News

I should have some pictures of the jam from Justin Wendlandt up soon. Check back in a couple of days. In the meantime, here's a warm, fuzzy, and patronizing article and video written and filmed by people who think BMX is cute; apparently they weren't there early in the day when one of the Tracy guys snapped both bones in his lower leg during practice.

Anyway, Mike Montgomery from San Diego won, with Kevin Kiraly placing in a close second. Both of them rode pretty goddamn good, with Kevin's most notable maneuvers being truck airs, a clean 720, a variety of tech stuff, and a double-whip over the box; Mike did a huge double downside whip over one of the big hips, a ridiculous miniramp run, and a no-footed can-can backflip to can-lander, amongst other things. Sean Morr from Santa Barbara took third, with Dusty Samson and Mike Hernandez finishing fourth and fifth. I don't know what Kevin Bryant placed, but I'm going to go ahead and assume he got sixth. Jarrod Allen technically got third, but since he was the event organizer, he didn't actually place.

Anthony Lee got first in 19-and-over Am by doing a variety of tricks that nobody else in Am was doing (ex: nothings, x-factors, no-footed seatgrabs). Nick Kautzer got second by also doing stuff that nobody else was doing (ex: brakeless 360 nosepick on the spine, g-turns over the boxes, clicked turndowns). Anthony Renda took first in 14-18 Am, and was followed by Zach Johnson and John Osborn from Santa Cruz. Six-year-old Gabriel Verdozco won 14-and-under Am, and, in all honestly, blew kids twice his age out of the water with flyout no-footers and turnbars onto the boxes.

On the subject of the jam itself, and I hope they note this stuff for next year, change the judging system: just give us a list of who's entered and let us score on that and average it out with a calculator, instead of having to relay it to two people in a specific order for on-the-fly score calculation in Excel and a backup paper copy. May it also be noted that they need to have an actual BMX rider on the mic next time around; I don't know about everyone else, but I would take an inebriated Andy Maguire and/or Cisco talking shit on people over a bike shop owner mispronouncing people's names (Kevin Kurly? Really?) and yelling "rider down" whenever someone took it. I do have to thank them for the free pepperoni pizza, though; it was delicious.

And on a special, Cobbs-requested note, I have to say that the girl working the gate, whoever the hell she was, should be banned, permanently, from working a BMX event again, ever. I don't know if she was trying to take all the fun out of the event or not, but she certainly seemed to be doing so with her powertripping. Starting off by hassling Nick Dawg (at least a dozen times) about the presence of his dog on the course, followed up by kicking Cobbs out for hanging out on the deck without the proper wristband, then followed up by keeping Daniel Porter (who was shooting for Sessions BMX magazine) from actually getting on the course, and then attempting to keep Kiraly from entering due to his showing up late ("The event has been advertised for weeks!")... she was, to quote Cobbs, "a fucking cunt who's ruining this event." I'm pretty sure that most everyone who dealt with her agrees, since I've had over a dozen riders complain about her thus far.

In Cunningham news, the Sunday BMX session has been rescheduled so that it's from 9-12. I know that some people aren't stoked on this (set your alarms...), but keep in mind that it's generally cooler and less windy in the morning...

Here's a new Redline promo video of Kevin, filmed by Justin Burns. As is the norm, there's some pretty impressive maneuvering in here, although I'm disappointed that he doesn't do an x-factor.

I have about a dozen pairs of ODI grips to give away, courtesy of Larry Alvarado. Well, technically I have more than that, but I'm holding onto a couple pairs of black ones Longnecks for myself. Anyway, there's seven pairs of black Longnecks, a pair each of Longnecks in white, blue, and purple, and one purple pair of O-Grips that I'm going to hand out. So, if you see me around, and are in desperate need of new grips, let me know and I'll give you a pair. If you don't need grips that bad, but want a pair anyway, just do something that'll impress me (ex: candybar lookbacks, NorCal clappers, barhops...) and I'll hook you up.

There should be a bunch of new pictures up tomorrow night, with a new video coming next week or the week after. In unrelated news, Nick Dawg can carve higher than Tony Hawk.

9:00–9:25 - Am Practice 
9:30–9:55 - Pro Practice 
10:00–10:25 - Am Practice 
10:30–10:55 - Pro Practice 
11:00–1:00 - Am Qualifiers¹
1:00–2:30 - Am Jam²
2:30–3:30 - Pro Jam³
3:30–4:00 - Awards<sup>4

1</sup>Sixty-second runs.
²Three-minute, four-rider jams, followed by another jam for the top five; the top five ams will advance into the pro main.
³Three-minute, four-riders jams, followed by a series of four-minute, four-rider main jams for the top riders.
⁴The top five ams will be awarded trophies, with the top three also getting product; the top three pros will be paid out in $500, $300, and $100 amounts.

Also, there's been a slight change to the Cunningham BMX schedule: the Sunday and Tuesday sessions will remain at the same times (11-1 on Sundays and 3-5 on Tuesdays), but the Thursday session is now from 5-close, with the park closing a half-hour before dark.

Here's a video that Ross Marshall made of the first BMX session at the park; it's pretty long, so skip to six minutes in if you want to get directly to the riding.



And here's Jay Casio's STT2 edit:

So, the first bike session at Cunningham will be this Sunday, from 11AM-1PM. Just as a reminder:

1. You need a helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads; elbow pads can be soft (ex: volleyball pads), but kneepads need to have a hard shell. if you don't have pads or a helmet, they have them available for sale.
2. If you want to run pegs, they need to be plastic.
3. Brakes are now required. I'm going to try talking to the guy in charge about this, since 75-80% of riders don't run brakes any more.
4. If anyone is caught in any of the three bowls with pool coping (they'll be barricaded, with a staff member keeping an eye on them via security camera), the session will end for everyone. So, don't be a dick and drop in to those bowls. I know that it sucks, but hopefully they'll eventually realize that plastic pegs will do less damage to pool coping than aluminum trucks.
5. If you haven't signed the waivers yet, and you're under 18, they're requiring that a parent/guardian is present to sign the forms, else you won't be able to ride.
6. There's a $2 entry fee for both riders and spectators, so if you bring your wife/girlfriend/mom/dog, don't be surprised when they're asked to pay. Also, there's a parking fee on weekends ($6?), so you'll probably want to park in one of the neighborhoods around Cunningham and ride in.
7. You may want to get the $50 yearly pass now, because it's going to be bumped up to $100 at the beginning of June; right now, you only have to come 25 times for it to be economically viable.

Another trails video from Jackson Allen, featuring riding and riders from all over the place:



I wanted to put these up on Monday, but life got in the way. Here's Adam Keaton's photos from Scrape The Town 2:

Kyle Frazier, roofdrop 180.
Kevin Kiraly, tuck no-hander.
Kevin Kiraly, 180 barspin off a loading dock.
Dennis Foley, flattie.
Dennis Foley, truckdriver-to-fakie.
Tony Campos, one-footed tiregrab.

Expect a pretty long video later this month with riding from a multitude of riders, including Ryan Nyquist, who flew in last weekend for the canceled Cunningham opening. For the record, his part in EndSearch is absolutely ridiculous; pick it up if you get the chance.

Here's some new photos of Ari, by Dan Dunn:

Tuck no-hander.
Fakie treeride.
Low-cash shufanu.

And here's some other pictures:

Mike Edwards, footjam whip. Photo: Rigo Diez
Cody Brown, big smith out of the RWC bowl. Photo: Derek Wilson
Derek Wilson, smith grind. Photo: Cody Brown
Cody Brown, Luc-E grind. Photo: Derek Wilson

Scrape The Town 2 photos from Adam Keaton will be up on Monday; I'm almost done sorting through all of them.

...on Vimby, courtesy of Marco.

Check it out here. Good stuff, as expected.

And here's a short edit of Jackson Allen (who separated his shoulder last week), riding at his trails, Mike and Dusty's trails, Woodward West, and some other spots:

New photos will be up Saturday. Sorry for the delay, but it's been a hectic week at school and work.

Yes... really...

Unless I'm informed otherwise before then, there will not be a BMX session at Cunningham this Sunday. I'm not sure what the logic is behind this, but hopefully this decision will reversed. I'll post up more information as soon as possible. In the meantime, spread the word around, since it would be pretty disappointing for anyone from out of town to show up and not be able to ride the park.

In related Cunningham news, the people in charge are looking into rescheduling the weekday BMX to a later time (possibly 3-5 or 4-6) to make the park more accessible to people in school and/or with jobs.

There may or there may not be a bike session tomorrow from 11-1; they've let skaters start skating the place as of today, but they're unsure if they'll be letting bikes in before next Sunday. So, if you're planning on riding anyway, and you've got your plastic pegs and pads and whatnot, you might as well stop by and see.

The old-school BBQ today at Cali was pretty rad; a whole bunch of guys showed up, including both Old School Joes, Maurice Meyer, JP from Political Gridlock, and George from Knight with a wide assortment of NOS and replica bikes. I didn't get enough clips for a video, but you'll see some shots of Fuzzy, Squirrel, and Cam in the next mix edit, which will come out sometime next month.

I should have some more photos from Scrape The Town 2 by Adam Keaton up pretty soon; he sent a few hundred to me, so I have to sort through them all (and ID the riders and whatnot) before getting them up.

And here's a video of NorCal's very own Sequoyah Faulk, doing a BMX demo in Kayamandi, South Africa. Lloyd is stoked.

Here's a bunch of new photos by Nick Beach:

Colin Moyer, lookback.
Colin Moyer, toothpick.
Kyle Savoca, footjam.
Danny Leahy, hop 360.
Danny Leahy, subbox footjam.
Sean Seiling, Euro table.
Mike Clarke, turndown.

And here's Marco's Scrape The Town 2 edit for Vimby:



The new issue of Session BMX has lots of Bay Area rider photos (including Chris Savoy, Nick Valencia, Chad Bautista, Josh Boothby, and Ronnie Michelini) and articles on Hell On Wheels 3 and Icer Air. The next issue will have a Kevin Kiraly interview and a Project Mayhem article. Look for it at your local Barnes & Noble.

For those of you wondering where to get plastic pegs and pads for Cunningham, I was out at Calabazas Cyclery, and they have 3/8" and 14mm Plegs for $16 each, with replacement sleeves for $10; it may be a bit more than the mailorders, but if you factor in shipping, it's probably about the same cost in the end. They've also got a fairly wide assortment of elbow and knee pads, dating from current to the late '90s.

Nick Dawg is back on his bike, albeit in a knee brace. He's already putting in work - I guess he'd three'd every jump in the main pack out at Cali the other day.

One of David Seaborne's friends, Evan Mensing, had a serious head trauma in a non-BMX-related incident. From what I understand, he and another guy were driving through Santa Cruz, and ran into some gangster-types who tried to carjack them. To put a long story short, a brick was thrown threw the car window, hitting Evan in the side of the head, leaving half of his face paralyzed and rendering him deaf in one ear. If you want to donate anything, send David an email.