News

The park will officially open on Saturday, April 26th, with the first bike session being on Sunday, April 27th. The bike hours are going to be 3:00-5:00, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 11:00-1:00, Sundays. You'll need to have a waiver filled out before going in for the first time, which you can download here; I'm going to go ahead and assume (since this is how Vans worked) that if you're under 18 and your parents don't sign it in front of the park employees, you'll need to have the signature verified by a notary public, which you can find at most Kinko's.

Anyway, here are the rules, copied and pasted from the city's website:

"The BMX program at Lake Cunningham Regional Skate Park is on a trial basis. We will evaluate the impact of BMX bikes on the park to see if a permanent BMX program is viable.

BMX Bikes will be allowed at Lake Cunningham Regional Skate Park during bike-specific sessions. Check with Park Staff to confirm session times. The following rules apply to BMX biking within the Skate Park:

1. Bike types: Only BMX or Freestyle type bikes will be allowed. No mountain bikes, trail bikes, tandem bikes, 10-Speeds or non-BMX models will be allowed.
2. Wheel Size: Only 16”, 20”or 24”wheel sizes will be allowed. 26”or larger wheel sizes are not allowed.
3. Handlebars: All handlebars must have end caps or grips that cover the end of the bars.
4. Pedals: Must be aluminum or plastic. Plastic is preferred.
5. Pegs: Pegs may be used as long as they are plastic. Pegs with holes, serrations, grip tape, grooves or any other type of surface may not be used. If the user has any peg type that is not allowed, the pegs must be removed in order to use the Skate Park.
6. Protective Gear: All riders must wear elbow and knee pads and Snell/ANSI certified helmets.
7. Limited Access: Bikes will not be allowed in areas with pool coping or other areas identified by staff.
8. Other Equipment: Including kick stands, multiple gears and moving suspensions are not allowed. If you have any questions about your bike’s configuration, ask Skate Park Staff before entering the Skate Park.
9. All Other Skate Park Rules Apply: See general Skate Park Rules for other allowed and disallowed activities.

The BMX Program and Rules are subject to revision at any time. Any violation of park rules may result in closure of the Skate Park or elimination of the BMX Program. All staff decisions are final."

So, I'm back from the frigid lands of the north, which were totally awesome; I'll have the full details up tomorrow, probably with some pictures and possibly a video, depending on how many usable clips I have. In the meantime, here's a picture of Jake Honesto on the Volume tour and a couple shots of Terry Davis at the Millbrae park.

Jake, jersey barrier manual. Photo: Manuel Cantero
Terry, downside table air. Photo: Dan Khataevich
Terry, corner abubaca. Photo: Dan Khataevich

There's going to be a free BBQ and afterparty for Scrape The Town 2 in the parking lot at MLK and 25th. From what Nip's said, if all goes according to plan, we'll be leaving the BART station around 1:00 and will arrive at the BBQ location somewhere between 4:30 and 5:00.

Also, Cameron Birdwell's been interviewed by Kurt over at BMXUnion.

Here's a couple more pictures of Joey riding in SF on the Volume tour, which ends today, if memory serves me right. I'm not positive who snapped these, but I'm going to go ahead and assume that it was E-Man again.

Gapping out of a curbcut, across a sidewalk, and into a Jersey barrier.
Footjam on a roundrail.

I'll be out of town for the next few days in Yreka and Southern Oregon with Dakota, Cali Josh, and Brandon Bains, but there should be some more new photos up after I get back; Shawn Hott took a bunch of photos of Endo, Caveman, Boots, myself, and himself out at Alameda yesterday afternoon.

Here's a few new photos of Ronnie and Kevin Bryant (!) that Dan Dunn took the other day out at Cali. Also, there's a shot from the Volume blog of the Cobbs out at Quimby, taken be E-Man.

Kevin Bryant, nothing cancan. Photo: Dan Dunn
Ronnie Michelini, superman seatgrab indian. Photo: Dan Dunn
Ronnie Michelini, tailwhip. Photo: Dan Dunn
Joey Cobbs, railhop barspin. Photo: Manuel Cantero

By the way... if the site goes down between now and the end of the month, just be patient until April; I've only got 80 gigabytes of bandwidth to work with per month, and so far I've used up 68 of them. It's been a record month in terms of visits, with over 5800 unique visitors (the previous record was just under 4300, last November); the same goes for bandwidth, since I've given up on using Vimeo.

Normally I don't put up way short videos, but this is so profoundly important in the grand scheme of things that I had little other choice but to throw this up immediately. Cam, Squirrel, and I are fairly positive that nobody else has pulled that last trick before. Prove us wrong. Do it, you won't.



Also, here's a video of Larry Alvarado, Kurt Rasmusson, Jackson Ratima, and a couple other guys tearing it up at some local spots. I mentioned to some people earlier in the week that some pretty wild riding went down, and, well, now you can see some of it. Chris Gille did some particularly rad maneuvering that didn't make it into this video, but I'm assuming that the clips will pop up eventually.

...with riding from Nick Schwarzenbach, Justin Burns, and some of the other park locals.

Livermore Park Edit (Nick Schwarzenbach)

Chris San Agustin from Transparent wanted me to post this up:

What's up everyone? For the past few years the Solano Ave Cyclery has been helping out our scene so much; from contributions to First Rule and Transparent's jams to simply stocking loads of good BMX parts. Marty Wendt is the manager at the shop and for all of you that didn't know, he used to be the editor of Ride Magazine. Marty does a real good job keeping the shop packed with all the hottest parts while also building custom dream whips. So, I am happy to say that there is now a Solano Ave portion of the TransparentBMX site where you can find out what's coming in, watch movies, and see what ridiculous whip Marty is putting together for us all to dream about. Check it out today! Visit www.transparentbmx.com and click on Solano Ave Cyclery. Support a local BMX shop that has always given back to our sport!

Nothing's up yet, but the infamous Damian Schinella will now have his own section of the site to reminisce on the old days, bitch about the ridiculous tight pants kids wear these days, and... do pretty much whatever he wants. Click me.

In other news, I'm halfway through physical therapy, but should be back on the bike later today; apparently half my problem is that my left hamstring is way tighter than my right. Go figure.

In other-other news, vert has been dropped from the X-Games, but ESPN will continue to send Jamie Bestwick a paycheck and a gold medal yearly until he decides to hang up his Etnies and retire.

Click here to see some photos and read some words about Give D's recent trip to San Francisco. There's also a video you can watch here. The riders include Gary Young and former Bay Area local Nick Corsiglia; the first photo of Gary Young at Alameda is pretty damn legit.

Old School Joe sent me an email with some pics of twenty-or-so bikes from his vintage collection which he brought out to an impromptu old-school jam/BBQ at Calabazas on Saturday the 1st. Having been in his garage in the past, this is only a small sample of what's Joe's got, but it's rad nonetheless. All but three of the pictured bikes were/are ridden by Joe at some time; I'm sure that the Vans locals will recognize several of them.

Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3

Also, the fliers for the Scrape The Town 2 and the Jump Jam have been updated, so check them if you plan on making it out to either event.

Scrape The Town 2
Jump Jam

Dan and Wes (Marco Svizzero)

I'm not sure how I managed to miss this, but it's been up for couple weeks. Most of the footy's of Dan and Wes, but there's also some clips of Marcos, Samar, and Chad B. Wish them luck in Vegas this weekend.