About Me

Bike Riding is Fun!!! I'm Ottawa's token old guy. I started riding around 1981, I sort of took a decade off from riding starting around 1991 and have been riding hard again since 2001. I ride for Joe Mammas shop in Ottawa and I'm also the president of Capital Riders Organization (www.capitalriders.org) which is all about getting bike access to our local parks. Cheers!

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Best and Worst of 2008
BEST:

Feeling Normal Again after a long recovery from a concussion.

Riding with my son Revelin

Not working at Nortel

Building my own house (Which I always dreamed of)

Getting my roof up

Warehouse

Winning a trip to Mexico (for Feb 2008)

WORST:

Loosing a step (Can’t deny it any more)

Dodgy contractors

1.5 Meters of snow while I was trying to put a roof on

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Sleeping in a shed so people don’t steal my shit

Roland VS. Roland-lite .... knowing I can do something but shouldn’t
Thanks to Eastern and Vital

I got my free Ace of Spades for winning(?) the crash contest the other day. I just wanted to thank Leigh at Eastern and Mark at Vital for the great bike. I've always been impressed with how much Eastern supports things and I think Vital is great for BMX. I also wanted to thank Rich for filming and editing as well as occasionally driveing me to the hospital. 

 THANKS!

Roland 

Roland's Best and Worst 2006

This is my best and worst list from 2006. Lots of it might only make sense if you know the Ottawa scene but whatever. 

 

Worst - Elbow problems. This was just plain freaky. I split my elbow open a few times trying to learn flairs and ended up in the emergency ward four days later with chills, hot flashes, a swollen eye, popeye forearms, and all my joints hurting. Nothing a week on an IV couldn't cure. Cellulitus? Who knew... OK so I just checked some old emails and this happened in Dec 2005 but its still kinda freaky...

Worst - Cancelling my first ever trip to Woodward twice because of injuries and having to sell my gift certificate that my wife gave me before it expires.

Best - Went to Mexico and caught my first wave... yeah! Dream of a life time.

Worst - Got home from Mexico to find out my dog Summer died while we were away.

Best - Scene Here Video and Premiere
I'm probably biased but this video has such a great feel to it and represents Ottawa so well. The premiere was a blast and I was glad I was able to make it because I flew to Mexico at 4:00am the next morning. Rich really deserves a ton of credit for the job he did on the video itself but he went above and beyond with his contributions ($$$) to CRO with this project especially since its not like the guy is always swimming in cash. Thanks Buddy!

Best: First Flair - This is something I never dreamed I'd ever be able to do

Best: CRO Geriatric Camps. I taught a bunch of old MTBers about BMX and park riding. Just a lot of fun.

Worst: Losing Denver Eastman, my coaching side-kick,  to  Ten Pack  (He  moved to  Vancouver)

Best - Roland's Metro... This was awesome!

I remember just about deciding to pull out of the contest in the weeks leading up to it because I was so nervous and rideing so shitty...then in my last OSP session (Geriatric Camp) before the contest I landed a couple of big flairs.and was good to go. I was still pretty nervous heading into practice and after meeting some other competitors who were 1/3 my age (12 vs 36 LOL) but after a few minutes I felt great and was rideing as good as I ever have. These ramps are amazing and are very forgiving and easy to learn stuff on ...too good. Watching other Ottawa locals Remi and Brandon ride was great and really got me psyched...I loved Remi's 540. Then it was my turn...being an old guy I was pretty bummed that my group was only 3 guys but what are you going to do? I went out for my quick warmup and discovered that I probably should have taken a little more rest because I'm all cramped up and my legs feel like jelly...but at least I'm not nervous. I really didn't want to roll in first but those young chumps wouldn't man up so I rolled in and way over spun a flip hip transfer line that no one else tried. At least I managed to kick out and not die....hmmm....I really should of went back and got that. After that I really was just killing time waiting for last trick . I wanted to do a 180 from the spine to the deck of the box into a 1 1/2 circle rollback and was also using this to rest and just kind of did whatever came up afterwords. I somehow managed to pull a hip 450 out of my ass (first one ever attempted) and a 360 nosepick...and thats about it LOL. After that I tried to do a flair transfer for last trick. 3 attempts ....way to slow. On the last one a seriously scared myself because as I came hopelessly around I could seriously see into the coping of the sub-box...I don't know how I managed to duck my head in and not brain myself...finished the whole thing off with some vintage rock-walks. This was seriously one of the best experiences for me ever. In retrospect I really didn't ride that well in the contest and wish I had done some more "Roland stuff" I had picked out but it felt great and in the moment I had nothing but fun with a chorus of Ottawa locals and others yelling and screaming support. Too good. It took me a while to come down and I don't really remember Ted rocking the qualifying but I sure remember him kicking ass in the finals.

The after stuff was pretty fun too. Took a great cab ride from the hotel to the MacNeil premiere with Nina, Stacey, Jesus, and John Saxton(?) rideing in the trunk while we sang to the cabby. Got out at the theatre just in time to join the whole Ottawa crew getting the VIP treatment and rolling right past the huge line-up. Later that night I had another funny cab ride with "Ober There" to some couger bar where I got to watch Brandon work and invented a new sound...HHWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Best - Spring Break - CRO OSP Contest

This was a lot of work and caused me a lot of stress but it was so worth it. Near as I can tell everyone had a great time (except for maybe Freak) and the way everyone supported each other was incredible! The rail comp was sick...and kind of brutal. Actually all the rideing was great...this really showed how far Ottawa has come and I couldn't be prouder to be part of this scene. Ryan's wall ride transfer...good stuff.

Best - Last Call event at OSP. Last session at Industrial location. Saw a few firsts from people including, Brandon flip attempts, Ryan bar-spin, Marc downside foot plant between the doors off the big wedge, Ted first tailwhip air, and my first tail-whip which only happened because the foot I usually stomp to ground got caught on the seat.

Best: Ted and the King of Quebec...wish I could have gone to at least one but oh well.

Best: Orleans Park Opening...first legit bike park.hb

LandoZine Street Contest - Really gave street rideing a kick in the pants. Thanks Chris. I pummeled myself again on this one and won a prize for best crashes or whatever (Kinda a theme going on.)

Best - Muskoka Ten Pack Am.
Good times. Hot damn hot. Ottawa discovers a vert rider??? Jeff killed it. Just good times riding a fun set-up. Ted not comeing because the set-up didn't suit him...dumb ass.

Best: Stittsville grand opening...second legit bike park. Lots of work ...yada...yada...

Worst: Concussion. The end of Roland the rider as we know him. He will ride again but it won't be quite the same.


Worst - Tailwhips...i finally got a few but damn!


Best - Seeing Capital Riders Org (www.capitalriders.org) T-Shirts at every BMX event and session and even in pictures from exotic lands (Thanks Dave!)

Best: Dec 29. Winning another crash contest and a new bike.

Worst: Dec 31 - My other dog Thor dies.


Kiss my hairy ass 2006.

Wow. Two crash wins in one year!

Cool I guess... First the Landozine street comp and now the Vital/Eastern crash comp. As much as I like winning free stuff ... I hope to suck less in the future.

Cheers 

Concussions Suck...

Head injuries really suck! I'm over 4 months out from a back rail nose pick attempt gone wrong and just had a second doctor recommend I never ride again...

 

Photos

Comments

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  • Vital BMX member BMXkid18
    BMXkid18 Posted:

    2/22/2008 12:10 AM

    hey man,sick pics....and your not classified as an old guy until you cant ride anymore!Sideways

  • Vital BMX member iwalkthruwalls
    iwalkthruwalls Posted:

    9/28/2007 3:15 PM

    you missed the 'Animal Banks Jam'.. It was crazy.. When are you coming to NYC?

  • Vital BMX member iwalkthruwalls
    iwalkthruwalls Posted:

    5/21/2007 2:29 AM

    THANKS AGAIN GURU ROLAND!!!

    do you mind if i post your bar-advice-email to the forum?

    i really think peeps would appreciate the information i learned from it.. .

    one,

    FLOW

  • Vital BMX member McCann_video_Production
    McCann_video_Production Posted:

    4/25/2007 8:47 PM

    dude, i agree with the guy below me u do have the best setup check ever

  • Vital BMX member iwalkthruwalls
    iwalkthruwalls Posted:

    4/25/2007 7:05 AM

    You have the best 'Setup Check' ever!!!

  • Vital BMX member Tommy Hains
    Tommy Hains Posted:

    1/20/2007 8:56 AM

    good to hear from ya, i dont really have any more room in my garage for other ramps but maybe marc or andre would be interested, ill ask around

  • Vital BMX member Tommy Hains
    Tommy Hains Posted:

    1/19/2007 5:51 PM

    hey roland! Cool hows the head?

  • Vital BMX member Rich Red
    Rich Red Posted:

    1/17/2007 8:02 PM

    thanks Roland. don't tell people tho. I was supposed to save it for the upcoming vid, but oh well. when do u get a chance like that? not that I have a chance to win. haha

  • Vital BMX member Rich Red
    Rich Red Posted:

    1/4/2007 9:10 PM

    it's not like kanata offers any other photo op. thanks tho!