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I think it's about twenty minutes long, so you might want to hold on watching it until you've got some free time.

This Franchise edit premiered there last night. It was worth the drive up to the City.

Here's a new dirt video with footy I filmed at Watsonville and a secret spot back in May, with riding from Chris Riesner, Dusty Samson, and Mike Hernandez.



Here's Marco's We Got The Block edit, along with a fairly recent Fairfield edit.



Manny Galvin moved to Vancouver today, so David Urbieta is taking over on editing Brokeless V2, which Manny had already finished filming. I was over at Manny's place yesterday, and watched Caveman's part, which opens the video, and I've got to say that it was damn entertaining. You'll all see it soon enough.

Bobby Roberts sent me these the other day, so check them out.

Proper fucking invert. Granite. Photo: Matt Conley
Treetap. Photo: Go Big Photo
One-footed Euro out at Citrus Heights. Photo: Damian Black
Double step-through. Photo: Fuck Bikes Photo
Whopper over a block and into a grass bank. Photo: Go Big Photo

Angry Asian/Brian Chu threw up this new edit of Tony Campos last night.



Here's some photos that Kyle Emery-Peck shot, which I'm yanking off the Solid site.

Zac Costa, smith on a girder.
Jake Honesto, curb-to-wall.
Jake Honesto, gap over-to-ice.
Dustin Mata, getting started on a long smith grind.

Chris San Agustin wanted me to throw this up about We Got The Block: So, We Got the Block started long before the sunny afternoon on Saturday the 26th. Wood was found and carted to Kweli's house in Oakland and Becca's house in San Francisco. This was a long process that took time and very hard work. For the past few weeks the First Rule DVD was in the works. Kweli and I spent many nights filming in my apartment and the night before the contest I stayed up to five burning DVDs. Koit called me at seven the day of the jam telling me that he was on his way to my apartment. So, with two hours of sleep we were on our way to San Francisco. On the ride there I was told that the Bicycle Film Festival forgot to get the permit for the street! Well, we decided to do it anyway! Tim from Intencity carted all the wood to 16th and Capp. We couldn't get any electricity until 11:30 and riders were already showing up! Things always work out though. We ended up getting power and everyone got together and made things happen: Ramps were constructed, the BBQ was fired up, and the block started to fill up with hundreds of riders and spectators. The block was getting loose with hot moves every where you looked: Beer, bud, food, girls, ramps, and all that good stuff. Everyone was killing it, Eddie Cleveland was holding it down, and Ari flaired the quarter! Ronnie did like a triple tailwhip, some guy stalled a fence that was about 15 feet high. He almost died a few times but ended up sticking it. At some point the SFPD came through and were pouring out beers. They were really cool and we ended up riding for about an hour longer before we had to move the jam. The SFPD sergeant told us that we should go to the skatepark [ed. note: The new, non-bike friendly SF one at Potrero del Sol.] and that they would escort us there! So, we all mobbed over to the park and the skaters were not having it! Undercover police were there and then out of nowhere SFPD was fully represented. Fuck those skaters and fuck those cops! We took it to 3rd and Army from there, and loads of good stuff went down, with the highlight being a long jump contest, kicker to kicker. The winner walked away with a brand new frame. I believe Joey from Redwood City won. Anyways the gap had to be 30 plus feet. Becca got down on the BBQ along with some drinking. We spent a good deal of time trying to get the projector powered. Aaron Huff from Solid came through with his big ass truck. Half way through the new Franchise edit the power shit out. We tried! I felt pretty bummed since I worked so hard to get the DVD done before the contest. All that work and we didn't even get to show it. So, since we couldn't really premiere any of the movies Saturday, we're going to be showing the movies Wednesday at the Clocktower in SF. People should be there by 9. New Franchise edit, First Rule DVD, and a short from the jam on Saturday!

Tonight! Santa Cruz! Be there!

Here's a pair of photos of Justin Wendlandt out at the Gilroy park, taken by Joe K.

Footjam whip.
Footjam.

Mike Krnaich wanted me to post this: Free Flow tour is 21 and under on Sunday, August 17th. Sign-ups are at noon, and its only $10 to ride. Icer Air is going to be at the end of October with a bigger course, bigger purse, less security hassles, and more free water and snacks. I know the gas prices suck, so we at Ramp Rats are trying to help you out. Carpool Specials: Anyone who shows Monday to Friday with three people, the third guy gets half off. Show up with four people and the driver rides for free. The set up is the sickest yet, and flows like trails with all your good park stuff.

Tony Campos is having his 21st birthday/Gettin' Awesome Festival at his place on September 7th. I'll post the details later, but from what Tony's already told me, Gettin' Awesome may in fact be an understatement.

I was just looking around for photos of the new skatepark being built at Roosevelt Park in downtown San Jose (which, of course, riders weren't invited to the meetings for), and have discovered that the bowl there has pool coping. Thanks, Wormhoudt! Also, the bike-friendly skatepark at Mayfair Park across is finished, but has been covered with sand until the community center next to it opens.

And here's the photos and simplified story from the trip I was on up until two weeks ago. I would've had more, but the camera I was using was extremely shitty. Oh well.

The first place I was at was the Bird Creek area in the Schell Creek range, about thirty minutes northeast of Ely, Nevada. We were there for three weeks, and I was in a two-person map group with another guy, Aaron. On our first mapping day, we had insanely shitty weather... a thunderstorm that put about two feet of snow on the ground in a thirty minute period, right after we'd hiked about a mile from the group that dropped us off, resulting in us having to hike cross-country to where we supposed to be picked up. Thank God for waterproof boots. Coincidentally, Ely had the lowest temperature in the lower forty-eight states that day, and we were about a thousand feet higher up.

The field area, with the most difficult hikes highlighted. Blue means snow.
Me, right after the beginning of the snowstorm. Jeans and snow are not a good combination.
Good luck spotting them, but there's a pair of deer in here somewhere...

After that was over with, we spent a week in the Snake Range looking at fault rocks, right near the Utah border; to get into our first field area, Hendry's Creek, we actually had to cross in and out of Utah on a dirt road. On said dirt road, I hit a ninety-degree turn in a fully-loaded 2WD Suburban at about, oh, fifty miles per hour. Powerslides rule. On the last day, we went up to the top of Wheeler Peak, which is the tallest mountain in Nevada.

Conjugate shear fractures and tension gashes in Hendry's Creek.
Faulted up schist and quartzite.
"The Marble Ledge," in Old Man's Canyon.
From another angle...
Me, Ashley, Ryan, and the other Chris at the top of Wheeler Peak.
Me standing at the true summit. All the ranges behind me are in Utah.
Wheeler Peak on the right, and Jefferson Davis on the left.
A big glacial cirque, viewed from the peak.
Ripples in quartzite, found on the peak.

After that, we spent two weeks in Toiyabe National Forest east of Yosemite; my group worked around Dunderberg Peak, Mount Olsen, and the valley between them. We also took a day off to go into Mammoth and see Devil's Postpile and Rainbow Falls.

The field area.
Me and my trusty sherpa, Ryan McKee, at the top of Dunderberg Peak. Full homo intended.
Me, Ryan, and Heather at the top of the unnamed peak west of Mount Olsen.
This water is very, very cold. Periglacial lake just to the north of Dunderberg Peak.
Same lake, but viewed from the top.
Moat Lake.
Virginia Lake.
Blue Lake.
Dunderberg Peak, viewed from the road.
Some really fucked up fault rock at the top of the mountain.
Devil's Postpile.
Rainbow Falls. Note the rainbow in the mist.

Here's a new video by Nick Schwarzenbach that's got Dustin Mata, D-Block, Jake Honesto, Justin Burns, Chris Savoy, Zac Costa and a bunch of other dudes in it. Good stuff.



Chris San Agustin sent me an email, and wanted me to tell everyone that We Got The Block starts at 1PM on Saturday, with practice at noon; the video premiere will take place afterwards.

I'll have some new photos from Jared Strate and Justin Wendlandt up soon.

I totally forgot to put this video up last night, even though I saw it, bookmarked the link, and then got a message on MySpace about it...

Anyway, this is the trailer for a new BNQT video by Brian Purdy (he did... a couple videos that I can't remember the names of right now, one of which was pretty damn good but had these incredibly weird Dave Mirra-voiceover rider intros...), with riding from NorCal-to-SoCal transplant Marcos Torres amongst other people. The only clip in here that I'm sure is of Marcos is streety flair, but whatever. Whoever's doing the slider down and the stairs and the skid under the chain (Tate Roskelly?) has some fucking rad maneuvers up their sleeve. I guess that the final video is going to available on the BNQT site in segments, for free, rather than being released as a DVD; also, I guess that BNQT's claiming that it's the first full-length BMX video to be filmed entirely in HD, but I'm fairly positive that Stoked On Being Pumped actually did it first...

I forgot to put this up earlier: We Got The Block. Sorry, Nip. Anyway, it's a BMX video from Transparent and First Rule playing at the Bike Film Festival in SF this Saturday, at 16th and Capp. So, if you're able, head out there to check it out.

Here's a video with riding from Anthony Renda, Zach Becker, Jason Hartman, and Mike Kohn, who also did the editing.

A new Solid webvid, Team Hungry, filmed by Nick Schwarzenbach. Hot moves from all involved.