2020V13

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DISTRIBUTED BY DCSHOES AUSTRALIA WWW.DCSHOES.COM.AU TO SEE THE LATEST NEWS, TEAM INFORMATION AND SHOES, GO TO: WWW.DCSHOES.COM

010 013 news and rumours

How many jams can one country have?..

026 Reformist

Between Simon O’Brien ruling the world theres been a stack going on in the flat domain...

034 New Beginnings

So you might not have known about it, but it went off. Have a look and a read.

040 Ryan Guettler

A look into the mind of one of Australia’s fastest rising talents.

046 Small Town Minds

You reckon you’ve got nowhere to ride?

052 Trans Tasman

Road trippin across NZ to the XAir comp

058 Return to the beast

Jamie Mahon takes us back to one of Australia’s hidden riding treasures.

064 Insight V2: Crispy

Chris Polack may have based himself in Europe but it hasn’t stopped him shooting some of the best pics in the world.

070 Underground

Searching out the future rulers of Australian riding.

074 How To

Get down and dirty in this issues HT.

076 Beats and pieces

More rock’n’roll and digital vision for your perusual.

080 New Products

Lotsa bling bling gear for ya.

2020bmxmagazine

Editors at large and then some//Matt Holmes, Mike Daly Pixel and paper manipulation//Holmes Contributors//Jamie Mahon, Ross D Lavender, Clint Millar, Chris Moore, Brett Mason, Ryan Guettler, Stephen Wilton, lacy, Ryann Galea, Jamie Moore, Nitai, Bart de Jong, Shane Badman, Simon O’brien, Chris Polack, Alfonzo deJesus and many more...

Photos//Graeme Pereira, Jamie Mahon, Chris Polack, Chris Moore, Beardo, John Young, Tim Kiddle, Nitai, Kade Hillier, Dave Sayer, Chris Polack, Smiley, Zack Musarsa.

The Godfather//Michael Steingraeber, thanks buddy!

Photographic (+life) inspiration + studio//Tony Nolan All editorial enquiries//ed@2020bmxmag.com.au Advertising info//sales@2020bmxmag.com.au Publishers//Holmes & MikeD, the 2020 posse...

Webheads//www.2020bmxmag.com.au (It’s underway, kinda, maybe...)

Editorial and photographic contributions are welcome, but 2020bmxmagazine cannot accept responsibility for the loss or damage of material. Send a stamped self-addressed envelope if requiring return pronto. That said, we do look after your stuff like our own!

2020bmxmagazine is published four times a year by 2020bmxmagazine Pty Ltd. RRP $6.95* Every issue more and more crew get themselves involved in 2020bmxmagazine, making it the riders manual for the whole of Australia. If you want to find out how to submit words, ideas, photos or fill our ipod with good tunes then contact us. Yo, what you waiting for?

Distributed in all states of Australia by Gordon&Gotch.

New Zealand distribution by Gordon&Gotch NZ. For bikeshop sales in New Zealand call (09) 6253018.

Printed in Australia by Quality Images.

Made on an Apple 1.8 Dual G5.

All material copyright ©2004 2020bmxmagazine.

Views expressed are not necessarily those of the publishers, but possibly that of the author. *Recommended and maximum price, cheap eh?.

Correspondence and competition entries to// 2020bmxmagazine PO Box 498 Newtown NSW 2042 or email whatever@2020bmxmag.com.au

gazine

clear stratosphere//Jamie Mahon COVER//Ryan Guettler launching into Canberra’s crystal e//Graeme Pereira CONTENTS//Cooper Brownlee chillin post session, Melbourn

A few hassles with new gear, sorting out new digital file methods and software added to the time spent doing nothing related to the mag. And on top of all of that I seemed to be running around all over the country checking comps and spots. All of which left not a lot of time left to actually put the mag together, let alone live a normal life. Bitch, moan, whinge, excuses…

Of course with a growing number of incredibly talented contributors, it becomes a little easier. All of whom step up to the plate every issue and capture a little more Australian BMX culture for this magazine to put into print.

Still, when it comes down to making all the pics, words, ads and assorted mayhem we seem to collect, theres not much more than an Apple G5 (possibly the best creative tool ever made), a G4, a scanner and a million hours playing an almost Rubicks cube like game of making it all fit into the pages we have.

Forget massive magazine office environments with personal assistants making me ginseng tea and offering massages for working so hard. No colour photocopiers or boardrooms with harbour views. Everything that you hold in your hands is made in a spare bedroom.

Drawers, shelves and cupboards full. Full of slides, photos, magazines, CD’s, parts, brochures and crap. All quite well ordered and arranged, just don’t ask me to find anything in a hurry. Especially if I’ve filled it using my new deadline enhanced on the floor method… But all of this stuff is slowly becoming a pretty big history of what we do, well for me two things, riding and magazines. There is so much stuff we don’t use, that I’d love to get out there somehow, but I’ll leave that for the moment.

I’ve just finished going over the PDF files that get sent to our printer, it’s all so digital now it’s scary. Alongside me are the 12 issues that I’ve already got under my belt. And I’ve run through them all again (for the millionth time) just to see if it has progressed. You see to me there is absolutely no point doing this mag (or anything) unless there is some learning and progression involved. Well almost, I add fun to this equation, just to make sure I am still living a life and haven’t become a robot. But seeing seeing the evolution of the mag is pretty cool. This one here your delving into should probably my least favourite right now, due to the lack of: A//Sleep B//My lady C//Life D//Real job E//_____________________________________ (insert whatever past time here you think is worthy)

But even with my mind turning inside out, come time to do the last final check of it all*, I quickly realise why I’m doing it. Riding in Australia needs a voice, a medium, so 2020bmxmag came about. A kind of vision that I wanted everyone I’d ridden with and hadn’t ridden with to be part of. Now I get all stoked.

Heres the deal. 2020bmxmag will soon have it’s offices upstairs from a massive indoor park meaning going to work will be fun! Well maybe not, but its a good dream. Colin Mackay boosting at the IC warehouse//GP

Anyone superstitious?

So, read up and enjoy. But not too much cause I came up with a plan that may make this mag ‘interactive’. Look at the photos, that’s where the stories are. If you take the time to read this whole mag, take that same time to look at the photos again and make your own stories up from what you see. Better yet, cut all the pics out and stick them all back together in your own mag and write a different story. Finally, put it in an envelope and send it to me.

Then at least I’ll be able to think someone else has gone through this nuts mag world with me…

I’m not that into superstition, but it’s a great concept to lay some blame should you be insanely tired... Come deadline for this issue it seemed there was no way everything was going to sync up and make it to the printer. Probably the biggest deal here was the simple fact everyone involved in the making of this crazy mag was completely tied up with another job or project at the same time we were heading to print. Lucky Issue 13 right? * There are plenty of mistakes that will make it past my blurry eyes, but just chill, unless your some English professor.

Heavy Metal Heroes V8

I guess the aspect I enjoy the most about HMH is the people it brings out, from the undergrounders to the up and comers, the old school pros and the weekenders all the way to the crazy handle bar moustached, mullet rocking, toothless footy dads. It’s just so crazy! Steven Wilton The Organiser/Competitor: Mark Schneider My view of the whole day is scattered. They always are as an organiser and competitor. I didn’t get to see much riding either, too many questions from excited kids and teenagers new to riding and wanting to know every last detail. The thing I noticed most about the comp compared the ones in the past were the crowds had gotten bigger and half of them seem to be parents. They looked on in a confused sort of way at their sons taking part in the days riding.

It’s important to have comps like HMH as all kids are seeing nowadays are events like “X-Games” and cornball movies like “Triple-X”. The more grass roots style events we have in this country the better it will be for riding. It provides new and younger riders, parents also, a better view of what riding is all about. It makes our scene stronger, gives older riders more competition experience without the pressure yet with the same amount of sponsor coverage.

HMH 8 had 68 entries and about 1000 spectators, not bad considering we had no Dirt this time and the 200 flyers I printed up are still sitting on my coffee table. The only way anybody knew about the comp was word of mouth. Next comp will be held June 12th – 13th - Dirt on Saturday; Street, Vert and Mini on Sunday.

The other Organiser: Clint Millar When I offered Mark my help on running his next HMH comp at Beenleigh I thought it wouldn’t be hard to do, how wrong was I. Gone are the days when I would hold a comp with no budget what so ever except what I could afford to spend on it. With all the red tape in this modern world it is quite an expensive and difficult thing to do these days. We had to get ourselves public liability insurance, liability insurance for the BBSAI,

permits, permission from the council, right of use for the park for the day etc, etc, the list goes on and on.

I also put my hand up to do the honours of chasing down sponsors for the prizes for the comp. This is also a hard thing to do in itself. Luckily Triplesix Distribution with wethepeople, Macneil, Orchid footwear, Shadow and LittleDevil were down for the cause as well as local clothing brand, Big Deal. As always Crossley Cycles, Bikefirst and Helensvale Cyclescene layed down with prizes. We even had Pepsi come onboard as a drink sponsor. Without these companies the comp wouldn’t have been such a success.

On the day there were the running headaches that are always present on an event like this but with the great team of volunteers we had such as Nick and Debbie Richardson, Roy Jarmey, Clint Sibble and all the judges helped it run rather smoothly. The council also needs to be thanked for their support. From the feedback I have heard, it seemed many thought it was the best HMH so far. We had the largest rider turnout yet. It’s great to see riders still wanting to ride at such a high level more for the fun of it all, without huge prizes and cash for grabs.

Maybe next time we can get a corporate sponsor so that we can reward the riders more for their efforts. Any takers? Hopefully the next HMH will be just as successful as this one. I must once again thank everyone who was there on the day and let’s make the next one even better. See you there!!

The Competitor: Ryan Guettler To me this comp was worth the wait. It’s been along time coming, not because Marks lazy, but because the park almost got destroyed. But you all know that story. Mark, Clint and everyone who ran the comp did great, it was the smoothest comp yet and there was not one time where something went wrong.

The riders were there for the whole day even when it was over and riders were receiving prizes. Clint Millar pulled out the bunny hop contest, it started out small but by the end Dilleward was the only one left. Street was crazy, the Experts were KILLING it, almost local Niki Buckard did Flip No-handers over the box and Matt who won pulled a Wallride to Whip…remember these are the

Experts here. So much other awesome stuff went down but it would take forever to write it all. My highlights of Pro Street were Millar’s Fufanu on the new back rail of the spine (5 feet high off a 4 foot ramp) – crazy!, Dilleward’s 180 Barspin over the box (he got ripped off in judging), Perko’s 6 Barspins in 3 tricks, the Wolfman’s effort on the Fufanu on the rail behind the sub box (what the ...?).

I got lunch while Flatland was on but when I got back Expert Mini was just starting and it looked like every man and his dog can Whip now (Except Perko hee hee).

Everyone rode great but then biggest stand out was the latest member to ride for 666 - Nick Richardson. He and Niki battled for First place and it was on! Last event was Pro Mini and I’d been talking mad shit to Millar saying I was going to kill him because he has won it the last 4 times. He rode really good but touched a few times which made my prediction true. Everyone but Millar and I were trying Flairs, which was cool to see; Dilleward got the closest with just landing one foot down, Perko and Lee Kirkman got close, then after everyone was done for, Russ Tranter pulled a perfect Flip-Fakie. All in all it was a super fun comp, so next time make the time to travel and head to the HMH.

The Spectator: Rossdlav If you have ever been to a HMH contest before you’d know what the day has in store for you.

For me it was just like every other I’ve been to – good friends, lots of riding, rock music, trailer trash burnouts and the scorching Beenleigh heat. This combination creates the HMH entity, my most favoured contest to go to and now up to contest 8, I wasn’t in the least disappointed.

Let this be known that if you ever go to any sort of contest or jam at Beenleigh, be sure to bring shade with you; bitumen and the sun are the closet friends to the Devil. On the word of shelter, sun smart was the word for the day.

Riders and supporters crammed into the tents provided and with such an impressive turnout, it was made difficult to get some tarpaulin action.

Can you play the game “Count the studded belts under the tent?”

From what I saw, the riding was a belt notch tighter. It was a super treat to watch the all classes. Not just the Pro’s making the limelight

10 2020bmxmag.com.au

but also the Experts and even the Beginners. It amazes me to see all these riders turn up, new faces and old kicking ass and having a grand time.

Highlights for me were Pro Mini including the “bet” between Millar and Guettler, Nick Cooper’s one trick Pro run leaving Tim Wood’s commentary speechless, Mark Schneider and his pink bike (been spending too much time in the Valley eh Mark?), Ben Carnegie riding Vert, the German redhead chickee-babe, $1 Pepsi-cola, watching “Repo man” at Schneider’s afterwards (John Wayne’s a fag? The hell he was!) and the coolest trick for the day - Dave Dilleward’s Box 180…kudos kudos…

The not so highlights go to Steven Wilton’s sprained ankle (fuck you ankle) and the poor Flatland contingency. To be honest, the Flatland content was crap, the crowd didn’t support the riders in the least and the “hardcore” Flat riders chose not to enter. Its one thing to choose not to ride in a contest, but later complaining that there won’t be a Flat at the next HMH and still not planning to enter is another.

You have dug your own grave there…

HMH is one of the few existing rider organised events. Beenleigh has copped its flack over the years being not “cool” enough or whatever. But when you think about it, it has produced talented riders, contests and a place to ride for at least fifteen years. Thanks to everyone who made the day what it was. Support HMH, the BBSAI and Beenleigh, they’re doing something right for you. Word. 2020

How many rails has Millar fuf'd 1st in Aus?//nitai

Bring on the divebomb 3ohs. Nick Cooper//nitai

2020bmxmag.com.au

11

A not so Common ride?

The new face in frames to Australia is Common Bikes.

The frames are hand-built in Sheffield (England) from T45 (also made in England), so will be bomb-proof, the team riders here in the UK are putting it through its paces at the moment. T45 is a combination of Carbon, Manganese and Steel, and is one of the strongest and highest quality tubes available. Put simply it's a stronger and higher quality tube than CroMo 4130… Available to Australian riders, probably initially through the website with distribution starting sometime after May. www.commonbikes.com Peter Koh making use of the real street park action//Jamie Moore

Stowaway City Park Jam A few weeks before we had some of the FBM (Jeremy “Magilla” Reiss And Dave King) boys from the states coming over to tour Australia, we made some tentative plans to have an informal jam in the Adelaide city park.

The Adelaide city council became involved and had more intentions of making the day a competition.

I explained to them that it would be a much more relaxed and probably a more eventful day if the comp format were dropped in favour of a jam.

The jam format is used all over the world and one of the reasons that make it more successful is that instead of being just a straight forward comp format where one rider rides at a time, more riders on the course makes for a more creative atmosphere and gives the crowd more of a spectacle to watch.

The format was about as loose as you can get but it all came together on the day to work out quite well. My whole intention of the day was to give the multitude of riders that frequent the city park a chance to ride with riders from interstate and overseas. It was cool to hear the boys from the states saying they were impressed with the level of riding.

One of the many things I was stoked about on the day was the level of technical riding in lieu of kids just sending themselves in the vain hope of pulling something well out of their league which was a welcome site that riding is progressing beyond the circus tricks of yesterday. Even

12 2020bmxmag.com.au

the kids that were trying the hardest technical stuff were usually landing them or coming painfully close.

Some highlights for me was Northern Monkey, Craig Johns hitting a wall ride to disaster to revert and Peter Koh ice picking the big concrete sub to fakie. (Any one messing with the slippery steel edge of that bad boy deserves credit). I hope this is an indication of the way things are going with BMX in this country in that the riders take control back from gross corporate sponsors and do their own thing. There is only so much complaining you can do before you realize that if you have to do something right you some times have to do it yourself.

Many thanks go to FBM and the Federal Bike Company for supplying the prizes and Jennifer Ringold from the Adelaide city council for actually listening to me and my ideas as to what I thought would work better.

Thanks are also in order for Adrian Ciano for his organizational efforts on the day. Most importantly thanks go to all of the Newcastle boys for making the trek over and obviously our overseas friends that I mentioned earlier.

Without all the riders that rode on the day this event would have not been possible. Thank you.

Jamie Moore

Because Of The Cod! Saturday October 2 at 20g Trails Bendigo.

Bring your bike, beers and fishing rod to the 20g trails in Bendigo for a day of riding, chaos and fishing.

Come ride our newly renovated and redesigned trails, Hit up our dodgy ramps or compete in Egans fishing competition for a major prize pack. If none of that tickles your fancy just sit back and relax with local heroes in our bigger better locals lounge with even more stolen couches and bath tubs.

If you missed all the action of the “Why Try When You’re Gonna Die?” jam last year this is a second chance to be part of the dirtier side of Australian BMX. More info www.20gcrew.8m.com

zach musarsa triplesix 61-2-43682811

Jindalee jams it up On the 28th of February, a jam was held at Jindalee skatepark to show off the upgrades the council has been doing lately.

The jam started at 1pm with about 50 riders, a generator and a dunga stereo.

The Salvo’s even rocked up sporting free sausages and cordial. I’m pretty sure everyone had a damn good day with lots of awesome riding going down and good vibes all round. One of the dudes from the Salvo’s had a chat to me and said they are looking to support more jam’s like that – even saying they will supply a bigger generator and better speakers next time. Check www.4130bmx.com for updates on future jam’s. Guy hamilton

Brendan Hanson//Nitai

14 2020bmxmag.com.au

Head to Head With the crazy diversity in riding styles these days, we decided to throw two of Australia's most diverse riders bikes up against each other. Not good versus evil or better or worse, just two riders bikes, the way they like them.

Rob Smith

Frame: Hoffman, Loyalty Fork: Macneil, Miron Bars: Hoffman, Fat free

Stem: Primo, pro cnc w/tabs Headset: Primo, Gorilla bottom cup, FSA, pig top cup.

Cranks: Primo, powerbite Pedals: Primo, Tenderiser Magnesium Chainwheel: Macneil Chain: Whipperman, Grind chain Front Rim: Hoffman, generator 48h

Hoffman Loyalty

Front Hub: Primo, pro

Pegs: 4, Macneil Crmo

Barends: Macneil

Rear Rim: Hoffman, Generator 48h

Front Brakes: Odyssey, Evolver

Seat: Primo, Hemmorhoid

Rear Hub: Primo Cassette

Rear Brakes: Dia compe, ad 990

Seat Post: Primo, rod

Spokes: Primo, sanded down for less weight

Levers: Dragonfly

Seat Clamp: Primo, slim clamp

Chain Tensioners: none

Cables: Odyssey, Slic Kable, Dragonfly Gemini, SST Oryg

Weight: 10kg

Front Tyre: Primo, V-monster 2.1

Detangler: Odyssey, gtx

Rear Tyre: Primo, Taj 1.95

Grips: Odi, longneck

Any other personal modifications you make?

Nope‌

Russel Brindley

Frame: T1 21”

Fork: Volume (I think???)

Bars: S&M Slam Bars (bent) Stem: S&M Redneck Cranks: Profile 180mm Headset: Four year old Primo Gorilla Cups Pedals: PRIMO Alloy Chainwheel: T1 Gower Power Chain: KMC Front Rim: Sun BFR 48 Hole Front Hub: Hoffman Rear Rim: Hoffman 48 Hole Rear Hub: Demolition Cassette Spokes: No Idea???

Chain Tensioner: None Front Tyre: Slashed Primo Dirt Monster 2.2 Rear Tyre: Bald Primo Wall 2.1 Pegs: Non-existent Front Brakes: As Above Rear Brakes: Dia-Compe Hombre with 990 bits .

Lever: Dia-Tech Dirt Harry Cables: Originally Black?

Detangler: None Grips: Dragonfly Marcus Hampl Bar Ends: Custom Arc Weld Job Seat: Primo Haemmoroid Seat Post: Primo Rod Seat Clamp: Primo Double bolt (unnecessary chunker) Weight: Look at that seat post clamp……..

T-1 Barcode

Any other personal modifications you made?

I have a custom aboriginal paint job using earth tones and other assorted pieces of art/bike jewelry. I chopped off my brake lever to fit my fingers better. I filled in the holes in the ends of my handlebars with molten metal via an ARC Welder instead of using normal bars ends. They are mainly slag so maybe we should call them slag ends. On one side the front axle nut consists of two cone nuts and a big washer. The thread stripped out and that’s the only way I could make it work. It’s a bit dicey whenever I have to take off my front wheel because there are no guarantees that I will get it back on. I am running Dia-Compe Hombre Brake arms

that I got off someone but I didn’t have any springs or bolts so I used the hardware from a pair of 990’s.

Any other interesting info?

My bike has no magnesium bits and no titanium bits at all. I haven’t drilled anything out but I’ve added some welds. I honestly think it looks quite good and it does the job it is supposed to.

Look at that bloody seatclamp, I never really noticed that thing before. I also have a special pair of pedals off my cruiser that I swap if I want to ride Vert barefoot. They are soft rubber with some tape wrapped around them as well.

Deep in the jungle...Corey Bohan spins another 360//Nitai

Bandits make it to DVD

Seems a long ongoing protest about BMX Bandits being released on DVD has come to fruition.

A recent trip to the video store had us checkin new releases to DVD and there it was. New cover, new action shots, all good, plus top dollar rental fee, not so good...

Special features include some great on set photos, along with the original trailer. You just cant beat a good armed robbery with shotguns, Two Hands has borrowed nicely from this original Aussie masterpiece of action and slapstick comedy. Seems the riding isn’t as gutsy as it seemed years ago, I always thought someone 360’d the convertible, but it’s a good gap, and theres a lot of slipping off pedals on big landings. Still some fine street riding and havoc causing that has left it’s imprint on Aus riding and beyond forever.

Apparently more than a few injuries were sustained during the filming. Seeing as it launched the career of one of Australia’s brightest stars, we’ve started a mission to track down the all star cast that included David Agrue and Angelo D’angelo and get the lodown on what really happened on set between PJ, Goose and Ms Kidman. Her agent has refused to comment… What? And whilst in the Hollywood mode, Deltra Goodrem is filming a movie at present, and what better way to launch her acting career than in a BMX movie... Well, maybe its not a BMX movie, but we were contacted to track a rider down for the job of lounging around and doing a few wheelies alongside the apparent ‘sexiest Australian chick’. Due to deadline constraints one ed of this mag was unable to get down to Melbourne to take the role, so the job was palmed off to a well known BMX head known strictly as Ools. We’ll keep you posted of what goes down…

Props News April

Ferny Grove Trails

Ferny Grove Trails seem to be getting known as the place to be if youre a dirt jumper in Brisbane.

Colin Mackay was seen riding them on the last cover, and now it seems nearly everyone in Brisbane has at least heard about them.

On the first Sunday of February, a few people were in town and hit Ferny up. To drop a few names, how about Colin Mackay, Corey Bohan, Dave Dilleward, Stephen Lilly, Alan Cooke and RIDEBMX editor Mark Losey along with all the Ferny locals. The late afternoon session was amazing to watch and it was great to see so many well-known riders all there at once.

Good news about the trails is that they should be running permanently, because the council came in and filled then up so they are ‘safer’. They may now be tabletops, but they are still damn good trails and we should be seeing them for a long time to come. It’s not exactly for me to tell you where they are, but if you do ride them, make sure you give a shout out to Rene and the local trail boss who is out there building and riding. And show a little respect, and keep the place clean so that the council stays happy and there will be many more summer sessions to come.

Nitai

Stew Johnson now has the ultimate road trip vehicle...

A retired ambulance from the city of Chicago is Stews new ride....complete with lights, Sirens, and a PA...they would not let him have the stretcher. Look for stew to hit the road for the summer across north america after his 6 week european vacation in May. The ambulance will also be the the new Road Fools chase vehicle starting with #13 in June.

Props Mega Tour 3 went off with out a hitch...except for the rain and the lost spleen....All the teams including Hoffman Bikes, Blacken, Profile, UGP, Mutiny, and Empire BMX came back with incredible footage. Including Skydiving, trips to Mexico, Blacken at Spring Break, Matt Hoffman flying his” backback flying machine” over his new vert ramp, some guy in a chicken suit, the Shitluck team crashing the tour and getting some incredible footage...and oh yeah the 50 odd riders managed to ride some BMX and get some incredible riding on tape as well.... Mega Tour 3 will be released in July.

Props Employee Bob Scerbo managed to get run over in toronto by more than one rider on the course, taking out his brand new camera in the process. Bob has informed us he will not be filming any more contests this year and will be concentrating on his professional poker career until the next Mega Tour or Road Fools duty calls....

All the best riding from Road Fools #9, #10, #11, #12 will be edited down to 35 minutes of the best riding from the past two years of Road Fools Trips. Road Fools #3 will be featured as the bonus on this Release in its entirety. Road Fools #3 hit the east coast in the fall of 1998 and includes many classic moments in Road Fools history. Thats over 2 hours and two complete releases on this single DVD. Any questions please hit up www.propsvisual.com

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2020bmxmag.com.au

Tajs media distribution Because of T-1 I get to see tons of magazines and zines from all over the world. I love checking them out and seeing the different things going on in the BMX world. I also remember back to when I was a kid and wondered about what BMX was like in the rest of the world, but I had no way to find any of these magazines (and I’d never even heard of a zine). Its still that way for a lot of kids and I was in the rare position to be able to easily do something about. So, I created the Media Distribution site. Should be fun....

Taj www.TajsBMXMedia.com

One World Ban

Martial Clothing is running a jam called the One World Ban. The jam will be held at Switch indoor skate and bmx park located in Port Macquarie. The jam starts at 12pm mid day on the 10th of July during the school holidays and will run through the afternoon and possibly into the late evening.

There’s going to be loud music, plenty of prizes to go around and a laid back vibe with no pressure. It needs a big turnout so make the trip to Port Mc. Even if you have to hitch a ride, do it to make sure this park is always a park for all users.

Open Trails Tahm So who wouldoor have thought that after 2 years of fighting hard against the local Clint Bensly//cameron BishoP

council would bring us to the day of the opening of the Tahmoor dirt trails park

Well the BMeXicans (the small local youth group committee) definately did, the people behind the whole complex, and lets just say the fighting looks like it has paid off. The whole day kicked some serious ass, and thanks to people from Dragonfly Bikes, Eastern Bikes, LJS Bikes and Boards Macarthur, Phantom Cycles and Bicycle World Campbelltown they were able to give away some damn nice prizes too! Also The Lions Club, Picton Hire, and Interface Carpets also chipped in for the day making sure we had enough funds and fun as possible! Thanks to all the local guys during the week who put in plenty of time digging and making the track look up to par on the day, the whole thing ran smoothly with plenty of families and young blokes tearing around havin a great day on

Schwinn back in Australia Finally available in Australia again, Schwinn make their rentry into the country through all Rebel Sports outlets.

On offer is the signature TJ Lavin bikes amongst a big range of new bikes. www.schwinnbikes.com

all areas of the track, it was good to see such a good backing for the whole thing! some insane riding also went down mind you with “Colonel” Clint Bensly winning best trick and Ryann “Narz” Galea winning best crash during a small 10min session, Glen Daggs also claimed biggest air, boosting to intense heights! Heaps of guys also trying some gnarly stuff to top the day off in the end with flip attempts and 720’s and also some nice crashs to boot.

Overall was a great day out jamming away with mates and for Dirt Jump Parks to try and get noticed by councils and the general public. lets hope we see more of these type of places popping up all over Australia!

Ryann Galea @ Weride.net

Zack and Ian Robinson are having a Jam at Northcote and Kensington on the Queens Birthday long weekend [June 12-14], and on the Saturday night there will be the premiere of Inertiafilm’s new video ‘Glasses’.

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Lorem ipsum you son of a bizzle stuff amizzle, we gonna chung fizzle brizzle. Fo shizzle sapien velizzle, crackalackin volutpizzle, mah nizzle quizzle, gravida vizzle, pimpin’. Pellentesque fo shizzle mah nizzle fo rizzle, mah home g-dizzle tortizzle. Fo shizzle my nizzle erizzle. Fusce pot mammasay mammasa mamma oo sa dapibizzle turpis tempizzle for sure. Maurizzle you son of a bizzle crazy izzle turpizzle. Check out this in tortizzle. Daahng dawg shizzle my nizzle crocodizzle nisi. In daahng dawg habitasse platea dictumst. Donec shit. Curabitizzle mofo urna, pretizzle its fo rizzle, mattizzle ac, eleifend gangster, ghetto. Doggy suscipizzle. Uhuh ... yih! yo mamma velit izzle izzle.

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Gangsta own yo’ mi, volutpizzle in, dizzle sed, gangster sempizzle, velit. Crizzle izzle ipsizzle. Izzle volutpizzle felis shizzle my nizzle crocodizzle i’m in the shizzle. Crizzle quis justo i’m in the shizzle shizznit izzle ornare. Da bomb fo shizzle justo check out this mah nizzle. Nunc da bomb. Suspendisse izzle placerat dawg. Curabitur rizzle check out this. Nunc pharetra, ass eu yippiyo fizzle, we gonna chung felis we gonna chung sizzle, shiznit mammasay mammasa mamma oo sa nizzle gangster luctus pede. Mammasay mammasa mamma oo sa a pot. Class aptent taciti ma nizzle izzle brizzle torquent owned conubia sheezy, pizzle pizzle shizznit. Cool bling bling, nizzle shizznit elementum nonummy, nisl orci i’m in the shizzle get down get down, in semper risus arcu break yo neck, yall sem.

Haro's 25 years of freestyle

Haro Bikes is 25 years old this year. All those years of FST’s, Masters, Sports, flip down pegs, integrated framestands, double top tubes and platforms, bashguards and kneesaver bars. But what exactly happened over those years? How did it all come about, how did it get to here. Here’s an interview with the man who started it all and the current president of the company. Bob Haro and Jim Ford.

What products did you make when you started HARO as a company?

Bob: The first things we made were obviously number plates followed by brake levers, decals, visors, jerseys, pads, pretty low-tech kind of items.

Everything was made in America?

Bob: Yes, everything was made in the States at that time.

But they were easy to make and didn’t come with huge tooling costs or things like that. It was easy to start.

When was this?

Bob: I started in ’77 making things at home and then in ’79 had a little shop in Torrance and we were actually manufacturing things. We had things die-cut and we were stamping out some of the plastic plates there. Around 1980 we started making a plastic brake lever. I met a guy who had an idea for that and we put that together and put our name on it. It kinda was all little baby steps.

So the company officially was established in 1978 to make it the 25 year anniversary in 2003?

Bob: It might have started a few years before we incorporated.

Jim: It was incorporated in 1980.

Bob: I was just doing it at my house for a couple of years before that when I moved to Los Angeles to start working at BMX Action magazine and was just doing it on the side.

When it started becoming busy enough and I started making some money I chose to do that full time.

How did you meet each other?

Bob: I met Jimmy through a mutual friend when Jim was in the skateboard business. We had a mutual friend named D David Morgan. Dave could see that I was struggling being the business owner, the designer and managing production. He said: “Why don’t you give my friend a call, he works in the skateboard business.” Jim was working at a skateboard wheel company called Kryptonics at the time, based out of Colorado. I gave him a call and got him an airline ticket to LAX. Basically we went out and had some drinks and we had fun and we thought that this sounded like a good thing to do.

The first HARO Freestyler bikes were made at Torker?

Bob: I used to ride for Torker. They were one of my sponsors. Haro Design, as the company was called back then, was growing. We were making different things.

Freestyle was a novelty back then. I basically had a Torker BMX bike and I asked them to modify it to a bike for freestyle riding. It needed thicker drop-outs, a steeper head angle and the double top tube made sense for the type of riding at that time. I had a good relationship with the guys at Torker at the time and I basically went in one day and told him I wanted to have my own frame and my own brand. I think I told them I could either do it with, or without you, and then they worked with me. We ordered really small numbers at the time because it was so novel. Torker gave me a big start, they really helped out. They had the fixtures and things like that. We bought the frames of my design from them, put our graphics on them and sold them. It was very expensive at the time because the numbers were very

small but that got us started. That was the beginning.

Were you happy to see pegs added to bikes?

Bob: I think it was just a natural evolution. When I was riding it was the beginning. There were no prerequisites. It was not even established. It was completely the beginning.

The thing that we did was brand new. It wasn’t like you were learning from somebody else who was already doing it. The next generation of riders like Dominguez etc, they basically took things that we started and took it further. It still keeps evolving to tricks that Ryan Nyquist and Dave Mirra do nowadays. But there’s still some fundamentals that if you look at it, they’re still riding ramp style events, halfpipes, we did that, we did spines, we did all of that stuff.

Jim, what was your task at the company when you started after that first meeting?

Jim: It probably more of an operational manager. Bob still was in control of the product, what it was all about, how we marketed it. I just kind of brought some order to the whole thing. It was a young entrepreneurial company with a bunch of young people and the demand for the product was getting ahead of the company. It was not that I was any wizard at it but I was more experienced than the other people. We started to expand the product line quite a bit more. Bob obviously spent all his time on design instead of running the company.

When did you start working for HARO? Jim: I think it was February of 1982. That’s when I moved to California.

Bob: That was a big move for Jim. I think he didn’t sell his Colorado house for a while.

Jim: I didn’t know how long this BMX-thing was going to last!

Who picked up the team riders back in the day?

Bob: I think in the beginning it was me, but we all kind of collectively got involved in it. Again, I was probably more involved and in touch with it because I was traveling at the time. I was traveling to a lot of BMX races. I was going mostly to BMX races because at that time there was no freestyle. That was the way to promote the company.

Actually the freestyle thing was more of a novelty. It wasn’t like it was a discipline in the sport. I was a better freestyler than I was a racer and we sold BMX racing products so we were following the racing circuit. We were super in touch with the market, we found riders like Dennis McCoy, people like that. We rolled into a town and there’s always the local hot kids that would show up, the Rick Moliterno’s, these guys would hear the HARO team is in town and wanted to see you ride but at the same time when you were done doing the show, you find out that this guy was the local hot guy and we do a sponsorship thing with him. Like a framefork set or a bike deal or whatever. We had a lot of grass roots local hot riders under our banner. That really helped us as well as on the product development side. You’re hanging out at that many events and you can see what’s working and what’s not.

Till what time did you actively ride a BMX bike?

Bob: I think I stopped riding in 1985 because I kept injuring

my knee. I had like 4 knee surgeries. I would practice and would feel pretty good and then I’d do something real simple like put out my leg to catch myself and then my knee would blow out. Then I practiced to get back in shape and then I’d get hurt again. And then at the same time, the business was growing and guys like Mike Dominguez got on the team that were 15 years old and you’re 25. It doesn’t seem like a big difference but 10 years is 10 years of life.

You got a 15 year old guy and his warm up air on a ramp is 9 feet out of the ramp and your best air is, not that...

You were the sole owner of the company at that time.

What made you decide to sell the company?

Bob: It was a natural evolution of the business. We were growing but we were still a small company. We needed distribution, we needed money. Business requires money in order to make it to the next level. An opportunity came up with a company called West Coast Cycles at that time, they approached us, and it seemed like the right thing to do. It did help the company get to the next level but it comes at a price too. When you sell to a bigger company you inherit a lot of the politics and bureaucracy that comes with a big company and as an entrepreneur that’s not very fun.

You basically took over after that Jim? Jim: It became part of a big company and HARO was one of several brands. What I took over after the sale was really brand management of HARO as it became part of West Coast Cycles. For the most part it was still fun. Like Bob said, after a while more and more bureaucracy crept in and then the company that bought us got bought by an even bigger company and that wasn’t as cool.

How was the market at that time?

Jim: The market took a nose dive.

Bob: For us it looked like we did the right thing. We had a couple of good years and then it faded out. We had people coming to us asking: “How did you know?” We didn’t know, we were riding the wave. It was just the natural evolution of business, peaks and valleys.

What’s the current situation?

Bob: I’ve had HARO Design incorporated for a long time but when I got out of HARO bikes I took about six months off and was trying to think what I wanted to do. I was used to working so hanging out for a while is fun but you go crazy a little bit. In 1993 the idea was to get HARO back to being a small rider run feel, it wasn’t rider owned anymore because I wasn’t part of the ownership mix at the time, but it was that feeling of a small company that was in touch with the market and not filtered through by a couple of different layers of corporate VP’s who you had to report to and that kind of thing. That’s what put a lot of enthusiasm back into the brand by the people who had stuck around and there were probably about 4 of us that had stuck it out and made that transition. We had a couple of tough years out of the gate to get things back up to speed but I’d say probably during the fourth year we had everything clicking and the brand really started to grow again, the market was reasonably healthy and even though we’ve grown a lot since then the company is still a fun place to work and it’s reasonably casual. It’s still professional but the people there like what they’re doing

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Proddy gets Mac'n in 04 Clint Millar is buying himself a nice shiny new Mac G4 Dual processor meaning that soon afterwards a Best of Prody DVD will be released.

It will feature the best bits of Prody 1 through 7 as well as many new clips never before seen.

This video will span footage from the last 10 years of BMX in Australia from his perspective. It will be released in a limited number of copies. Prody 1 through 7 will also be released on DVD as well.

Prody 8 will follow within the next 12 months or so. Clint is also off to China in May for the Chinese XGames with Pete Radivo, should be an interesting trip to say the least. Superman noodle grab to dim sum?

Ride everything, by Clint Millar//ZacK musarsa

Organising Chaos? FreestyleBMX.org The last few years have seen some big changes in Australia in regards to events and BMX comps in general. The old rider/community run comps of old moved to make way to over hyped, sold out events with big dollars and no love for the future of what we call riding.

Insurance hassles and endless problems. Be it with councils, places to host events etc, etc, all has lead to not a lot happening other than the corporate money grabbers attempts at BMX’ploitation. Of course there have been some crazy good rider run jams and small events scattered around the country, but there has been nothing even closely resembling some kind of unity and/or a competition circuit that would bring riders from every state together to ride, progress and if lucky take home some hard earned dollars on a regular basis. Something to put us on the world map, something like a Metro Jam or Backyard Jam, but even better cause it would be here… These kind of events would ensure our local industry gets the recognition it deserves and also the dollars to make it grow and prosper, without having to sell it out.

Now you’ve probably heard all about the fledgling organisation, Freestyle BMX. Either good or bad rumours, because there’s plenty flying around at the moment. Lets set the record straight. This organisation is here for riding in Australia. Simple as that. In some ways I wish this didn’t have to happen. but, in order to retain some semblance of what we call riding in Australia, we needed to form a governing body. Because if we didn’t do it, someone else (like BMX (racing) Australia or Skate (inline and skateboarding) Australia) would have without knowing what we’re all about. But now we have one, aren’t you stoked?

Freestyle BMX’s goals: to make riding grow and give more opportunities to riders in Australia. Of course this doesn’t happen overnight, but it is happening… The BMX Games being one of the first major steps in the right direction.

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Admittedly the lead up to this event has had some serious ups and downs and a lot of misinformation has made it’s way around, meaning many riders had no idea of what the deal was even in the last days before the event. However the Games are the start of an annual event to be run by the riders for the riders with the backing of a legit organisation that allows it to happen. This will lead to smaller lead up events and so on.

Another thing to add is that Freestyle BMX isn’t some big entity that no one can approach. It is an organisation set up to be run by the riders of this country for the riders of this country. The organisation is simply there to allow it to happen with some order. If you want to be a part of it, you can. If you want input, you can have your say. And on the flip side, if you don’t think they have any place in riding and you don’t want to be involved, then you do your thing; keep riding, that’s cool. That’s why we ride, the freedom to choose. Forget media shysters making big dollars from riding and giving nothing back, this not for profit set up is the way forward for not only comps and events, but help in getting parks, trails and more people into riding across the country along with giving more of those who ride a future in what they love. Doesn’t sound so bad does it?

I’m wrapped with the way things turned out at the games and with early progress with the organisation. Admittedly, there’s going to be a lot of dubious decisions, now and in the future, but at least riders will be making them. So get involved and make sure it works.

For more info on Freestye BMX and on how you can become involved, hit up their website; www.freestylebmx.org Holmes

Tassie Tales

The states only good trails are set to go under the plough after a complaint was put into council....

So if you want to ride them before they’re demolished head down to Margate, 30 min out of Hobart. A new park has been built in Beaconsfield 40 min north of Launceston, reports are that it’s quite average but go have a look for yourself. Tourists to the state have been good of late with Jamie Moore from Stowaway bringing Dave King, Rob Dolecki and Magilla down to see what Tassie is all about and take part in some bar fights at the same time. Project one boyz Ian, Zack and Phil will be heading down in April so say g-day if you see them around. Berto’s ramp is in the final stages and should be ready for a jam\party around the end of April if all goes smooth. I’m off to Canada on a work visa for a year so if all goes according plan i’ll be off before this hits the stands.

Leigh G

Stolen Ride…

Terry from BMXMilitia had his Standard 125 ripped recently from the Post Office in Gladesville.

Standard 125 frame and fork, Lil Deuce bars, M5 chainring and stem, Profile cranks and a whole build that rules. Of course it was covered in BMX Militia stickers, so if you come into contact with someone with a freshly painted macking 125 ride with dope bits, be a little suss. Big reward for the return of the bike or the beating of the soon to be beatdown thief.

keeping it real...

On I am pretty tired right now, I need to send this stuff off and I feel the importance to write about this. I’ll keep it a brief one.

Ride your bike and have fun. Ride with others and keep the peace. Support the things that support Flatland. Thanks to all the riders and crews that are making Flat the thing to do – Back 2 Basics, Perth Flat jams, Diversion, Flatland Manifesto, riders from all walks of obscurity, Shane Badman’s biceps and never ending support and finally all the riders who have ever been an inspiration to create.

Do what ever you feel is right and if anyone disses you for it, they’re not worth your time.

Internationally, Flat is going through a big transition and wether it’ll end up being for the better is still to be seen. The future is literally in your hands. Make it how you see fit…just ride your bike.

RossdLav

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Reformist News While in NZ doing demos, flatland spy Shane Badman was secretly researching the flatland potential over there.

His verdict: good! He has also been recently doing demos in Townsville for Harvey Events.

He is a Badman when it comes to high speed new gen power moves like this //Dave Sayer

be firing up his camera in Japan for the King of Ground gathering footage for DVM 5.0. There’s going to be a big jam out in Zuma Beach hosted by Steve “Hollywood” Scheuerer. Some of the Diversion girls should be present – ooh laa laa. Sick Child is planning a take over of some sort. Shawn White’s been hustlin’ at Bizhouse. Expect some surprises soon. The Intrikat DVD-r is done and it will be available for $20 on liquidframe.com with free shipping to everywhere on the planet.

Brisbane rider Brett Dighton has taken up flatland study under the skilled monks in Nihon-go-ga, Japan. That’s right; Brett sold the Statesman and is off for a year and trying to get Aussies over there for the last King of Ground in Tokyo. KOG sounds like it’s going to be the biggest flatland comp around. He’ll be hitting up the King of Ground Perth news, new flatland WA web site at www.iinet.net. and finding as much inspiration from the locals as he can au/~alien/ , soon to be registered as www.flatlandwa.com get.

Bielecki’s set on representing Perth for them bmx games.

Speaking of comps, flatland has been dropped from the Check out his Bio in this issue yo…

US X-Games. No real reasons have been given by EXPN, but we think they’ve had this planned for a while now. A lot of international riders have been speaking out about the pros and cons of the situation so raise your voice and send EXPN an email if you got something to say. On the local front take it back to the roots, you and your carpark :) So support the riders, run a jam, get a website happening and submit your stories/ideas/photos to 2020bmxmag!

On April 24th at Elizabeth Skate Park in Adelaide a park and flatland jam went down. Sponsors included Stowaway, Carnage, Standish Cycles, AFC and yours truly, 2020bmxmag! Results, details and information coming next issue.

Props go out to Daimon Hall and Heather McAnna for good times, inspiring vegetarian recipes and spiky Cactus’…

Another shout out to Clint Millar, Steven Wilton, Nick (NicnChips) Richardson, Mike Lawrence @ 666 and Smiley for an awesome Coffs Harbour road trip… Bust that up again even if I ride a pipe like a girl…

The winner for the Diversion T-shirt contest goes to me.

Yep, that’s right, none of you slack asses entered so ima get me a lady and she can’t use it as a nightie. Word that up…

Well that’s the news covered for this issue. Please send any news, questions and love letters to:

Very brief international news, with a bit of luck we should find copies of Diversion Video Magazine Volume 2 availa- reformist@2020bmxmag.com.au ble June/July through liquidframe.com. Bobby Carter will Peace

Review::Trickstars 5, Self Realisation

Off to the land of Ramen and Soba, Brett Dighton is on a mission//chris moore

The fifth offering from the crew over at Original Gypsy sees them maintaining and developing the strong flavour of flatland in Europe. Based in Budapest, Hungary, the OG crew have travelled extensively in order to capture some of the most developed and inspiring ground riding going on in todays flatland world. Broken down into rider sections, it also features flatland jams around Europe with many of Europes best ground riders including the infamous OG crew from Hungary. Australia is represented through the riding of Simon O’Brien who has the honour of the final section. As per OG style, the filming and editing is clean and flows together well. The music is fairly mainstream, but complements the riders well. While the content in this latest chapter of Trick Stars is largely flatland, it would still appeal to a wider audience due to the clever editing and filming locations that truly emphasise the beauty of Europe. For any flatlander part of the new school curious to know the direction flatland is heading or even for the old school rider who wants to know where flatland has gone, need look no further than Trick Stars 5. If this video is this good, I can’t wait to see the next instalment. Riders featured are Simon O’Brien, Michael Sommer, Michael Steingraber, Frank Lucas, Martti Kuoppa, Viki Gomez and many more…

Formore information www.original-gypsy.com Badman

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Amsterdam’s Flatground Pt4 The world’s largest annual BMX flatland competition, Braun Flatground, returned to Amsterdam in February for what is becoming the biggest and richest flat event of the year.

Braun Flatground 2004 has redefined the flatland discipline.

Riders and spectators witnessed a barrage of new, progressive and ever more complex tricks. So Amsterdam was the cradle of a movement to combine sports, music and dance.

In its fourth year, the three-day spectacle successfully brought together over 150 riders in Pro, Expert & Master categories with over 750 dedicated fans from all over the world. Only the renovated 19th Century industrial Gashouder venue could provide a spectacular enough setting for the competition.

On Saturday night the largest number of Pro BMX Flatland

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riders ever gathered under one (snow-covered) roof battled their way to the title and a share of 10,000 Euros. The high level of riding made judging a difficult task. The Japanese wizard Yanmar claimed first place whilst fellow countryman Kotaro Tanaka took third. Martti Kuoppa, the Finnish KGB rider, took 2nd place with style…doing his run whilst a live MC freestyled on the microphone!

Braun Flatground 2004 once again redefined the flatland discipline. Riders and spectators witnessed an array of new, progressive and ever more complex tricks being linked together

to reaffirm the belief that flatland is BMX’s hardest riding discipline. Friday and Sunday focused on the jam aspect of BMX flatland. Jamming allowed athletes to fully appreciate riding at the Gashouder venue, soaking up the atmosphere and music without the stress of competing. This was a time for amateurs to pick up new tricks by riding side-by-side with the pros on the same, specially laid, competition surface.

Amsterdam’s famous Melkweg Club hosted the aftershow party and Pete Rock’s thundering hip-hop performance with CL Smooth heralded the duo’s return to live performances and concluded Braun Flatground 2004 on a high.

Circle of Balance

Probably the biggest flat event of the year, Red Bull’s COB will take place once again in the Gasometer in Germany.

Expect to see Simon O’Brien and Mike Steingrabber throw down some incredible riding in the battle style event. One on one riding until there is only one… Stay tuned for the next issue of 2020bmxmag for coverage from what may be the biggest and richest flat comp in the world, or if you can’t wait check out the ama zing vision and pics at www.redbullcircleofbalance.de

Kotaro Tanaka//Braun

Results Pro 1. Yanmar, Japan 2. Martti Kuoppa, Finland 3. Kotaro Tanaka, Japan 4. Michael Sommer, Austria 4. Michael Steingräber, Germany 4. Nathan Penonzek, Canada 7. Viki Gomez, Spain

Viki Gomez//Braun

2020bmxmag.com.au

29

Hang what?//marcelo Palacios

Michael Bielecki Michael Bielecki is a super awesome guy. Of course I haven’t met him in person and my only contact is through msn, but there is devotion and an insane quirkiness hidden between the words we keep contact with. I like the idea that he lives in Perth. The Flatland scene out there seems a little more grounded than everywhere else; lacking the political attitudes and ideals. If I was asked what Bielecki’s riding was like, I’d have no idea and quite frankly I couldn’t care. As far as I am concerned it’s all about the love of riding and positive attitude towards other riders and Bielecki is all this, something which we should all aspire to be. Cheers Brother. Words By Rossdlav Name, age, years riding?

Bielecki, 18 and a little bit, bout 3 years-ish.

Who is Bielecki?

Just another dork who loves riding a bike that’s way too small for him.

Riders who do it for you and why?

Most Aussie Flatlanders do it for me, as long as youíre friendly and talk heaps, and spend time riding, I love ya.

That’s why I love this Flatland brotherhood, everyoneís fun to be with, everyone has their own riding style, I look up to everyone.

4. What outside influences inspire you to ride?

Definitely stress, whenever something gets me down I just jump on my bike, Itís one of those things that just totally calms me down, and other riders in the local scene, because everyoneís always learning new stuff it pushes me to try harder and learn new

30 2020bmxmag.com.au

tricks to keep up with the pack.

Favourite BMX company and why?

FBM, those guys are just so funny, good to see guys just having fun with what they do, no matter how stupid it may seem.

Cyndi Lauper or Madonna?

Peaches, she’s the only valid female singer in my opinion.

One thing you would like to see exiled from BMX? That’s a pretty hard one, but Iíd have to say all the people who don’t turn up to my jams, nah on a serious note, I am actually quite happy with BMX in the current time, everyoneís still having fun, a few riders are making a decent living off of it so yeah, I think BMX is just doing fine as it is.

What are your thoughts on Flatland at the moment and where itís at?

(Contests, styles, bikes etc...) I reckon Flatlandís on the up and up at the moment, while X-Games and Planet X may

have just dropped Flatland, there’s about a million other big contests popping up in its place. In Australia itís still slightly slow on the uptake, but overseas we have companies like Red Bull and Braun sponsoring major Flatland only contests, if that doesn’t say something, I dunno what will.

As for styles, I prefer the time back when old school was meeting new school, can’t beat a style like Chase Gouin’s if you ask me, I cant really watch Pro runs anymore, too technical for my eyes to concentrate on.

One bit of advice you would give someone starting in Flatland?

You won’t get good in a day, just keep on riding cos you can only get out what you put in.

Plans for 2004?

Work work work, catch up to Lloyds skills, work work work, go to next Back2Basics jam, work work, 2005.

Thank yous and last words...

FOR STICKER PACK, PLEASE SEND $5 AND SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE TO: 4FRONT SPORTS, P.O. BOX 203, COLLAROY, NSW 2097

MIKE ESCAMILLA

E T N I E S : MIKE WITH A NO-FOOTED TOOTHPICK IN new zealand.

d 3 escamilla op t f mike r o o ne d esi g features system G2™

ROOFTOP 3

{BLACK+GREY+WHITE & BROWN+TAN+ORANGE}

How is it that things always happen after your gone? Like I make the trek back to Adelaide and next to my old High School is a new skate park, there are huge trails just out of the city, the city park we petitioned for years for is now twice as big as last time I rode it and to top it off, theres a massive comp at the showgrounds. WTF? Words&pics: Holmes

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BELOW//These are just some of the faces that were part of the inaugural BMXGames event. If you missed out this year, be ready for the next generation of Australian rider run comps including the 2005 Games.

The lead up to the BMX Games was a chequered affair.

The when, where and what was always the big question.

When it was all finally revealed the mission to get across to Adelaide with minimal notice was hard for some. With a total staff of one person dedicated to making the event happen on little if any budget, I am so stoked with how it all turned out. However, those who took the time to get there were part of a new chapter of riding in Australia. A comp reminiscent of old times, where everyone comes to ride, hang out, session with each other and have a rockin good time. All in a city full of some of the best riding terrain in Australia.

Although I didn’t make it to the official start of the ‘Games’*, rolling into the Adelaide showground on my bike with too much camera gear was the start for me. Dripping in sweat and stuffed from sprinting across town reminded me way too much of riding in Adelaide when I was ten years younger. Maybe I was pissed cause I got abused by some dicks in a slick ride that pretty much wanted to kill me after

I chucked a juice at their parents ride for giving me grief about not having a car… But I felt kinda at home and chilled amongst the hundreds of BMX crew riding around out front. Although the vast majority of these riders were intent on representing disco shoes, fluro uniforms and the most polished chain rings you’ve ever seen. So maybe I was out of place. But stashed away, behind the massive racetrack was a dirty, black t-shirt wearing army intent on having a ball. It kinda got me feeling all warm and fuzzy. Both dirt and flatland were representing the alternative BMX culture at the Games, which was running alongside the BMX Nationals.

The two cultures while sharing the same size wheel couldn’t be further removed. On more than a few occasions the governing racing officials had their say about not wanting to mix the sports. However when the officials for the racing are sporting anti rider slogans and the racers are spray painting the track with anti official graff, you know they should all chill and just ride without all the rules and enjoy it, that seems

to be the beauty of riding? The vert dogs had already had their day, not too far away on the massive West Beach ramp earlier in the week to open the event. Checkout the vert dogs bit on page 37...

Although street was sadly absent (a problem that has already been sorted for next year), the combo of dirt and flat worked pretty damn well.

The King of Dirt trails would make or break the event in a lot of ways. Luckily, instead of someone who would never ride the jumps building them, Brad Grantham was enlisted to shape the golden clay like dirt. His sculpted creations being the best comp jumps ever to surface in Australia.

Don’t take my word for it; ask any of the riders there.

Basically a big scaffold roll-in into the first set which lead to two lines over the second set and finally into two hips facing outwards at almost 45 degrees to finish off. This meant multiple lines over the big gaps that packed in like concrete, you couldn’t ask for more. Well maybe to not

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ABOVE//A long break between heats lead Luke Fink to the conclusion that there had to be new lines possible on the already varied dirt course.

180 barspin transfer to backside re-entry? Could this have been a comp winning run based on innovation...

BELOW//Tim Casey rode solidly all weekend with a stack of style and new school tricks, including his 360whip attempt had him just out of the 8 going thru to the finals. He’ll be a force to be reckoned with in years to come.

bulldoze them after the comp. Not only did Brad G create the epic trail style kickers by hand, he flowed over them with effortless style that got him through to the finals even with a popped shoulder from more than a few slams and endless hard days wielding a shovel. Gutsy effort.

With amateur and pro classes, the schedule of heats and finals was full over the three days. More than a few am entries being scratched as they saw the sets, however plenty stepped up to the plate with skills that will have them in the top ranks in Aus in a year or so! Major standouts were obviously the winner of the amateur class, Daniel ‘Mozzie’ Dunn who sadly busted his wrist in a major way in the post Pro final trick fest going for a double whip…

Get back on your bike soon! Hardknocks king, Dave McComb along with Jared Carter stepped up the level of riding, but it was the crazy determination of Todd Williams sprinting his guts out between racing to do his finals run on his jump bike, then running back to race a heat, winning and running back to finish his last run! Amazing skills with turndowns higher than anyone (including the Pro’s) boosted over the first set. To ride a race bike for a race then jump on your dirt machine for a finals run with no practice and still sporting race gear? Word to a rider that lives to ride, congrats on a 2nd place in Am. With more flat ground than anything else at the showgrounds, the only problem with the designated flatland area was the dirt/dust coming off a berm onto the selected space for rolling madness making it more like Disney on Dust. Pretty much immediately a new area was staked out and claimed by the flatland Cenobite himself, Dave Sayer, which ended up being right next to the roll in for dirt, which is where it shoulda been anyways. While the turnout for flat was small, the talent level more than made up for this. Local rider Shane Badman sessioned hard with Australia’s grand ground master, Simon O’brien and

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RIGHT//Simon O’brien rides with a flow and rhythm that defies all comprehension. The BMXGames flat jam was a warm up for his next trip to Europe to compete in the Red Bull Circle of Balance amongst other comps. Good luck over there!

Sydneys longtime legend Vinnie Pugh. Their combined skills absolutely bugging out the crowds that formed to watch the final jam. Grant Cruise brought a taste of the old school and fun into 2004, while newcomers Bielecki (in true Easter form) and Alistair Finlay tweaked out new styles. While not many cross over between riding styles nowadays, Lee Kirkman rode super well in the flat jam while proceeding to qualify 3rd in dirt, ultimately taking 3rd come dirt finals. Word to versatility! The jam was a 45 minute session in which each rider judged each other come the end of the jam, a format that will be adopted from here on in for flat (and possibly all events?) as the results are finally universally agreed on.

The intensity of the dirt pro finals was something special to be a part of. While it was always going to be a battle between the Luke’s, Fink and Weatherall, the standard of riding come finals time was out of control. Brett Pople and Lee Kirkman (who ended up riding 2020 ed’s bars after a major slam) busted out big styles while staying super smooth, his flip flatty to nofooter in the heats wasn’t to be repeated though, 3rd place in his first dirt comp. Brett did launch superman like into the upper reaches of the roof on more than one occasion, his riding pushing forwards every day. Mike Cernotta and Brad Grantham rode like they were just sessioning their local trails all day, flowing between transfers so comfortably it was like they’d been riding them for years. Damian Connolly and Jon Wakefield took some hefty slams during the finals, Jon having to sit it out, but Damian went harder still, going for flip whips come the last run. Luke Fink styled through his runs with big skills. I kinda wish he pulled some of his magic from practice with either a run in thongs or the crazy transfer from the second set kicker, 180 barspin to the backside of the 2nd set landing.

It might have pulled in a win for innovation! It has to be said though, Luke Weatherall is the most focussed and intense rider I have ever seen. His pre-run psyche up almost scary,

Fink just nudged out Matt Fairburn fo rthe Vert title

*THE VERTDOGS...

Every vert dog has their day and rightly so, vert launched the event on the Wednesday at 8.30 in the morn, meaning around 25 people came down to watch a battle between Matt Fairburn and Luke Fink unfold. When the deal was done, Luke came out just on top with a truckload of tricks and lip tech just outing big air and multiple barspin champ Matt Fairbairn. The jam format had these two and the rest of the field consisting of Seaton Spratt, Craig Peters and Matt Pratley riding hard for just on 45 minutes. It sounds like next year will have vert (and street) amongst the goings on in the venue (TBA) so the whole posse can be hanging out stoking each other out.

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Mozzie ruled the Am class and joined the post pro comp jam to score himself the most busted arm I’ve ever seen

obviously his visualisations are that sorted cause he was able to throw a nothing to barspin, double truck and a huge tailwhip in one run flawlessly. How he spins triple barspins, one will never know. A well deserved win taking home the cash money to Melbourne.

The event finished up with an after party for those still able to walk, the toll of three days riding keeping it a pretty chill night. The bringing together of a whole new generation of riders has sparked new friendships and inspiration, and thats what it was all about.

Being the first comp run by FreestyleBMX, Heath Walker has got to be congratulated for pulling off an event that had him over his head in terms of what he had to pull together with the resources at hand. The whole vibe of the comp was open and friendly and the riding was at an all time high. All those that came forward to be a part of this years event are sure to be on board for next year, including the trail diggin master, Brad Grantham and his next instalment of trail madness. I know all who entered will be back for that alone. Add a kick arse street course to the flat and vert mayhem and we’ll be looking at a world class event on our shores for the riders of this country, what can be better than that. The future of riding is in our hands now, a heavy responsibility by any standard, however we now have a legit organisation there to help us on our way forward. United we stand, divided we fall. 2020

Luke Weatherall smoked his final runs with an endless trick list of insane combos

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Brett Pople whip’n hard

Ryan can whip, we know that. But this is getting ridicupous//Mahon

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What lead you to become a rider, keen to take on the world?

Some of the more important things that stood out were when people traveled to Oz to do shows like Mat Hoffman in ‘91. He was here for a week, i got to hang out with him and he told me stories about how he traveled and what he’d experienced. It made me keen to get out there. When i was young, mum used to take us on road trips. it was good to meet other riders and see other parks. One of the most exciting things for me is riding a new skatepark. No matter where or how shady the town is, finding something new to ride is always exciting. That’s why lately I’ve been going out street riding to find new stuff & explore, that’s exciting for me...

Have you always lived in the Qld sun?

Yeah, i was born in Qld. I’ve traveled all over Oz, everywhere else is rainy and cold most of the time, that’s why I’ve always lived in Qld. All the other states suck... (LOL) So, from a young age, you’ve had a fair bit of drive to progress?

I think it kinda comes from all the older riders that I rode with when I was younger. I was privileged to have riders like Clint miller and Colin Mackay.

They always seemed to learn all the new tricks. I wanted to do that to.

It’s a good feeling to learn a new trick, I got to the stage that I don’t think about progressing. It just happens when you ride with good riders & when you’re having fun riding you don’t think about progressing it just happens.

You can’t go out and say, “okay, today I’m going to learn three new tricks” it just doesn’t happen that way...

How long have you been riding now? And how old are you now?

I’ll be 21 in July. I got into riding because of my baby sitter, Glen Stracey, when I was 6 years old. I found it fun and my Dad built me a 16inch bike, both my parents supported me heaps and drove me places. Then when i got into high school, I went through phases, I’d surf, then I’d try to skate, and i got into cars. I found all of them boring, so by the end of year ten I got back into riding really strong and decided to try and make something of it...

Who were your idols growing up, the ones you looked up to?

I had local idols like Clint Miller, Glen Stracey, and Colin Mackay. Then I had heroes that I’d see in mags and videos from America. These were guys like Mat Hoffman, Dave Mirra, Corey Nastazio, and Ryan Nyquist...

Did this crew help your journey, or just inspire?

The guys from America definitely inspired me from the riding side of things. They made me want to get out there and try new stuff. Clint, Glen Mclachlan and Colin were the first guys to go over to the states. I was still at school at the time, but they made me realise that it was possible and it didn’t have to be “just a dream”. I just had to get out and work at it...

Who else supported your riding addiction?

I’m sure my Mum and Dad are my number 1 fans, they’ve always been there for me, taking me to skateparks and mum even organised a few comps at Beenliegh and road trips to Melbourne. Other help came from sponsors that saw potential in me and just wanted to help me out. I really want to thank them, they believed in me and if it wasn’t for their help early on, I don’t think I would have achieved this much...

Where were your spots when you were growing up, the spots that you learnt the skills you now possess? Dirt, street, park?

Beenleigh was the main park I rode growing up. Mum worked in the area and the train station is really close, so I could always get there after school. Plus, it’s been my favourite park for years. It’s got everything, you don’t get board easily. And it’s been around a long time, Doug Larson always put a huge effort into making the park better. It’s cool to see its still there. A lot of people have tried to knock it down but there’s always huge support to keep it alive...

tler t e u G Ryan iew v Inter ttler e u G Ryan w ie Interv ttler

OK, it was your 1st year in the US last year? Where you stoked on how it all went?

There were some highs and lows. Highs were meeting new friends, getting to ride new parks and just getting to see America. Lows would definitely injuries and being off my bike...

How did you get it together to make it over there?

I always thought about traveling. Seeing my mates go made me realise it could happen. So I got a job and started to save. I rode as much as

possible and with some help from my family i got it together and got over there. I hear kids saying how bad they want to go to America. It’s really not that hard! All you gotta do is put in some effort, get a job, save some money and keep that dream in your mind. If you want it bad enough, you will make it happen...

How do the riders over there take all these young Australian crew rocking up to their comps and kicking butt?

I definitely think they’re stoked on it. For a while it’s been the same ten guys fighting for top spot. Throwing a few Aussies in there makes it interesting. I don’t think they’re bummed on it, everyone I’ve met has been super nice and supportive. We’re not exactly kicking butt, we’re definitely mixin’ it up. It’d be cool to see a few of them come over and ride in some of our comps, I think they’re scared of the Kangaroos... (LOL) Where do you prefer, Aus or USA? If Oz had the same opportunities for riders as America does, I’d stay here most of the year. The riding scene is way too big to stay away from over there. There are so many places in the states I haven’t ridden yet. I just want to be over there riding all the indoor parks, that’s what I love about it. I really love Oz, but lately I’ve been burnt out on all the concrete parks.

It’d be cool if the insurance wasn’t so crazy, people might actually open some indoor parks. It’d be nice to have Woodward down under! I have lots of friends in both places, when I’m here I want to be there and when I’m there I want to be here, even if it wasn’t for comps I’d still want to go to the states, but the comps help me to earn a living without getting a job...

So what plans have you got for the next few years, both for riding and your life?

Right now I just want to have fun and hang out with my mates. I don’t want to stress about how I place at comps. It would be nice to get something out of it, I’ve seen guys do really well and I’ve seen how big sponsors can look after a rider. I would live to kick ass and find one of those sponsors that could look after me so I could buy a house or just live happily, not stress about money and be able to travel and do what I love with my bike for as long as I can. I’ve thought about one day starting a bike or clothing company, right now it’s a huge risk. I have lots of ideas, but starting a company is too huge a project,

Gue Ryan ew vi Inter

ABOVE//Just as at home on dirt as concrete, and for that matter in NZ, the US or Aus//Keith Mulligan LEFT//Read it and weep. Stanza SSS. You wish you had one this fast. Planting his pride and joy//Chris Moore

1 pt

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ride? o t s ot 1 pt P.A ite sprd camp, r u o Fav oodwa , QLD A 1. W eenleigh eparks, US ) trails 2. B ans skat ins (front yard 3. V ick Lark .C.T. 4. R uggers, A 5. T its definitely something I want to look into for the future...

Describe a normal day in the life of Ryan Guettler…

I’m just like any other rider on any normal day, I get up late, eat, ride, eat, watch TV and sleep. But there’s the odd occasion that you feel like a rockstar!! One of them for me was when I was in Malaysia. I competed at X-Games, placed 2nd and it was live on ESPN. I had a promoter invite me to their comp with an all expenses paid type of deal. I had an 8 hour flight back home, as soon as I got into Brisbane, I had to get on a plane to Sydney to do a photo shoot. I had to sit on a bike for three hours so they could get a shot for a poster. I flew home and had a lazy afternoon session at Beenleigh, it was a pretty crazy day...

What’s your current set up?

My bike now is the best I’ve ever had. Its a Fit Series 2 with We The People forks and bars (thanks Millar), 25/9 gearing. I’ve tried to make it as light as possible with titanium spokes/ disk/ spindle and axle, I’ve also got some new Shadow stuff, a Fly stem, euro bottom bracket, new Drive pedals, the lightest pedals around, and its a pretty baby blue with pink stickers. I’d like to thank Richard and Mike at Crossley Cycles.

What was the last album you listened to?

I just bought the ACDC Live CD. I’m really stoked! Its the best CD I’ve

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listened to in ages, I also like anything by Metallica, Thursday and Incubus, I’m down for a bit of rock...

Has riding changed your life for better or worse?

Definitely for the better. I get to do what I love and hang out with my friends. I get to travel and go places I would never have been able to see if I didn’t ride. Maybe if I became a rollerblader my life would suck, but NOT IF YOU RIDE BMX! The future of BMX, what do you see coming our way?

I think we’re slowly following the same footsteps as skateboarding, which I don’t think is a bad thing. All the rider owned companies will become bigger and all the corporate ones will fold. This way, riders will organise their own comps with good setups. I like how with skating a video part or a pic in a mag is just as good as a comp result in the sponsors eyes...

Last words?

A big thank you goes to my girlfriend Alesha, she supports me a lot and puts up with a lot of riding. My Mum, Dad and brother Terry. Thanks to Jerry Badders at Vans and everyone else that helped me in the states. Thanks to anyone who has supported my riding; Chris and Mike at Triple6, Ron at UGP, Beenleigh Bandits, Clint Millar, Lizard for getting me into riding, Richard for a cool bike shop, Drive and Spy, Robbie for helping with bikes

www.sandmbikes.com Photo Billy Riesing

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OUTSIDE OF RIDING I DON’T EVEN GIVE THIS TYPE OF IGNORANCE AND/OR ARROGANCE A SECOND THOUGHT. BUT WHEN IT COMES FROM A RIDERS MOUTH I WONDER IF THEY EVEN HAVE A CLUE ABOUT WHAT LIES OUTSIDE THE OUTER SUBURBS OF THEIR CITY. THEY DON’T REALISE THAT SOME OF THE BEST RIDERS IN THEIR COUNTRY AND IN THE WORLD HAVE COME FROM SMALL TOWNS AND THIS IS SOMETIMES THE REASON THAT THEY’RE SO DAMN GOOD. BY LACY It seems the current trend in the riding scene over the last couple of years is to search and scope out new and different riding spots and to session one object as much as possible. This has always been a necessity for anyone riding street here. Entire nights can be spent driving around, checking down every alleyway and side street, breaking and entering etc. in the hope of finding something new no matter how big or small to ride. Some nights you are rewarded and end up with a new spot or two. More often than not you return empty handed, It doesn’t take long for this to get you down and take away any motivation to ride.

Despite this the following riders have still managed to get themselves to an amazing level of riding whether it be through creating or finding different spots to ride or just making something out of nothing and riding the shit they’re town has provided.

Read on...

Josh riding his hard as all hell, crazy jungle ditch //KaDe hillier

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THAT NIGHTWEWENT OUT STREET RIDING AND HEWAS LIKE NO ONE ELSEWE HAD EVER RIDDEN WITH.LATER ON I LEARNEDJOSH CAME FROM KYABRAM (A SMALLTOWNWITH NOTHING TO RIDE AND NO ONE TO RIDEWITH).NOT LONG AFTER THIS ON A TRIP TO THE SHED HE STARTED PULLING HIGH SPEED KICKFLIP TO FEEBLE TO KICKFLIP OUT.AT THIS POINT IN TIME NO ONE EVEN KNEW THAT ITWAS CALLED A KICKFLIP AS THEY HADN’T EVEN BECOME POPULAR IN MAGS ANDVIDEOS FROM THE US. NEXT TIME I SAW HIM AND ASKED IF HE WAS STILL DOING KICKFLIP TRICKS HE SAID“NO I AMWORKING ON TAILWHIP STUFF NOW”.HIS LATEST IS TAILWHIPPING INTO FUFANUS! JOSH IS A VERY QUIET KID OF FEW WORDS AND WILL NEVER BE FOUND TALKING HIMSELF UP.HE ISN’T INTO DRINKING OR GETTING MESSED UP BUT IS STILL FRIENDLY AND UP FOR A CHAT NO MATTER WHAT. SOME SPONSORED RIDERS FROM MAJOR CITIES IN AUSTRALIA HAVE PUBLICLY WHINGED ABOUT THE LACK OF A SCENE IN AUSTRALIA.JOSH HAS JUST KEPT HIS MOUTH SHUT DONE HIS OWN THING AND RIDES AT A LEVEL MOST PEOPLE COULDN’T EVEN DREAM OF. THAT’S WHAT MAKES HIM AN AMAZING RIDER.

HOMETOWN: KYABRAM (POP: 6000) CURRENT LOCATION: SHEPPARTON What are your favorite locations to ride both home and away?

The only thing I ride in Shepparton is the sk8park.

I like the park because of it’s diversity and its smoothness. We don’t have trails anymore and there’s no street to ride but that doesn’t phase me.

My favorite place to ride is Canberra, the parks there are amazing - so big and smooth with good lines and the city isn’t scummy like Melbourne.

What are the advantages, both riding and lifestyle, of living away from a major city?

I don’t think there are any advantages! In the city there’s so much more to ride and more people to ride with. I do like the comfort of a small town, it feels safer and it’s kinda relaxed which I really like.

I have friends and family here, which I think is the reason I’ve stayed here for so long!

How do you think growing up in a place with a smaller range of riding spots has influenced your style?

I think its really held me back with progression, I pretty much rode small ledges and gutters in Kyabram for almost four years. We had a really big step-up in Shep- that’s where I learnt a lot of my tricks. It’s not there anymore which sucks!

Do you find it hard to stay motivated and enthused about riding at home with the limited parks, spots and riders compared to big cities?

Ummmm.... I don’t think living in a small town affects my motivation. I’m kinda lazy and don’t have much desire to ride so it’s my friends that motivate me to ride and learn new tricks. I have very little enthusiasm for riding the same park everyday though. Having

to travel so far to ride a good spot is the worst thing about small towns.

Whats the attitude towards your town/scene from riders when you tell them where you are from?

If I tell someone I’m from Shep and they’ve ridden the park before, they’re like “Shep has a good park, but it’s way too slippery!” Everyone complains about the slipperiness but I kinda like it, if ya fall goin’ fast ya’ just slide along the ground instead of the concrete tearing up your skin.

Do you find many people with ignorant or incorrect assumptions about both your scene and town?

No not at all.... well not that I’ve noticed, I’m fairly ignorant myself!

In your own words give a quick description of both your town and the scene?

There’s not much to say, the town is full of scummy ghetto kids. There’s this one girl here that punches me in the face every time she sees me, it’s kinda funny but its mega uncool too. There’s not much to do and as for the scene there’s only about 5 people that are committed to riding. The park is good, a bit slippery but good, there’s no street but we have trails under construction except I don’t think they’ll ever be going!

How long can you see yourself staying where you are?

Not long I’ll probably be here for another 6 months, I really want to move to Melbourne. It will be a lot better for my riding.

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HE WAS RIDING BEFORE IT WAS A POPULAR THING TO DO AND HAS THE SKILLS ON ANY TERRAIN BUT HE CHOOSES TO FOCUS ON STREET. HE HAS TRAVELLED FROM “THE REAL B-TOWN” ALL THE WAY TO NYC AND EARNED THE FRIENDSHIP AND RESPECT OF SOME OF THE BEST STREET RIDERS IN THE WORLD. THIS IS A TRUE TESTAMENT TO HIS TALENT AS A RIDER AND AS A PERSON. HE LIVES A DISCIPLINED LIFE AND FOLLOWS A NOBLE PATH BUT HE REALLY NEEDS TO WORK ON HIS REALITY TV ADDICTION TO BECOME THE COMPLETE PACKAGE...

BY JAMIE MAHON

HOMETOWN: BERRIDALE CURRENT LOCATION: SOMEWHERE ON THE EAST COAST OF AUST. Where did you grow up?

I evolved in the town of Berridale, NSW. Population is less that 1000 souls.

Where are your favourite locations to ride, both home and away?

Home: Canberra, Brisbane, Wharf Seven RIP. Away: NYC (Union Square), Jersey, East Canada was amazing too.

What are the advantages both riding and lifestyle of living away from a major city?

Riding equals using all your surroundings. I think this helps open different eyes when you make it out to cities as well. I’ve seen many good spots ridden past by guys in the cities. Lifestyle... This is the only part that affected me somewhat. Missing out on hardcore shows. Vegan/vegetarian restaurants and even just the vibe of city living, but on the other hand I appreciate these luxuries even more so now.

Friendships that I’ve made I know that, no matter what our personal differences in lifestyle may be, will always stand.

How do you think growing up in a place with much smaller range of riding spots has influenced your style?

Looking back I can definitely see that not only the spots we had dictated my riding, but I was heavily influence by some people who weren’t your ordinary role models. A mixture of these made me the mess I am today!!

What seems to be the attitude towards your town/scene from riders when you tell them where you are from?

You really need to be aware of what you are saying or going to say. Words have a great effect on some people and it may not always be positive. At the very least you should be able to back up what you have to say.

In your own words, give a quick description of both your town and the scene?

Times have changed. The young kids are the bosses now.

Ben, myself and a few others have all relocated but the park in Cooma seems to be getting well used!

How long can you see yourself staying where you are?

The plan is to be overseas by Christmas, in search of my vegan princess! In the meantime relaxing with rancho (Smiley) and Russ… gambling as well….

Any last words?

People should take a step back form looking at all the problems in BMX and redirect their attention to changing themselves as individuals. Once we all accomplish this, then maybe everything will seem much less complicated and all the shit can get left behind and we can concentrate on riding.

Do you find it hard to stay motivated and enthused about riding at home with the limited parks, spots and riders compared to big cities?

I’ve become quite spoilt or fussy in with what I ride these days, this isn’t a good thing but I’m not going to lie!! If we are riding and I don’t like a spot then you’ll find me sitting out. This doesn’t just apply for Cooma or Jindabyne, pretty much my stupid rule for everywhere.

Dug out bank to bunker assault.

No animals were harmed in this over ice activity//BearDo

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WHETHER IT’S A DOUBLE KINK RAIL, A PIECE OF SHIT 1/4 PIPE, A TOP OF THE LINE PARK, A SIMPLE LEDGE OR A TRAFFIC ISLAND. HE SOMEHOW FINDS SOMETHING TO DO ON IT AND MAKE IT LOOK DAMN GOOD. WHILE MOST RIDERS CHOOSE A STYLE OF BIKE SETUP AND RIDING TO PURSUE, HE CAN CHANGE ACCORDING TO CIRCUMSTANCE FROM BRAKES TO BRAKELESS, NO PEGS TO FOUR PEGS, STYLE TO TECH AND THEN STILL BUST BIG SHIT IF HE FEELS LIKE IT. CHRIS IS THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF A SMALL TOWN RIDER MAKING THE BEST OUT OF WHATEVER HE COMES ACROSS.

Does every surfer trip out at this or what?//KaDe hillier

HOMETOWN: BENDIGO (POP 80,000) What are your favourite locations to ride both home and away?

I love B-town street and Melbourne street too, we are sorta running out of street in Bendigo but we are searching always!

What are the advantages for riding and lifestyle not living in a major city?

Definitely the tight crew here and the drinkin’ scene, right now I am out on the porch of the Eelmans residence drinkin with the boys, chillin’ and shit.

How do you think growing up in a place with a much smaller range of riding spots has influenced your style?

Dunno, just the fact I try and ride everything from street and trails to park, I like changing my bike setup whenever I can.

Do you find it hard to stay motivated and

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enthused about riding at home with the limited parks, spots and riders compared to big cities?

Sometimes, but if I’m sick of street I usually head out to the 20g trails with my main man YAG!! And do a bit of diggin’, drinkin’ and ridin’.

What seems to be the attitude towards your town / scene from riders when you tell them where you are from?

Well it used to be like “BENDIGO!! What the fuck is there to ride in Bendigo!!”. But after the video premiere (Why try if your gonna die) it sort of changed peoples views of our apparently shitty town!

Do you find many people with ignorant or incorrect assumptions about both your scene and town?

Some c#@ts don’t even know where Bendigo is, some people think we are all farmers who breed sheep or something!!

But yeah, there is a fair few people who can respect our crew and our riding spots.

In your own words give a quick description of both your town and the scene?

Drunk, fights, fun as hell!!

How long can you see yourself staying where you are?

Well I’m studying graphic design and shit, so there ain’t much demand here for that, but I hope to stay here and have fun for as long as I can.

Any last words Big UPS to the 20g Trail diggers and all the boys keepin’ it real there! Lach-E, Marcus, George, Reece J, Louis, Danny, Eelmans, and all the other boys for puttin’ up with my shit and lack of cash!!, Definitely a big shot out to Di and Wayne for having me for a hell of a child, BHP boys for respecting our crew and keepin’ it real!! And anybody who loves to ride their bike, get drunk and hang out with the crew, ZIP IT UP AND ZIP IT OUT! 2020

We have shitloads more than what's listed on our site here's just a few specials available till 05/06/04 or untill sold out!! Sign up and become a member of our site to recieve monthly email specials/news letters or dont sign up and be a FAG, see if we care!!

FORKS MUTINY - U.S.A. made. black. were .$299. NOW.$199.

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WETHEPEOPLE - everlast with or without 990 mounts. were $215. NOW $175.

ORCHID SHOES now in stock !!!!

Vanderveer - $175 Tee m - $155 SPROCKETS (43t , 44t, 45t Blk) Animal FBM Iron Cross Metal T-1 WERE -$125. NOW $79 !!

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Mutiny- soldier, undertaker, enemy, ravens.

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ODYSSEY - race forx 10mm black lifetime warranty, litest round $189.

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Payment: C.O.D, VISA direct deposit VIC/TAS 1 day, NSW/ACT/SA 2 days, QLD/WA/NT 3 days. RIDERS SERVING RIDERS FOR 8 YEARS

For the last few years February for me has been the time to plan a trip to New Zealand. The x-air comp is NZ’s version of the xgames, you know the format, bmx/skate/inline/moto etc, the difference is that Xair is actually a really fun comp. Xair has been around for the last 5 years and has to be one of the best organised and most fun events in the world. It’s also a good excuse to take off over the 1500kms of Tasman Sea and road trip around for a while in this most beautiful country.

The New Zealand scene is pretty similar to Australia. They have a heap of good concrete parks, good trails and street. There are riders everywhere you go and some nice scenery to check out as well. This year our road trip was only for about 5 days but we still wanted to do the regular lap from Auckland to Wellington and back. Thanks to Qantas frequent flyer points I scored a business class flight over this year so my 3 hours in the air were filled with complementary drinks and smiling chicks calling me sir. Weird.

S

S

E

On arrival In Auckland we grabbed our rental car and headed down to the Victoria Park skatepark. This is the meeting place for all the locals and is in the centre of Auckland. It has a cool set up of wooden ramps which are always fun. We met up with Haimona Ngata for a quick arvo session before the sun went down. Seeing as we only had 5 days for road trippin’ we decided to get up early the next day and head down to Taupo, a 3 hr drive for a session on one of the best parks in NZ. Leaving before the sun comes up is not how I usually start a riding day but by the time we finally got there I’d managed to down a few coffee’s and was well and truly ready to ride. Taupo park has something for everyone including a big bowl and spine ramp as well as street stuff and some little tech bits that all ad up to a fun park. We rode there for a few hours before getting back on the road for the long trip down to Wellington.

The road from Taupo to Wellington is pretty cool, we passed Mt Ruapehu, which for all the nerds out there, me included, is Mt Doom from the LOTR movies. When we arrived in Wellington we headed straight for Upper Hutt skatepark, this is a newish park that has a nice bowl combo and street area. A lot of NZ parks use pre-cast concrete sections, which usually suck but the NZ

versions are better than the ones we get in Aus. After our session we grabbed a room at the local hotel, checked some email and crashed.

Next day we planned to meet up with Kenny Raggett and Leigh Martin who were catching the ferry over from the south island. As they didn’t arrive until the arvo we met up with Danny and some of the Wellington locals at Bourke’s Bike shop. Some of the South Island riders were over for XAir and were keen to ride. So we hooked up with them to session a few of the local Wellington parks. After a good mini ramp session at Island Bay we headed to Porirua in the ghetto to meet up with Kenny and Leigh. After a bit of aggro from the locals and some flying skateboards we had a good session on the park. They have a nice peanut shape capsule bowl there, which was heaps of fun as well as some interesting street obstacles. After that it was back to the city to ride the Chafers ramps right in downtown Wellington, grab a hotel for the night and head out to the local Irish Pub for some beers with the locals. Next day we had to get back up to Hamilton for rego for the comp so it was another early morning, we also wanted to hit up a few more parks on the way up the coast. Levin, Otaki and Manakau are all close together and just off the main road, they are all made of precast sections but really fun to ride. More driving and a late arvo session at Taupo finished off the day then we headed straight to Hamilton to sign up for the comp and meet up with everyone for some food and beverages at the local gourmet pizza restaurant. Pretty much every rider from New Zealand was in town plus a heap of Australian and OS riders from the US and Europe. It’s always good to catch up with everyone at comps with friends from all over the world in the same spot.

Mike D launching the rail gap//BaZ

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Sunset foot jam by Baz//Daly

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Kenny Raggett//Daly

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Colin Mackay on fire as usual//Keith Mulligan

Friday was practice day for the comp, so after a good brekkie we headed over to the venue to check out the ramps and jumps.

The street course for Xair gets bigger every year and they build a few extra ramps each time. This year they added a huge wall ride section with different sized quarter pipes all aiming at a 30ft high wall. There was also the regular box jump, street spine and assorted banks, subs and rails. I found the course fun to ride but I couldn’t really find any good lines… what I really mean is that the good lines were way too scary for me!! i.e. 8ft quarter with a 6ft sub rail. The dirt jumps looked really good, 3 sets with a big run in and wall ride at the end. The dirt jump practice was already in full swing with a stack of Australians tearing up the dirt. The vert ramp was outside under a big tent roof and was the usual Red Bull ramp. This year there were some of the world’s best vert riders over for the comp so that was going to be something not to miss. After watching some dirt jumping and riding the street course for a while we headed back to the hotel and out for Mexican and more drinking. Mark who runs x-air also owns 2 local bars so that took care of the official party spots. This year they had decided to run qualifying and finals for all the events in one day so the schedule for Saturday was tight.

The vert comp was rocking, not really surprising with riders like Jay Miron, Zack Shaw, Eduardo Terreros (the Spanish fly) and Achim Kujawski. One of the highlights for me was seeing Jay’s 8ft high 540 tailwhip from the deck of the ramp, sick! Eduardo is also really good to watch, he always looks like he’s riding at 110%. The list of tricks is too long but there were plenty of whips, 540 and limbless variations. Next up dirt. Australia was well represented with Perko, Corey Bohan, Ryan Guettler, Luke Parslow, Colin Mackay and Dave Dillewaard plus some big names from OS including Ryan Nyquist, Josh

Jay Miron//Daly

Harrington and Heath Pinter. On top of that there were also the best NZ riders who had already competed to get their spot. The tricks were flowing non-stop, every flip variation, whips, 720’s and limbless variations back to back over all three jumps. Luke Parslow didn’t place but pulled a huge flip whip over the first jump, which I think was about 30ft. The street comp was last up and once again there was an impressive list of riders from Aus, NZ and elsewhere including Rooftop, Dave Osato, Nyquist and Ben Manual from England. While the jumpers were giving the box jump and street spine a work out everyone was figuring out lines on the massive wall ride and assorted sub boxes and rails. Nyquist was riding pretty solidly during qualifying but when his finals run started it was like he found another gear. I was sitting next to him you could see he was psyching up as his name was called out. He went out super fast and jumped, flipped and flared has way all over the course. First place again to Mr Nyquist.

Ben Manual was pretty impressive, he’s only been riding for about 6 years and I hadn’t seen him ride before. He had a good mix of tech and burly tricks and used pretty much every ramp on the course. He finished off his last run with a huge wall ride about 20 feet long but instead of riding the wall he was running along it, weird. Dave Osato needs no introduction, his runs included a whip to nose pick and a massive Canadian nose pick on the 6ft sub rail on top of the 8ft quarter, Dave also got the award for biggest drunken grin at the after party that night as well.

Once again New Zealand and x-air was a really fun trip, it’s always good to catch up with the locals and the not so locals, ride some good parks and check out the scenery.

I will be back next year for sure.

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Mike Escamilla too far up the wall//Keith mulliGan

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Adam Hough lofting one at Camberwell for all those who big dig air//mahon

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JAMIE MAHON HEADS

I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO START WITH THIS STORY WITHOUT SEEMING LIKE THE WORLD’S BIGGEST HYPOCRITE. YOU SEE I KINDA WANTED TO MAKE THIS A STORY ABOUT HOW TO KEEP THOSE AWESOME SECRET SPOTS UNDISCLOSED SO THEY DON’T GET SHUT DOWN ON YOU. HOW YOU DO THAT BY COVERING THEM IN AN AUSTRALIA WIDE MAGAZINE IS A BIT CONTRADICTORY TO SAY THE LEAST BUT PLEASE BEAR WITH ME… My original motivation for doing this story was because I had heard that the pipe in question had become a major bust and was basically off limits to anyone. You see it was on the cover of two well known skatemags* at the same time and some employees of the company that owns the pipe saw these magazines in the newsagents. These loyal company people brought it to the attention of management who then went about trying to stop people riding it because they feared that if anyone got hurt the company would get sued. I had heard rumors of rangers patrolling the place daily and a huge barbed wire fence blocking off all access to the pipe. Now this really pissed me off because my friends and I live much closer to this monster than most people. So although we don’t ride it all the time it’s still pretty much a local spot for the J.C. The thought of not being able to ride there anymore made me very, very angry. I was initially going to call this story “How to not fuck up an awesome spot” because I envisioned taking photos of us being harassed by rangers and not even being able to ride because of some crazy fence that we couldn’t get our bikes over. Things didn’t turn out that way though.

To give you a small history lesson a few photos of the pipe appeared on sk8parx.com in around April 2002. An excited Holmes (2020ed) saw these and sent me an email with jpegs attached and the subject “Big trannies but not on Oxford Street”. All he knew was that it was somewhere in the mountains and I live where there are a few mountains. I forwarded it to the smart one known as “Beardo”, then went around to his place and we had the location within the hour. A recon mission was promptly organised and the pipe did indeed exist and was quite rideable. The following weekend we took a small crew of riders and photographers in and documented our journey to this hallowed concrete nirvana. That trip was covered way back in 2020 issue No. 6.

My first return trip came about thanks to Daniel Hunt who had been on my case to go there ever since seeing that original story. We decided to do a low key mission back to the beast with Hunt, Rusty, Yann from Sweden and myself. A combination of laziness and the badass bushfires last year closing all access tracks meant that it had been almost two years since we had been to the pipe.

And like I said, I had heard some bad things. I had spoken with Stuart Dolley though and he said that he had been there with some of the BHP crew and even though there was a fence now, they still got in. That was encouraging but we left not really knowing what we were in for.

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To make the vert wall takes some serious skills. Rusty going where few riders have ventured//Mahon

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It is a bit of a mission to get there, so we decided to camp overnight rather than having to rush things. We left early in the morning and after a long journey into the middle of nowhere we were nearing our destination. When you are getting close you get a small glimpse of the pipe across the valley and after scoping things with the binoculars, we found there was indeed a big fence surrounding the entrance. This was a bit of a concern for me. We continued on but the car will only get you so far then you have to hike in on foot. We parked the car at what was to become our base camp.

I didn’t want to take chances if the rumors of patrolling rangers were true, so I had plastered a few big fishing stickers on my car. You see there is a lake and some great trout streams in the vicinity of the pipe, so my car wouldn’t stand out if it looked like a fisherman’s car. Fishermen camp there all the time, so we were totally incognito.

After getting our bikes out of the car everyone was getting psyched, especially Hunt, he lives for this stuff and had been waiting a long time to ride the pipe. When we made it down to the pipe it quickly became apparent that the fence was a good thing. To climb into the pipe had been hard work and quite dangerous before because there is a big drop beneath the entry. The new fence makes things a lot safer. You can now walk along the top of it and straight into the beast. My earlier concern had been totally alleviated.

Once in the belly of the beast, the first thing I noticed was that a lot of people had been to visit. There was a bunch of new graffiti and obvious signs of people having been there. Like litter and stuff. This kinda pissed me off, because it draws attention to the place if any maintenance people have to do work there and that isn’t a good thing. Some of these visitors had done a great job cleaning out the ridable section inside the pipe though.

We started riding and after getting used to 15-foot trannies, Hunt and Rusty started to bust out. Hunt was into peg slapping way over vert and Rusty was going scary high and flowing all over the place as only he can. After a while Rusty decided that it would be fun to ride the vert walls outside the pipe. If you are smart enough to find the location of this pipe I challenge you to get up into that position because it is ridiculous (opening page spread). Rusty proved once again that he is a God. I was content to just pump around in cruise mode. On our first mission I tried to go high as possible because skaters had been there before us and they had left some pretty high marks on walls.

We were doing a story for 2020bmxmag, so I felt compelled to get over those marks for the honour of bikers everywhere.

But when you fuck up riding a pipe this big, the crazy nosedive freefall scares the shit out of you. I had one of these near death experiences on that day and I have never gotten over it (Neither did my flash. Ed). I am honestly too scared to push my limits here now and I spend most of my time on the brakes but it is fun to just carve around a foot or two over vert none the less.

The session wound down after a few hours and we chilled for a while inside the tunnel just taking the atmosphere in. The place is truly awe inspiring, and a real engineering masterpiece. Just to be there is an amazing feeling.

Daniel Hunt finally scored his chance to ride the beast//mahon

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At the campfire that night we ate beans and checked out some video footage of the session before hitting the hay. The next day we didn’t bother riding. To ride something so big when you are out of mobile phone range and three hours drive from any medical help is no joke. I think everyone was happy to have survived unscathed from the previous day so we headed home stopping briefly for a swim in a pristine mountain stream on the way to end our mission.

The pipe is a very powerful place. Rusty takes some time out to tune in to the sleeping giants rhythms.

At times the whole pipe feels alive//mahon

IF YOU ARE SMART AND DO SOME RESEARCH THIS PIPE ISN’T TOO HARD TO FIND. BUT IF YOU PAY A VISIT TO THIS, OR ANY OTHER SECRET STASH, PLEASE SHOW SOME RESPECT. THERE ARE A FEW GUIDELINES THAT SHOULD BE ADHERED TO WITH REGARD TO PLACES LIKE THIS.

1

Don’t show up in large groups and park cars with BMX or Skate stickers all over them at the entry to the spot.

When I ride this spot I put fishing stickers on my car and park at a track that heads in the opposite direction to the pipe. It is also wise to keep quiet when riding the spot especially here because noise is amplified once you are inside the pipe and a ranger or anyone working in the area will easily hear voices if you are getting loud.

2

If you see a ranger or anyone official looking don’t get your bikes out of the car until well after they leave. Act like tourists or bushwalkers or something. The fisherman disguise works a charm at this spot but use your head if you are riding some other location. I’m sure there are disguises that will work at most spots. Also if you are unlucky enough to show up when workers are in the area go back on another day. We are now lucky enough to have a few spies in the company that owns this pipe so we can find out whether workers are going to be there before we leave home and we plan our trips accordingly. This saves having a long drive to a bitter disappointment.

3

If you find the location of something cool, don’t go posting directions to it on the internet. Most people who are genuine about riding these types of things have a way of finding out their location. Whether it’s through intelligent research or through word of mouth. If there is a will there is a way. If you hand out maps to secret spot,s it’s almost assured that some dickhead will go there and ruin it for everyone. People who are handed something on a silver platter usually don’t give it any respect and respect is the key. If anyone posts the location of this pipe on the net I will personally hunt them down and kill them!

4

Leave no trace that you were there. Tyre marks are unavoidable but if you feel the need to write your name on the wall or graff shit up remember this. You are the only one who cares that you were there nobody else gives a fuck so it is pointless to leave any sign that were ever there. Don’t leave rubbish lying around either. Leave only a footprint…

5

If you are going to publish photos of a secret spot (or write a story in 2020 about it) don’t give the location away. It’s the same thing as posting it on the internet. Respect!

If you think I am a hypocrite for doing this story I am sorry. I thought long and hard about not doing it but I know there are genuine riders out there who would love to experience this place. If you are keen enough to seek it out and smart enough to find it please follow the guidelines and that way it will always be there. 2020 *This is not a direct attack at the magazines in question, because we were going to put the pipe on the cover of 2020 but Holmes decided against it at the last minute. We have to give the skaters props because they found this place first and finding something like this is like discovering The Holy Grail.

I understand exactly why the skaters were so stoked and gave the “Pothole” so much coverage. The covers might not have been the smartest place to show off such a discovery but it’s easy to say that with the benefit of hindsight, which must be 2020?

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some history

Photography is a way for many famous photographers from the old school to show the world what it looks like. In a way they often wanted to hold up a mirror and catch people in usual or unusual places and circumstances to show them their own reflection. That is pretty much the very same norm which photography is being used for today, but by another account, photography is also playing a great importance. It is the documentary importance that has been used for many years. Any photograph you take freezes a moment of time and like the famous saying goes ‘speaks a thousand words’. That image is from that date and considered a non aging moment of time. It shows the world in which we live and educates every person who looks at it in some way or another. A combination of a box, paper and chemicals captures natures elements and forces it to stand still. There is no other medium today that can do that.

That to me is the race that many scientists have been trying to win for many years. The race against the speed of light. A simple box with a hole can do the trick and freeze light, so that’s what I have gone and done. I have chosen to freeze light and do it by also documenting a culture we live in to express a way I perceive our lifestyle, BMX (a lifestyle and culture). The following shots represent both.

Some advice

You can’t let people influence the way you think, especially if you want to be the first at something. You know your limitations. You’re the best judge of your experience and knowledge and if not you’ll learn soon enough. Everyone has a little voice; it’s only up to each individual to hear it. This I could say goes for both riding and photography as both are art forms and its an opportunity to express yourself through a medium. The bike/camera is your tool and your outcome is the result of your connection and time with your tool (get your mind out of the gutter!) that is seen by others as an expression from your mind. Time on a bike and time behind a lens makes for practice and practice makes perfect or something along those lines! So go on instinct and just go with it and if it doesn’t’t work for you at the time I bet you learnt something on the way and are closer to the image you want.

Simon O’Brien

Crispy

This is a favourite. Take a perfectly good picture (acceptably lit up and composed) then get to the tranny (transparency, also known as your positive film) with a match.

The trick behind this is is too keep far away from anything flammable. Trust me I learnt the hard way. Other than that, its fun to burn your pictures. I do it all the time.

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ampl

I only wanted one shadow on the ceiling. That was pretty tricky considering I was using 4 flashes. I shot this at f8 and used fill in flash at half and full stop less, for parts of this shot.

Munich, Germany.

Old Wheelchair Man

I was taking a walk around London once and saw this elderly man just chilling and taking in the sun. To me he looked like he was taking in a moment of thought so I decided to shoot it. I have now idea where he is today nor do i know who he is but that person is know a part of me for the rest of my life and he has no idea. Weird!

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Timo

The motive was getting Metal bikes an image. So keep it simple and dirty. One flash, 400ASA film for less colour more light reach. Colours have then been desaturated in post.

Mummelmansberg, Germany.

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Wilke

400 ASA film for the flash reach and manipulted on the Mac later for the overall soft edges look.

Hamburg, Germnay.

Kernel

Three flashes were used to light up the rider from all differnet angles to help keep him in shape for the long exposure. The long exposure was used for capturing the street lights in the background giving that PEE-ONG affect.

Campbelltown, Australia.

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Support those that support our scene.

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Eddie Abbott Resides New Zealand

I remember eddie as this little 14 year old kid that came out street riding with us and got head high tackled by a police man and dragged across the road in a head lock still clutching his bike. All because he wasnt wearing a helmet. To this day eddie still rides with that same determination. Ten years later he has alot of bike control and amazes me everytime we ride.

He is well known for his riding ability and more so for his drunken party tricks. Its always laugh a minute with eddie in attendance. Hopefully you will get to ride with him as we do.

Devin Parker

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Wall slappin with styles//nitai

Josh Stott

Resides Queensland

What can I say about him? Well… what everyone already knows is that he rides a bike. But the reason your seeing him here is because he shows the bike whos boss. One cool thing is that he’s always learning something new, or is going higher and really stretching the envelope. If I come back after a month and watch him ride there’s always a greater sense of development and ease in his skills. Josh is only just starting and we can’t wait to see where he goes!

Nitai

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The Dirt...

Recently we figured that there had never been a dirt how to in 2020bmxmag. So to rectify this dilemma, we headed out to the new dirt jump park at Tahmoor to checkout the jumps and word you up on some basic dirt jumping tricks to get you hanging at your local trails with style.

That is if you are willing to digâ&#x20AC;Ś All the action courtesy of Mike Daly (Xups) and Shane Biffen, who lays down the law on 360â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s.

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This issues How To is

brought to you by

X-Up The X-up is one of the more basic jumping tricks but its definitely a good one to learn as you can combine it with heaps of other tricks later on. It’s pretty much always in flavour unless you get all bow legged.

1. Roll up with enough speed to comfortably clear the jump.

2. As soon as you take off shift your weight back over the rear wheel and move your legs so that you knees are in line with the seat. If you want you can grip the seat with your knees to stabilise the bike, this will also help you in the future if you want to learn barspins as it’s the exact same position.

3. Turn your bars as far round as possible, any less than 180 degrees then it’s a turn bar, not good, you may be heckled for years for that offence.

4. Untwist your bars and set up to land.

5. Land and roll away.

The 360 360’s are the bomb. You can do them over all sorts of jumps and obstacles and add other tricks like an x-up if you want.

1. Roll up to the jump with the same or a little more speed than you would for a regular straight jump. Just before you hit the lip start to turn slightly in the direction that you want to rotate and shift your body weight to start the spin. Most people 360 the same way they air a ramp and the usual direction is anti clockwise, that’s if you run your right pedal forward.

2/3. As soon as you take off you need to turn your head a little in the direction that you are rotating and start to look over your shoulder.

4. Once you have rotated 180 degrees you will be able to start to spot your landing by looking over your shoulder. At this point you can also make any corrections to the speed of your rotation, so if you haven’t spun enough you can pull the bike around a little more to get the whole 360.

5. You want to land the same way you would a regular jump so you may need to push down your front wheel a little to land smooth.

6. Roll away.

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Queens of the Stone Age fame, taking on the alias of “Baby Duck” and also plays guitar in the band.

This album is definitely unshaven with strong themes of blues, rockabilly, punk and good old rock and roll making it the perfect album to crank out loud on the open road. There’s a remix of the old Steely Wheel track “Stuck in the middle” which they aptly renamed “Stuck in the Metal” that will have the posse rocking all the way to the truck-stop. This is rock and roll to make you boogie and if your into new bands such as Beck, The Black Keys, The White Stripes and oldies such as The Eagles and Black Sabbath then there’s definitely goodness to be had

Road fools 12 50 mins

Heavy Hitter Probot Self titled

High Rotation this Issue

Shock Records

The first listen of any new album is usually a pretty good indicator of if you’ll listen to it again. Now if you get left feeling like you were back at school, drawing 5 pointed stars all over the desk during a maths class. It could go either way. Luckily the guy I sat next to was my definition of metal. Aside defacing every desk with pentagrams and satanic verse, he loved metal, especially death metal…

Probot is metal like your top tube, definitely not aluminium either. Probot will make your ears bleed if you crank it loud (much like smashing your head on your top tube). Dave Grohl has pulled together some of his greatest metal heroes for an albums worth of free reigning fire and brimstone that oozes dark demonic riffs and guttural roars from the likes of King Diamond, Max Cavalera and Chronos. Motorheads’s Lemmy thrashes out ‘Shake your Blood’, which will turn anyone into a diehard metal fan after one listen. The standout track has to be Eric Wagner’s My Tortured Soul, which powered the 2020bmxmag lab through this demonic, sleep and bike deprived deadline. Throw the horns, hell yeah!

here. Definitely not death metal though.

Cody Chestnutt

The headphone masterpiece Recorded on a simple four-track with a microphone and a bunch of instruments to hand, Cody Chesnutt’s debut album is a crazy collection of lo-fi tunes that pretty much works like a diary for him and his thoughts. Two CDs, contain the album’s 36 tracks, all which follow no rules, taking in hip-hop, r&b, rock, jazz and reggae, and clocking in at everything from five minutes to mere seconds.

You know the format. Lotsa smelly bikers in a bus for a week. Ride some stuff, drink some beer, party up, ride more stuff, have a busload of fun. This time its trekking through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee. All getting a heavy sessioning.

As always the footage is awesome So much amzingly good park stuff. Trails sessions and street action abounds also. Plus if you like your music noisy, Seth Kimbrough’s band plays hard. Check the bonus section for more of Seth’s band. Good riding, good tunes, good times, check it out.

Props 51 51 mins

The latest issue of Props is here and as usual it rocks. The combo of the best filming, production and hook ups means every issue of Props is a step up on the last one. Coverage from the FBM Ghetto Street Jam is crazy. The ramps are definitely ghetto, but heaps of good stuff goes down, especially from Corey Martinez and Matt Sparks who both destroy the fragile obstacles. Next up is an Ian Schwartz bio.

The combination of Ian’s voiceover and

LIVE & DIRECT Sick Of It All

Corner Hotel Richmond

The Black Keys The Big Come Up

If youre in need of Memphis inspired rock’n’roll brought back to it’s grittiest through the use of a guitar, a broken drum kit, a cheap organ and a basement, then the Black Keys will satisfy your dreams of chillin’ in the Mississippi. The Big Come Up is their debut album from 2002, which preceeded their recent fiery blues Thickfreakness release. A worthy listen that has got stuck in more than a few heads once heard around here.

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Eagles of Death Metal

Peace, Love, Death Metal The Eagles of Death Metal was a band I had not heard of and, making the ordinary presumptions, figured I was to review a head banging death metal album. What came through my stereo was an eclectic mix of raw old school guitar riffs, punk as vocals and good old toe tapping rock and roll all delivered with a sexy modern twist.

You may be interested to note that this album was produced by Joshua Homme of

Definitely an album to inspire hope in all you bedroom musicians.

RZA

Birth of a Prince If you’ve been a WuTang die-hard fan, the 3rd RZA album will have been worth the wait. All the old soul sounds and solid beats from a rapper that has proven his compositions with soundtracks to the likes of the amazing film, Ghost Dog. The cut that stands out on the album is of course, Grits. And I walked around

With so many unbearably whiny, semi goth, black hair combed down over their forehead bands in the “hardcore” scene these days it was a breath of fresh air to see these guys playing the real thing.

And in the blue corner, representing BTown, Chris Matthews//KaDe hillier

the mellow music made me sleepy but the riding is good to say the least. There are road trip sections from Profile, WTP and Country Bikes. All good stuff and nice to see some footage from outside of the USA. The La Revolution comp in Rochester gets a major piece. This looks like a real nice park and of course good riding gets done in a big way. Lots of interesting transfer lines and gaps at the park. John Heaton, Corey Martinez and Josh Stricker run rampant, plus many more rockin shit up. Chester Blacksmith has a bio also. This guy is not scared. Crashing a big rail or ten. Ultimately he does pull off some good stuff. You only get back what you give. There is a scene report from Long Island and NYC. If you want big city street riding, this is where it’s at. Some trail and park stuff too scattered around the area and of course the infamous Brooklyn banks get a serious session. Even the Canadians get a look in with coverage of the 1664 Street comp, the usual street set up gets a good work out from the likes of Dave Osato. Finally there’s the C4 comp from Milwaukee, home of happy

days, these kids are definitely having happy days, riding all those nice ramps. Check the bonus section for the entire Props 12 from back in the days of VHS, those silver bikes are called chrome kids! Check it out. The only negative thing about this vid is the lack of coverage from the world outside of the USA, kids get your mini dv’s out and send some footage to props!

SOUL 24

We didn’t get the DVD in time to review it all, but the teaser had some great footage from a stack of the big comps around the world including; 2-Hip San Francisco and the Flatground event in Amsterdam that Simon O’Brien made it too. A profile on Tobias Wicke, the tech wizard form Germany.

Hamburg gets a scene check as does SoCal and Sheffield. The bonus section had a stack of content that included the Triple Crown Dirt in Oceanside, Metro Jam and a New Zealand road trip. More Soul for you dollars and a lot more coverage of the international scene than any other DVD.

Sick of it All have been playing since most of us were in kindergarten and are probably old enough to be our dads. Anybody familiar with their music can imagine how rowdy the crowd was and singer Lou knows how to fire the crowd up even more. Crazy old school moves, an enormous circle pit and at one stage he divided the crowd into two groups and made them charge at each other Braveheart style. To hear Lou Kollers voice live is an amazing experience and I can’t understand how he keeps it show after show. They played at least two or three songs off every album they’ve recorded and ended with an awesome cover of Minor Threat.

The only time they stopped was so a bloke could propose to his girlfriend on stage. All said and done this was definitely one of the best shows I have ever seen and I doubt anybody could top it. Its’ just a pity Mindsnare didn’t support them this time round.

Lacy

Dropkick Murphy’s Metro, Melbourne

Its only been about a year and a half since the Murphys were last over here and since then their popularity has increased largely. Although the Metro is a shitty venue with one brand of dirty beer and the pit had a large number of punk rock police there to brand everyone they didn’t know as “posers” it was still one of the best shows I have ever seen. The band played for more than an hour doing an almost perfect mix of their trademark Irish / punk originals, a few Irish traditionals and awesome covers of AC/DCs Long Way To the Top, And The Who’s Teenage Wasteland. The energy that came from the entire band and the fact they barely even stopped between songs was absolutely amazing. By the time they got to the last song and asked the crowd up on stage I could barely muster the energy to stand up let alone lift myself over a barrier and up onto a stage. Except for the beer and some of the wankers in the crowd I don’t think I could make one single complaint about this show. If you like getting blind and yelling along to drinking songs make sure you catch these guys next time they come Lacy

With more and more riders documenting their scenes and progression with the modern ages greatest invention, the digi cam, it was obvious that we should have the creators of some of the latest productions review each others work. In our first face off, B’Town massive takes on Box Hill’s Pride, BHP...

Why Try When You’re Gonna Die by leon sablinskis

Straight outta rural Victoria, Bendigo comes “Why Try When You’re Gonna Die”. No pretty gimmicks or editing techniques, just a punk as fuck DIY video with plenty of straight up riding and mayhem. This video will either make you go out and ride or go out and get pissed at the local. The vid has good sections from a list of riders so far unheard. Parts that stand out were Flagz, Louis and The Birdman. Birdman’s part from start to end is like getting your teeth kicked out and then sold back to you, huge candy bar gaps on street and dirt stand out in my mind. The video sells cheap. You could afford a slab and “why try” for the same price of the latest props DVD. If you’re looking for a true Aussie vid full of riding, drinking, girls kissing and dogs having sex all with a price tag of $10 then “Why Try When You’re Gonna Die” is the ticket.

For info on ordering go to www.20gcrew.8m.com, or email btownmassive83@hotmail.com

Meet Your Enemies

by Lacy

The BHP (Box Hill Pride) boys have been putting out videos for a few years now but their latest release “Meet Your Enemies” has really put them on the map and raised the standard of Australian videos. Though based in Melbourne, these guys have covered a lot of ground across the country and found some amazing spots and riders along the way. The video is made up of a couple of mixed sections and the rest mainly single rider sections from the regular BHP crew. All of these guys obviously worked hard for their parts and it shows. Be it for Dolly killing himself and doing some of the biggest rails and gaps to grinds Melbourne has ever seen.Coops making really hard tricks look easy or Andreis ridiculously tech and original street lines.

The major highlight for me though is definitely Dean Lucas’ section. This kid does some of the most difficult and original tricks I have ever seen off any video and can do more tricks out of an Xup lander than most people can do with their bars round the right way.

My only gripe about this video is some of the music, some of the new school hard core songs just don’t seem to go to the riding properly or do anything for me. But that’s just my opinion and if I were you I wouldn’t take any notice of it. With my petty little bitch aside I would highly recommend this video to anyone who wants to see a world class documentation of Australian BMX and what’s going on right now. The editing is as professional as anything coming out of the USA right now, It is loaded with DVD extras that are worth watching and it sells for about $35. Check it out, I doubt you will be disappointed.

To get a copy contact Strictly BMX or email the_trailboss@hotmail.com *We’re talking recording heads.

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Truvativ Pedals High pressure cast alloy pedal bodies post CNC’d with super low profile design, using an oversized heat treated cromoly spindle for maximum strength with cartridge bearings for increased bearing life. www.dirtworks.com.au

RNC Bar ends Titanium caps to stop core samples of your abs, nice. Slick machined titanium is light too, what more is there to say?

RNC 0417 587 753

Metal chainring The Metal light sprocket is CNC machined from 5mm Thick 6013 Alcoa powerplate aluminium, which is 45% stronger and 25% harder than 6061- T6 aluminium. The smaller sizes do not need guards, as they get stronger the smaller they get. All sprockets have 1” thick spokes that provide increased rigidity as the size of the sprocket decreases. Available in 25, 28, 30, 33, 36 and 39 tooth. www.stowaway.net.au

Sun Big City Rims Welded and machined sidewalls with triple-hollow construction, nickel-plated brass eyelets. Designed through input from today’s top freestylers and jumpers to be the strongest rim ever made but with less rotating weight in 36 and 48 hole drillings www.dirtworks.com.au

Felt Hubs Flip-Flop design accepts Small (14-15T) and Large (16-18T) freewheels, Lightweight aluminium body, Cr-Mo axles and high quality Japanese sealed bearings (triple bearing rear) running on 14mm axles and come in the new black; which is apparently black. www.feltbmx.com

Federal Sweat Bands Sick of sweat/beer dripping down your arms and making your grips even slipperier? Or maybe you just want to look more punk rock with a John McEnroe flavour. Federals 3 pack of sweatbands will keep you rockin, especially tailored for those of you with that extra arm! www.stowaway.net.au

Eastern stem The JFK Front Load Stem is machined from a solid block of lightweight aluminum. The stem is then lightened by boring a hole directly through the center of the stem. The drilled cap reduces the weight even further. www.dirtworks.com.au

Truvativ Cranks Tackling the Euro BB dilemma in a whole new way, Truvativ have created a sealed cassette bottom bracket/ bearing set up to make installation and removal of your Euro BB as simple as possible. The cranks feature forged AL7050TV construction, making them light and stiff. Fully CNC’d 1/4” thick durable AL-7075-T6 sprocket with an adjustable bashguard. The BB utilizes a 113mm wide spindle suitable for ISIS Drive cranks only, and has 4 bearings for increased impact strength and bearing life. www.dirtworks.com.au

661 Protective gear With some of the best protective gear on the planet, 661 are making big moves into insuring you stay in one piece. A full range of helmets, pads, gloves and more. Cory Nastazio signature glove pictured. www.sixsixone.com

FBM CB4’K Forks Basically a lightweight version of the tried and true “Kick Ass” forks. Handcrafted from 100% American Made 4130 Aircraft Grade Chromoly in the FBM Machine Shop. They feature .058 wall fork legs, 3/16” heat-treated dropouts (3/8 only) and a machined 1-piece steer tube, also available with 990 Mounts. They weigh in at just 2.8 pounds. www.stowaway.net.au

FBM Outsider frame FBM’s new mid priced frame, is all about simplifying the manufacturing processes and fewer finishing refinements.

Meaning that they forgo things like end caps on the tubes and use simple plate gussets instead of tube gussets which are more time consuming and harder to weld. The frames are still built in house at the FBM Machine Shop, and they still kick ass. The Outsider, designed and ridden by Ryan Corrigan. www.stowaway.net.au

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Fit Series 2 Frame This is the next step in BMX frame technology. Same Fit design with 4130 high grade supertherm, double butted chromoly. This tubing is stronger and lighter. Smaller dropouts (meets flush with the peg) and a Euro Bottom Bracket to make it complete. It is available in 20.5, 20.75 and 21. It weighs only 5.25 pounds and comes in Black, Green, Grey and Light Blue. www.ecibmx.com

DCShoeCo Have got a stack of bling bling new gear to live the 20inch lifestyle in style.

Backpacks, belts, money clips and of course super good shoes (Basis shown). Be on the look out for a few Aus DC riders in the near future as step up their BMX pressence… www.dcshoeco.com

S&M Sprocket CNC’d sprocket with a built in guard available in 30, 36, 39T. Very light weight suit 1/8 chain to keep weight down even more. www.ecibmx.com

Fox Low Pro Knee Guards Neoprene chassis for all around coverage and comfort. Horseshoe inner to make sure it stays in one place and a nice little donut on the inside to protect that soft bit of knee you always smash the crap out of on top tubes etc… www.foxracing.com

SNAFU If your in need of some high pressure all purpose tires made to take a pounding, SNAFU’s Knob Job tyres may be the go. Solid long lasting tread pattern that extends around the side wall to provide added protection and carve-ability. Stepping out of just quality bike products into the luggage world. SNAFU’s big packs will take care of all your daily riding needs all in one safe and comfortable on your back package. With a new distributor taking care of SNAFU in Australia, the whole product range will be available. www.snafubmx.com

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I’ve been asked a few times why theres been an abundance of Kym Grosser in the pages of our little mag lately. My only answer is that his riding is simply stepping into new dimensions that few are able to keep up with. Over the sub to bank at speed. Guaranteed he’ll be featuring in the ramp/skatepark free special edition issue

Back to our roots Once upon a time, there was a simple world. A world devoid of ramps skate parks. A world where riders found their own terrain, every day exploring further.

2020bmxmagazine goes back to the dark cold streets in the upcoming Winter V14 edition to explore just what happens when all that we take for granted disappears. An issue with no parks or ramps. An issue dedicated to the riders searching for something more in this place we call home. The ‘No Parking’ issue is based around the roots of riding as we know it. That is; making the environment surrounding us our playground. Namely street, flatland and dirt in Australia today.

Zoo York ‘No Parking’ Competition As part of the ‘No Parking’ issue, Zoo York has come onboard with a clothing package made for the mean streets of any place you call home. To win this $300 package, the Zoo Crew have devised a plan. You send us your craziest street photos.

Only catch is, in true NYC style, the ante has been upped meaning you gotta be ‘No Brakes’ and going large and tech too. Check the Edwin ad next door for inspiration, and remember, no ramps or skateparks. Post all photo submissions to 2020bmxmag Zoo York comp, PO Box 498 Newtown NSW 2042 or email hires pics to zooyork@2020bmxmag.com.au Entries close last post Monday 19th of July.

The winner will be judged by Laroo from Zoo York, a veteran of the mean streets across the globe. Aside the rockin Zoo York clothing package, the winning entry will

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