ANYTIME YOU GET 20 PLUS OF THE TOP DIRT JUMPERS FROM AUSTRALIA AND ABROAD TOGETHER, YOU KNOW SOME SERIOUS SHIT IS GOING TO GO DOWN. ADD SOME OF THE BIGGEST
STORY BY JAMIE
PHOTO Doug Taylor
Cam White has been putting on his “Hillside Dirt Jam” for a while now and it has grown to become an event unlike anything else in Australia. This year’s jam was version 4 and “Cam’s Jam” as it is affectionately known seems to be carving it’s own little niche as far as events go. The whole vibe of this jam is a bit different being that it is a charity fund-raiser as opposed to a winner takes all competition. It seems to be almost more of a social event than anything else. The camaraderie between dirt jumpers is always pretty strong but even more so at Cam’s. If you were to take the lights and the spectators away you would just have a bunch of guys having a session in their mates backyard encouraging each other to go big push their limits.
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JUMPS OUT THERE INTO THE MIX AND YOU CAN BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND HOW A SMALL RURAL PROPERTY IN WAMBOIN CAN TEMPORARILY BE TRANSFORMED INTO A BMX MECCA.
Cam Pianta PHOTO Doug Taylor
PHOTO Max Duff
If you are having a session with your mates you would normally just ride till you have done what you were trying to get done then take the pads off and relax. Most of the riders were done before the best trick comp even started. It was funny to hear the announcer getting frustrated towards the end when only a handful of riders were left and there were big gaps between runs. He tried to get a few riders back on their bikes but everyone who had stopped riding was satisfied with their nights work and didn’t want to get hurt trying to ride for the crowd. The riding was at the high level that you would expect from the riders present. There was nothing ground breaking but lots of the usual bangers were dropped and on jumps as big as Cam’s it was great to watch.
PHOTO Max Duff
PHOTO Doug Taylor
Kenny Raggett put down the golf clubs and had a dig, Daniel Donges went hell big as usual and it was nice to see Corey Nastazio with that classic style. Josh Stead was rockin’ a nice medical tape cross on his forehead courtesy of a crossbar headbutt early in the night that split him open pretty good. Slight Charlie Manson look going on there, but he still rode with that untouchable smoothness he is known for. Cam Pianta looked like he had been in a bar room brawl with a real nice black eye but still nailed the big frontie transfer line. Dane Searls threw big tricks at crazy height all night long and was voted King of the Hill for his efforts.
Nasty in no way phased by the frickin enormous sets! PHOTO Max Duff
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Pencils create their mark on the world via the simple process of physical abrasion. Their core leaving behind a residual trail of solid, pigmented material that adheres to a sheet of paper or other surface. In many ways, this is not too dissimilar to a bike (or rider) on any given surface, be it concrete or wood. So with that held tight in your mind, you’ll understand where this collaboration is coming from. Nick Gascoine with film and glass Hilary Thackway with pencil and time. ISSUE 35
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COLONY IS AMAZING, I HAVE HAD SOME OF THE BEST EXPERIENCES BOTH ON AND OFF MY BIKE BECAUSE OF THIS COMPANY! CLINT MILLAR IS THE FUCKING MAN! NICK RICHARDSON - MAKES GETTING ON MY BIKE EACH DAY MORE FUN THAN I THOUGHT POSSIBLE! EVERYONE
Colony
Independence Day
ZAC MINER - TO RIDE FOR COLONY MEANS SO MUCH TO ME BECAUSE CLINT MILLAR IS MY BOSS (SWEET AS). THE ROAD TRIPS ARE INSANE BECAUSE OF HOW RAD THE TEAM IS, WE HAVE PETE RADIVO. I HAVE 100% SAY IN ALL MY PARTS AND THAT’S RARE. COOPER
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ON THE TEAM IS AMAZING TO RIDE AND CHILL WITH! EXCEPT THAT HOTDOGS DUDE....I DUNNO WHAT’S UP WITH THAT HAHA. TOM STRETTON - COLONY IS THE BEST THING TO HAPPEN TO ME IN A LONG TIME. I AM SO GREATFULL TO BE A PART OF A BAD ASS COMPANY.
BUILDING YOUR DREAM IS ALWAYS GOING TO BE A MASSIVE TASK. WHEN IT INVOLVES BUILDING A BMX BRAND FROM SCRATCH WITH EVERYTHING THAT A BMX BRAND ENTAILS IN 2010, THEN YOU’D BE RIGHT FOR THINKING IT MAY SOUND LIKE AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK. ESPECIALLY IF YOU WANTED TO DO THIS BY YOURSELF.
BUT THEN WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE MAN IN QUESTION AND SEE HIS DEDICATION TO THE RIDING EXPERIENCE, OVER TWO DECADES, IT ALL STARTS TO MAKE SENSE. WHILE HE ONCE SPLIT HIS TIME BETWEEN RAMPS AND FLATLAND, HE NOW DOES IT BETWEEN DESIGNING PARTS, SORTING HIS TEAM AND PUSHING WHAT MAY JUST BE THE BIGGEST BMX BRAND TO EVER COME OUT OF AUSTRALIA.
WE CAUGHT UP WITH CLINT MILLAR AND GOT THE LOW DOWN ON WHERE COLONY HAS COME FROM, IS TODAY, AND IS HEADING, AT A RECENT GET TOGETHER OF THE NOW MASSIVE COLONY TEAM. INTERVIEW BY HOLMES PHOTOS BY NITAI
BROWNLEE SHOOTS THE TEAM PHOTOS AND JUST RULES. IT’S JUST ONE BIG FAMILY, EVERYONE ON COLONY IS A SICK C*#T, DID I SAY CLINT MILLAR IS THE BOSS HAHAHAHA. THAT’S SO RAD HE RULES ON A BMX AND IS NOT JUST A SUIT SITTING IN AN OFFICE, HE’S
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MICHAEL
PUNIARD
PUN-DAWG WAS ALWAYS THE MOST BAD ASS MOTHER FUCKER AT THE SKATE PARK. IT WOULD BE A MID WEEK AFTERNOON AND ALL THE LOCAL CREW WOULD JUST BE DOWN AT THE PARK HANGING OUT HAVING A PRETTY RELAXED SESSION. PUNI WOULD COME DOWN ALL ARMOURED UP AND HAVE AN IDEA IN HIS HEAD OF SOMETHING THAT HE HAD BEEN THINKING ABOUT DOING FOR WEEKS. YOU COULDN’T EVEN TALK TO HIM, HE’D JUST DROP IN AND START DOING CRAZY STUFF. HE ALWAYS DID THAT, HE’D JUST COME DOWN AND START SHREDDING WITH EVERYONE SITTING BACK LIKE “WHAT THE FUCK?” ANOTHER MEMORY OF PUNI IS JUST HOW THE WEEKEND OFTEN WENT…. FRIDAY AFTERNOON SESSION AT THE SKATE PARK, FRIDAY NIGHT PARTYING, USUALLY PRETTY HARD, MOST OF THE TIME AT DAVE’S HOUSE TILL ALL HOURS OF THE NIGHT AND THEN HOT SUMMER SESSIONS THE NEXT DAY AT THE SKATE PARK. I AM NOT SURE IF EVERYONE KNOWS IT BUT PUNI HAS HAD DIABETES SINCE HE WAS REAL YOUNG AND IT SEEMED LIKE EVERY SECOND WEEKEND HE WOULD BURN THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS. HE WAS SO DEDICATED HE WOULD STILL RIDE ALL DAY IN THAT SUN, NEARLY HALF DIE AND END UP HAVING A DIABETIC FIT WHICH SCARED US ALL TO HELL. HE JUST COULDN’T STOP RIDING. THAT’S CALLED DEDICATION. Russel Brindley Interview recorded at the pub with Dave James, Dan Hunt, Dave Brown, Daniel Wallis, Russel Brindley, Raine Turnbull, Zac Minor, Rhys Williams, Tyson Jones-Peni and a few others of the Canberra crew sinking beers. QUESTIONS AND ALL PHOTOS BY RAINE TURNBULL SO HOW OLD ARE YOU? Ha-ha 28 I think.... 28 going on 29.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO BMX? I started riding around my neighbourhood on little kids bikes, I remember Sam Delaney used to live two houses down and we used to ride our bikes around and bunny hop up gutters, set up pieces of wood on a couple of bricks and jump that shit. I remember hitting my knees on the stem so many times and taking big chunks out of them. A few years later and I started riding up at the Duffy dirt jumps in Weston Creek. We used to call it the Gully back then. All it was back then was a tree root that you used to jump off and land in a dirt type half pipe, then jump back out the other side. There was a roller coaster section on the right hand side you could roll down and try tricks out it like a big fly out. I think I learnt 360’s out of that thing. Good times!
SO WHO WERE SOME OF YOUR INFLUENCES BACK THEN? When I first started riding?
YEAH.... Shit, from watching videos back in those days it would have to be the number one pros. Which would have been Taj, Dave Mirra, Ryan Nyquist and Jay Miron. They were the guys that I was watching and saying to myself how is what they are doing possible. There were also people back than that I was watching ride at Erindale skate pit. I could not even drop in back then and I remember seeing people like Kye Cummins, Dave James and Fringy MC Fringe over here (AKA Daniel Wallis) doing all this tech stuff and Kye doing back flips. Daniel used to be able to do nose pick to tail tap decades on Erindale’s little street spine before I could even drop in. That shit was wild to me back then and blew my mind.
DESCRIBE YOUR SET UP BACK THEN. The first thing I remember about having a half decent BMX was a Bully. It was chrome with blue anodised parts all over the place, with one piece cranks, shit non sealed wheels and a fucking headset that you had to turn with your hands to keep tight. I remember taking it up to Duffy dirt jumps that Rhys and Scotty Eastern had built. They weren’t there at the time and I jumped this set of doubles for the first time and there was a tree log in the way and I went over the bars and ate shit. That was one of my first memories I have of back then.
RHYS - WAS THERE ANYONE STANDING OVER YOU LAUGHING? Ha-ha, you and Scotty were probably hiding behind a tree watching. I also remember breaking the welds on the 4 piece handlebars that were on the bike and then welding that shit back together at school so I could ride again. Only to jump off the gutter and snap them again and get stitches in my chin. ISSUE 35
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always exist. someone else or yourself, it shall . Whether it be the by product of thing trying to y le funn peop yet le From . terrib a usion is conf e usion The art of conf there is bound to be som being in a whole new place is that moment lurking around the corner. dull a r neve is The one predictable thing about there you, of out just wanting to beat the shit solicit drugs, sell stolen goods or “day 1 we did going to bore you with the usual the road for nine days. But I’m not on s rade com 4 of tale a is ds This here my frien from on the road. instead I shall tell you three tales this, rode this, drank then slept”,
Mike Vockenson-is a cave man! Photo//Adrian Duffy
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DE JA VU /// SIMON O'BRIEN ON HIS NEW DVD ALL PHOTOS MASON ROSE OK, FIRST UP, I HEAR A PRETTY SOLID RUMOUR FLOATING AROUND THAT YOU’VE BEEN HARD AT WORK ON A NEW DVD PROJECT? Yeah, it’s crazy, after my last DVD, I was like “that’s it, no more...” But after you get feedback from people about motivation and an enjoyable watch, I found myself wanting to better myself and do another DVD, it’s a great challenge and what can I say... I love BMX. May as well capture it!
ANY CHANCE THERE’S A NAME FOR IT AS YET? Took me ages to really confirm what I was going to call it... Heaps of different ideas, but at the time I was working on a name for my Colony frame, turns out I called it “Dejavu” which sort of seemed fitting for my second DVD. I think Shane Badman mentioned how it would be a good name for the DVD too.
AFTER YOU FINISHED YOUR LAST DVD, DID YOU THINK YOU’D STEP BACK UP AND BEGIN WORK ON A NEW ONE? No way, I thought that was it ya know. But BMX is in the blood and I can’t stay away, I come from a small area and lots of friends don’t have much going on. I find you need projects to occupy your time. I’ve had a lot of encouragement from Stewart Munro also. I don’t claim to be a filmer or editor but it’s great to take up another challenge and make use of my life and time.
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Action: Losey Lifestyle: Letchworth
Garrett - 180-Barspin Up, Fakie-Whip, Barspin In
Mavrk Mid 2
Nigel Sylvester Dennis Enarson Mike Spinner Harry Main