Summer 2011

Last time I wrote in here I was talking about trying to update more often, man where have the last five months gone? Well, today I’m a bit under the weather so I’m at home on the couch well suited for a good ramble. So I’m 30 now. Made it through my 20’s some how, but more than being amazed about making it this far I’m wondering where they went? I remember like yesterday, my 21st birthday in Pittsburgh, going out with Bittner and the boys. I never drank before I was 21 so becoming legal was just as much of a treat for me as it was for everyone who was lucky enough to be with us that night. The first time I ever got drunk, one of my fondest memories of the night was being on the dance floor at the club full of soul brothers and sisters. I was one of the only white fools up in that piece and I was kinda trippen’ like, Man, are my friends trying to play a joke on me right now?” Anyway, made it out alive but the coolest thing about that night was when I woke up the next day with no hang over. Zero. Fast forward to my 30th birthday. Allan, his wife Mary, and I drove out to Vegas on July 1st which was Friday. To make a long story short, we went to the pool all day and went out all night for the next 2 days straight. On Sunday morning, Allan and Mary went back to California but Phil [Tinstman] arrived late on Saturday evening so the party continued. Monday was my actual birthday which is July 4th so we had that off work. Back to the pool we went and my dumb ass even went out for a bit on Monday night. Phil and I woke up at 3:45am on Tuesday morning to drive back to San Diego and I will tell you I finally think I got partying out of my system for quite some time. I suffered through the whole day, was so tired and dehydrated I feel like it literally took a week to recover from the lack of hydration and overload of booze. I don’t know if that was a message that simply states, “Happy 30th Birthday, the dream is over.”

The week after Vegas was Southpark, one of my favorite races of the year. I decided to fly Brooke out last minute to help with a clinic that Justin Travis and I put on every year on Friday before practice. For the first time in all my years going to Southpark, Friday was canceled due to rain. Saturday morning was practice til 11, race til 5:30, then they ran the Pre-Race that was canceled on Friday, so by the time our clinic got started it was 7:30pm. We only ended up having like 10 kids in the clinic but it was fun anyway. I ended up getting 4th in A-Pro but was so depleted after 3 motos that my arms and legs were cramping before the main. Embarrassed to say it but man, Vegas did a number on me. I’ve never cramped after 3 motos, pathetic.

The following week was the indoor race at Southpoint in Las Vegas. I headed out to Vegas on Thursday morning and met up with GBum for a night ride on the strip from the Luxor where I was staying, down to the third world country that is Freemont Street. AKA Downtown Las Vegas. Downtown has changed in the last 5 years I’ve been gone. I saw every character you could think of posing in pictures for money. Mickey and Mini Mouse, Sponge Bob, Spiderman, Peewee Herman, Tupac, Rick James, a Panda Bear, etc. Literally saw about 30 different people in full blown costumes you’d see at Disneyland, not some fake Halloween store suites. I was amazed thinking, “I wonder how many of these people are strung out homeless heroin junkies posing in photos with kids to support their addiction?” Jason Richardson once told me, “The world is a ghetto.”

The race was really fun, though. The track was 700 feet or so but pretty cool anyway. The first straight was a short sprint with nothing to really slow you down. I wasn’t drinking this weekend, but I thought one of the coolest things was the bar upstairs which parents/riders were able to sit in and drink while watching races. I think every indoor race should have this cause it was pretty funny to go in there and see all the bmx parents getting loose. I won 5 of my 6 motos on the weekend and got 2nd in another. We had about 25 riders which made for semis and I made it through both days. I even raced Friday night and ended up 3rd behind two AA Pros so that was pretty cool. Saturday in the main I had a good start, edged out in turn 1 by Josh Oie and ended up high siding on Lee Lewis for an epic spill. A week later I still have a big ass bruise on my tailbone. It’s been a while since I’ve crashed, luckily. Sunday was the treat. I had gate 7 in the main and was feeling pretty fresh. Weird what it’s like to go to a race and not be hung over or sleep deprived. When I left the gate, I rolled back into some girls tire who was next in the gate for her Jr. Devo main. Luckily there was some crashes, giving me a 4th place present or I was well on my way to an 8th. I tried to get the ABA to re-run the race like they did for Khalen in Phoenix but they said it was my responsibility to make sure no one is behind me at the gate. I was dumb founded but, lesson learned. The trip was fun, I made $380 and am having fun riding again and that’s the reason I started this shit in the first place, right?

All my riders departed for Copenhagen yesterday for the UCI Worlds. I opted out of that one as it would have cost Haro around $3,000 to send me. I could have gone and been a contender in the Vet class but winning that race wouldn’t mean much to me, and if I’m going to blow our budget out I’d rather spend it on Nic, Brooke and Khalen. So while they’re over there shredding I’m going up to LA on Wednesday to shoot photos of Enarson, Kerley, Harrington and Nyquist at the X-Games this week/weekend. The following weekend is the Nike 6.0 Surf/BMX comp in Huntington Beach and I’ll be up there as well. It’s been a while since I’ve been behind the camera but looking forward to it. Most of all though, looking forward to Tuscon in 3 weeks to get back on the gate and try and get back up on that podium! Bmx is the word, as Stileman would say.

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OVER A DECADE IN THE BLOG

After over a decade of blogging, I am officially the most unmotivated blogger in BMX. I started my first website back in 1999 with “Derek Betcher Online” which was some free hosting site where I force fed everyone with pure unfiltered shit talk. In 2000, Derekbetcher.com was registered and made official. I’m not too sure how long that website lasted but I think it was like 2006? All of the sudden my website was gone and it was registered by someone else who probably expected me to buy it back from them. I registered DB44.com instead, which went til 2008 and a similar thing happened. Now, over a decade later, you’re witnessing the rarely updated db44.net. Where has the last 10 years gone? Time flies when you’re having fun and this whole BMX trip has been a real treat.

In 1999, I finished National #17 in the 18-20 expert class riding platform pedals. In 2000, I clipped in and capped out in points by mid season and ended up winning the national #1 in the same class. 2001 I spent most of the year in amateur and turned pro at the Grands where the next year was pretty flat. 2003 I won National #1 A Pro while riding for Answer Products. 2004 was my first year in AA Pro where I got my ass kicked on traditional BMX tracks but ended up winning the UCI World Cup at Woodward Downhill making 2004 my biggest career accomplishment. 2005 was pretty awesome too, Greg Romero picked me up on Revtec to race A Pro again. I didn’t train at all, partied my ass off in Vegas almost every night of the week, podium at almost every race and won the A Pro title again but not before getting arrested in New Mexico on the way to the NBL Grands because Nate B shot an 18 wheeler with a paintball. What a great year 2005 was in which I signed a deal with Haro in November to race AA Pro again so the Vegas party life had to stop. Early 2006 I moved to Huntington Beach to live with RM59 and although my lifestyle was pretty mellow, we had a lot of fun in the sun. 2006 as a whole wasn’t the best year to write home about but I won stop #2 on the ABA National Series right in front of 2005’s National #1 Pro, so that was cool. 2007 was definitely my best year in the AA Pro class. I won 2 days in Colorado and tied Mikey Day for the overall win in Guthrie which I ended up getting 2nd. 2007 was also when I finished 7th at the World Cup in Madrid, Spain. 7th isn’t really anything to write home about either, but making a World Cup main isn’t an easy thing to do. I finished 6th in 2007 in the ABA National Series which was great. 2008 was a blur for me. I started off the year kind of burnt out on racing and couldn’t really get out of my own way. I remember getting ready for Southpark which is my favorite race of the year, it was like Wednesday when I got a call from Tony D. Dude starts telling me there is a position open at the Haro offices as an Aftermarket Parts Manager. I told him no at first, but the more I thought about it I realized I could be passing up a great opportunity. I went to Southpark and for some reason I knew it was going to be my last race as a full time racer. I think it was one of the funnest weekends I had in a long time. I practiced way too much cause I love that track, but I think everything just clicked for me and I really just realized what a cool life I was living. Sort of like “the wind in your hair” type feeling but only it was more of a “sweat in your eyes” type feeling in one of the summers hottest and most humid months that Pittsburgh had to offer. I made the main after all but ended up in like 6th. Sunday was rained out so we got double money which was alright. The following Monday is when TonyD called me and confirmed that I was now another nerd in the boiler room. A week later, I sat here at this desk in Vista, California wondering what was next on the life agenda…

Now, I’m over two and a half years into the game here at the office. Time definitely flies  the older you get. I took this job a few days after my 27th Birthday and I’m going to be 30 this year. Unreal. I think when I turned 27 is when it really hit me. I was living the dream, but what was I going to do after BMX? I still see plenty of dudes at the BMX track every week that got to be thinking the same thing I was. My dream was always to get a gig in the industry so I guess I’m living my dream again, just with a schedule and added responsibility. I recently re-classified to A-Pro for the 97th time and I’m happy to be having fun on my bike again. There was definitely about a year where I didn’t ride my race bike much at all and just rode trails. Now, I have to drive the Haro rig to all the Elite Series ABA National Events so maybe I’ll have some stories to tell that will give me the motivation to update this site on a fairly regular basis. Keep the dream alive!

44 . .   i mean, A Pro #259.

[Photo: The Dopest Crew in Action Sports, www.deftfamily.com]

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Lagg

So it’s been a month and a half plus, since my last update. Anyone know where summer went? I feel like it showed up late this year and didn’t stay very long at all. June gloom was July gloom, and now it’s October rain. I don’t remember it always being like this, I almost forgot that days start to blend together when you work 40 hours a week. Anyyywayy

NBL Grands was a fun trip. Shannon and I did a camp for kids in collaboration with Justin Travis on Wednesday of the event. I rode pretty much the whole day non stop because I had only gone to the track once since Southpark and I love the Louisville track. The turnout of the clinic was huge!! We had the older group where I think most of the kids just wanted to ride, weren’t so concerned with learning anything but it was fun for sure. The race itself was cool. I raced for the hell of it and nearly made the semi. Finished 4th in my 3rd moto and needed a 3rd. Oh well.

Two weeks after Grands was the Interbike show in Vegas, I’ve said it before but this show used to be way cooler when I didn’t have to stand around a booth all day. I can’t complain though, I was on the tear down crew again so it was pretty mellow. Setup crew sucks! Allan and I flew into town at 11 on Sunday and headed over to the Hard Rock pool for Rehab. It’s sure not the same as when I used to go back in 05′ and 06′. There is tons of guidos and fat people. The good news was that the drinks were still strong and, unlike last year, I didn’t end up getting shoved in the pool with my phone. Sunday night was the last night of Wasted Space. Alien Ant Farm played and when they were finished, the club was closed once and for all. Good times have happened there, shame to see it go. Monday and Tuesday of the show were chill days for me while setup was going on so I enjoyed the pool. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday was the convention and it was full of sleepless nights and long days. Nothing too exciting about the show other than the debut of our 2011 Haro and Premium lines which look way better than ever before. Also, the launch of CLiQ which is our new BMX Race parts brand which was celebrated at our booth on Thursday where we had two kegs of Blue Moon. Thursday night was the NORA CUP awards. Garrett won another cup for Street Rider of the Year which was cool. Friday at close of show, Pete and I went over to the marshaling yard to get our door tickets to unload our bikes and tear our booth down. We were over there thinking we arrived before anyone else, but after waiting two hours, we realized we didn’t need to do that so we wasted our time.  It was 9pm by the time we got our trucks into the building to begin tear down so I was hurrying running back and forth to the booth getting the BMX bikes loaded. I was running down the ramp of the Penske truck heading back to the booth and at the bottom I stepped on a piece of paper on the waxed floor and it was like stepping on a banana peal. I went into half backflip mode, landed weird on my shoulder which dislocated minor and then did a knee slide on both knees. I couldn’t get up fast enough just to keep running toward the booth with knees on fire and shoulder feeling pretty shitty. Pretty funny if you were anyone but me but if you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at? Fun times but glad Interbike is over for a while. Salt in the wounds was driving one of those pile of shit Penske trucks back to California.

Two week break from Vegas and I’m on my way back for Dew Tour finals. Colin Mackay and I road tripped it in a mini van from Cali on Wednesday morning. Thursday night was dirt prelims so Wednesday afternoon and all day Thursday was Live the Dream at the pool. Thursday was such a nice day outside so Colin and I basked in the sun all day like bums. On Friday, there was a big crew of us that got a day bed out at the pool and proceeded to get tipsy. There was this drunk guy that kept invading our space and being mad annoying and stumbling every where. I shoved him in the pool like 3 times and he kept coming back, even got kicked out and found his way back in. My friend Gbum decided to nearly fold the guy up like a lawn chair when he came back and that was when he got kicked out for good. Some people should just not drink. Ricardo Laguna was out at the pool promoting for Dew Tour with a big P-Rod hype sign. Me and AC thought it would be cool to shove him in the water with the sign, fully clothed and a back pack. I ended up in the deep end with him while AC submariner to the other side of the pool like a navy seal and Ricardo was not pumped due to phone in pocket. Pretty much every one I know has been shoved in the water with their phone, and much like dislocating your shoulder at Interbike, it’s funny to everyone around you other than the person who it happens to. Losing all your contacts and having to deal with the phone store is not fun, I’d like to extend a sincere apology to Ricardo for my doing in the plot that sunk the iPhone. Sorry man.

As far as the contest goes, Wednesday evening there was a big session over at Lavin’s yard. My friend Ty took the hardest slam anyone has ever taken in the 11 years TJ has had jumps in his backyard. Ty was taken by Ambulance to the hospital where he remains in a coma. The following day was prelims for dirt, where TJ took a similar slam and he still remains in a coma, too. Unreal that days later I visited both of them in the hospital yesterday just a couple doors down from one another.  It’s a rough scene when you have to see your boys all laid up and in bad shape. The good news though, is that the doctor expects a full recovery from both of them. Visit www.healtypinney.com and www.athleterecoveryfund.com to help these guys. On a positive note from the contest, Nyquist killed the park final after qualifying first. He ended up winning and Garrett ended up with 3rd so it was a great day for us. Congrats to RyNy who never ceases to amaze me.

Alright, that’s about all for now. This weekend I’m off to Florida for the Fall Nationals, the following is Halloween in Vegas again, and then a week later it’s off to Taiwan again with Allan and Chris. Joy. Good videos will be filmed, anyway. Holla.

 

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Haro’s 2011 line on RIDEBMX.com

RIDEBMX.com did a feature on our 2011 line of Haro complete bikes. The SD, Dennis Enarson’s signature frame – along with one of the freestyle colorways, and the majority of the race line is featured. I posted this link on the VintageBMX web forum and it was deleted pretty quickly. I guess the old school is offended by our 2011 line, but hopefully you guys will like it as much as we do! http://bmx.transworld.net/1000110403/features/haros-2011-complete-line/

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End of August

After all the events have come and gone, it’s nice to have a weekend on the horizon where I get to stay home and chill. I think I probably said it in a prior update but my last 6 weekends have been booked with events. Starting off with our yearly sales meeting here in Carlsbad, to Chicago, LA, Huntington Beach, Portland, and then Vegas to visit the family. Non stop.

Portland was a good trip. I flew there on Wednesday night out of San Diego. When I walked up to my gate, the first person I see is Garrett Reynolds walking by holding a large pizza and he’s by himself. He had been up the entire night before throwing up with food poisoning, and he was straight back into it making up for lost time with a pizza. Epic. We flew to San Fransisco and after mad delays, only had to stay there for a 5 hour lay over. By the time we walked into our hotel it was 3:45am. Burn.

The Thursday prior to the contest, we didn’t have anywhere to be until 7pm so we spent our day riding bikes downtown Portland,  hit a couple bars and were lucky to make it home in time for the contest after the sweet tea vodka and lemonades came out. The contest went well, I think Garrett and Dennis finished up 5th and 6th in BMX Park final, and Dennis and Ryan finished up 2nd and 3rd in the BMX dirt final. Not too shabby of a weekend for us.

This last weekend I headed to Vegas to catch up with friends and family. Pretty cool trip, it’s always great to see everyone. Kept this trip pretty low key other than Saturday night I went out on the town, and Sunday we went to a mellow pool at the Cancun resort and did some cannonballs. I heard someone drown at the Hard Rock pool last Sunday during Rehab. I don’t know where the lifeguards were during this, but I heard from some girl that works at the resturaunt inside the Hardrock that when she met the guy who passed away on Sunday, the previous night he was so wasted he was falling asleep in his food. I guess when you do drugs, drink booze and bask in the 110 degree heat, you either sink or swim!

Anyway, moving on. I went to the BMX Track yesterday for the first time in exactly two months. Time has been FLYING. It was my first gate since Southpark but I was fairly normal. Felt surprisingly fast being that all I have been doing is drinking beer,  riding our ramps from time to time, shooting photos, and eating the remainder of Tony’s donuts. Looking forward to this weekend, going to ride the track again and hit up a road ride on the coast. Might even cut loose at the Wave House in PB with Mike Day. Jones you cheesin again?

Out for now. See everyone at the Grands next weekend!

 

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Mid August update.

I seem to be falling behind with website updates. I will for sure get two of them in this month even though I’m running behind. Anyway, talk about busy lately! When I last wrote, I was on a flight to Chicago. It seems like flights have been the only time where I can stop and think lately. Dew Tour in Chicago went alright for us. The weather out there is bizarre. It goes from blue skies to gnarly thunder and lightning within minutes and is always windy. I’ve always said I’m either So-cal or Vegas for life, and I’m sticking to it! After all was said and done, the dirt contest was complete shit due to the rain and wind. Nyquist and Enarson were both in the final but the results were nothing to write home about. Garrett Reynolds ended up 3rd in the park contest.

I came home from Chicago on Sunday morning after staying out at the club the majority of the night with Aaron Cooke, Nate B. and Steve Mateus. Sucks when you’re en route to the airport still drunk, haha.  Was in the office for two days and then off to LA for X-Games. X-Games results were a lot better for us. Garrett won his 3rd consecutive gold medal in BMX street, while Dennis finished right behind him with the silver medal. In BMX park, Dennis brought home another silver medal. At the same time X-Games was going on, Khalen went over to Africa where he got bit on the eye by a gnarly spider. He raced the UCI Worlds with 1 eye open and still made the final. Nic went off to somewhere in BFE for an NBL national and took the win both days. Haro can’t be stopped.

Back in the ol’ office chair for three days and I was back up to the OC for the Nike 6.0 BMX Pro. My boy Nyquist was riding like a lazy ass and didn’t make the semi final round, but was given a second chance when one of the other guys pulled out due to injury. He made quick work of the second opportunity and breezed through the semi final round and into the finale on Sunday. When Sunday rolled around and Ryan had been up the majority of the night with his restless young son, he was a different dude. His first run was impressive, putting him in podium contention. His second run was absolutely ridiculous and brought him home the win and $25,000 worth of diaper money. Dennis was equally impressive I thought, but when Nyquist is on point he’s hard to beat. 3rd place honors for Dennis and $10,000 worth of Jack Daniels money. Good job boys.

It’s now Wednesday morning, in a few hours I’m back to the airport to head off to Portland for Dew Tour round #2. Portland is a great place so I am anxious to visit, but I am ready for a Vegas weekend to visit the friends and family, while feeling the 200 degree heat as a reminder why I love San Diego. Next weekend is my Vegas vacay, followed by a weekend at home and then off to NBL Grands where Shannon and I will be taking part in a clinic with Justin Travis like we did in Southpark. I can’t believe that at the grands 10 years ago I was winning an amateur title in 19 expert. Where has the time gone, where has summer gone? It’s almost mid August. I feel like I’m getting old. Enjoy the photos from Dew Tour #1, x-Games, and Nike 6 HB Pro.

 

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Late July update.

Sorry for the update delay, it’s been a crazy month so far. The weekend after the Southpark race, I headed out to Vegas for my birthday weekend. Mcgonigle and I had a collaboration party at the Hard Rock pool. His birthday is late June and mine is July 4^th so it made sense to combine madness and give us an excuse to have a big blow out. I got into Vegas on Thursday evening and went shopping with a couple of my buddies for shorty short swimming trunks. We went to like 10 different places, and at the last place we went after endless searching, we found the most epic matching swim trunks in the womens section at Volcom. Berkheimer, G-bum and I all had the same ones while Mcgonigle had some stupid running shorts that looked extra ridiculous but that’s all he could dig up being that he blew off our shopping spree to go hang out with a chick he’s whipped on [in typical Mcgonigle fashion of course]. Friday morning I had to be up early and renew my drivers license at DMV, no place I’d rather be than DMV. Nate came with me to renew his as well, and he brought some crutches and acted like he had just had surgery. He showed them his scar from when he had surgery years ago, and they bought it. So needless to say, we skipped the line that was wrapped around the entire building and were in and out of DMV in 40 minutes. Seriously, if you don’t know Nate, dude pulls off the shadiest maneuvers of all time, and if you do know him; you aren’t surprised right now. We arrived at Hardrock at 10am to check into our cabana, but then realized the pool didn’t open until 11 so I had breakfast with Mcgonigle who enjoyed two Coors Lights to start his day off right like an alcoholic. The pool party couldn’t have been more fun and after too much booze down the hatch, I ended up staying out til the sun was up. Not before, of course, cutting my finger open to the point of probably needing stitches trying to hang off this wooden ledge and getting a nail in my pinky (don’t ask cause I don’t know either). That was only Friday, so after 3 hours of sleep I was back at it feeling surprisingly amazing so I headed back down to the pool and had a drink marathon with Mike Day’s girlfriend Leigh, while Mikey was hating his life being a spectator at the ever so amazing Great Salt Lake Nationals. To bed early on Saturday night for me, and awake early on Sunday only to drive back to San Diego for my actual “birthday.” My friends at No Fear threw a July 4^th party at a bar and Phil Tinstman got me our own worst enemy for my birthday, Rumplemintz. Thanks for nothing Phil. We rode beach cruisers bar to bar and the day ended solid by 7pm. Let me just say after that weekend, I’m glad to still be alive and am not looking forward to anymore birthdays any time soon. J

The next weekend was a chill weekend for me and I got in a 35 mile road ride on Saturday. I’ve been back on the road bike a lot lately trying to enjoy summer, but the weather hasn’t been the nicest at the beach. It’s a weird June gloom but a month late. The earth is being weird lately. Last year around this time I had every fan in my house blasting, and still sweating. Now this year I will turn one fan on before bed but that’s really it. Not to mention we’ve had a few earthquakes lately. It’s probably going to be hotter than Africa in October when it’s getting dark at 5pm. Anyway…

Last weekend we had the Haro International Sales Meeting near our office in Carlsbad. We flew all of our outside sales reps in to see our 2011 bikes. Friday was setup day; we worked 8am to 9pm to finish setup. Saturday we got to chill til 4pm when the whole deal started. Demos and I got a road ride in on the coast and it was one of the nicest days I’ve seen in a year or so. From there we had to sit through presentations all day Sunday, Monday, and part of the day Tuesday. We finished tear down at 5:30pm yesterday and I headed home to pack for Chicago Dew Tour. Now it’s mid day Wednesday and I’m on a flight to Chicago. I feel like I’ve been nonstop this entire month so It will be nice to chill out this weekend and watch our guys kill the course. I will be shooting photos so I’ll probably end up running around like a Taiwan chicken with its head cut off, but a nice break from office life. Next weekend is X-GAMES in LA and I’m staying downtown for 4 nights, it will be a ton of fun and I will update with a bunch of photos after it’s over. Enjoy the ridiculous pool party pics.

 

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NBL Southpark Update.

Summer is a go and it’s already flying by. I was looking at my last couple updates and it seems like Supercross Finals were just the other day, when they were the first weekend in May. So what’s new? I just got back from Pittsburgh where I attended the NBL National at Southpark. I flew out to Pittsburgh on Wednesday to visit some Haro dealers in the area. We got some poor direction from our good buddy James Ayres so we were only able to visit one dealer, but one is better than none! Friday morning, Shannon and I did a coaching clinic at Southparks track alongside Justin Travis and it was a huge success. We had like 50 kids, everyone had a blast, the kids ran us into the ground cause they never get tired. Oh, and it was hotter than Africa in PA. At least it felt like it due to the humidity. I raced on Saturday, had a good time but I am not competitive these days with too much time spent at my desk and not enough time spent on my bike. The good news though, my guy Jason Rogers killed it and finished 3rd on the podium both days. It is always a pleasure to see your athletes do well. Congrats to Jason on some good riding. Jason will give you mad excuses, but I got dude to the first turn 4 times in practice and gave him endless shit about it. Where’s that $500 at Roggie? Southpark was only 112 motos this year. It’s such a bummer because it’s one of those races that I love going to because it’s always been a favorite. Some of my best memories in racing were in Pittsburgh, my 21st B-Day was in Pittsburgh with some of my good friends. The only difference was back then, the race with 200+ motos. Now, I’m nearly 29 and the moto count is decreasing every year. The NBL seems to be treading water which is sad. Oh well, nothing lasts forever but I will forever attend Southpark as long as it’s on the national schedule.

Moving on, I’m leaving for Vegas right after I finish this update. June 23rd was Mcgonigle’s birthday and July 4th is mine, therefor we’re having a collaboration birthday bash at Hard Rock pool tomorrow which is going to go off. One for the record books I’m assuming. Saturday is my class reunion where I will make a 15 minute appearance as a reminder that I’m glad high school is over, and Sunday I’m heading back to San Diego. Being that Sunday is my actual birthday, my SD friends are throwing a huge 4th of July bash where there will be sun, booze, bikinis, beach cruiers intoxicated, and tons of fun. Looking forward to this weekend for sure but not exactly sure how I’m about to be 29. Where is life going. July 7th is two solid years working the 8 to 5 and it feels like just yesterday.

Check out the gallery below, all the riding photos are compliments of Jerry at BMXmania.com. Obviously the photo on the Revtec in Fox gear is old. Circa 2005!!! The photo next to it was from last weekend. Same jump, same steez, 5 years apart!! Included a couple photos from the clinic as well. The photo up top was from a 2011 Haro Dealer video shoot that I did last week with Allan and Chris. 2011 Bikes are looking so good, Allan is doing an amazing job with all the marketing. Look forward to big things in the near future, but in the meanwhile – I’m off to Vegas!!! Talk to you guys in a couple weeks with some ridiculous Vegas stories and photos.

Oh yeah, make sure you check out the video from the sickest crew around DEFT FAMILY, from the Vegas Supercross Finals trip.

 

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Mid June update.

Since returning from Taiwan I’ve been non stop pedal to the metal. This weekend is the first weekend I was able to stop and relax a little. The week following my Taiwan trip, my 95 year old grandma fell down in the hall way at 2am and severely broke her arm. She had never broken a bone before and this break is pretty gnarly, up near the shoulder. She is too old for surgery so they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place on what to do to fix it. She’s on pain meds but seems to be doing alright, considering. So, last weekend I went out to Vegas to visit her and spent the weekend at my parents house. I drove back to San Diego on Sunday and had to catch a red eye flight at 10pm to Philly, heading to Woodward East for the week. After getting balled up in Sunday traffic from Vegas to CA, I got home at 7pm and had an hour before Allan and Chris picked me up to go to the airport. In that time I had to pack all my clothes, riding gear, bike, etc. No rest for the wicked. To say I was tired upon arriving in State College the next day, is an understatement.

Haro week at Woodward East was awesome. Allan, Chris and I met up with the Haro and Premium team and I spent 3 solid days riding with: Nastazio, Mackay, Nyquist, Ronnie and Anthony Napolitan, Garrett Reynolds, Dan Foley, Enarson, Marcus Tooker, and a bunch of other shredders. We brought a few Premium and Haro frames, wheels, seats, pedals, and a bunch of other promo stuff for giveaways to campers that were shredding. Woodward has some of the funnest trails I have ridden in years, riding them was the highlight of my trip for sure. I still got a bit of steezy for a washed up office desk jockey I think, Colin Mackay shot the picture up top of me doing an invert over a pretty big transfer in the park course.. The only thing that sucked about the trip to Woodward was NO phone service the whole time, oh and our 6am flight home on Thursday morning, other than that it was a total blast and kids were stoked.

On the race front, we picked up Nic Long as he’s proved to be a solid contender with two wins already this year in his first full season as a AA Pro. This weekend in Rockford, Illinois was his debut on the team and he finished a solid 3rd on the podium today (Sunday). Rogers and KY97 both made the final too, so it was cool to see 3 Haro Race Lites out of 8 total main event spots. In picking Nic up, we had to finally let Steven Cisar go. I think the split was a mutual good thing as Steven told me I was a shit team manager, and it feels good to not be riding for Haro anymore. All I expect from my dudes is to perform. We all have jobs, and if we don’t do them we lose them. As a BMX racer, a company either hires an athlete to market their brand based on current results, or past titles. It sucks when athletes take a business decision as a personal vendetta and are so quick to forget all the things you do for them over the years. Oh well, I am pumped to have a solid team again and it made my day to see all my dudes make the final together in Rockford today.

Wednesday I leave for PA again, this time Pittsburgh for the race in Southpark. The NBL is on it’s last leg but I will forever love Southpark more than any other track and the NBL Grands will always be a classic too. Jason Rogers, Shannon Troglia and I will be doing a clinic on Saturday morning along with Justin Travis at the Southpark track so come on out and get some extra track time. The following weekend I’m back to Vegas again for my 10 year [I'm getting old] class reunion and Birthday weekend. I will be out there Thursday, Friday and Saturday and back to San Diego Sunday morning for the 4th of July [my birthday] Beach Bash at Boars Crossing in Carlsbad. No Fear is throwing a huge party and there is going to be a lot of booze, bikinis, beach cruising, and hopefully tons of fun in the sun. After my birthday weekend I’m thankful to have a couple weekends off before having 4 back to back contests with Chicago Dew Tour, X-Games LA, Nike 6.0 Huntington Beach, and Portland Dew Tour. A busy summer for me!

Check out the gallery below, the race team photo is from a recent photo shoot for the 2011 Haro BMX line. The other photos, Colin Mackay shot of the team at Woodward. More rambles in a couple weeks, long live summer!

 

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Taiwan Wrap Up

I’m finally on a plane back to LA and I’m not tryin’ to complain cause I’ve only got 2 hours left, but this flight has been a burner. Allan and I were lucky to get an exit row without seats in front of us so we are chillen’ on leg room. We waited until last minute to buy our tickets thinking our normal United flight would be less expensive, we were wrong. Instead, we ended up paying $1300 each to fly on China Airlines. It’s been alright though, direct flight from LAX to Taipei where we would have laid over in Japan had we taken the United burner.

The trip was solid, wrapped up some things for Clique which is our BMX Race parts line we’re launching at Interbike. Khalen has been testing our new hub for months now without any problems so it’s a go. On the freestyle side, we wrapped up some wheel projects, got a new frame underway for Premium, drank some whiskey. All in all it was a rad trip, but being there a week is a bit much. We were lucky to find a couple westernized food spots so we only ate Mcdonalds once on our trip when normally we have it 4 or 5 times minimum.

As I mentioned before, we got new GoPro cameras so we brought one to Taiwan to film the videos I posted the other day, along with some others like what you’re about to witness. I don’t have any editing skills so this is just a raw clip. The camera died toward the end of the tour so it cuts out early, but you will see all the good shit. This clip is from the night market, the Taiwanese grocery store. Walk with Allan and I through third world devastation and be thankful you don’t have to smell the scent of death.

I’m happy to say that we’re on track with product development to the point I probably won’t have to do another trip until Taipei Show next year but the domestic schedule is about to get really busy. This coming Wednesday we’re doing a photo shoot for the 2011 Haro catalog. Then Sunday we’re off to Woodward with the freestyle team for a riding trip until Thursday and that following weekend is Rockford which I’m [thankfully] skipping. Weekend off and then Wednesday I’m off to Southpark for my favorite race of the year. Going to do a Haro/Rockstar clinic there with Steven or Khalen as well as a couple dealer visits. The following weekend I’m in Las Vegas for Friday and Saturday for my 10 year class reunion [yes I know I’m getting old] then flying home to San Diego on Sunday morning and celebrating my Birthday July 4th. My friends at No Fear MX are throwing a July 4th party at a bar downtown Carlsbad which will be rad, and of course there will be fireworks because it was the day I was born. Booze and beach cruisers and fun in the sun, can’t think of a better way to celebrate my 29th. Thankfully I am getting better with age and still look 22. Ahahah. Couple weeks off to recover from Birthday festivities and then it’s four back to back weekends. First one is Dew Tour Chicago, X-Games LA, Nike 6.0 contest in Huntington Beach, and then Dew Tour Portland. Two weekends off and then I’m off to Louisville for NBL Grands, and then two weeks off again and I’m in Las Vegas again for Interbike. As I just wrote all this, I’ve now realized why my summers fly by so fast these days.

Enjoy the photo gallery from Taiwan. I will update again after Woodward with some photos and a video clip or two. Be sure and check out my Taiwan Island outline tattoo, Allan got the same one. We thought that was a good idea I guess. Oh and also, notice the picture of Allan’s Jim Beam bottle I took in the hotel room after he’d had it a week. He snuck it into my bag for a joke at airport security, but the funny thing is they confiscated a bottle of water and I made it through with the Jim Beezie too easy. Stay classy San Diego

 

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