Yo, I've been writing for Ride mag for a few years now so, aftet the magazine is released Im going to post my articles on here as blogs just incase some of you dont get to read it in the magazine... here's last months "news"...
Yo, it’s been a while eh? I’ve been so busy/tired/unenthusiastic that I just haven’t had time/energy/motivation to actually open the notebook & fire down what gossip I have. I have attempted to several times, honestly! I’ve sent bulk texts & emails saying how this was the month etc & I was going to do finally write something down but it never materialised until now but hey, better late than never huh? OK, so a lot of this will be old news but its all news either way…
Ben Hennon is no longer riding for Haro Bikes. After 4 years representing them he, one of Europe’s top riders, was let go from the team. Go figure! Hennon also left long time sponsor Etnies & is now aboard the Vans US team. Nice one.
Premium rider & Masters street finalist Louie Smith recently had ACL surgery, which went pretty well but means Louie will be out of action for at least 6 months.
Mike O’Connell & his wife Cordi recently celebrated the birth of their baby son. They named the child Luke & he is brother to 4-year-old Leah. Star Wars fans are strange eh?
Mark Webb was having a great year until he broke his wrist in Cologne & couldn’t win the X-Games 2 weeks later but he has picked a nice Suzuki sponsorship deal, which will help pay them bills. The X-Games will have to wait another year for a UK gold medallist.
As well as riding for Haro, hitting up the Dew tour Stateside & loving crap cars Ben Wallace is now riding for Primo & Orchid thru Seventies plus I’m pretty sure he’ll be riding the X-Games next year as he was down as an alternate for this year!
Both Webb & Wallace are down to be on the next Local Exposure tour…. As long as Allan Cooke sticks to his word!!!
Has anyone got any pics of the new £500,000 concrete park in Crawley? Pill & O’Connell have both sessioned it but no pics!!!
Remo & myself are starting our own “company” called totalBMX. Its basically a new version of our original Team Total off of the mid-late 90’s & in all honesty we don’t have a frickin clue what it’ll actually do but its worth a laugh so be on the look out for t-shirts & all the usual shite from new, rider owned “companies” when we can be arsed to do it, in the meantime we’ll just be drunk & loud! Our team already consists of Mark Webb, Daniel Dhers, Ben Wallace, Mike Miller, Tony Watkinson, Dave Mirra, Jimmy Crankie, Sam Wise, Alice Thatcher, Debs & some others. We haven’t actually told/asked them yet either
Crapest news without a doubt is the sad passing of a UK BMX legend. Steven “Pepi” Winder recently passed away & will be sorely missed by everyone. Pepi is one of the original UK riders appearing in hit TV show BMX Beat in the 80’s & riding for Vincent frames & Skyway in his day. Pepi left BMX for a while but returned a few years back & was just as good & innovative as ever. He had time for everyone & anyone & you couldn’t meet a nicer guy. Pepi joins Neil Ruffell, Scott Carroll, Dave Vanderspek & Colin Winkleman in BMX heaven. Have fun guys. Ride In Peace.
Pijin bike shop & Authentic clothing are supporting this year’s annual “one quid budget jam” down at the War Memorial Skatepark in Amazingstoke on Sept 22nd.
The flyer reads, “Bring your own beer, bbq & bitches”. Sounds like a good day!
Owen Williams DVD is finally coming along at a decent pace & he has a nice trailer up on youtube. Get on there & type in “the last few years UK bmx” & that’ll give you what you need.
It would appear the p**s poor Portsmouth City Council are yet again trying to close Southsea Skatepark. It is way too much hassle for these guys to EVER do anything positive for the park & this just goes to prove that they really don’t give a toss about its users.. They are more than willing to throw money at other local facilities such as The Pyramids centre opposite the park itself that just heamarroge money in an amazing way but when it comes to supporting a great place for the youth of the city to hang out they couldn’t give s**t. They’ve never been any different & they should be ashamed of themselves as public servants. Years ago I would have actively fought these guys but after they have constantly stiffed the park I lost motivation a few years ago so, go to http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/save-southsea/ & sign the petition do your bit. In the meantime keep an eye on www.southseaskatepark.com for regular updates… Fuuny that loads of other city councils like Crawley are paying to build these new parks & yet Portsmouth cant even throw in a few grand a year to an existing facility Message to council: You suck.
Manchester’s Central Skatepark has just had a major refit sponsored by Carhartt & had some concrete added outside. The park will be holding BMX jam called Glamorama on Oct 4th, which will be a team event, plus MirraCo. Have donated a bike & the event will be raising money for the Steven Murray fund. Check out www.centralskatepark.co.uk for further info
Jay Pycroft & Mark Webb are planning on making Zero Tolerance 2 on DVD. The original Zero Tolerance was made by the infamous Jon Pratt back in the late 90’s & is without a doubt a classic so a sequel will be hard to make but it should be good plus the release will contain the original on DVD. Nice.
Right, I reckon that’s about it from me but so I’m off but do me a favour, send me some news, gossip, pictures etc for next issue to professionalprick2003@yahoo.co.uk oh yeah, don’t know about anyone else but I for one have been disappointed with the parties in Cologne over the past few years, I’m not feeling the Pow Pow Movement personally so next year I will play my first ever DJ set at a party!!!! Song suggestions also emailed to me!!