I'm 20!

Fleet tonight, cricket Sunday.

Ben

Ok, yesterday Cam and I went to some downhill runs which have been made relatively near 'brick hill'.
There are at least a handful of routes down the hill, with lots of different drops, berms, undulations, and rooty technical sections, and I had an awesome time.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; downhilling is the most fun you can have on a bike. I took the BMX down a couple of times, which was, in all fairness, shit scary and bloody tough, especially considering one one brake, 20" wheels, primo 'wall' tyre, and no suspension.

I took my old Kona down a few times, which Cam has impressively restored, and yeah basically I'm gonna have to buy another mountain bike becuase it's just too much fun. Anyhow, here's a 3 videos, 2 of me and 1 of Cam going through the lower midsection of the course.

http://media.putfile.com/Cam-DH

http://media.putfile.com/Ben-DH1

http://media.putfile.com/Ben-DH-2

Yes yes yes we love it.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5555019852648772266

This is the latest JLC video. JLC trails are in a park in Exeter, a shot ride from where I live. The video has clips from various spots near Exeter, and apparently I'm in some of the trains. I've definately got one clip... about 7 mins in, where I jump a table and then 450 a hip. Get in there.

Seriously, it's a fucking miracle that people make it through the main line, they're so damned hard.

Videos of Cam and I riding downhill coming soon... oooo...

Ben

Robin backflip sequence.

http://media.putfile.com/Robin-Flip

Also, an interesting story about sheep hills getting rebuilt. I remember when this place was one of the most famous spots ever. People were moving to Cali just becuase of sheep hills. Pretty legendary.

http://www.fatbmx.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1876

http://www.bmxonline.com/bmx/photos/oversized/0,15740,1141884,00.html

Now THAT's manly. I've been off a similar sized bridge in France, sans bike of course, and that scared the living daylights out of me and nearly ripped an arm off. Fair play.

Also, Robin got a pre-death spine 360 photo on the beloved http://www.i3mx.com.

Tea, tea, tea, what? What?

Ben

Injured in a Foam Pit?!

Riding foam for the first time wasn't quite as weird as I'd imagined it to be, but certainly it was a shit load more painful. Of course I was going to try flips, especially with Robin and Darren pulling them impeccably all day long.

I probably had about 10 attempts, starting off with the classic archibald air to bail, they gradually got better, getting to the stage where I was landing directly on my head. After about 7 or so attempts I got one round fairly well, which was good. I then went for another, got it round most of the way, but as I went into the foam I collapsed into the bike and got a heavy knock on the knee from the bars. Probably the most painful thing I've ever experienced on a bike.

That kind of put my session on it's arse, but Robin and Darren continued, nice whips on the box from Darren, and Robin had high airs all over the place and good twists over the box. Both did at least 20 perfect flips into foam as well, and could have sent it on the box. Collum Walshe was also there, owning the spine mini with big airs, twists, 5s, and whip airs, but his flip attempts into the foam were classic archibald with no rotation. Superb!

Hopefully the knee will function in time for the cricket match.

Ben

MOTION MISH.darren whip box

robin flip (ben pho)

darren flip (ben pho)

darren twisty flip

yeah ben

robin booooooost (ben pho)

darren flip again

ben 540

harrow bash.

Also, this is AMAZING.

http://lockdownprojects.com/EOD/EOD-Action.mov

When the police find you passed out in the street, it's fair to say you overcooked your night out.

Phwoar, it's saturday night and the effects of friday evening are still painfully present. I think my percieved drinking abilities and my acctual drinking abilities were a long way from each other... thank god for understanding parents. Q is harder than YOU.

Anyhow, some bmx. http://www.joelmoody.com/index.html/ has a little teaser for the new empire video. Good old ratty rat chase hawk gets the bike going nearly backwards over a biggun at 9th street, it's worth some frame by frame action.

Ben

hollay fo the dollay...

blap. yesterday i went to gally hill road church's reverend's house. yep. amazing garden full of trails... what? his sons are mountain bikers (with bmxs mind) and have a hecking sweet set up next to their house. it was k-rad. two 4-packs next to each other which share a big transferrable landing across both the 2nd doubles. highlights of the day: jonny doing old skool no-handers over the 2nd, the owners sending big no-foot cans and loads of x-up combos, and me sending a big old twist... i was so happy. got it second try. hit my head on branches... apparently it was huge. stoked. it's a bit of an exclusive set up though, i was lucky to be able to ride. hopefully i'm in there now though, after pulling "the most awesome 360" at their trails. TURBO! regretfully didn't take my camera.. but here are some other phots from a while back...

nick gets his boooost on:

nick air:

me, apparently naked, doing a hanger: nick photo

paddy sends it at fleet with a tuck knee over that gap:

and in other news...

Concrete, more concrete...and Chris Mahoney!
Alright boys. Sweet weekend of BMX just passed here. Got all cultural and shit and went to the theatre on Friday. Don't worry, I've not turned gay - it was to watch a show about BMX. 'Skid 180'. Gay name but quite good. Someone described it as "BMX on acid". Had a storyline, a 6ft mini on set and none other than Chris Mahoney and Northern John providing the live riding and acting.

Anyway, got talking to them after the show and ended up going riding with Chris and some other dudes at some new spots round Melbourne (Northern John was to hungover to ride after a heavy sesh!!).

First up was Box Hill skatepark. 20 mins on the train gets you a newly constructed concrete park with 8-bowl, spine-mini linking bowls, flatbank hip and street course jazz:



Good park, some local shredders and Mahoney riding as you'd expect - super consistent, high airs and clicked tricks. Sound geezer also, no ego or anything like that. Just buzzing off riding a new park. Spine deceived me a bit, as it's 4ft one side and 6ft the other. You guessed it, jumped to flat on my 1st go...represent!

Next up KFC for some grub before driving to Frankston park. Got a lift off an Aussie dude called Lindsay with furry seat covers in his car. Super nice guy and well travelled including some roadtrips in England. Didn't think much of it, then it turns out he's Lindsay Brown of Ride/Urban Games fame. Day was turning out like the Heat Magazine of BMX!

Frankston is a new park, concrete as usual. Check the sky in the pictures chaps: this is winter! Could've ridden in a t-shirt were it not for the concern for losing skin. Park is ramm-o-ed save for the bowl. I go check it out and then I see why helmets are compulsory in this country... The thing is an absolute monster! Deepest bowl I've ever seen (bigger than Rom) and it honestly looks like they've built it by dropping an atom bomb in the ground!! Even the small end is over vert so it's foot-in all the way. Still getting used to the DK so I was pretty chuffed to just blag an air.

Mahoney put the P-R-O into pro rider. Whilst most people got used to the bowl by just carving about Mahoney takes it to the next level with a table air round about the 3/4ft mark on his 2nd air. Bit of a break, drops in...f-king flair!! WHITTTTTTTTT!! Slipped a little on landing, but pulled clean next try. Oh my christ. Later put a run together of table, whip, flair. Pulled another 3 times for the camera. Nutter.

http://media.putfile.com/Mahoney---bowl-whip-then-flair

Next up the bowl claimed it's first victim. Scottish guy by the name of John doing a 270 nosepick drop-in to the small end. Smooth as but slipped on landing and re-fked an old knee injury. Took 3 people to lift him out of the bowl. Bowl is certainly not for the faint hearted.

Still, this didn't stop locals pegging the deep side, John icepicking it before the stack and Lindsay tyretappin', foofin' and 3-tapping the small side.

Good days riding and later went to some rock club where apparently Luke Fink was in attendance albeit on crutches. Broken leg after a flip gone wrong. The place was a bit of a blur for me having nailed the drinks with some local riders. They have trails that I can ride soon, so I'm happy.

Finally I'm getting pissed off getting used to the DK and some guy offered me a tenner less than I paid for it, so depending on whether this goes through and the cost to ship/fly my bike out; I may be reunited with the beast. Can't wait!

Hope you're all enjoying the English summer.

Vert is Back

Ok, so it's always been pretty nuts, but this weekend's X-Games I think has really shown it off to be an amazing part of bmx. Some highlights include Kagy winning it, with flatspin bars, flatspin whip, superman seatgrab bars, and a doublewhip flatspin. That Kieth guy that did a frontflair did it again, and Kevin Robinson, finally, landed a double flair. He's horrendously American and pretty awfully unstylish, but fair play, that's the shit.

http://www.bmxonline.com has video highlights, watch them.

Ben

holla!

check this out.


what the fuck next?

in other news, i just got back from spain. check the journal for update...