It's the end of July and I'm at the Soul Bowl in Huntington Beach but staying out here in So Cal till Aug 4th for X Games. I'm stoked to be in 3 events at X Games this year so I'm going to stick around all week and practice. Super Park should be fun and I'm excited to see what Nate Wessel built for us to ride so I'm going to get a lot of practice in on that. I'm looking forward to Mega Ramp and vert too. Maybe I'll see you guys there.

I've been traveling quite a bit lately with the Dew Tour in Baltimore, filming for DC in San Diego and a lot of other trips coming up quickly. I get to have about 18 days at home over the next 2 months... weeeee!!! Dew Tour in Cleveland is almost here, a day trip to LA and then 2 weeks in So Cal for the Soul Bowl and X Games. If you're around any of those events, come hang out and say hi.
RIDAZ!!!! ha ha

I'm at the Beards house chilling with the family, might dig on his trails once Tanner takes a nap this afternoon. Failures, boats, bikes, bros. Good Times.

I just got home from Nashville, TN where DC Shoes & Journey's store put on an event at a mall called the Backyard BBQ. A vert ramp and mini ramp were set up for BMX & Skate demos throughout the day... mostly ended up being a BMX demo and I rode the vert ramp with a little help from D. Dhers. It was hot, tons of people came out to support, live music and an FMX demo were on the other side of the parking lot. Thanks to A. Cooke for driving the bus out so we had somewhere cool to sit between demos and autograph session. If there's Backyard BBQ near you, hit it up cuz it's a cool free event. I'm back home so I can ride woodward and get ready for the big events coming up soon.

Yeah, I flew back to the east coast for 6 days before flying right back to China. I'm hitting up the Asian X games this time in Shanghai with DMC and Zach Warden on the ramp with me. Should be a good time. Catfish might even be there to announce which makes things even more fun when you go to the sketchy mall and he starts talking to the local negotiating prices of wigs and grills... ha ha. Good times to be had once the long flight there is done. Hope you're all getting out on your bikes a lot now that it's spring and the weather is getting really nice. I'm stoked to have some outdoor sessions and might go work on the trails once I get home.
Take it easy and keep riding!

I'm in Beijing, China for an AST invitational vert demo. Yesterday was the tourist day at the Great Wall of China and Summer Palace, I think I walked 5 miles up and down the wall and around the gardens of the palace. Pretty cool to see that kind of history and visit places like that from riding a bike. I'm out here with Bestwick, McCoy, Walker, McCann & Robinson to do the BMX Vert demo to hopefully let the AST expand to the foreign market with their events. So far we've only had one practice session and the ramp feels pretty good, it's the usual Dew Tour ramp and got shipped out here for this event. I think I'm going with the McCoy's to the Forbidden City tomorrow after our morning session, more photos and walking around crazy new locations. Our practice was scheduled with a mild 2000 people for the first day, it'll be interesting to see the turn out this weekend for the skate comp and our demo.

2008 AST Dew Tour Schedule

Baltimore, MD- June 19-22, 2008
*Open Qualifiers and practices may begin June 17th.

Cleveland, OH- July 17-20, 2008
*Open Qualifiers and practices may begin July 15th.

Portland, OR- August 21-24, 2008

Salt Lake City, UT- September 11-14, 2008

Orlando, FL- October 16-19, 2008

Albe's road trip is going strong. We're having a good time, rode some street, road Mesh (Thanks Chad Degroot) and even got pulled over by the police for giving out stickers. Check the Albe's web site for full details on that situation and photos from the trip. Today we're going to the beach and Piccalo park if the rain stops.

I'm hanging out with Flip from Albe's this weekend and we're thinking about going to ride the indoor park near Detroit airport. I don't know what it's called but I think it's the only indoor park close by. If you're around here and want to come ride, hit up the park Saturday night or stop by the Albe's shop since we're there during the day. I've been re-building my bike with some new parts to finally dial in my bike. Stoked on the new parts Albe's hooked me up with.

Chad

That was one of the best road trips I've been on in a long time. Went to the media opening of the new DC store on Melrose Wed night. Got ready for the trip on Thursday, drove to Tahoe on Friday morning with Eric and Paul from DC. Snowboarded for the first time in 6 years and didn't kill myself. I even slid a few ledges and the roof of a fake car. Drove to Vegas Monday and started riding all the concrete parks right away. I think we got some really good photos and video of me and Daniel so check out the DC site in the coming weeks for pics and a pod cast. 5 days is sometimes too much time in Vegas just because of how insane that place is but we kept running it full throttle the whole time. Drove back to the DC store for the public opening and had an autograph line about 4 blocks long that lasted 4 hours... we can thank Rob Dyrdek & his show for the giant turnout of people. It was nuts. I'm finally back home and about to go ride this afternoon with Achim Kujawski from Germany, he landed in town last night to hang out and ride this week. It's always good to have more friends to ride with out here.

Made it to Tahoe for some time off. We're going snowboarding at Northstar tomorrow morning and then watching the Vans cup contest. Should be insane and it's cool being at an event that I get to just watch from the side lines, it's a different feeling. Monday morning we're heading to Vega to ride the mass of concrete parks there and maybe even hit up TJ's yard... it's been a while since I've been on dirt. Should be a good time. Any of you Vegas boys read this, hit me up on here or hopefully we'll cross paths in the next few days.

Time to get back on the road. I'm leaving Wed the 27th for San Diego to hang out with the DC crew for the new store opening somewhere in LA. Then we're off to Tahoe for the weekend. Then hit up Vegas for some riding with Daniel Dhers to shoot some DC ads and randomness. Stop by Hart & Huntington for some ink and then back to LA for some other DC stuff. Vegas will probably be next Tues-Thurs so if you're in vegas, keep an eye out at the new park with a full pipe and Anthem. We'll hit some of the other ones too but Anthem rules and I haven't ridden the full pipe park yet and want to.

It's early January... and it's warm enough to ride outside.  I had a session today that ruled.  I haven't been riding much from injuries and the holidays but it's on now. I'm stoked to get back to riding a lot.  Just feels like a part of me is missing when I don't get to ride much. Hope you are all out there riding and having fun. Take it easy.

Finally got back on two wheels again. It's been a rough year for injuries and I'm hoping next year isn't nearly as rough on me. This broken bone and surgery situation sucks. Stoked to get back on my bike, it'll be a mellow next few weeks for riding since there is so much other stuff going on. It'll be nice to feel like a bike rider again soon.

I'm off to Vegas for the SEMA auto show in the morning. A few days in Vegas for the Kicker audio show, finally have my truck done so it's going to be at the show next to TJ Lavin's usual bad ass rides. I'm stoked I get to hang out with Lavs to see how he's feeling after breaking his leg a few weeks ago at the Dew Tour. Andy Bell from Ogio is going to be organizing some demo stuff at the Big Air Bash in the parking lot of the Hard Rock. If you're in Vegas on Halloween... come say hi, it's going to be fun. It's getting cold here in PA so I'm looking forward to Vegas for a few days. I'll get back home with enough time to ride a few days before heading to the LG Championships in Dallas, TX. No bike on this Vegas trip so I'm not hitting up any of the many concrete parks but I might stop by that new one with the full pipe to see if it's as good as it looks in pictures.

I'm happy to be on the road again. I rode the T-mobile comp in Berlin, Germany last weekend and got second place behind Simon Tabron. It was a new comp format of head to head battles with only the winner moving on tot he next round, not what we're used to but it was pretty cool.

I'm stoked to be back on my bike. I have ridden Woodward 6 times in the last 10 days and I"m stoked.  I feel like a bike rider again, not just some goon on a bike. I'm leaving next week for Berlin, Germany to ride a T-mobile comp.  Trying to get a mellow comp under my belt before heading back to the Dew Tour the following weekend. These next few comps should be fun, really mellow for me since I'm not fighting for the "Dew Cup" or anything like that.  I just want to be back on two wheels. Hope all of you can ride right now and are having fun on your bike.  Take it easy.

Usually I'm talking about the level of riding progressing or learning new tricks and lines to take it to the next level. This time I'm back at square one working on getting healthy enough for it to be safe to ride a bike... and I'm almost there. It's been one month since my surgery and a I can tell it's healing and I'm back to full motion with moving just my arm. It still doesn't feel right to have any decent amount of weight is some positions with my shoulder but that will change soon. It's one of those things that just takes time. Oh well, nothing I can change about it now so I'm along for the ride and progressing at the rate my body is allowing me to. I'm thinking I'll go ride around really mellow in the next 2 or 3 weeks.

X Games didn't go as planned for me. I can live with missing a comp or two... they're just comps. I hate being broken. I had a plate and seven screws installed in my collar bone to hold it together since it was in quite a few pieces. I was moving around enough to make it out to the X Games to watch a few events, it was still a good time. I'm hoping to feel well enough to ride soon but I've got to take enough time off to let my head and collar bone heal properly. I won't be at the next Dew Tour stop (Portland) but I'm hoping to be at the Utah Dew Tour in about 6 weeks. Take care of yourselves and have fun riding.

There is now a place to practice the Mega Ramp jump at Woodward and it's pretty cool.  We're still working on the fine tuning details but so far it's good enough for us to get the feel for jumping 50-60 feet. The lack of a quarter pipe makes it simply long jump practice but we'll get some massive quarter practice this week.  A few of us that are invited to X Games to compete in Big Air are heading to CA later today to ride a full size Mega Ramp with both 50 foot jump & 70 foot distance followed by the 27 foot tall quarter pipe.  It's going to be nuts, I'll shoot a few photos when I'm not riding it.  A busy short trip planned out with some Mega Ramp practice and a demo at the ESPY awards show while we're there.  It's a demo on a mini mega ramp, a short 25 foot distance rather than 50. It should be fun and I'll be back home Thursday night with a few days of riding at Woodward before heading to the next Dew Tour in Cleveland.