solid, audio is dialed in and the variety of footage and coverage is on-point. The Barcelona trip is the highlight of the disc as the crew grows mustaches and shreds graffiti-covered parks. Should you, in your infinite wisdom, decide to snag this video, just don't hit stop after the fun-filled credits or you'll miss some quality bangers by Joe Prisel, Lutze likes secret stuff like that."
So....here's the link to GET MATCH VIDEOZINE 7. Counterparts is going to be by the end of this week according to our replicator/distributor. Here's the final cover art for it...
----
8-15-05: Welcome back to the gong show...here's a list states I've been in (excluding the ones I probably flew over) for the past three days: Oregon, Arizona, Massachussetts, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Wisconsin. To make matters even worse, my iPod spontaneously erased itself while I was boarding my 5 hour flight from Phoenix to Boston. Sweeeeeeeet....thankfully I had most of it backed up and I was planning to clean it out anyways, but it still sucked for the 5 hours that I was in the air music-less.
R.I.P. Colin Winklemann...check out bmxonline.com if you need more info. There's a post on Hcor as well...big loss for the bike community. Colin Winklemann has been progressing the sport of bmx for a long time (ever heard of a flair-to-tailtap? That was Colin) and it's a bummer that he passed.
I talked to Harookz yesterday and he is planning to relaunch his website by the end of the month! It's been two years in the making, and knowing Harookz's steez, it should be a dope site!!
Top Five New Songs on my iPod:
1. "Honest Mistake" The Bravery
2. "Soweto" Heiroglyphics
3. "No. 5" Hollywood Undead (apparently these guys are huge on myspace)
4.
"Time and Time Again" Chronic Future
5. "Surfer Song" Flip Nixon (someone help me remember what video this is from, it sounds super familiar)
Here are pics from the Troy Lee Designs 80's party in Whistler, pics courtesy of Kathy Sessler:
-Kirt Voreis 1 2 3
-T.Sage and Cam Zink
-Eric Porter
-Peaty
-I don't know who this is but this the best Ron Burgandy doppleganger I've ever seen
-Scott Hart a.k.a Cru Jones
-Kyle Strait's mullet
p.s. If you haven't seen Wedding Crashers yet....GO NOW!!!
----
8-11-05: Well, I blew it. Not only did I miss posting about Hacksaw's birthday because we were driving back from Whistler, but I also completely forgot to mention that it was also Scott Hart's birthday! My bad....I'm 0/2! Either way...happy birthday guys!
I got some love from Chopper at Smith Optics today...a while back, I grew out a crazy mustache on a bet with Ian Hylands after Sea Otter. Anyways, I sent a pic to Chopper, who was having a mustache contest on the Smith site to promote the Serpico, and today I got these in the mail! Here's the link for the Smith Serpico...check 'em out! Thanks Chopper!!
Cam Zink's surgery went really well yesterday, they replaced his ACL and sewed up his meniscus. He's off the bike for a couple months, hopefully he'll have more time to update his website!
My buddy Harookz updated his news page with a bunch of pics from Crankworx...including the broken cell phone that resulted from a wrestling match with Bearclaw's brother Ryan (I think). If you haven't met Harookz, put it on your list of things to do...he is quite possibly one of the most stoked people I have ever met and he's a blast to hang out with!
So here's the big news...at the end of this month I am going to be moving out to Portland, Oregon to work full-time for Ride-This.com. Match Videozine will continue to exist (look for Match 8 around December)...so stick around! We have an amazing team at Ride-This (Basagoitia, Zink, Lenosky, Hacksaw, Hauck, etc, etc, etc) and I am planning some trips and projects with the team, so keep your eyes on Ride-This. There are a bunch of pics up on the Ride-This site from the Traffic Jam and Crankworx...bookmark the site because by next month I'll be updating that website just as much as I update this one!
----
8-10-05: Happy belated birthday Hacksaw! We just got back into Portland after an epic week in Whistler...Hacksaw's birthday was yesterday, so hopefully he celebrated in style. I have four messages on my phone right now, I wonder if they're from Hacksaw's party last night?
Cam Zink is going in for knee surgery today. He blew out his "good" knee recently (and still competed on it and placed 3rd at Crankworx!) and is going in to repair it today. I think they're replacing his ACL with a cadaver ligament and he'll be back on a bike in three weeks, then riding hard in about three months. Get well soon Cam!
----
8-8-05: Crankworx is officially over. The dirt contest went down yesterday, here is the top 5:
1. Cameron McCaul
2. Ben Boyko
3. Trond Hansen
4. John Jesme
5. Nate Adams
Last night was the premiere of Cam McCaul's Top Soil video...here are pics from the day:
-Harookz and Pinner from P.G. (Prince George)
-Kathy Sessler's new designer purse
-The TWO-SIX posse
-Harookz came to our place and we set him up with the guest slippers
-Adam Hauck doing his Macaulay impression
-We learned this take-down move from a moto video this week, here is Adam getting dealt with
-Paul B representing Ride-This.com in style
----
8-7-05: Last night's update summed up Crankworx, but here's a few pics from the day/night:
-Paul Basagoitia with the big foam check
-Hacksaw trying to blend in up in Canada, eh
-Harookz and Nate Blades dancing up a storm
-Hacksaw and the Two-Six Stallions
-Superfans Smutok and Dechamp
-Bearclaw's 360 road gap (way more ridiculous in person, he was going soooooo fast)
-Lenosky, Blades, Hacksaw and a long-time fan of the Match site (thanks for the support!)
Today is the jump jam on the top of the mountain. I haven't heard much about it and a lot of people have already left to go home, but hopefully some good stuff goes down!
Hey, who else knew that Decline Magazine had a website? Check it out!!
----
8-6-05: Just a quick update before my head hits the pillow. Today was Reeeeeeeediculous! Bearclaw 360'd a road gap, Paul Bass tailwhipped a 15' drop and pretty much the contest scene for slopestyle erupted. If you thought last year's Crankworx was ridiculous, this year shut it down. I can't even explain it. Anyways, here's the top four:
1. Paul Basagoitia
2. Darren Berrecloth
3. Cameron Zink
4. Cameron McCaul
Pics and more stories tomorrow when I wake up!
----
8-5-05: First things first, Crankworx Slopestyle qualifying was today. 25 riders for 5 spots. There were a bunch of european guys that I had never heard of that qualified #2-5 (some German guy tailwhipped a full suspension Kona on a quarterpipe) and our boy Jamie Goldman took the #1 spot! Congrats Jamie...this kid is killing it this year, first place at Sea Otter dirt jumps, third at Monster Park, second at the Traffic Jam, and I wouldn't be suprised if he throws down tomorrow! Chris VanDine also brought out the Diner Roll, except this time it was on his DH BIKE!! He pulled it in his second run, absolutely perfect!
We spent the morning breaking in Ian Millar's new Sinister Splinter MX on the mountain. We met up with Harookz and Jay Hoots at the top of the mountain and shredded with them for a bit, too! I was a little nervous to be riding in front of Jay Hoots since he's the freeride superman and my shrediquette probably isn't up to par, so I just pinned it through A-Line and everything was all good. Jay is rad and a ton of fun to ride with!
After riding, we stopped by Ian's house in Whistler and took care of some bid-ness. Check out the sick view from his back porch! Ian was supposed to get a shipment of the new Modestbike jerseys in today, and the shipment cost him an extra $80 to get over the border...much to Ian's surprise, the shipment wasn't exactly what he was looking for! Oops!
We ended the night with dinner at Sushi-Ya in Whistler. This place is pretty much the best ever. Just be warned that if you put a plate of sushi in front of Peanut, it WILL disappear!
Here are some pics that Eric Davies from Deity Components sent me from the Traffic Jam and surrounding mayhem:
-Chris VanDine
-Nate Blades being seduced
-The Reno crew
-Aaron Nachtrab: he helped build the jumps at the Traffic Jam and placed 5th in Amateur
-Chris Donahue's son rocking the Black Market
Oh yeah, when we came home tonight, Match Videozine Issue 6 was on TV!! They have ASN in Whistler and it's the best channel ever!
----
8-4-05: We are back on track with web updates and the wireless at the Ride-This house is rocking. Here are pics from the past few days of shredding with everyone. Let me also say that Whistler is pretty much the best place ever.
-Greetings from Whistler!
-The Slopestyle course
-Whistler Vistas 1 2
-Muscle man Lutze
-Carter Holland on the chairlift
-George Ryan's kilt
-George Ryan's sweet GNR helmet
-Dylan Tremblay and Kirt Sorge
-The Giro drop on the slopestyle course
-Ross McMaster and Peanut
-Me and my pink Spooky Project X pre-shred
-Adam Hauck on top of the world
-Timmy McNutt shredded his shin on some rocks and is hurting bad...get will soon Timmy!
-I saw this on Shaum's fridge...good stuff
There is an event going down in Bend, OR for all interested. Check out the flyer!
Lenosky updated his website! He is keeping a journal now so you can follow his adventures around the world!
----
8-3-05: So this morning we recovered from last night's session at the Wing Dome. Never again!! Oh well, at least we got a semi-entertaining story out of it. Moving on, we drove to Whistler today and made a few stops...first stop after the border was Shannon Falls Park right outside of Squamish, BC. Check out the pics:
-Token scenery photos 1 2 3
-Hi Mom
-Peanut dunking his head mid-8km climb
-Me with one of the waterfalls along the way up to the top
-Shannon Falls
-The "Hacksaw Family Vacation" photo
After Shannon Falls we grabbed food at the most excellent Taco Del Mar in Squamish and swung by Shaums' house for a little bit. Shaums just had surgery on his kneecap and showed Peanut the ropes on his new PS-2 rally game!
We are in Whistler and looking forward to a fun week of shredding down the mountains! Stay tuned!
Bye bye Haley, we love you! Have fun playing with all of my other past puppies up in Dog Heaven...you'll be missed!
----
8-2-05: If I had to sum up last night in one photo, this would be it.
But before we get to that, let me break down the day...we started our day at 6am at Burnside in Portland. After riding for a bit, we went to the Ride-This shop and got everyone's bikes dialed in. Peanut is rocking Deity Components on his bike and Nate Blades was showing off his sweet downtube sticker. We also found out what kind of peanuts they use to pack boxes at the Ride-This.com shop!
We assembled a slightly condensed crew and started driving to Seattle to meet up with the GHY crew and made a few pitstops along the way. We finally met up with everyone and then proceeded to ride some dirt jumps. I made it through one of the sets and was super stoked. Then everything went nuts. Hacksaw and Peanut were training the big set of jumps, Evan Holmgren did a dope 360 table, Carter Holland was owning everything with good style and the locals were killing it!
After the dirt session, we went to a cement skatepark and played around for a bit. The hip at the park was looking particularly good, so it got destroyed by our crew. Here are pics of the cement session:
-Evan Holmgren 1 2 3
-Carter Holland 1 2 3
-Peanut Tuck No Hander/ 360ing spine
-Hacksaw 1 2
-Adam Hauck Tailwhip 1 2 / double tire spine
-Carter Holland hating life
Alright, so we finished the session at the cement park and everyone is talking about how hungry they are. Someone mentions getting buffalo wings and everyone agrees...so we're out having a great night with the boys when Steve from GHY comes up to our table and announces the ritual for all first-time visitors to this particular wing establishment: The "Number 7". The way it works is that you order your wings on a scale from 1-6 on hotness (6 being titled "don't you dare"). I was going to run the number 2 because I'm not really into spicy food, but everyone wanted to get a big bucket of #3, so I just took one for the team. It was a little bit too hot but I just washed it down with some ranch and celery and it was all good. So when Steve comes over with the demands that we have to eat a Number 7, I'm ready to soil myself.
Anyways, the GHY table gets a collection going to order Number 7s for me, Millar, Carter, Hacksaw, Adam Hauck and Nate Blades. Once the order is placed, the entire restaurant gathers around our table. Everyone went for it (although Adam only nibbled and Evan Holmgren backed down entirely) and aside from Hacksaw and Nate Blades, everyone was taking it. As it usually goes, I got the brunt of the heat and was doing my best to cope for the next twenty to thirty minutes! Thankfully there was a Safeway right next to this place and I was able to get my hands on some milk to put out the fire in my mouth. Look how compassionate Hacksaw was while I writhed in pain!
So that was our night. Adam Hauck and I both gave it our stamp of disapproval, but the GHY guys got a good kick out of it. All I can say now is that I'm stoked to be on the other side of the table next time we go out to that place! Just check out the sauce they covered these wings in!! YUCK! That definitely ranked high on the "top ten most ridiculous things I've ever done" list.
In other entertainment, go to www.ride-this.com for the photo gallery from the Traffic Jam contest in Portland. Chris Duncan sent me some more pictures from the event (and aftermath). Check them out:
-Duncan Unturndown, Turndown, Seatgrab
-Tyler McCaul showing all the older boys how it's done
-Cameron McCaul doing what he does best
-Carter's birthday was the day after the contest, so I got the waitress to deliver him a handful of balloons and we all sung happy birthday to him!
----
8-1-05: Everyone from the Traffic Jam came out to ride trails in Portland yesterday and we had one heck of a time. Imagine trying to organize a posse of this size and still get it done! Once things got going, we had a great session at one of the top dirt spots in Portland. Chris VanDine was finding new lines and Chris Duncan was flipping jumps in the rhythm!
After the dirt session ended, we grabbed dinner and went out for a street session. We only got a few things done, but it was fun...here's a shot of Hacksaw wallriding, check out the sweet curb right in front of the wall...Hacksaw had to hop over it and keep speed to hit the wall, then dodge the curb on his way out. A few people took it over the curb and the fact that it was 11pm didn't help either!
So this morning we woke up at 6am and went down to Burnside for a morning session. Adam Hauck destroyed the park...tailwhips, 3's over the spine, handplants and general nastiness. Carter was boosting the hip and the wall and was the first to pick out the transfer lines.
Today we are going to ride dirt in Washington and then tomorrow we're heading up to Whistler for Crankworx. Our posse includes Hacksaw, Peanut, Nate Blades, Evan Holmgren, Carter Holland, Adam Hauck, Ian Millar and yours truly. Here are a few random pics from the past 24 hours:
-Porter and Evan custom made a shirt for Atomlab's Mike Flaherty
-Nate Blades looking hungry
-The posse at the shop
-Hey Millar, pick me a winner! 7am at Burnside, wiiiiiide awake!
There are pics up on Ride-This.com from the Traffic Jam. Check them out!
Counterparts is officially done and in the process of being replicated. It will be out at the end of August!!!!!
----
7-31-05: The Ride-This.com Traffic Jam was bananas!! We had twenty four riders come to the event, and everything went super smooth. The event ran on time, no one got broken and everyone threw down! Adam Hauck landed a 360 tailwhip, Chris Duncan did a double barspin transfer and Joe Perrizo flipped the street spine. Hacksaw tranferred out of the miniramp and 360'd into a nearby berm, VanDine landed the Diner Roll 1st try and Phil Sundbaum did a 360 1-handed x-up. Pretty much everyone that came out did something ridiculous! I will try to find some links to some good pics from the event and post them up here...but here's what I've got:
-Todd Bosch and Chris VanDine came early to help dig. We had to dig all the jumps by hand and move them with a wheelbarrow all week until Friday afternoon when Mike Flaherty rented a bobcat. THANK YOU MIKE!!!
-When we got to the shop Saturday morning, George Ryan was sleeping in the parking lot
-Adam Hauck wallriding the night before the event. My camera didn't work inside with the dust and the poor lighting, so I just used my camera phone
-Adam Hauck holding the bike he won the event on (Carter's bike) and Evan Holmgren's sweet luggage in the background
-Carter Holland got sideways on a flip on his first run and blew out his rear wheel
-Check out the sweet Deity hat that I got this weekend
Here are the results:
AMS
1. Peanut 115
2. Tyler McCaul 110
3. Alex Reveles 93
4. Matt McNutt 91
5. Aaron Nachtrab 86
6. Charlie Sponsel 81
7. Travis Govin 80
8t. Dominick Demaid 76
8t. Ryan Fullmer 76
10. Eric Forte 71
PRO
1. Adam Hauck 124
2. Jamie Goldman 118
3. Phil Sundbaum 116
4. Cameron McCaul 114
5. Ben Boyko 113
6. Hacksaw Jim Severt 112
7. Chris Duncan 111
8. George Ryan 107
9. Chris VanDine 105
10. Evan Holmgren 104
11. Carter Holland 94
12. Joe Perrizo 87
13. Travis Erickson 65
14. Nate Adams 64
Big thanks to all of the Traffic Jam Sponsors that helped out! Ride-This.com, Atomlab, Deity, RockGardn, Sinister Bikes, E-13/Evil Bikes, SIC, DH Productions and Modestbike Magazine.
----
7-29-05: It's the day before the Traffic Jam and everyone is working their arses off to make it happen. Mike Flahrety from Atomlab came in yesterday and immediately picked up a shovel and started rocking out! Hacksaw, Peanut and Nate Blades showed up at 2am and are currently putting the finishing touches on the jumps and ramps. Big thanks also to Victor at Ride-This, Aaron Nachtrab, Charlie, and Erik from Stump503 who came out last night to lend a hand. Here's the latest on the jumps: 1 2 3
Tomorrow the venue opens at 10am for anyone who wants to practice/ride. Otherwise, swing by the shop and check out the premieres from 12-2 before the event begins. If you want to go directly to the venue, go here for directions. If you want to come to the premiere, the address for the Ride-This.com shop is: 14200 McLoughlin Blvd, Milwaukie, OR 97267. Call the shop if you have any questions: 866-972-3800.
See you all tomorrow!!!
----
7-28-05: Traffic Jam Update! We have been digging like crazy the past few days trying to get everything ready for the Ride-This Traffic Jam. The entire Portland crew has been pitching in to help dig...Aaron, Charlie, Patrick, Erik from Stump503 and of course the entire crew from Ride-This.com. We haven't had any access to heavy equipment so we've been building the jumps one wheelbarrow at a time. Here are some sweet pics of us digging: Matt McNutt and Farmer Tan Aaron. Also, if you want to skip the video premieres on Saturday and just ride/practice, the indoor dirt park will be open as early as 10am.
Modestbike Issue Three is in....get your hands on a copy immediately!!! With spreads like this, you can't afford to sleep on Modestbike anymore. Go to the Modest site and subscribe!
Match Videozine Issue 7 is getting out there and we've been hearing some great reviews. If you haven't bought your copy, now's the time to do it. You're not going to find a better bike video out there for $16.95!!
----
7-24-05: I just got to Portland the other day to start getting things ready for the Traffic Jam. I packed up my bike box with a bunch of flow copies for all the homies that helped me put Issue 7 together. The flight was pretty solid and while I was waiting for my second plane in Phoenix, Tony Osusky and his family came out to hang out for a bit. Tony moved to Arizona around the same time I moved to Pennsylvania and he's been riding a ton now that his house isn't covered in Wisconsin snow..
So we got to Portland and went to the Ride-This shop. Here are a few pics of the shop, I'll take more this week while we're getting everything ready for the weekend. If you're not busy this coming weekend, come to the Traffic Jam on Saturday in Portland! Here's a shot of a Black Market frame on the wall...I honestly doubt this thing will stick on the wall too long...these bikes are amazing! Here's a shot of the new Sinister MX frame..
Last night we had a big party and watched fireworks that were being launched off some barge in the river. Eric and Sadie Davies from Deity Components joined us and we threw down!!
Jaromir Spesny hooked me up with some pics of his '06 bike. He knew about the rule (no bikes get posted on the Match site from now on without stickers, or else this will happen!) so check out the Match sticker on Spaceman's SIGNATURE SUSPENSION FORK!!
Match 7 is out, by the way...so if you read this site everyday, go to DH-Productions.com and get your copy! Support Match Videozine!!
----
7-20-05: -TRAFFIC JAM UPDATE-
We now have complete info for the Traffic Jam event. The event will start at the Ride-This shop with premieres of Counterparts and Match 7 from 12-2pm. Then, we will caravan down to the Willamette Valley Indoor BMX Track for the jam from 2-8. The event will be a good mix of park and dirt obstacles with prizes for the Ams and a 200% pro payout for the Pro riders. We are also raffling off a Sinister DNA frame and a few other items. In addition to the companies already sponsoring the event (Ride-This.com, Sinister Bikes, Deity Components, Modestbike, Atomlab, RockGardn and DH Productions), we have added three new sponsors to the event: SIC, E.13 and Black Market Bikes.
The address of the Ride-This bike shop is: 14200 SE McLoughlin Blvd Suite I, Milwaukie, OR 97267 (Phone: 866.972.3800)
The day after the event will be a healthy session at the Meldrum Bar dirt jumps near the Ride-This shop for anyone who wants to stick around. Here are pics of the jumps: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
At this point I've heard that Carter Holland, Chris VanDine, Todd Bosch, Doug Fink, Phil Sundbaum, Jamie Goldman, Chris Donahue, Hacksaw, Peanut and a few more pros are planning to attend, so it should be a great time! There are some real shredders in the Portland area, too, so I'm sure we'll probably find a few more new rippers! If anyone has questions about the event, give Victor a call at the Ride-This shop: 866-972-3800.
On to other news...Chris Donahue has a new mini-ramp. After the Woodyard shut down in BC, they got together and bought the miniramp that was previously there and put it in Donahue's cousin's backyard. Check it out: 1 2 3 4
The Boom-Boom Huck Jam is in State College, PA this week. How do I know? I passed Dave Mirra in his Mercedes SUV today on my way to the DH Productions office!
Lastly, Brian Piper and his bros had their bikes ripped off while they were up at Ebbett's house riding the new foam pit. Here are pics of the bikes, if you have any information about them, please e-mail Brian. The DC crew got some bikes ripped off in BC a couple weeks ago, too, so if anyone has any info about those bikes, please e-mail Patrick...and remember....if you steal bikes, you go to hell automatically.
----
7-16-05: Hampton and I went out riding today with the Cannondale guys. They took us to the top of one of the mountains (only for us to realize that we had another 2,000 feet of climbing to get to the "real" top. Twenty miles later and I was so exhausted that I could barely stand, but it was worth it just for the view: 1 2 3 4
We took out the new 2006 Chase bike yesterday for some dirt jumping. The new geometry feels super good! Hampton was shredding on Cannondale's new dirt jumper as well...
----
7-15-05: I rode with Tinker Juarez yesterday. What else can I say?
The Traffic Jam in Portland had a slight venue change. Keep your eyes here and on Ride-This.com for more info. We're moving the event to the shop where we're going to build all sorts of ramps. Also, after the event, we're going to go to some more dirt jumps which are pretty close to the shop.
Here are pics of the jumps: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Everything else for the Traffic Jam will remain the same as far as I know. There are a lot of pros showing up to the event as they drive up to Crankworx and I just found out that Mike Flaherty from Atomlab is coming up for the event as well. Eric Davies from Deity will also be with us as well as Carter Holland from Black Market Bikes. Rider-owned guys will be shredding, so it should be a great jam!
If you haven't seen the teaser for Match 7, go to www.alwaysmad.com and check it out, then go to the DH Productions website and order your copy! We've already gotten an outstanding review in the Hcor forums, so copies are arriving already!
----
7-14-05: Go to ALWAYSMAD.COM and download the teaser for Match 7!!
Hampton and I are in Park City, Utah this week for the Cannondale Global Sales Meeting...they are rolling out a bunch of new stuff so it should be exciting. They also have 180+ demo bikes for anyone associated with the event to take out for a session. DH and I arrived around noon today and our rooms weren't ready so we took full advantage of the free bikes and got on the chairlift:
-View from the top of the mountain
-This is where they held the last winter olympics
-DH shredding the gnar
-Yours truly on the same trail...rocking out the C-dale Gemini
-Black and white trail shot
Let me back up a step...I was on the phone with Carter Holland and Hacksaw when our ride from the airport showed up (seriously). The chaffeur walked up to me and asked me if I was Aaron Lutze and of course I replied yes, immediately followed by my jaw hitting the ground once I had realized that we were getting picked up at the airport in a freakin' Escalade!
After we got settled, I went riding with Ron Jones, the guy running the show for the graphics on all the C-dale bikes and we found some sweet jumps. There was a 14-year old kid there named Austin who was shredding!
All of this riding is good prep for my trip out to Whistler for Crankworx. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm going to shred the jumps with the crew and the answer is yes. I am planning to session with everyone on a vintage DH bike!!
Match 7 is officially available worldwide. Go to the DH PRODUCTIONS website and order it!! We even got an order the other day from Dave Smutok's mom (thank you Mrs. Smutok!) I have been packing each order by hand and throwing in stickers and anything else I can sneak in the package when Hampton isn't looking! Matt Rissmiller is back in the studio for the next few weeks to help out with a couple projects and he'll be packing orders while I'm in Utah. Good to have you back, Matt!!
Lastly, check this out...I got pictures from Steven Bafus and couldn't believe how amazing they were. I guess there are shredders out there that still need to be uncovered. Hopefully we will be able to get Steve in front of the camera for Match 8!
-Superman
-One hand no footed can
-One foot table
-Table
----
7-12-05: Look what came in the mail today! Go HERE to order your copy RIGHT NOW!!! Match Videozine Issue 7 is out!!! The first 500 people to order it from the DH Productions website will also get a free copy of Match 4!
Carter Holland hooked me up with some photos from Justin Kozman...Carter puts the "rider" in "rider-owned". Holy crap this guy kills it:
-Carter Holland backflip
-Taylor Sage whip! and no hander
Jeff Lenosky is busy updating his backyard for the third annual Links Jump Jam on August 23rd. This year he says that it will have a lot of the same elements as last year (ladders, curved wall, racer/flow jumps, big jumps) but then it will also have stunt areas that everyone can session for hours on end. Here is a shot of the new mini-ramp from today...J-Lo and Porter were in the process of re-plying the ramp, it looks like a lot of fun! This is the same miniramp that used to be at Diablo, from what I'm told.
----
7-10-05: More information about the indoor dirt jam in Portland is here! It will be from 12-6pm on July 30th at the Willamette Valley BMX track (right outside of Portland, OR). It's been dubbed the "Traffic Jam" because everyone is trafficking up to BC for Crankworx and this will be a great warm-up for that. Also, if anyone wants to stick around after the Traffic Jam, there will be bmx and mtb motos after the event (run by the venue). The entire event is being put on by Ride-This.com with support from Sinister Bikes, Deity Components, Modestbike, Atomlab, RockGardn and all of us here at DH Productions.
A Sinister DNA frame is going to get raffled off along with a bunch of other products from the sponsors listed above. There will be product given out for the top three amateur riders and a 200% pro payout for the top three pros (which means that whatever money is collected from the pro entries, that money is matched by Ride-This and then the pot is split between the top three riders). I have talked to a bunch of people that are going to be swinging through town for the event (most of the Ride-This team plus the crew from the next Match trip), so it should be good times for everyone! Oh yeah, entry is $7 for ams (with a raffle ticket included with your entry) and $10 for pros.
Check out the Traffic Jam event flyer here!
----
7-7-05: Jeff Lenosky was kind enough to lend me his digital camera today. In return, I used his camera to take a picture of the lovely landscaping in his front yard. Later in the day, I gave Jeff the camera to shoot a session over a nasty gap with a super steep downside. Check out Jeff's handiwork and maybe this explains why Jeff is in front of the camera and not behind it: Timo / Adam Hauck 1 2 / Chase
We started the day off at some amazing trails in western Pennsylvania. Timo was going SUPER HUGE on everything, then the locals came and gave us the boot. We decided to ride street for the rest of the day and promptly got booted from the first campus we rode. The cop even offered to arrest us, but we declined on that. Following that, we headed out for some real street riding and Lenosky 180'd a ridiculous gap with a mellow tranny. He took it quite a few times to get it done, because he was going so fast to hit the 180 gap, but getting back out of it was tricky at high speed.
Here are the pics from today:
-Everyone's bikes stacked into the truck bed like corded wood
-The crew for today. Give yourself a pat on the back if you can name all of the riders!
-Adam Hauck killing it on the moto
-Lenosky offering Timo two tickets to the gun show
-Doug Smith of FroNJ
fame eating HAMBURGER SUSHI at lunch today
-George Ryan sessioning his favorite dessert of all time
-Timo's bike
-GNR's license plate
-Adam Hauck enjoying Jack Lenosky's Etch-A-Sketch on the drive to the trails
Speaking of Adam Hauck, this kid is amazing...he tailwhipped out of this jump and shredded the crap out of everything else in sight, including a double tire down a ledge on a rail to 180 off. Ridiculous!
----
7-6-05: Today's top story: Jeff Lenosky landscaped his front yard!! Errr...long story, but you'll all see it in a couple weeks when the third annual Links Jam goes down (August 23 in Sparta, NJ if you didn't know). Make sure to compliment him on his most excellent landscaping job when you see him, he almost shoved me off the porch when I didn't notice it on my way into the house today!
The real story is that I'm in Jersey with Timo Pritzel, Chase, Lenosky, Porter, Smutok, Ebbett, George Ryan and The FroNJ. Unfortunately I left my still camera in the DH Productions office, so I won't have a multitude of pictures to share. Thankfully I remembered to bring my video camera and all I can say is that I'm glad I did. We've been sessioning the trails of New Jersey the last two days and everyone is killing it (especially Timo)! Today I was shooting fisheye in between a set of dubs and everyone was just flowing the rhythm doing whips and tables and stuff, and out of nowhere, Timo just flips a set of the rhythm like nothing! He did a no footed can on the next set, too. Timo kills it!! GNR was doing fully dumped-out 360s in the rhythm, too...a good day of riding/shooting for sure!
I will try to borrow a digital camera so I can do a better update tomorrow...all I got today was a phone camera pic of Timo and Ebbett chillin' at the jumps...
Also, in Chain Reaction news, we are releasing a box set which will contain all five Chain Reactions plus a big bonus disc with tons of good stuff. Lately I've been working on what I call the "megamix" which is basically the best clips out of each riders segments, condensed into one segment for each rider that is absolutely bananas! Here is what the box set will look like.
Northwest guys (or anyone on their way to Crankworx)...Ride-This is hosting an indoor jump jam to coincide with the grand opening of the shop portion of Ride-This. We will be having some video premieres along with the jump jam. The indoor place has a full race track plus doubles, a wallride and a box jump. Mark July 30th on your calendars and be at the Willamette Valley BMX track (in Milwaukie, OR)! I will post even more info (and pics of the place) up as soon as I can. It sounds like we are going to have a pretty deep list of pros there as well...more info as everything is confirmed!
----
7-3-05: Monster Park was amazing...everyone totally killed it (and in some cases, almost got killed). I had to sign a waiver that I wouldn't post any conflicting photos with BIKE Magazine, so you'll have to wait until Match 8 comes out to see the action, but to make up for it, I took twice as many non-BIKE photos. Here goes:
-The dinner table the night before the event
-Jim Dellavalle was on hand riding DH stuff
-Lenosky totally engrossed in the Lopes column in the new Decline
-Todd Bosch brought a bag of Road Sodas to share with all of his bros. Thanks for the hookup TB!!
-Red Bull showed up with a Streamline...fully hooked up with spinners (illustrated by GNR) and an area to chill (2-Six Represent!)
-This was the ghetto chairlift for the event
-Zink heard about my new rule about posting bike pics on the Match site...
-Chase's Prophet, this was his bike of choice for the weekend
-The night before the event, Chase and his posse were spotted at dinner and had to pose for all kinds of photos
-Smutok's Sinister Splinter MX
-Hampton and AC chillin' outside the condo
-Super T's bike
-Cam McCaul and GNR
-Big Red Ted, the man behind the madness...he designed/built Monster Park
-Jamie Goldman (3rd place) getting Chase's autograph
-The autograph session 1 2
-Porter's Iron Horse slopestyle bike
-Jamie Goldman with the big check and 3rd place
-Ebbett rocking the OG Match Videozine t-shirt (I don't even think I have this shirt anymore)
-Poker went down at Chase's condo the night before the event
-Bearclaw's bike (white bars?)
-Lenosky's truck filled with bikes 1 2 3....after the event, we put 16 people in/on his truck for the ride back!
-Monster Park course 1 2 3
-Paul Basagoitia
-The view from the top of the mountain
-Chase hooking up the infamous nachos
-Timo Pritzel's bike
-Zink chillin' in the start house
-George Ryan doing what he does best
-The freeride posse
-Smutok went down super hard on a 360 one-hand transfer....it was SUPER nasty!
-Monster Park Trophy
Oh yeah...results:
1. Darren Berrecloth
2. Thomas Vanderham
3. Jamie Goldman
4. Steve Romaniuk
5. Cameron Zink
----
7-1-05: CHECK OUT THE COVER OF THE NEW MODESTBIKE!!!
I got a call from a frantic Cameron Zink last night...seems that he's stuck in Ohio with no ride to Monster Park. Being the nice guys that we are at DH Productions, we're going to swing by and pick him up on our way to West Virginia. The only downside for Zink is that we're going to be arriving after practice ends....so when you see a pic of Zink on the podium, just remember that not only did he shred the gnar, but he did it without any practice on the course (which, from the pics, looks MONSTROUS!! haha).
We are doing another roadtrip before Crankworx...this time we're going to hit Portland, Seattle, Vancouver and end up in Whistler for Crankworx. Ian Millar has the whole thing planned out so it should be rad...riders at this time: Carter Holland, Adam Hauck, Doug Fink, Phil Sundbaum, Hacksaw and Peanut.
The roadtrip is also going to make a stop at the Ride-This dirt jam on July 30th...location TBA, but I will post it as soon as I know. After the jam we're going to go to the shop for some video premieres and we may be going out on the town for even more excitement after that! A-CROP!!!
We've got even more photos of another Black Market rider throwing down. I'm going to institute a rule from here on out...if you don't have a Match Videozine sticker on your bike, I'm not going to post your pics! I had no choice but to make this rule since every single person in the world now rides a Black Market bike...
-Jake Toney's bike
-Jake Toney respectin' my new rule
-Jake Toney 360, 1-ft X-Up
----
6-30-05: More Black Market riding photos! This time, from Peter Lucas in California:
-1 ft table 1 2
-table
-toboggan
DH and I are packing up again and heading down to Monster Park for the insanity this weekend...expect a crap-load of pics and stories from the weekend up on the site. I have no idea what West Virginia's take on wireless internet will be, so keep your fingers crossed that I can update!
Go to Modestbike.com and click the link for The Community. For all of you adrenaline junkies, just skip to the last 1/4 of the teaser for all the crazy stuff. The intro is worth checking out, too, but if you're feeling impatient, skip the first few minutes.
----
6-29-05: Who's bright idea was it to plan Monster Park on the same weekend as the Fourth of July? Haven't they seen Killing Time?? Get all of the top freeride guys together in one place on the one weekend of the year where it's *encouraged* to blow stuff up and have roman candle fights?! What were they thinking?!
In honor of the Monster Park freeride mayhem, I got rid of my "freeride starter kit" hair and went back to my roots (literally). After spending the weekend in full humidity and 98 degrees of XC racing, it was time to go. Plus, in case I do catch fire this weekend in the fireworks melee, at least I won't have a full head of hair to lose in the flames.
Check out the new Decline--bright enough to sear your eyes!! There is a Chase interview in there that Spomer and Jason Smith did, and it's extremely entertaining...check it out when you get a chance.
Lastly, for all you underground hip-hop guys...check out the building right down the road from the Cannondale office...
----
6-28-05: A lot of people have sent me photos lately of their Black Market frames and build-ups...as psyched as I am to see everyone supporting Carter and a rider-owned company, I was even more psyched to see photos of someone RIDING their new frame. Chijioke from Canada sent me these shots of his Black Market in action!
-Wallride
-Curved Wall
-Tailwhip
-Hip
Portland guys...there is going to be a dirt jump jam with some special guests right before everyone heads up to Crankworx...still in the planning stages but we want to do a Match 7 (possibly Counterparts as well) premiere party at the Ride-This.com shop after the jam. I will keep you posted!
Match Videozine is a proud sponsor of the Modest Track. Go to Modestbike.com for more on the track, and while you're there, grab a subscription to the mag. I've seen what #3 looks like (out in a few weeks) and I can guarantee that you won't be disappointed.
----
6-27-05: Hampton and I survived the weekend of the 24 hour race! The Cannondale team ended up taking third place, and there was all kinds of interesting events surrounding the weekend. One of their fastest guys on the team ended up breaking his jaw on the first lap and since the course was 9 miles long into the wilderness, no one knew what was going on for a really long time (plus it was nearly impossible to get to him with any sort of medical help). After about two hours, they finally got a Gator up to him, put him on a backboard and lifted him out. After a barrage of CAT scans, X-rays and other mayhem, Dale walked out of the local hospital with one heck of a headache and a broken jaw. He was in pretty good spirits considering that he had just smashed his head on a rock in a style similar to the way island folk open up coconuts.
I actually completed one lap around the course before the event started (did I mention that it was 9 miles?). I thought my heart was going to explode...they don't make uphills like that in Wisconsin! There was one climb that must've been two miles straight up!! I think I'm going to stick to going downhill from now on!
----
6-23-05: Ok...Hampton and I are leaving tonight for that 24-hour race up in MA, and this is what we have so far for submitted Red Bull 24-Hour Challenges (thanks Seb):
1. The Red Bull Power Hour (one shooter of Red Bull per minute)
2. Drink enough Red Bulls to make a platform to hold your weight, the higher platform wins
3. A can of Red Bull every time a rider in spandex passes by (at a 24-hour XC race? My heart would definitely explode!)
I'm going to run these by Hampton and see which one he goes for. I'm hoping he picks #1!! We might have to run the Power Hour a few times during the night...
+Morley hooked me up again with the website and it's all fixed. Thank you Morley!!! Please resume using your scrolling mice on the website again.
----
6-22-05: We added some new stuff to the site and now we're having technical difficulties (unless you're using Safari). Please bear with me until we can dial it back in. You should be able to read the updates, it's just going to be a pain if you wanted to scroll with your mouse.
Hampton and I are going to a 24-hour race this weekend to shoot some stuff for Cannondale. Thankfully we've got plenty of Red Bull packed. I'm trying to come up with some sort of 24-hour Red Bull Challenge that DH and I can do while we're shooting the racers. Any ideas? Send 'em my way! If we come up with something, I'll post it up here.
----
6-21-05: Happy belated Father's Day to all my homies....Lenosky, Hacksaw, Donahue, Joe Prisel, Hampton, Clark, Victor, Dan Drain and everyone else who is nuturing the next generation of shredders!!
The slopestyle event in Austria went really well for the crew. Top three went like this: 1. Bearclaw 2. Chase 3. Zink. For more pics and results, go to the Adidas Slopestyle website.
Hacksaw did a demo in Reno the other day....pic one....pic two...
Check out Ben Kijack's new paintjob on his Black Market Bike!
I swung by Ray's MTB last night on my way back to PA from Wisconsin and saw the new stuff for this season...they are in the middle of building a double pump track and I got to ride it. It is amazing!!! There are also a bevy of new stunts, so it should be pretty rad. I know that they are holding some summer hours but the park officially reopens for the season in August, I think. Stay tuned!
We arrived home last night to the DH Productions office and not only did I have a fast wireless connection waiting for me, but also another treat!
6-11-05: Here is a link to the page with the clip of our tv appearance last night. Scroll down to the 10pm report (4:19 running time) and click on the link!
There is a ridiculous snowboard movie teaser up on Modestbike. Speaking of Modest, I've seen the prepress version of Modest 3 and it is beyond words...its going to press soon, so you can all check it out and see what I mean...and if you haven't subscribed to Modest yet, do it now!!
----
6-10-05: Hey Mom, I'm on TV!!! Hahaha...today we did this demo in downtown Minneapolis and we were outside Channel 4 in front of their big window. The weather guy (who is kind of a big deal around here...his apartment smells of rich mahogany and he has many leather-bound books...) came out and watched the shows and then they taped us (yours truly and John Gaddo) riding on the obstacles.
Pics:
-Riding the barrels
-Sidehop the spool
-Gap to the other spool for TV
-Sidehopping over the tape (TV Version)
Check out Hacksaw in the new Ride-This ad...this is going to run in the new issue of Decline. If you haven't heard, I started a shop with two other riders out in Portland and we've got one heck of a team lined up. The website came out great, too...check it out!
----
6-9-05: I did trials demos in Minneapolis today!! I was riding on all these obstacles and one couple thought they were just random tables to sit at (DURING THE DEMO!) and they kept ignoring me when I told them to move, so I did the only thing I could think of to motivate them to move!
The best part was this band was playing all these songs and when the lead singer was walking through the crowd during a song, I made him volunteer for my demo. What's cool about this photo is that he kept singing Ozzy (Crazy Train) while I was riding over him. Now that's hardcore!
After the demos, I took the locals up to my car and we did a mini-Match 7 premiere on top of my whip in the parking garage. Match 7 is being duplicated right now and should be out soon!
Here's a pic of Paul Basagoitia at prom, representin' the Two-Six!! Speaking of Two-Six, I've decided that Taylor Sage is the Catfish of the mountain bike world.
Here are two pics of my friend Jaromir Spesny from Czech....the Etnies ad and ruben wallride..
Big props to Senechal for getting an interview in the new Decline and congrats to Adam Hauck for his first photo in a mtb mag...a two-page spread for your first photo is pretty good if you ask me!
----
6-8-05: If anyone is trying to call me on my cell phone, I won't be able to return your calls until Friday night or maybe Saturday. My phone took a big dump on me and when I took it to the Verizon store, they told me that they would try to send me a new phone by the end of the week and that there was no chance I could get a replacement or downgrade to a "real" phone. Long live the Treo 600. Grrrrrr....
----
6-7-05: I'm going to Europe! There is a slopestyle event in Austria the weekend of the 18th and a big dirt demo in France the following weekend, so I'm going to be joining Chase and a few others for another European trip. I just found out yesterday so I will post more information on both events when I know more!
----
6-4-05: The speed trials event was dope, aside from the weather! We showed up this morning to snow-covered obstacles...shortly after, they broke out the roofing paper (which is like crazy grit sandpaper) and hooked up the course with it!
Pics from today:
-Chase and Lenosky 1 2
-The media mob
-Spectators
-Carter Holland's new phone 1 2
So the event was good, even though the weather was a little spotty. Here are the results:
1. Cameron Zink
2. Jeff Lenosky
3. Aaron Chase
4. Vincent Hermance
By mountain bike tradition, the winner of the event is required to jump off this crazy bridge after getting off the podium, and Zink was getting all set to jump in to 38-degree water when security ran up and shut him down! Also interesting was that CVD got shut down for drinking a non-Coors beer. SERIOUSLY. I guess they were a title sponsor of the event, and they literally had the "Coors Police" running around making sure that we were all drinking the right beer. Weird.
Big thanks to Dan Drain and Kristen for hooking me up this weekend. I had a ton of fun in Colorado and even though the weather sucked, I think Speed Trials has a bright future!
p.s. Check out the first snowboard ever!! (not really)
----
6-4-05: Well, today should be interesting. We woke up to this (1, 2) but things are still going to proceed. Jeff Lenosky is running the event and to keep things on schedule, he bought a mess of chicken wire to put over the obstacles for extra traction! Chase was riding the obstacles un-wired yesterday in the rain, so with the added traction, everything should be ok. Either way, it's going to be a good show, I'm sure!
----
6-3-05: Today was our first day in Vail at the speed trials event. It rained during practice, so we just checked out the course and then headed back to the hotel to hang out. Here are some pics of the course:
-The start gate
-Next obstacle, a rough spine-style obstacle
-Then, the wedges to get speed
-After the wedges, the riders hit up these ledges
-Then the rollers and off to the final ladder bridge drop
Chase was riding the course in the rain today and shredding it like nothing. Tomorrow should be interesting!
Here are a few more interesting things that I spotted recently:
-Colorado view 1 2
-Delivery sushi (Boston)
-Revell wheels
-Chase and Zink's bikes
----
6-1-05: Big day today! Alex Dunstan picked me up and we ran around Boston. Last time we chatted, he was sweating me on all my entries on the Match site about food. So in true fashion, I am going to make a post about Alex eating at a famous place in Boston. We went to Spike's for lunch today and shredded the dogs.
After that, Alex took me to the Northeast Red Bull office!!! It was pretty much as awesome as I hoped it would be:
-Front reception
-Graffiti on the wall
-The "break room"
-Rockin' out Need For Speed 2 on the most ridiculous setup ever!
-The top of the fridge in the office kitchen
-The Red Bull bike
-Alex skidding across the parking lot on the Red Bull bike
-The Pinzgauer
-The Mini Cooper Red Bull can car
-Chillin' on Red Bull 1 2
-Alex's calendar is as gnarly as mine!
-Alex's new Hawk moto
Tomorrow I'm heading to Colorado for the TEVA Mountain Games. I am really excited about this format, so expect a full report!
----
5-19-05: What's wrong with this picture?? Hampton got himself in sort of a "compromising position" this morning while we were working on the trails. He brought a new meaning to the term "OTB" (Over-the-bucket).
Our bobcat fun didn't stop there, either. Joe Prisel proved that he can kill it on any size wheel...or more appropriately, that he can kill any wheel!
On a more serious note, the trails are beginning to shape up. Here's a shot of one of the downhill dubs..
----
5-18-05: Construction on the DH Productions home trails is now underway! The Bobcat arrived today as well as Joe Prisel and we began mapping out and clearing the path for some nasty jumps. The jumps make an L shape around DH's yard and they are going to be super long with a good mix of tech, flow, and burly stuff! We also have the Bike Battle ramps to incorporate, so it should be great.
DH found this bottle of moonshine while we were clearing out his yard today!
Two pics of me in the hot seat.
----
5-18-05: Porter and George Ryan stopped by the DH Productions office today and they brought over the new Iron Horse Porter frames for 2006. Check out the pics!
Porter full bike 1 2
Disc mount
Bottom bracket junction
Headtube
New Kenda tires
Steel derailleur hanger
Rear dropouts
PORTER is now terrified of robots who eat flies. Click the link and search for "fly eating robots"...no, seriously...Porter claims that this robot eats flies to sustain energy and stuff, he's pretty much convinced that robots are going to take over the world. Watch out! p.s. Does it seem suspicious that the robot is called Echo Bot, or for short, "E-BOT"??
Until the robots come through, we're stuck digging the trails in DH's yard by hand...thankfully the Bobcat will be here in a few hours, then it's go time! Here are a few "before" pictures, we should have a completed yard in a few weeks! 1 2 3 4
----
5-17-05: Check out the new issue of Decline for my story about the Spain/France roadtrip...interestingly enough, they ran a shot of Jim DeChamp doing a nosepick on a statue in downtown Barcelona. This month's issue of RideBMX ran a shot of Markus Hampl nosepicking the same statue. Weird, huh? That statue was a good find by Ian Hylands, although it required dodging european traffic to hit the statue properly. I'm not sure which was the better trick: not being hit by maniac euro drivers or nosepicking a large statue.
Ian Millar just updated the you-know-what out of the Modestbike website. Check out his updates from the past month of his life on the road. There are some great shots in there...
BIG THANKS to everyone that helped us over the past month...I actually started listing the people who helped but then I realized that I was writing down the names of basically everyone in the United States who rides a mountain bike (give or take a few). I had a great time on the trip and I am grateful to everyone that let me sleep on their couch (Clark McNutt, Mike Flaherty, RJ/Scott @ Sponsorhouse, Dan Drain, Joe Prisel, Don Hampton) or facilitated any sort of good time (on or off the bike) over the past month. Thank you all and hopefully I can return the favor in the near future!
A lot of people have been asking me about Counterparts and Match 7...so here is the official word: we are in post-production right now and preparing to author the DVDs. I expect that we should have copies of Match 7 out by the end of the month. Counterparts is still being cleared for music rights so it might take a little bit longer, but both titles are in the home stretch. I will definitely announce it on this site when the vids are ready for purchase.
Tomorrow Joe Prisel is coming over and we have a Bobcat ready to go! We are building trails right outside the DH Productions office...not only do we have a perfect downhill area for the jumps, but we also have all of the Bike Battle ramps from last year's event, so we are going to get creative with those, too! I will post pictures of our progress!
----
5-15-05: Happy birthday Mom!
Now that my 6 week roadtrip is over...the inevitable: LAUNDRY. 9800 cubic inches to be exact! My OGIO bag was seriously filled with dirty clothes and I finally got to wash them all in one shot. Fantastic!
Here's a handful of pictures of the Sponsorhouse RV. Big thanks to RJ, Scott, Shad, Jimmy and Rich at Sponsorhouse for hooking us up!
-The drivers seat
-The sound system
-Chill areas 1 2 3
-Wallpaper
On our way to drop off the RV the other day, we stopped for some ice cream at Artic Blast, a famous soft serve stand in the middle of nowhere (Pennsyltucky). Hannah made the mistake of ordering a large cone (which only cost $3.85). Hampton and I bet her $65 that she couldn't eat another one, but she backed down.
The other great thing about being back home is that I can eat OIP every single day. OIP stands for "Original Italian Pizza" and it's this Italian guy who makes the best pizza ever (believe me, I've been eating pizza for the past six weeks and nothing compares to OIP). If you've ever been to Woodward (east), there is a really good chance that you have eaten at this place.
----
5-14-05: Tonight is the east coast premiere of Counterparts! The premiere is at 9pm at Anthology Film Archives (32 Second Avenue @ 2nd Street). I also know that there is a really cool bmx video being premiered called "Joe Kid and the Stingray" or something like that. It's supposed to be amazing, kind of like the "Dogtown and Z-Boys" of bmx. For more information, go to www.bicyclefilmfestival.com
Tomorrow I am hooking up with JJ Gregorowicz to ride some of his old trials practice spots in Pennsylvania. It's this big park that has a million waterfalls and it's super fun to ride. Last time I was there, we found a ten foot drop off into the water and we sessioned it for a while. Even if you go OTB you're still ok...it's like dropping off into a big wet foam pit! Hopefully I can snag some cool pictures of it...JJ has this one move where he skips across the river, so essentially he does a 16' gap...it's ridiculous, but I'd expect nothing less from a guy who has 18 national titles under his belt.
I started a mail-order company with some friends of mine (who also ride: Vic Sandrin, a super-sick downhiller who used to own Holy Spokes Bike Shop in Reno and Clark McNutt, Oregon/Washington Masters DH State Champ)...it's based in Portland and we have an ad in the new Decline. The company is called Ride-This and our team includes: Paul Basagoitia, Jeff Lenosky, Hacksaw Jim Severt, Chris Donahue, Adam Hauck, Matt McNutt, Peanut Micheal Severt and (our newest addition) Hannah Steffens. We are still adding inventory, but go check it out and bookmark the website! Support a rider-owned company!!
Ian Millar made it back safely to Whistler after a month on the road (most of that time with me on the Match 8 trip) and is back to updating the Modestbike website. I think his final count was 32 rolls of film, so he should have some great pics (and stories) for the site. Here are two pics that Ian shot on the Match 8 trip: Lutze Abubaca and "Quicksilver". The Quicksilver story: Ryan Smith was doing this line in Bloomington, Indiana at the university. We were all setup to shoot and out of nowhere comes this guy on a beat-up road bike. He comes blasting full-speed at the stairs and just LAUNCHES IT!! We were completely astonished, I guess he was in a major hurry or something....either way, it was awesome!
----
5-13-05: Happy Friday the 13th! I am finally done decompressing after more than a month on the road! We are all back in the office and getting back into the swing of things. I painted my apartment, too!
Hannah Steffans is now temporarily living in Millheim/Spring Mills/Woodward, PA with us. She has been spending full days at Woodward and she is progressing REALLY fast. Right now she's dialing in no-footed cans, tuck no hander backflips, tailwhips and a bunch of other awesome stuff. Joey "Whitesnake" Marks has been working with her quite a bit and it's amazing to see how fast she picks it up.
Kathy Sessler, PLEASE E-MAIL ME!
Congrats to Kyle Ebbett for winning the Ugly Ass Jam in Montreal last weekend. Here is the full list of results:
1. Kyle Ebbett
2. Charles Deschamps
3. Joey Appleton
4t. Jim DeChamp
4t. Craig Robinson
6. Carter Holland
7. Mario Garryhunter
8. Chris Dzavik
9t. Doug Fink
9t. Kevin Fortin
11. David Chano
12. Tristan Meroni
13. Sean Brown
14. Chijoke Okafo
15. Frederic Beaulieu
16. Ewen Forrest
Go to Eastside Freeride for the full story and pictures!
Tomorrow night is the east coast premiere for Counterparts in NYC. The premiere goes down at 9pm at Anthology Film Archives (32 Second Avenue @ 2nd Street). For more information, go to www.bicyclefilmfestival.com A bunch of people are going to the opening of Diablo this weekend and then heading out to the premiere. All of the east coast pros in Counterparts will be in attendance at both the Diablo opening and the Counterparts premiere.
----
5-10-05: Sorry for the lack of updates, we are back in Pennsylvania and the roadtrip is wrapped up but my computer is having issues getting online with our new interweb connection. Anyways...I think we should be back on track now.
We rode Woodward today and Ryan Smith learned to backflip in less than a half an hour. Hannah is throwing tuck no hander flips and Joe shredded the entire building! Porter and George Ryan came to hang out, too and they were both trying out some new stuff that is going to be awesome!
Jeff Lenosky came to Sea Otter with a Bro-hawk, but when we were at Joe Prisel's house in Cleveland, he showed us this picture from high school that completely puts the "faux" in Lenosky's faux hawk.
So last night Lenosky was here and we all went out to Brownies (the townie bar right below my apartment near Woodward). Lenosky usually destroys me at pool, darts, and any other bar-related game, but last night I had my revenge. Here's a pic of him in disbelief that I just beat him...and a pic of me in the process of shutting him down...and a pic of him graciously accepting the punishment for defeat.
Here is Jeff's new STP...midnight blue, it looks amazing in person..
----
5-8-05: We rode the gamut yesterday....dirt, park and street! Cleveland is the best...we started in Joe's backyard, which looks absolutely amazing right now. I can't wait to ride it a lot more this year. The jumps are sooooo good. Here's a shot of the jumps through the lens of Ian Millar (literally, through his lens with my camera).
After riding dirt, we went to downtown Cleveland for a session. Joe took us to this MONSTER wallride!
We ate lunch at Cooperstown (Alice Cooper's restaurant that Joe used to work at) and then headed to Ray's MTB for a night session. They are currently rebuilding everything (more on this in a little bit) and we got to ride the new park area. It has a ton of flow and it's super fun!
The best part about showing up at Rays was the look on Ian Millar and Hannah Steffans' faces. Neither one had been there, but they have heard me rave about it for the past few weeks....and now they understand!
Pics from Rays:
-The Match Videozine ramp
-Curved wallride (new)
-Vert wall and wall to quarter (new)
-Quarter to sub and curved wall (new)
Probably the best thing about the day was climbing up to the roof of Ray's to ride. Joe Prisel did a 360 tailtap to barspin out on the roof at sunset! Aside from the fact that we all thought we were going to fall through the roof, it was probably one of the best things to happen on the trip. Did I mention that Joe did it on 26" wheels? Wheel size doesn't seem to matter to Joe, he kills it no matter what!
Speaking of killing it, I forgot to mention the other day that Ryan Smith did a NO FOOT CAN DOUBLE CRANKFLIP. I'm pretty sure that I've never seen or heard of that from any other rider on the planet!
Back to Ray's...we are partnering up with Rays MTB to do a contest to design a new obstacle/ramp for their new layout. I will post all the info and guidelines when the roadtrip is over, but start brainstorming a new obstacle to be built at the indoor mtb park...ramp, north shore bridge, whatever...details coming soon!
Lastly, when I was in Utah a couple weeks ago with Ian Hylands, he convinced me to make an attempt to join the mustache club. I told him that I was just going to run it and see what happened by the time I got back from the roadtrip (since I've been on the road for five weeks straight). Here's what I've got so far!
----
5-7-05: Yesterday we attempted to ride Akron, Ohio. Usually it's a chill city with good street, but yesterday we were beaten down by the man. Every place we went, we got booted from! We ended up hitting some dirt jumps and then calling it a day.
Today we are at Joe Prisel's house and we're going to ride his backyard trails. After a lengthy session on his dirt, we're heading to Ray's MTB for one last session before they change up the layout for the 2005 season!
----
5-6-05: The Flow in Columbus, Ohio was amazing yesterday. Joe Prisel actually built the park, so watching him ride it was unbelievable! Joe was doing the nastiest lines at SUPER height and super speed!! He seriously wrapped up the park and put it in his pocket.
I HEART MY BLACK MARKET
I just put my Black Market together at the beginning of my trip (over a month ago) and I adjusted to it almost immediately and have been enjoying it ever since. Not only that, but from letting others ride it, most of them have gone on to order Black Markets immediately after riding it. The geometry is awesome, the bike is light, and it rides REALLY well! If you're looking for an awesome street/dirt/park bike, this is the one!
Justin Schroth's video "Size Doesn't Matter" won People's Choice and Most Entertaining this past weekend at the NEMBA Video Awards. Check it out here (right click save as)..
----
5-5-05: We woke up this morning in Cincinnati. Yesterday was a full-out assault on Louisville. We started at the skatepark, knocked out a few lines...then went to some dirt jumps, ate dinner and found a fufanu right next to McDonalds. Ryan shut down the fufanu session and then we went back to the downtown area and rode street. I knocked out a big fakie wallride in a parking garage and Ryan Smith found a curved wallride and threw down on the famous wallride/stair bank next to Joe's Crab Shack. All in all, it was a good, full day of riding.
We are getting a ton of great footage on this trip...one of my highlights from the trip was a pocket wallride (that's wallride-to-wallride for the uneducated) to barspin out...courtesy of Ryan Smith. Joe has also been coming up with some really creative and original lines. It should be a great segment!
Today we are going to make it to Columbus, Ohio for some street and a session at The Flow. Hannah just dropped her cell phone in her coffee, so the day has already gotten off to a great start!
If you aren't planning to attend the contest in Montreal this weekend, make plans to attend the session at Ray's MTB on Saturday. The roadtrip is going to make a stop there and everyone on the trip is anxious to ride there!
----
5-3-05: Yesterday we arrived in St Louis for a street session. The weather was nice again so we rolled out and explored the city. We started at the St Louis arch and then found two different transition walls. Ryan Smith teched the you-know-what out of this transition with a wallride-180-to-fullcab off the curb and Joe Prisel did a bunch of stuff on this wall!
Here are three words to describe Hannah: 1 2 3
After the session, we drove to Terre Haute, IN for a quick ride at the university there. Joe peg-stalled a really high rail and then double-pegged a 10 stair rail while everyone else froze in the cold. We finished off the night by driving to Bloomington, IN where we will be riding today...then tomorrow we're headed to Louisville to ride street, park and trails.
On the drive to Terre Haute last night, Joe picked up some Pimp Juice at a truck stop. The party REALLY got started after we hooked up the Pimp Juice!
----
5-1-05: Today we finally got a chance to ride! After a long drive yesterday from Denver and a quick overnight stop at a random rest stop in Kansas, we made it to Kansas University in Lawrence today. The weather has finally cleared (it was snowing/raining in Colorado) so we were able to get outside for a solid ride.
Joe fired out a rail today and Ryan Smith did a super long manual to barspin out. After riding at Kansas University, we headed over to KC Skatepark for a night session. Hannah was backflipping while Joe and Ryan threw down some tech all over the park.
Today was great because we finally got to ride outdoors...the weather on the trip so far has prevented us from riding outside, but thankfully we got a break in the weather! Tomorrow we are heading to St Louis to ride street...hopefully by the time we get to St Louis, we will have eaten all of our Twizzlers, because the Twizzler-whip fights are getting pretty intense!
Big thanks to Match 3 coverboy Dan Drain and his family for taking care of us in Colorado. We had a blast with Dan...incriminating pics on the way!!
Here are two pics from Josh McGuckin from our ride at the X-Games park: Ryan // Hannah
----
4-30-05: Yesterday we went to the X-Games park in Golden, CO and sessioned for a while. It was still snowing outside so we were shut down on the street ride, but it looks like we might get to ride outdoors today.
After riding at the X-Games park, we grabbed a bite to eat, cleaned up and went out for a night with Denver's finest. I'm just going to let the pictures tell the story...
-The Grizzly Rose, home of the gnarliest mechanical bull in Colorado
-Some crazy chick with a calf muscle fetish
-Country boys...
-Cowboy Ryan 1 2
-Cowboy Millar 1 2 3
-Cowboy Lutze
-"Hannahbull" 1 2
Today after the street session we are going to head to Kansas City for the next stop on the trip. I took it super hard on the mechanical bull and ended up getting an extremely large hematoma on my posterior. I think we're going to have to pick up a donut on the way to KC.
----
4-29-05: The roadtrip is officially underway! We met the crew in Salt Lake City at the airport on Wednesday and planned to hit up Fuzzy's house. Unfortunately, it was raining so we headed back down to Moab for the next stop. We sessioned the skatepark there and then headed out to the slickrock to find some terrain.
Sponsorhouse had some Monster Energy Drink on the RV when we first got it, but I've been on the road for a bit and I was craving some Red Bull so we made some calls and Red Bull delivered four cases to the doorstep of our RV in a truck stop somewhere in Utah! THANKS ALEX!!
Joe Prisel is riding the new Ritual frame on 26" wheels. He already dropped the hammer on a few things, so the trip has officially begun! We found some pipes in the middle of a field in Utah and Joe put them to use...
A couple days ago when we were shooting with Porter, we found this nasty curved wallride. Ian Hylands was shooting really tight on the wall and when Porter hit it, a big chunk of rock fell off the wall and hit him in the head. Here is a dazed Hylands with Utah's weapon of choice.
Shortly thereafter, Jamie Goldman broke out the cattle prod one last time and earned himself $12!
After Moab, we drove to Denver. All was good until the last two hours which consisted of driving the RV through freezing rain and fog down Loveland pass (11,100 feet). We are currently in Denver and are going to wait out the weather by sessioning the ESPN park in town.
----
4-26-05: Today was EPIC. So epic that I'm going to make you wait until the next issue of Decline comes out to read all about it. Cameron McCaul and Eric Porter killed it in Utah today!!
Tomorrow is the first day of the Match 8 roadtrip. Here are the tentative dates/locations:
4-27: Fuzzy's House, Utah
4-28 to 4-30: Denver
5-1 to 5-2: Kansas City
5-3: St. Louis
5-4: Louisville
5-5: Bloomington, IN (Indiana University)
5-6: Athens, OH
5-7: Ray's MTB in Cleveland (big session--this date is confirmed: mark it on your calendars!!)
5-8: Woodward/DH Productions HQ
----
4-25-05: This morning we woke up at sunrise and packed the truck for an early morning shoot with the sunrise light. Here is a desktop sized shot of the sunrise for those of you following along at home..
We dug some more today and found a HUGE canyon gap (a.k.a. The Burnt Bridge Gap). This gap is totally possible because there is a big hill for a run-in, but the gap is pretty far (we're guessing forty feet or so). Check out the shots of the gap:
-The dirt crew
-Packing the landing
-Burnt bridge gap 1 2 3 4
We shot a few tricks this afternoon in the sunset light and they looked epic. Porter killed it...and tomorrow it's GO-TIME on the Burnt Bridge Gap and all of the other stunts we've built this past week.
----
4-24-05: We finished off building some stunts today and waited for Don Hampton to arrive. While we were waiting, we had some Arbys and the challenge went down. There was this weird sauce called "Broncoberry Sauce" and it was disgusting. So disgusting that we bet Greg Watts a handful of cash to eat it. Watts gave it a try but couldn't get it done. Jamie Goldman decided to give it a shot and he was able to get it done!
Later in the day, Greg felt the need to redeem himself, so we put him up to a "take it like a man" challenge. Here is Greg putting his head through the overhead fan in the hotel room.
Pics from today:
-Ian Hylands and Don Hampton
-Ian Hylands' Oakley Thumps
-My Red Rocket
-Goldman after taking a cattle prod to the leg
-The sunset in Utah
-Cam McCaul's new favorite book
----
4-23-05: Today was my first full day in Utah. Porter, Cam McCaul, Jamie Goldman and Greg Watts have been here for a few days and they had a bunch of stuff built already, so we checked out their spots and then scouted and built some new stuff.
Cam's eyes were starting to hurt while we were scouting, so he made up some makeshift sunglasses. He wore them all day, too! We also found a cattle prod and almost had an opportunity to use it!
We did a lot of walking today....we climbed a huge mountain. Here's the view from the top of the mountain and here is the view from the bottom...
Here are a bunch of random pics from today, enjoy:
-Utah mountains 1 2
-Porter in the mountains 1 2
-I'm keeping the mountain in mountain biking!
-Here's a drop off...NO TRANSITION!
-Desktop sized view of the Utah mountains
----
4-22-05: We drove to Utah today...check out the view! The Sponsorhouse RV held up really well through the mountain passes and stuff. Las Vegas was pretty cool too, I blew through there around 3am last night.
I also stopped by the SDG office on the way to Utah...Tyler gave me a full tour and then I picked up Ian Hyland's SDG 50...that thing rips!!
SDG uses a real sewing machine to prototype their new seats. They can also put any fabric on a seat...check these samples out.
I found a good use for the tiny cupholders in the RV...they can't hold Big Gulps but they get the job done when it comes to the iTrip!
Deity Components launched their 2005 product line. Check it out and also check out their new website as well! Deity picked up Gareth Dyer for their team as well. In other Deity team news, Joe Prisel bagged 24" and 26" and is now shredding the 29" wheels!
----
4-21-05: All I can say is that Decline Magazine has it going on. I'll let the pictures do the talking:
-Decline's front door
-The waiting room
-Mark Jordan's desk
-Spomer's Desk (2)
-I found this on Spomer's desk, too!
-Conference Room
-Scott Hart's wall, door, floor, E.K. shrine
-What office would be complete without this?
Big thanks to Mike Flaherty for taking care of me these last few days and for letting me couch surf at his place. I had a super good time and I managed to get my hands on a pair of the new Atomlab pedals, too....sweeeeeeeet....
Also, you may notice that your mouse wheel works on the news area now and that the links highlight blue when you mouse-over. Morley Wilkins totally hooked me up, so THANK YOU MORLEY for helping me out! I owe you one when we meet up at Crankworx!
I am leaving right now in the Sponsorhouse RV for Utah. I have no idea what the internet situation is going to be, but we will be back into secure internet territory for sure in a few more days, so please bear with me!
----
4-21-05: The ride to Santa Clarita to meet Mike Flaherty and Scott Hart yesterday was a good one. The train went all along the coast of California and it was a sick view! Immediately after getting off the train, we went directly to the west coast's finest culinary establishment!!
The search for the Atomlab She-Devil came up empty-handed last night, but we had a good time in the process. Carter Holland came up from "the O.C." to join Mike from Atomlab, Scott from Decline and yours truly. We looked high and low for the new Atomlab She-Devil, but no luck...the search continues! If you have a hot sister or know a female with She-Devil potential, send us pictures and we will add them to the list!
Here is the link for the Chutes and Ladders contest in Ashland, OR. I know that Hacksaw is planning to attend and I think a bunch of other people are going. Check it out!
Here is a picture of Sanjay shredding the Sea Otter dirt jumps on a road bike! He made it through all three jumps at one point!
I'm off to Decline Magazine to meet up with Scott Hart and his crew for a tour of their office. I will post everything later this afternoon!
----
4-20-05: The maintenance guys that were working on the Sponsorhouse RV accidentally cut the coolant line while they were working on the transmission, so I am stuck here for another day or two. We're going to make the best of it, though...I am meeting Mike Flaherty from Atomlab tonight and I think we are going to find the new Atomlab She Devil. Stay tuned!! I'll also try to snap some pics of the Atomlab setup while I'm in the area, and possibly DECLINE. For now, I'm going to hop a train to northern LA.
There is a contest in Ashland, OR in a few weeks called Chutes and Ladders. I don't really have any info on it yet, but I'm sure you could Google it (or the organizers could send me the info...). I will post more info when I have it!
Bike Magazine Best Urban Segment Nominee Craig Robinson sent me an update today, here goes:
For The People Productions brings you to last summer's Rye Airfield Big Wheels contest! Our lead editor, Evan Shuster, has put together a visually stunning edit of all the pros, and bros, who ripped New Hampshire(right click + save as). Some serious riding went down at the contest and Evan captured it all. All the bangers from the comp are in it; including some great footage of Jim "Hacksaw" Severt, Jim Dechamp, Cameron Zink, Kyle Ebbett, Dave Smutok, Aaron Chase, Ryan Smith, Eric Porter and so many locals going off it will make your head spin!
After you check out the video, you can check out the site for some of the other edits, music, and some good photos.
The full-length DVD, For The People, is also now available for purchase.
----
4-19-05: I've been hanging out at Sponsorhouse's HQ for the past two days, just waiting for the RV to get ready (new stickers, fresh oil and enough energy drinks to kill a small horse). I figured that since I was here, I would snap some pictures of what the inside of Sponsorhouse looks like. The atmosphere here is super chill...good music and a good vibe and everyone is working hard! Definitely check these guys out if you haven't already-->SPONSORHOUSE.COM
-Scott and RJ are the two guys that run the show here..
-This is the chill area in the office...energy drinks, reading material and music
-Only the essentials in this office!
-The front area of the office with the conference room in the background
-Shad looking at himself on matchvideozine.com
-Rich Houseman's desk
Tonight we are loading up the Sponsorhouse RV and heading towards Utah for a few days in the Utah desert. I have no idea what our internet status is going to be, but if I can't update, I will save it all up for a mega-update when we get to Fuzzy's house on the 27th.
I just want to take a second to thank everyone that e-mails me or comes up to me at events (like Sea Otter) and tells me that they are psyched on the Match site. Stuff like that completely motivates me to keep this site rolling! Thanks!!
----
4-19-05: I've been hanging out at Sponsorhouse's HQ for the past two days, just waiting for the RV to get ready (new stickers, fresh oil and enough energy drinks to kill a small horse). I figured that since I was here, I would snap some pictures of what the inside of Sponsorhouse looks like. The atmosphere here is super chill...good music and a good vibe and everyone is working hard! Definitely check these guys out if you haven't already-->SPONSORHOUSE.COM
-Scott and RJ are the two guys that run the show here..
-This is the chill area in the office...energy drinks, reading material and music
-Only the essentials in this office!
-The front area of the office with the conference room in the background
-Shad looking at himself on matchvideozine.com
-Rich Houseman's desk
Tonight we are loading up the Sponsorhouse RV and heading towards Utah for a few days in the Utah desert. I have no idea what our internet status is going to be, but if I can't update, I will save it all up for a mega-update when we get to Fuzzy's house on the 27th.
I just want to take a second to thank everyone that e-mails me or comes up to me at events (like Sea Otter) and tells me that they are psyched on the Match site. Stuff like that completely motivates me to keep this site rolling! Thanks!!
----
4-19-05: I HATE INTERNET EXPLORER. This site looks beautiful in Firefox and Safari. If it looks like crap on your computer, you should update your internet browser (trust me, the entire interweb looks better through Firefox)...go here and download Firefox while I'm trying to figure out how to make this website not look like poop in IE.
----
4-18-05: I had an afternoon to kill, so I decided to give the Match site a little facelift. There were a few things that I wanted to fix, so I took care of it while I was waiting for the Sponsorhouse RV to get stickered up and prepared for our trip east. If you find any errors in the new layout, drop me an e-mail and I'll address them.
----
4-18-05: I had some time to kill while I was hanging out at Sponsorhouse, so I made a quick page for the Sea Otter trip. I'm not sure what our internet status is going to be like in Utah for the next week, so if we aren't able to update, just hang out on this website.
Check out my home for the next three weeks!
The Sponsorhouse building is right down the street from another well-known building....Transworld Media. Check out the artwork!
Tomorrow is Jeff Lenosky's 29th birthday!! Happy birthday one day early J-Lo!!
----
4-18-05: Sea Otter is officially over. The dirt contest was good, but for the most part the wind was blowing pretty hard for anything crazy to go down. Jamie Goldman ended up winning the event with a backflip 1-ft x-up over the first jump, 1-ft x-up over the second and a 360 1-ft x-up over the third. Tricking all three jumps was more of a feat than it sounds, especially with the size of the jumps and the crazy wind! Reuel Erickson is riding a mountain bike now and he took it a million times trying to do his patented decade air...he pulled it on his last run and everyone was super stoked!
-Coach Prisel
-Trevor from SIC starting the day out right
-Michael Tobler preparing for a cameo on matchvideozine.com
-Dave Weagle is so rad, he has his own action figure
After Sea Otter, I met up with the guys from Sponsorhouse and we drove down to Oceanside to pick up the RV. Today I will be driving back up to San Jose to pick up Ian Hylands, Eric Porter, Cameron McCaul, Jamie Goldman and Greg Watts to go to Utah for a roadtrip!
----
4-17-05: The Bike Magazine Awards party was crazy!! DH Productions was nominated for a handful of awards (including best urban segment for Craig Robinson's part in Match 6) so we were rocking out the VIP section. VIP=free beer, so you know it went down! Big congrats to Jeff Lenosky for winning best urban segment and to Jim DeChamp for best crash. DH Productions claimed two awards...thank you to everyone who voted!
Here are the party pics!
-The VIP area overview
-Lenosky's faux hawk
-Big Red Ted
-Taylor Sage 1 2 3
-Kyle Ebbett
-Hannah Steffens
-Mike Flaherty from Atomlab
-Thor Wixom and Ryan Denehy
-Evan Holmgren having GO TIME (Check Harookz's site for the aftermath!!)
-Cameron McCaul
-Hacksaw and Jordi Lunn
-DH and Steve Olpin (the guy who directed Nasty's World)
-Paul Basagoitia-Best Performance Award
-Lenosky getting his award
-Scott Hart and Harookz
Hacksaw showed up with a set of dice, so you know we couldn't resist throwing down on some Cee-lo. Thanks Hacksaw and Ian Millar for taking my money...I was trying to get rid of it anyways....errrrr...
----
4-16-05: I am patiently waiting for Hylands to jump-start his rental car, so what better time than to write a THIRD Sea Otter update for the day! Here comes the daily recap:
Today
we had the dirt jumping qualifiers. Jamie Goldman, Ben Boyko, John
Jesme, Greg Watts, Reuel Erickson, Kyle Strait and Cam McCaul are
qualified (with a handful of pre-qualified riders like Chase, Paul
Bass, etc) for tomorrow's finals. Greg Watts threw down a no-handed
flip, Kyle Strait landed a 3-whip, Chris VanDine stuck the barrel roll
(sideways flip) and Sanjay jumped all three doubles on a ROAD BIKE with
SIC bars.
-VanDine post-diner roll with Andrew Neethling & Nathan Rennie
-Sanjay's dirt jumping machine (seriously)
-Taylor Sage
-Ian Hylands
-Todd Bosch on the second double
-Random pro shot #6
-Peanut taking my job
-Ryan D-iz-enehy
Tonight are the Bike Magazine awards, so with any luck I'll be able to bang out a fourth update. Keep your fingers crossed!
----
4-16-05: (update two) On my way to the media tent to do the previous update I ran into Hacksaw who was rocking his new Atomlab jersey at the dual slalom race. Check the Match Videozine logo!
I also ran into Harookz again, we both broke out our cameras so check his site for a pic of yours truly and Ian Millar rocking out in the media tent.
----
4-16-05: Day two of Sea Otter is in the bag. Everyone spent the day recovering from yesterday's rager in time for the COUNTERPARTS premiere. On that note, the premiere went off without a hitch! The response to the video was great and it was awesome to see everyone again. George Ryan's segment is SUPER good...all of the parts are amazing, but Muffin shuts it down!
Here are the pics from today:
-Hannah and Peanut at the premiere
-Ian Hylands trying to get Michael Tobler to join the mustache club
-Wendy from Cannondale had her leg painted up all crazy
-Ross McMaster!
-Paul Basagoitia's Kona Stuff under construction
-Kyle Strait, Peanut and Cameron Zink
-George Ryan is hurting after a full day in the Ride Zone
-Ian Millar's new Blackberry phone
-The view from the top of the downhill course
-Ryan Denehy and Adam Hauck
-Clay Porter and Scott Hart
...and last but not least: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! It's only day two of Sea Otter and I've completed my goals for the week. Holla!
I met Harookz
today! I was walking out of a hotel room and this familiar looking guy
walks by and we were both instantly like, "hey, aren't you......"
Harookz is rad, I hope that we get to see more of him. Maybe we can
drag him to the east coast this summer!
----
4-15-05: Guest post: Peanut--
Today at sea otter we had fun we road park and dirt tons of people are
here at this event, notables that were at attendence were J-Lo, Aaron
Chase, Kyle Ebbett, Evil/E13, Kyle Strait, Paul Bas-a-goo-goo, Cam
Zink, Carter Holland, Chris Van Dine, DH, Todd Bosch, John Jesme, and
tons of others. After everybody left Hacksaw, Aaron Lutze,
Adam Hauck, Ross McMaster and I had a little fun at night in the
Pacific Ocean being chased by the tide and got really wet but it was
cold.
Peanut is going to bed so Hacksaw jumping in here...had a great gathering here, care of Lutze's new project. Everyone had a great time. Dirt jumps were really fun when it is not windy...Jamie Goldman is killing it and as always everyone is having a great time. Big ups to everyone involved in the whole process of the Sea Otter experience Evil/E13 represent....
==
Lutze:
We had
a rager at the beach house last night, what can I say. Enjoy the pics
from day one of Sea Otter. My head hurts this morning for some reason.
-Kathy Sessler
-The Pacific Ocean
-Dave Weagle
-VanDine and Hacksaw
-Hacksaw is confused on the way to the party
-Chase and Zink
-Scott Hart and Paul Basagoitia
-Joe Prisel and Hacksaw
-Ryan Denehy's popped collar
-Porter flair at the dj's
-Hannah and Don Hampton
-The dopest girls in mountain biking (can you believe we had girls at a mountain bike party?!)
-Carter Holland and Hacksaw
-Gareth Dyer's belt buckle!
-Peanut
-Spomer, DH and Matt Collins
-DH and Todd Bosch
-Adam Hauck
-Dave Weagle
-Lutze and Bosch (this may explain why my head hurts this morning)
----
4-11-05: I promised Alex Dunstan that I wouldn't post any more food stories on this website, but since everyone is busy packing up for Sea Otter, mtb news is slower than molasses today. Besides, I thought this was funny.
Joe Prisel, Aaron Chase and Jeff Lenosky are already out in Monterey building the Ride Zone for Sea Otter (pics are en route according to Jeff, so check back later tonight). Anyways, at breakfast this morning, Joe Prisel took a bet for $5 to swallow a relatively large breakfast sausage (whole)..as far as I know, he pulled it off without any trouble. Good work Joe!
Ian Millar and Big Red Ted are coming to Portland tonight and we are going to the Acropolis for dinner! It should be a wild night if everything goes according to plan.
Check out the cover for Match 7! It will be out by the end of the month...stay tuned.
----
4-10-05: It's only Monday and I'm already having one heck of a week.
Actually, we rode last night with the Stump5o3 and Tonic Fabrications guys. I got to ride Burnside on my new Black Market frame. It is soooooooo good and super comfortable. I have never been on a bike that I felt so comfortable on right off the bat. I love this bike and you're going to have to pry it out of my lifeless fingers before you get to ride it (ahhh, actually saying "please" will suffice).
Hacksaw had some crazy stories to share with me over the weekend. He got sixth place in a ROAD RACE and then went on to ride a skatepark or two with Dave Mirra. What a rockstar.
So Alex Dunstan decided to post a large complaint on Hcor about how I never post any riding pictures or pictures of grown men fighting each other. Well Alex, here you go!
Chris Clark vs. Jeff Lenosky
Cameron McCaul vs. Jim DeChamp
Bike Battle:
-Craig Robinson nosepick
-Jim DeChamp frontflip
-Smutok 360 stepup
-Chase 360 tailtap
-Smutok has BOOST
-Paul Basagoitia 360 whip
----
4-10-05: Eric and Sadie from Deity Components came over last night for the most ridiculous homecooked seafood meal ever! After feasting, Eric did a celebrity installation on my new bike! How's that for customer service?
I know I'm not in California yet, but yesterday we saw a Sea Otter in the Willamette River, so I guess I can cross that off my list up top. Anyone taking bets on items #1 or #5?
----
4-9-05: If you ever find yourself in Portland, check out Bush Garden, it's this super crazy sushi restaurant right in the heart of downtown Portland. We had this amazing saki and the food was amazing. We saw the Stump5o3 guys on the drive home from the restaurant, too, so I think we're going to hook up with them this week for a session.
Today we're building up my Black Market bike, I can't wait to get it together! Then tonight it's a bbq at the Deity HQ!
Also the Bike Magazine final nominees have been announced. Here they are:
Best Air:
Mike Kinrade-Halfway to Nowhere
Darren Berrecloth-NWD 5 (50' in France)
Carline Dunne-NWD 5
Darren Berrecloth-NWD 5 (360 off cliff)
Steve Romaniuk-The Collective
Best Singletrack:
Andrew Shandro & Dave Watson-The Collective
Duncan Riffle-Plush 2
Chad Onyschuk & Chris Winter-Halfway to Nowhere
Matt Hunter-The Collective
Worst Crash:
Cameron McCaul-Red Bull Rampage 3
Dangerous Dan-Suspect
Steve Popma-NSX 8
Jim DeChamp-Red Bull Bike Battle 2003
Best Urban Assault:
Jeff Lenosky-Chain Reaction 5
Ryan Leech-The Collective
Craig Robinson-Match Videozine 6
Aaron Chase-NWD 5
Best Line:
Dave Watson-NWD 5
Julien Meunier-Jib 2
Darren Berrecloth-The Collective
Steve Peat-Earthed
Fraser Vaage & Geoff Gulevich-Back In The Saddle...Again
Best Performance:
Thomas Vanderham-NWD 5
Darren Berrecloth-NWD 5
Matt Hunter-The Collective
Cedric Gracia-NWD 5
Best Cinematography:
New World Disorder 5
The Collective
Suspect
Red Bull Rampage 3
Movie of the year:
Chain Reaction 5
New World Disorder 5
Plush 2
The Collective
Halfway to Nowhere
Breakthrough Performer and Breakthrough Producer will be announced at the awards on April 16th.
----
4-8-05: I am out in Portland working on my new project (with Vic Sandrin)...but I got an e-mail from Cameron McCaul with pics of the Sea Otter jumps. Check 'em out! One Two Three Four Five
My new Black Market bike is coming together this week, I will post pics when it's ready. My Atomlab wheels are being laced up at the moment and the Deity gear is all ready to go. Hopefully I'll have it dialed by the end of the weekend!
----
4-5-05: The
European roadtrip segment is H-O-T! I'm about 60% done with the segment
and I'm really happy with the way it's coming out. Here are a few
screenshots to tide you over until the end of the month when Match 7
becomes available:
Carter Holland table
Ben Kijack (France) table on the "Smutok Gap"
Smutok street tailwhip
Cameron McCaul dirt tailwhip
Jim Dechamp 360
If anyone in my address book gets some spam from me about an SMS company or whatever, just delete it. Apparently if you click on the link, it raids your address book and sends this e-mail out. Oops!
----
4-4-05: The Mustache Club claims another rider! George Ryan is now a card-carrying member of the Mustache Club. Here's the lineup for 2005 (so far).
Hampton and I took a short break from editing today to ride the 50s. I've never really ridden 50s (or any sort of moto) before, so Hampton is breaking me in. Here's a before/after shot of me getting worked!
...and Hampton showing me how it's done...
----
4-3-05: Hampton and I made the decision tonight to include the EUROPEAN ROADTRIP in Match 7 instead of making everyone wait for Match 8 to come out. I am working feverishly at logging and capturing it so I can have it done before I leave for Sea Otter. Match 7 is going to be super rad...all of the segments are coming out great!
Here is a picture of Ian Millar about to hate life.
Here's another picture....separated at birth? You decide.
I tried shooting pics of that indoor 50 track from yesterday but it was too dusty to get anything properly done. Turns out, the jumps were on the property of this pro motocrosser, so everything was HUGE! Check out the dubs on this guy's 50 track!! More like supercross 50s or something!
Match 7 is on deadline, so I've been working a lot lately...a usual day here is about twelve hours, but yesterday I broke twenty. Hampton rewarded me with dinner today as a result, though. Maybe I should start shredding the twenty-plus hour days more often!
----
4-3-05: My sources over in England report that the Americans had a great showing at the Bike2005 show in Coventry, UK. Timo Pritzel was also in attendance. I will post pics and video as soon as we track them down!
Apparently all of the Americans were going big and throwing down tons of tricks--leading the pack on the dirt jumps. As far as I know, Eric Porter, Jim DeChamp, Carter Holland and Hannah Steffens were over there. I'm not sure who else...but all reports so far have been really good!
Here's a quick video from the trials section...Martyn Ashton.
Match 7 and Counterparts are being polished right now at the DH office. Both are turning out really well. Don't miss the Counterparts premeire at Sea Otter!!
----
4-2-05: My desktop G4 got some love today in the form of 1 fresh gig of memory. It's amazing how much difference it can make when you are deep into the editing process. Anyone else in a similar situation should visit this site and snag the 1gb package for $129. While you're at it, go here and get Firefox.
On that note, the Red Bull Bike Battle segment is getting ridiculous. I crammed footage from these tapes into a three minute segment. I'm pretty sure we got everything. Yeah.
Hampton hooked up a 5-0 sesh tonight at some indoor 50 track in State College. Expect to see some pics and stories tomorrow...but only if Hampton is able to drag me out of that place. What better way to release some editing stress than shredding the new 50!
If you missed the previous update from a few days back, we are doing a roadtrip from Salt Lake City, UT to Woodward, PA. We're actually starting the trip at Fuzzy Hall's backyard...confirmed riders are: Hannah Steffens, Joe Prisel, Ryan Smith and Cameron McCaul. The trip goes from April 27-May 11. If you live somewhere between Utah and Pennsylvania (see the city list below) and know of some good stuff to hit along the way, drop me an e-mail!
----
4-2-05: I'm in the process of editing the Red Bull Bike Battle segment for Match 7 right now. Did you know that Paul Basagoitia stuck his first 360 whip at the Bike Battle? I have the footage to prove it!
While in the process of importing Bike Battle footage, my super8 from the European trip came in. I scanned through it and it looks pretty good. Here are two shots of Carter Holland at the skatepark in Marseille.
----
4-1-05: I wish I had something crazy to do or say for April Fools, but no luck. Sorry. I do have some interesting stories, though. For example, Nigel Quarless is in the new Mountain Biking, but the picture is from like 6 years ago and he's wearing spandex rockin' the XC. I swear this isn't a joke!
Speaking of Nigel, we are working on his "day-in-the-life" segment for Match 7 right now. For the uninformed, Nigel is a concept artist for a video game company. Basically, he makes the art that the programmers use to create the video games. Check it our: Nigel art #1, Nigel art #2.
Thumbs up to Joe Perrizo for making it into the semi-finals for the UFC Race Face thing. Joe was the guy doing backflips out of treerides and stuff like that. This kid is awesome, make sure to keep voting for him as he advances to the semi-finals!!
Lastly, we got another new toy at DH Productions today!
----
3-31-05: What's cookin' at DH Productions today? I'll tell you what---italian ham and cheese! We took a quick lunch break today and Hampton decides to whip up a sandwich for himself. This is probably the most effort I've put into making food for myself in the past month and DH makes me look like a chump!
On a more serious note, Counterparts is being polished at our office right now. I'm psyched for everyone to see it, it will be worth the wait. Check out this picture...Counterparts is on the top two drives...the rest is full of other projects and stuff (and I have another 500 and 120 gig on my desk as well). I think it adds up to like 1.45 terabytes of space on DH's desk alone!
We were featured in David Cachon's WALLRIDE Magazine (Spain) for our european roadtrip. Check it out! Page 1, Page 2
----
3-31-05: Counterparts premiere party info for Sea Otter!! April 15th, 9pm at the Blue Fin Cafe & Billiards, Cannery Row, Monterey, CA. Be there or be square! I believe that we may be showing an extended teaser for Match 7 at the party as well. Speaking of Match, the t-shirts are ready to ship! Go here and place your official order!
Who wants to see BRIAN BALDIS IN A WINNIE THE POOH SUIT?
Congrats to Dan Dacko from Planet Bike on the birth of his daughter!
Match 8 Roadtrip Info:
Riders: Hannah Steffens, Ryan Smith, Joe Prisel, Cameron McCaul
Dates: April 27th to May 11th
Where: Salt Lake City, Denver, Kansas City, St Louis, Louisville, Bloomington/IU, Ray's MTB, Cleveland, DH Productions HQ (and our new trails).
We are taking the Sponsorhouse
RV across the country, so if you live in any of the cities listed above
(or nearby) and know of some good spots (or places to park the RV while
we're riding) please e-mail me!
----
3-30-05: Here is another spy photo from Weagle's office. The new e.13 Boxxer stem. This is a prototype, I guess the real version has cool graphics and stuff.
Here is a pic of my Black Market bike...just got my new Atomlab hubs (front / rear) and a few other parts in...once my Deity stuff gets in, we should be able to put this together just in time for Sea Otter!
Also, Don Hampton has officially left Penn State to work at DH Productions full time! Welcome back DH!!!
----
3-29-05: I just got back from Dave Weagle's office in a top secret location. It has to be top secret because everyone is after the patents! Some of the maniacs are even opening fire on Dave!
I did manage to snap one spy photo...
On my way back to Pennsylvania, I stopped by Jeff Lenosky's house to hang out for a bit. He is recovering from a tailwhip gone bad!
Counterparts is done and being polished at the DH Productions office this week. I am going to check it out tonigh when I get back to the office, but I'm sure it's dope!
----
