Issue 1, Fall, 2013
-Index-
Foreword- Pg 2 The Rob Diquattro Interview- Pgs 3-11 Vinyl Reviews- Pgs 14-15 Video Reviews- Pgs 16-19
-FOREWORDThis is the inagural issue of Pedalbite zine. This zine came about, partly, to fill a gap in BMX culture, as we currently have no magazines in existence that cater specifically to the non-parkjock majority in our culture. This zine will feature a no-bullshit mentality, completely free from from the “spin-it-to-win-it� content shown in many of the larger magazines. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed making it.
Cheers! Pedalbite Zine staff (such as we are)
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The Rob Diquattro Interview
Okay, so let’s get started. What’s your name and where are you from? Rob: Rob DiQuattro, Columbus Ohio So I know you had a sponsor change as of recently, from the Australian company, Tempered, to the German company, Mankind. How did that come about? Rob: Yeah so I went on a trip out to Portland to ride with Jeff K. about a week after that trip will Stroud called me on the phone. Jeff had talked to him at interbike about adding me to the team. The opportunity was too awesome to turn down. Jeff is awesome, Will is awesome, Christoph (owner) is awesome, and Greenhouse (distro) is not only awesome, but located in Columbus where a couple of my good friends work Ah. Yeah I know Mankind in the past hasn’t really had that much of an american presence outside of Jeff K, who’s been on there for a while. Just trying to up their place in the US scene I guess. Rob: Yeah Christoph wants to promote the US team this year Jeff has talked to me about the possible addition of a third US pro as well Nice. I know in the past they sort have seemed to have more of a park team than anything else. They trying to move more to a street team now? Or at least focus more on it? Rob: You know, I’m not sure but it would seem that way Jeff and I sure aren’t nearly as good (at park) as Bommel, well maybe he (Jeff) is. Yeah definitely more of a park cat that one Rob: Bommel and all those dudes kill it I’d say the US team could shape up to being a more “street” oriented team if future riders are picked like I was. For sure It definitely feels like most companies are moving more that direction over time here, which I dunno. guess I kinda like. Definitely been more into that for the most part myself. Rob: I feel that, for me I just like to see riders who are psyched to be on the bike, no matter what they’re riding. Nothin worse than tryin to figure out if the dude riding is even enjoyin’ himself. I mean ride what you like. If not I find it sort of weird. Rob: Yeah there are some snakes in the grass out there dude. Some ex dew tour rats tryin to play the street game. That aint street. That’s fucking gay. Yeah I feel ya dude. I’ve certainly heard about a few dudes; one just recently specifically that’ll go unnamed, that switched over to street from a different style more just because it’s more popular these days Rob: Hahah yeah it blows my mind that stuff happens.
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Yeah I mean it’s bound to happen.People wanna do what’s perceived as the big seller if they plan to make a living at riding a bike. You know? Rob: Yeah I guess that’s why it doesnt make sense to me. I don’t think of riding a bike that way. it’s always been my escape from life, I wouldn’t do anything to risk fucking it up. Yeah I know what you mean. It’s definitely the same way for me. That’s why I typically don’t ride too much in the way of deadman stuff unless I’m filming. Rob: Oh hell no. But I know you’re less that way. Rob: You think?
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Yeah man. Wanna discuss that at all? Rob: Sure but go into more detail I don’t know if I’m directly following Haha yeah. Like when I first met you, on your first trip down here, I remember we took you and Damian (Racut) and Shay (Lashley) down to those DU red rails, those 14 stair ones. I’d been eying those up for some time to do a feeble down them, but never felt like it was worth it, as I was far too worried about getting broken off if something went wrong. You know, if I broke something, I’d be out for a while, and wouldn’t be able to ride at all, and that’s never fun. But yeah, when we took you all there you were very quick to be like “yeah I’m going to hit this” Rob: Hahah word. Well I think thats just a misconception a lot of people think of handrails as being scary shit that sucks to do I legitimately love grinding rails, I will grind rails riding to a spot so for me to grind that rail is less scary than a hop barspin. If I’m about to do something that is far beyond my comfort zone I’m definitely going to have the camera out And as far as the concern for injury, It’s always there for me I’ve spent around 3-4 months this year off the bike. Herniated disc in my back, torn quad tendon in my left knee, and tendinitis in my right ankle. but it’s worth the risk for me, because landing something i dream about doing down a rail is the greatest feeling, and the most fun I experience on a bike. Did I not completely answer your question? I feel like I didnt haha No, that works great. Rob: Word. And if I’m hesitant about pulling the camera out its because I don’t want to film something that’s not difficult for me. damn scratch that, it sounds cocky and I don’t mean for it to sound cocky. No I feel you for sure. I definitely hate filming stuff if it feels like it’s a waste of tape. Rob: Yeah, I hate watching an edit where the rider is just doing what he does just to film for an edit go out and film some hard shit or some scary shit Definitely. It’s pointless filming otherwise. Rob: Yeah I mean, I’m also an advocate for film everything with everything but if you’re trying to put something out there to be proud of, don’t cut corners I mean filming Beagle or Baker style is certainly fun though Rob: Hell yeah. They get shit done and have a blast doing it Definitely. So I know you’ve been doing some traveling as of late? Rob: Yes (followed by a long pause)
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Haha Rob: It’s the greatest. Meeting new people is the best Definitely. So yeah, as the year’s winding down, how many places did you get to this year? Rob: This year was dope. Texas (twice), Colorado (twice), Wisconsin, Oregon, South Carolina (twice), and then a bunch of trips through Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky I think that’s it This has been the sickest year of my life Damn. What are you doing money-wise to managed to wing that many flights? Rob: Well a lot of those travels happened in a car. I was working my finance job the first time I went to Texas and Colorado, and Tempered helped me as well with Colorado. I paid for my own flight out to Portland, Damian (Racut) and I split gas for Milwaukee, and as of Recent Mankind has been helping me out with traveling. Whatever it takes to make it work man. I stacked my savings account before I quit my job Shit. That’s right. I guess you did drive out to Colorado didn’t you? Rob: Yeah dude I’m not living in 5star hotels. I’m sleepin in a sleeping bag on a floor haha
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Nah for sure Rob: I figured the time is never going to be perfect you just have to do it. a lot of people don’t because it’s scary to do it’s scary to quit your job and spend your last dollars on gas to get to some place you’ve never been but its the most fun in the world as well For sure. You have any idea of how many miles you put on your car this year through driving? Rob: hahah dude roughly 10 million hahaha nah seriously a ton though because even when im not on the road I’m still driving to Cinci or Louisville on the weekends Ah damn. I was hoping for 420 or 666 thousand or something. Rob: Hahaha my step dad just got new license plates and it has 666 in it and my family was seriously discussing how they wouldnt have accepted those plates during thanksgiving. It was so whack. Haha yeah sounds like it. You driving out those ways for riding or work? Rob: Riding. Ah. Yeah, considering that you were talking about quitting jobs for riding, where are you working at these days? I thought I had remembered that it was somewhere decent. Rob: I was just working at a cellphone recycling place as an internal auditor Currently though I have no job I had too many awesome travel opportunities, and I couldn’t see wasting them on some bullshit job that I hated I’m not gettin any younger hahah I feel you there. You have any other trips in the works, here for this coming year?
Rob: 2013 nothing is cemented but I am super excited for it There is talk of Cali, Tulsa OK, and even Berlin Germany Oh nice. Europe would be sick as fuck Rob: Hell yeah it would be. I’d be going into super tourist mode Pictures of everything, trying to check out landmarks and museums haha You ever been before? Rob: Nah, I’ve never been out of the country well I went to Canada once, but that doesn’t count Nah not really. It’s true though. Definitely awesome to visit. Never been for riding I’d be mad jealous Rob: Me neither. Oh, you mean Europe? Yeah dude I hope it works out. Who knows though I’m not sweating it. I’ve learned that if 10 things are planned usually only 1 happens but I’m happy with those odds Yeah, as long as it’s something different from the daily grind Rob: Yeah anything on a bike is dope. Agreed. I know a lot of people were super psyched on that new Hood Antics web video you dropped a few months back I definitely was those videos are always raw as fuck Rob: Thank you so much man. It gets me pumped that people get psyched on them. My friends are some of the best riders/ people in the world and I love being able to show that I hear ya. You ever have any plan of making like a full length video or anything like that?
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Rob: Nah I don’t think it would work out. Plus all my friends can see it on the internet easier Suppose that’s definitely true. So where do you stand on the whole web versus DVD debate? Rob: I like web a lot, but DVD’s make more sense in some cases The bake and destroy video was an awesome DVD baker is a tight knit team, and I like watching those dudes skate as a family. Yeah, I mean I know a lot of companies, such as element, have been releasing videos that would previously have been DVDs straight to itunes Rob: Yeah that makes sense to me like Nyjah or however you spell it that dude doesn’t need to be in a DVD. He is making over a million dollars a year doin whack ass competitions I mean more power to him, but it’s just a different vibe Certainly. Personally though, I’ll always have a soft spot for “old school” shit such as DVDs. Rob: Yeah there will always be a place for them Something nice about having a tangible copy of a video Rob: I just lose dvds or give them away. I’m terribly messy. I’m not that bad, but I have 3 copies of some games because I have to rebuy them. Haha that’s crazy. Can’t remember the last time I bought a video game well shittt. This is going nowhere fast. I should probably find some way to wrap this up here somehow giving interviews is far harder than it looks first for sure Rob: Hahaha Just shorten everything up
Sure, sure. Well let’s finish up with a few last questions then: top three places you’d like to travel to? Rob: Realistic: Arizona, Cali, Oklahoma Fantasy: New Zealand, Australia, Alaska. Nah Machu Pichu, not Alaska Nice. Top three foods to eat? Rob: Enchiladas, nachos, tacos Arriba Rob: Mexican ohhhll day Shittt have you been to Austin? Rob: Nah headed there this weekend though. Is there a mexican joint I got to check out? Check out some street food and Juan a million. Austin is a taco town. Rob: I love taco trucks Backed. Alright alright alright top three bands you’re listening to at the moment? Rob: Meh Shit, Damian (Racut) and Shay (Lashley) don’t have you listening to any hardcore? Rob: Nah I cannot get into it at all Shit gets me so hyped to ride. Ah well… Rob: I hate music. I’m fucking weird. Haha. Okay maybe I’ll use a different one then Rob: I drive in silence normally. Haha Crazy Rob: Top 3 video games? Aiight, I suppose. Rob: Hahah. Super mario rpg, final fantasy 9, mega man x shadow of the colossus. Top 4.
Haha fine. That works. Top three tricks to do? Rob: Ice picks, foot jams, crank arms Okay and top three numbers? Rob: 69 420 666 Good choices. Rob Haha i could have hit you with some nerdy ass math ones but i’d be lyin Oh man. Rob: Favorite mathematician: George Cantor You fucking nerd Rob: Nah that dude is sick. Proved different sizes of infinity (or rather the speed at which you could reach infinity could be different) existed. That fucked up set theory, which ALL math is based on Damn Rob: Scholars told him to fuck off, he lost his mind, went into an asylum. Gnarly. I forgot. Didn’t you major in something math-related? Rob: Yeah applied mathematics, with a specialty in combinatorics Impressive. Never was too proficient at that sort of stuff. Would have loved to have gone into archite ture if it wasn’t for the math. Rob: I’ve only got math, nothing else makes sense Man, that’s madness! Alright, well shit. I guess let’s conclude it with that with that.
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With Murph
Hoax LP, Self Released People either really love or hate this band which is usually what the jerkbooth is busy discussing. I like them but when they put out that BDSM video I liked them more. This LP is more of the same as their other 7’s with lots of midpaced songs and lots of breakdowns. No Spirit is a really rad song with Brendan from Rival Mob yelling breakdown (like he already does in half the Rival Mob songs) and a tight solo. The packaging is really something with a fold out poster and lyrics for every song. Solid. Thergothon Fhtagn-Nagh Yog-Sothoth, The Crypt Classic demo worked over and touched up officially by Colorado’s The Crypt. Everyone always goes on and on about Hewlett Packard Lovecraft’s influence on this band (ZZZzzzwho fucking careszzzZZZ) but I like to think that they wrote this as a concept demo/tribute to The Dark Crystal. The Twilight Fade is easily the most righteous song on here clocking in at a humble two minutes and has wicked harmonies with clean vocals. Conceptually it’s about skeksis and mystics conjoining into the elementals. There’s an unreleased demo song on here too ‘Dancing in the Realm of Shades’ from an early lost demo. The song is a banger and wouldn’t sound out of place to what their Finn Death contemporaries were up to at the time (Rippikoulu, Abhorence, etc.). Mandatory. Internal Void Standing on the Sun, Svart Records My favorite album on the Hellhound Records roster finally on vinyl for the first time ever by Finland’s godly Svart Records. If you’re into Baltimore Doom Metal and you’ve never heard this than you’re not into Baltimore Doom Metal. Ten straight bangers of weird twisty flanged out doom rock riffs in line with The Obsessed and rad gravelly vocals with an awesome amount of reverb on them. The pacing and craftsmanship on this whole album is awe inspiring not to mention the best goddamned guitar tone of all time. Mesh trucker hat losers can get fucked, this is 4 true hessians.
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Vinyl Reviews
Solstice Englander, Self Released This is pretty cool I guess. Rich Walker is a GRADE A bastard and I will be thrilled at what new man drama will unfold at this exciting new chapter in his career. The guitar tone on this is pretty fucking hairy (courtesy of Matamp) and they got a new singer with a pretty limited range but I like that better than some long haired Josh Groban type pissing all over the riffs. This is just based on my first listen but I’m not quite sold on it/let down because I like they’re earlier output a lot better than this epic war battle metal shit they’ve been doing for the last 15 years (I mean this is some real drawing dragons on your notebook stuff here). Also Gates of Slumber just announced their death today and has left me fucking gutted. Recommended to true dungeon dwellers and wizards.
Lumpy & the Dumpers Sex Pit EP, Muckraker Records This band rules hard. Their Halloween Cassingle was one of last year’s best and dumbest. This EP is no different offering up several highbrow classics: “Sex Pit”, “Elephant Man”, and “Too Much Slime”. All of them are mid tempo throughout (because dynamics are stupid) and Lumpy sounds like the Bette Midler witch from Hocus Pocus. The only thing I don’t like is that they dropped the spooky dungeon feeling of the Halloween Cassingle in favor of a slimier production with no echoes on the vocals and not nearly enough reverb. It’s still really exceptional. -Murph-
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The Deadline Video Man now this video has been the stuff of legends for years now. A project started by the ever-prolific Garrett Reynolds and Tony Ennis to create video to better document some of Garrett’s friends, the first trailer for the video emerged in 2008, and due to the rise of Reynolds as one of the all time greats in sport, there has been a slowly growing rumble of rumors about it ever since. “Will it ever be out? It’s been years since they last said it was going to drop?” “I heard Garrett pulled a clean 720 down a stair set” I myself heard talk quite some time ago from friends about seeing snippets from final cut on someone’s computer and being completely blown away, so obviously, as soon Garrett began hinting a few months back about the possibility of its release, I began chaffing at the bit to see it. The Deadline video has been no stranger to setbacks. This is, I believe, the third or fourth time that the deadline crew has tried to set a date for release and each time we’ve been left hanging. This time around, if I recall, the video was supposed to be released over the summer, but due to difficulties getting the rights to different songs, the video was finally slotted to drop at the end of September. As soon as received a copy, I preceded to watch it through three times. So given the commotion around the video, how does it stack up to the hype? Given the stacked team, including Ty Morrow, JJ Palmere, Kevin Kiraly, and, of course, Garrett Reynolds, how could it not? Morrow, Palmere, and Kiraly all have beastly sections. Morrow starts the video with a classic, laid-back, yet burly style, helped along in some clips by the addition of his new freecoaster, switch spinning stuff far larger than I’d ever feel comfortable spinning regular. And don’t forget the dude’s hops. It’s quite beyond me how it’s possible to three over the flatrail at the top the Rincon four, but somehow, with Morrow, it’s possible.
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Video Reviews
Palmere, and relative newcomers Steve Croteau, Colin Varanyak, and Augie Simoncini hold down the next three sections. Croteau proves to be a beast crook grinds and smiths, while Palmere throws some simply massive ice picks. As far as I’m aware, Colin Varanyak and Augie Simoncini came into this having never had previous video parts in any other videos. While Varanyak had, to this point, probably held the least time in the spotlight amongst the crew, I’m sure his banger of a section will get him some notice. Colin seems a tad on the quiet side, but his tricks seem anything but. Simoncini’s section is unique in the tricks he pulls. The man definitely seems to get loose and it is reflected in his riding as well, full of gnarly, sometimes barely pulled toothpick grinds and some tricks you don’t often see pulled on the street. Kevin Kiraly took the second to last section and for good reason; he’s probably one of the only riders that could hold a candle to Garrett Reynolds’ riding. Kiraly proves once again that switch tricks can look smooth by pulling many things seemingly almost as effortlessly switch as most can regular. Nuts. What can I really say about Garrett Reynolds’ closing section except for that it’s straight epic. It’s 10 plus minutes of pure Reynolds mind-fuckery. There’s next to no tricks pulled in his section could be done by almost any other pros. It’s straight next level and that’s it. Help keep DVDs alive and buy a copy. It’s Well well worth the price.
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Video Reviews
Subrosa - Get Used To It Subrosa’s Get Used To It is a video that completely crept up on me. I definitely remember the first ads and trailer I saw for it, but then Subrosa as a company underwent some revamping, including dropping their team rider and filmer, Miles Rogoish. With that, I figured, that project was scrapped, or at least put on hold. Well it might have been put on hold for some time, but not entirely. A little less than two years after Rogoish’s departure from the team, Get Used To It had a sudden surprise release, with the finishing filming as well as the editing credits going to Ryan Chadwick. I went to see the film initially with fairly low expectations. The footage was at this point, I assumed, kind of old and stale and if Rogoish had done any of the editing, then it was bound to be somewhat annoying. I was torn in terms of my feelings on his other main video project, the “the trip” video, given that there was some good riding in there, but there was also just much to copious amounts of weed and cigarette smoking in it for me. And that’s one thing that tends to be a given in all Rogoish edits is this general drug leaning. Now I have no problems with drugs or cigarettes, within reason, and certainly am not all about clean-cut videos, but excess with which Rogoish edited it into his videos always sort of pissed me off. I mean these are supposed to be bmx videos, not “bros blowing smoke into the camera with a bit of riding in between” videos. I mean artsy videos are one thing, dudes acting like they’re badasses for smoking weed and cigarettes is an entirely different one. Fucking stupid.
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Video Reviews
Fortunately, given Chadwick’s association with the editing and filming, the video had taken a different direction; a more riding oriented direction. Add in new riders like Simone Barraco and Joris Coulomb, and you have a new video and a damn decent one too. The video which consists of a nice mixture of new and slightly older clips came together great with some banger sections from Hoang Tran, Barraco, Coulomb, Scott Ditchburn, and many others, I can’t decide which section I’m the most fond of, Tran’s burly, yet stylish trails inspired street section, or one of the europeans, Barraco or Coulomb’s technical street segments. AM Nick Bullen also kills it in this, having, without a doubt, the standout part in the AM mix section with some gnarly technical moves and a mean closing clip. I also thought i was clever that the company used only up and coming, mostly self released or small label bands for the soundtrack, making the price both good for them, production-wise, as well as expanding the audience of bands they featured. Sort of a win-win. Overall, definitely another solid video, well worth the price of purchase in either DVD or itunes form.
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