THE LOWDOWN NEWS & STUFF
14 ISSUE 32 JUNE 2009
THE LOWDOWN NEWS & STUFF
Saving Daylight
Dark at 5:30 in the PM... That’s the hash reality of another summer gone and with it, the last long days of daylight savings. I know extended daylight sucks for the farmers, but how many of them are there compared to city kids needing daylight to ride after work or school in order to retain some semblance of sanity? I mean, cows don’t know what time it is anyway, and when was there ever an alarm clock in a barn? Story by Holmes So to celebrate another rockin’ summer done and to weep a little for all those sunny nights we should’ve, would’ve or could’ve ridden, we held the first annual End of Daylight Savings Jam. Five Dock was the place to be and it all kicked off around two in the arvo. While the day panned out under menacing dark clouds, the rain stayed away and a big day went down regardless of the minimal planning. Stacks of crew showed up to rip 5 Dock and for all those that hadn’t realized the goodness of what we reckon is easily the best park in Australia, the message seemed to get through to all assembled at the hallowed concrete bowls. Aside from a big crew of local and ring in crew from around Sydney and beyond boosting themselves silly in all areas of the old school meets new school park, the touring Fit Bikes crew came down to join in the festivities. Rolling around and seeing Robbo, Van Homan and Dakota Roche at your local is a damn good thing and they seemed to be having a rocking time even with all the attention.
Our 8 foot quarter that was meant to rock up, got sized down into a Taco shaped obstacle that provided possibly much more entertainment, especially once it found its rightful home adjacent to the small bowl. Riding it went along the lines of: boost out of the bowl, pump the landing and launch yourself onto the grass bank. Trucks, flips and whips all getting thrown into the mix, attempted fronties are hilarious when there’s minimal chance of injury! Add a big air comp under ever increasing darkness and you had yourself one full day of riding, running amok and hanging with a rad crew. Besides some crazy lady not agreeing with the language being thrown around on the mic and ringing the cops, of whom 8 were apparently needed to calm the situation (we guess coz it was a biker event and you know Sydney bikers lately), the day went off. Add to the mix a kick arse BBQ and a hearty day of riding, eating and the odd drink went down.
Think Gladiator, Rollerball and Fight Club, shaken, blended and poured onto 20 inch bikes with liquored up riders intent on death Aside from the usual riding mayhem of any good jam, impromptu MC’s Xave and Alex Liiv incited some crazy riding action including the 1st Annual Death Bowl. Yep, you heard it, Death Bowl... This ground shattering event took place in the old bowl after a high air comp in the old girl. Picture 40-50 riders playing a game of foot down amidst broken glass, beer raining down from above with high speed carves with the odd fork snappage thrown in. That kinda thing sounds so good resonating out of the Jurassic old bowl... Think Gladiator, Rollerball and Fight Club, shaken, blended and poured onto 20 inch bikes with liquored up riders intent on death… Funny stuff!
A massive thanks goes out to Hell on Wheels, Vans, Fit, 2020, Alex from Elite Cycle Imports for Iron Chef’n action on the BBQ, Leaf Cycles and everyone for rocking up and making the day rock. Be there next year for a bigger and even more badass jam!
MAIN//No Five Dock session is complete unless Benn Pigot is present. This session ended up with Benn on Fit Bikes thanks to the one and only Robbo. PHOTO Raine Turnbull
ABOVE//Death Bowl carnage. PHOTO Willie
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In the past 30 years there ha ve been six outstanding BMX freestyle riders in my book. Bob Haro, Eddie Fiola, Mat Hoffman, Dave Mirra, Jamie Bestwick and Ryan Guettler. When I say outstanding I mean just that. They have the entire package. Great rider, fantastic personality, very driven, amazingly focused. Basically a marketing companies ideal sportsman. To achieve this you have to have the entire package. It seems to be every five or so years someone just stands out from the crowd. I have seen it, I have lived it. Now I am privileged to say I believe I have found the next thing in BMX freestyle. Jaie Toohey! This kid has it all, height, style, originality, consistency and to finish it off he has all the most difficult tricks out there under his belt already. Jaie has an amazing personality, he is fun, caring and very considerate of others. So anyway, enough about me lets meet the real Mr Jaie Toohey! Intro by John Scottish Buultjens Interview by Holmes
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I watched Kie try no handed threes on this set Teesdale trails over 25 times until he was satisfied with the results. Eager to squeeze more fun out of the session Kie Also had some other three variations that he wanted to chuck in for good measure... (Thanks for all the hard work on the trails Mitch Kelly!)
FBM
has hasaalong-standing long-standingreputation reputationas asone oneof ofthe themost mosttravelled travelledand andrespected respectedcompanies companiesin inBMX BMXso sowe we thought it was more than overdue to get some of their pro team out to mix it up on some of the best terrain Australia has to offer. We didn’t want this trip to be purely a “pro” tour where the kids barely catch a glimpse of their favourite riders strutting their stuff only to disappear into the tour bus/hotel room and are on their way again. We wanted to mingle with the riders at their own spots and give them a time to shine and more importantly have a damn good time while we did it! ISSUE 32
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s n i a r D d E r e TeMP 70
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FILTHY DRAINS CHALLENGE
Jam
Mikey Cz blowing minds dropping from the bridge
SEQUENCE Jason Starr PHOTO Steve Morrisey
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Without a doubt,one of the most infamous riders out there in Australia today. Always keen to ride, keen to get hooked up and keen to impress. Josh has been shredding hard over the last months and pulled in some banger shots, so it was only right to pull together an insight into one of the more enigmatic people in BMX today. Love him or hate him, you might do best by meeting him instead of jumping on the bandwagon. Open your eyes, judge for yourself, the proof is in the riding. Photos by Alex Kuzewicz Interview by Holmes
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Bank to over smith and back. Tough stuff. ISSUE 32
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My GT Bikes team manager and I have been trying to expand the GT program for a while now. Especially outside of the contest style of things. We wanted to be able to go on some trips to film and shoot photos and just hang out with no worries of trying to do good at a comp. This year we’ve started to get our way and were lucky enough to get three of the GT flow riders out to Australia for a one week trip around Brisbane and beyond. This is what it’s all about. Meeting new people, riding new spots (and all the ones I already knew of). We ended up getting much more than we planned to and the trip was a huge success. Thanks to Chuck(TM) and GT Bikes for making this happen! Dave ‘LaDeeDah’ Dillewaard 88
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Justin was with out a doubt th e iron-man of he was filming the trip. At a sk Dave and a ro ate plaza, ck got caught up in his wheel on his skateboard. B The HVX goes OOM! flying across th e floor, ejectin breaking the sh g memory card ell of his fishe s and ye lens. I rode the camera al over and said right?” Little di , “D d ud I e, is kn ow , Justin had brok swelled up real en his thumb. nice and quic k, It an d he said it didn We bent his fis ’t hurt that bad. heye shell back into shape, an still want to fil m that line?” I d he said, “Dav was in shock! e do you This guy is a tro oper for sure.
Pro photobro Justin Kosman gettin down to business shooing Bobby getting locked into another Luc-e. PHOTO Nitai
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Interview + Photos by Tristan Cardew
The first thing I noticed about Joe when I met him was the fact that he ripped. The second thing I noticed was the fact that he had an English accent. And the third thing I noticed was that he was a quiet, composed, and genuine soul. It took a few months, and a few outings, but slowly I learned more about this ex-British Australian, and uncovered his thoughts on riding his newfound homeland, The Lucky Country. Full name: Joe Dodd Date of birth: 27-10-87 Hometown: Worcester, UK Hometown in Australia: Sydney Years riding: 9 Sponsors: Leaf Cycles and CTN Imports
What inspired you to start riding? I’ve always been involved in bikes since I was young. My Dad used to race road bikes; that’s where I first started. After a few years the novelty wore off a little so I started looking for other things to do. A kid over the street from me had a BMX and my riding friend Ferret and I used to go to the little dirt jumps round the corner from our house with him and watch. From then on I wanted a BMX, and the rest, as they say, is history. What genre of BMX do you enjoy most and why? I’d have to say I enjoy street riding most. It’s always fun hunting for new spots and riding things that were never meant to be ridden. Skate parks are fun, but after a while they get a little boring and the crowds get hard to cope with. Name and describe your local/favourite riding spot or spots in the UK. My favourite spot would have to have been the old Worcester skate park before it was torn down. Egg, the guy who ran the park, did an amazing job of building and maintaining the place. More or less every Winter he’d be down there building the new set up ready for the summer. The Worcester scene can’t thank him enough. Local spots that I used to ride before I came to Australia were Newquay down on the south coast (as I lived there for a few months over summer), and Perdiswell in Worcester. Perdiswell is such a terrible park. It makes me so angry to think that the old Worcester park was replaced with this. The council still has no idea what they ruined.
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Making the DVD... Flip your way through 2020 and youʼll see your fair share of sweet photos. When it comes down to it, a lot of work goes into a photo, from both the shooter and the rider. But, in the end itʼs just a picture. Maybe it is worth 1000 words, but it isnʼt the whole story. Thatʼs what video is for, it captures the movement, showcases the style, speed and flow like a photo never will. It tells the whole story, the trips to the spots, the busts by security, the prepʼing of the run in, the bails, the endless attempts, and the stoke by the crew when it goes down. Nathan Tomsic and Sam Orchard both have their second DVD releases coming up this year and we figured you need to know a little bit of whatʼs been going on behind the scenes. If we went on exposure time, hereʼs about one second of whatʼs coming your way at 24 fps...
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Solitude 2
Interview with Nathan Tomsic by Caleb Mondon
PHOTO Caleb Mondon
What’s the name of the vid? The name of the vid will end up being Solitude 2, unless of course something better pops up. This is your second video, is it any easier the second time? It goes both ways, so it is and it isn’t. It’s easier in terms of already having all my camera equipment and I’m real comfortable with all my stuff so the footage comes along a lot quicker and a lot easier now, but it’s harder because I keep stressing about trying to make it better than the first one. What are some of the challenges of making a vid? The challenges are definitely finding the time to go out and film everyone, in lots of different locations. Going to everyone’s local parks and staying out late on the streets and stuff like that. So it can be hard but definitely fun. Also, I’m hell lazy so I let heaps of footage build up on my camera and then have to upload this huge amount of footy to my computer and that takes hours and hours to cut and edit! Any good stories from filming? Ah I don’t think I have too many interesting stories, just mates falling over with the camera. Or you give it to a mate to film and when you go back over the footage you will find a good 10 seconds of their ass or something in it. Haha. Who can we see in the video? This vid will definitely have Danny Campbell, Matt Simpson, Cam Sweet, Joe Dodd, Eddy Dempsey and myself. I hope to get out to the Central Coast to film some shredders like Bretag, Luke Bowerman, Andy, Dave and Jake Mitchell. Most of the dudes people probably haven’t heard of but all of them are amazing! When will the DVD be out? Well I’m in the states at the moment not really filming, but I got a decent part of the film done before I left so I will be back in August and hope to have the vid out a couple of months after that.
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BEHIND BARS BMX 4 LIFE
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BEHIND BARS BMX 4 LIFE
Thomas Dunn
From Waiuku, New Zealand Resides Brisbane, Queensland Words & Photo by Steve Morrisey So there are a lot of Kiwis jumping the Pond to Oz and one of my favourites is 19 year old Thomas Dunn. If you were to meet Tom you would most likely think he a really shy quiet guy. From all accounts his exceptional manners and nice attitude is one of the rarities that you just don’t find that often in today’s age in younger people, let alone BMX riders, but I must admit it’s a breath of fresh air. While he has an opinion, he is the sort of guy that would voice only the smallest negativity when asked if he doesn’t agree with or like something and leave it at that, rather than “shit talk” and put it down which is a trend that is rife right now. It was a while after I met Tom that I actually got to see him ride and I guess how he is off the bike as a person gave me an idea that maybe he was a bit of a chiller who just cruised around? Actually it’s quite the opposite, he is a bloody animal behind the bars. The first time (and every time) I see Tom ride my jaw hits the ground. I just don’t see what’s coming when he rides, we might be chilling messing around at a park then boom! 7 foot air out of a 5 foot quarter, or a flair at height, or launch a gap which you usually ride past and think, yeah could be done but F*#k that! When Tom lines up something he gets it dunn, bad pun I know but it works. He walks away with a smile and is almost surprised when you high five him and say how nuts that was? For me Tom is someone that I am glad to call a friend and have the utmost respect for on and off the bike, quite simply is a real nice person with amazing skills on a BMX.
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