Today Matt Morren and myself pulled off some ply from the T-1 ramp to begin some repair work. There’s starting to be a few soft spots at the bottom of the one of the trannys and one of the pieces of Skatelite even broke.

Those upper ribs are pretty much just dust. Whats really amazing about this though is that the ribs are untreated 2×6’s and this part of the ramp has been here for almost 7 years. Can’t believe its held up so well. Tomorrow is the big work day at the ramp and we’ll be touching up all the little bits that need some love. 

I really wish when cities wanted to build skateparks they would consider wooden ramps more often then cement. A well built wood ramp can easily last 10 years with minor maintenance like this. Replacing the ribs will be like a day’s worth of work at the most. If we had used treated lumber from the start everything would probably still be fine. I guess not everywhere has quite as mellow weather as Austin, but a well built ramp using weather treated lumber built elevated off the ground (for drainage) is still like 25% of the cost of a concrete equivalent. Seems at least considering a $25,000 ramp over a $100,000 cement blob. In my dream world there would be cement parks here and there, and little wooden mini-ramps or vert ramps scattered in local parks all over towns. Keep things interesting and create more diversity in what there is to ride. Of course, in my dream world there is a perfectly maintained set of dirt jumps that run from my house to my favorite restaurant- downhill both ways. 

Played our show with Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re and that was awesome fun. They are so good!

A couple weeks ago I got some early versions of Aaron Ross’ new shoe by Etnies called The Number. Lucky for me I wear the same size as Aaron so I got some of his samples. I’ve been wearing the shoes nonstop since their arrival and I seriously love them! Good job Aaron and crew with getting these shoes together. Stoked on them!

The tread is really good on pedals. I use Odyssey Trail Mix pedals with the long pins and the shoes I’ve been wearing aren’t torn up at all. They grip well and have just the right amount of sole stiffness and flex. You know, its always that fine line between pedal feel and foot protection when it comes to shoes for bikes. This one does a good job. As this is an early sample I heard something about some changes to the insole to make them even better, but I’m already impressed. 

These shoes will be available in spring of ‘09 (which usually means they hit stores in late winter after christmas sometime). Between now and then there’s plenty of time to wear them, test them and make refinements. I’m well excited for their release because I really think its one of the best shoes Etnies has put out in a while.

My bands playing tomorrow night downtown in Austin. We get to play with this awesome band from Japan called Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re.  There’s a little bit of a buzz going around town for this show… or at least in my backyard…

Oct 7 at Emo’s in Austin Tx.

Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re

Red X Red M

The Snake Trap

The Little Bicycles