Well I have to admit I find it a little bit hard to come up with new content when I’ve spent the last few weeks doing nothing but laying down watching TV. So unless you wanted to hear my opinions on network TV shows or how shitty it is to pay medical bills all I can come up with is this: an iPhoto clean-out post. I’m pretty sure I’ve posted most of these photos at one point or another over at T-1, but as a lot of them are years and years old and I can’t actually remember. I took a scroll from top to bottom through my iPhoto library and pulled out ones that caught my eye for one reason or another…. here you go….

This is one of Kimler’s babies. The pacifier is so disturbing to me and it makes me giggle uncomfortably. The shirt reads, “Hung Like a 5 year old”.

This is me and the ring bearer at my friend Bryan’s wedding. He made us matching embroidered goat shirts too.

You have to love Povah… he’s always down for a laugh.

Texting and driving is dangerous, but what about focusing and shooting photos? I don’t think there’s any laws yet anyway.

This was my trip to Berlin. Tiny little slice in my shin that would not stop bleeding. Had to get it burned closed.

German Chinese food is sketchy.

Shovel art at trails on Vancouver Island.

Sandy and I humiliating ourselves.

This was a show in England where Black Sabbath played to like 150,000 people! I got knocked the hell out on the ramp and lost some memory.

Mutiny sent this for a birthday card a few years ago. Check me out fufanuing that tower!

Dave Fiemuth at the center of everyone’s attention at one of the Backyard Jams.

Sergio’s manualing in the background, but this little kid is slidding down a cement quarter on his stomach. He must be made out of nails ’cause that cememnt was rough.

Roscoe looks understandably mortified because I had just hacked the head off a stuffed dog about his size. Used it for the head on my halloween Roscoe bike.

Gary Young getting tweaked during our X-games ramp warehouse photo shoot.

Parrick at Empire discovering he has the power of the palm.

This is pretty much hands down the best bruise I’ve ever seen!

I built these curved floor risers in my little condo and I thought they looked cool.

I was really bummed to miss out on the annual trip over to Cologne for the worlds this year.

Eduardo is in the top 3 for toughest guy on a bike.

While in Cologne I managed to catch this strange event; naked girl writhing around on top of a box jump while skateboarders and BMXers jumped through her legs on normal TV.

Garrett Byrnes…

And Garrett Byrnes bike box…(remember how the old T-1 Garrett frames had the welded on seat?).

A good moment behind T-1. Lucero on the ramp for the 2nd or 3rd time. Always a good way to bring the Austin family together for a night.Bass player is up chilling on the deck on the left side of the photo.

Sandy and me as little rodent kids.

Jamie McParland rocks some freestyle segwaying.

The mini in Van’s garage was so absurd. Jason Enns and John Heaton try to figure it out.

The big wheels we had at T-1 were so fun! Kort and Sheps putting them through their paces.

Neil and Roscoe enjoyig the ride.

The orginal incarnation of the T-1 ramp was so simple.

Thanks to Ryan Corrigan and Paul Buchanan the first big change materialized.

Man, that fresh Hemp-Lite Skatelite on the back section used to look so clean! Over the years its weathered and looks the same as the normal stuff.

Ron Kimler looking pretty 70’s with the hair-do.

Sophie was a cat who lived at the office and hated Roscoe.

I was staying out at Woodward West all alone one off season when there was a knock at my door late at night. When I opened the door this guy was there.

This is one of my favorite Roscoe photos… he’s the blur on the right in the middle of a half flip frisbee catch.

I miss having a film camera for moments like this. There’s something about film that digital just doesn’t capture huh?

What looks like a blurry mess is actually the brightest northern lights display I’ve ever seen. Somewhere in Wisconsin.

Roscoe wallride at height.

Sandy Carson and I went up to Superdrome Velodrome in Frisco, Texas this weekend and got ourselves officially track certified. It ended up being so much fun. If you’ve never been in a velodrome you’d be really surprised how steep the corners are. The Superdrome is one of the steeper tracks in the country too and when you’re way up at the top looking down it can be a lot scarier then you would guess. 

Oddly enough, Sandy and I had the most trouble out of anyone in the beginner class on our first few laps. We both kept compensating for the steepness by leaning our bikes into the curve and then we would spike our pedals and get kicked down the wall. 

However, once we got to go a bit faster we had no more problems. When the really fast guys are ripping around the track they get so leaned over its amazing. It looks (and feels) just like a curved wall ride… except of course for having a bike that won’t stop pedaling underneath you. 

 

I finally understand what all these fixed gear bikes are for and why they are so much fun now. I’ve had a couple that I’ve ridden around town on and I always just end up wondering why it doesn’t coast or have brakes. On the track though it makes perfect sense. You don’t need or want brakes because you are drafting off the rider in front of you and riding in such close quarters. Its better to keep everyone going about the same speed then having the situation where someone might hit their brakes when you are riding 6 inches away from them. Same thing with not allowing the bikes to coast… keeps the speeds consistent. 

It was really fun though and challenging to apply bike riding in a new way. I’ve never gone so fast under pedal power in my life. When you get squashed from the g-force going around the corners its amazing. The track record is like 44 MPH something.

I wish I could show you how good I looked in my full spandex gear, but it was way too cold this day. My bike was awesome for the track too. This is one of Giant’s stock Bowery models and I’m pretty stoked on it. Right out of the box its got everything for the track. Bigger gears next time though. I rode a 46×14 but I think something like a 50x 14 would be better. Too bad the tracks closed till march. 

Sandy did represent BMX and impress the guys with some freestyle shredation too.

Batman kept the bikes safe for us all day. 

 

This video is of a match sprint. The strategy of it all is bizarre, but if you make to the end you’ve never seen anyone cranking so f-in’ fast… its insane! 

Note: This is one of those thing that seemed really funny last night at the bar.

A few years ago I wrote about a funny situation that Sandy Carson and I found ourselves in. We were downtown cutting through a dark alleyway when we stumbled upon a brand new fire escape handrail that looked pretty rad to ride. We both stopped at the bottom and checked it out. I said something like, “This thing is pretty stiff, I’m pretty sure you could grind it all the way to the end.” 

Just then a guy backed out from under the staircase right in front of us and he was in the middle of taking a piss. He got kind of freaked out, quick zipped up and took off. I could only imagine how he interpreted what we said. Anyway, last night we thought of 10 more things a BMXer might say about a handrail that would have really freaked out the guy pissing under the stairs.

10. “I wonder if it would look that big in the daylight?”

9. “Get out the video camera right now, I’m doing this!”

8. “I saw a video where Aaron whipped one just like this. He got a bit sketchy though and cut his knees all up”

7. “Waxing it would help it slide better”

6. “If we do a train on this thing it would be an amazing picture!”

5. “This is Jimmy LeVan’s wet dream!”

4. “I heard that if its cold enough and you lick one, your tongue will freeze to it.” 

3. “Remember that time you cut one of these in half while doing a sprocket stall?”

2. “I have a friend who tried to do one of those and ended up having to wear a catheter, but if you hold it steady I’ll ride down it.”

1. “It sure would suck to hit your face on that… probably give you a nose bleed.”