Random As Rhyme

BMX is a dangerous sport. We face the danger of getting injured every time we  push down one of our pedals. Without a doubt one of the most appealing things about the sport  is the thrill that comes with success with concurring fear, gravity, and common sense. Sometimes it seems as though defeating common sense is our top priority over anything else.

I feel that I can safely say every rider at some point in their ‘career’ has ridden without a helmet. If Darwin’s theory of evolution was 100% accurate BMXers  probably wouldn’t  even exist.

The conversation of helmets and BMX is a difficult one to have without coming of preachy or condescending but with the sport being pushed to insane new levels everyday and the devastating  injury that happened to Mike Aitken it is a conversation that needs to continue to be had until we as a community smarten up.

I’m no saint, I have done a lot of riding  without a helmet. Even after my helmet no doubt saved my life the first time I learned to  do an endo. Like most riders it took a serious injury for me to smarten up and wear a helmet every session and I am really lucky that incident didn’t take my life.

During my first trip to Woodward, after learning how to flip and doing quite a few successfully onto resi, I hit my head of the lip of the ramp flipping into the foam pit. I actually don’t really remember any of it, or most of that day from about 1pm-9pm when I ‘woke up’. When I was ‘out’ (think lights on nobody home) I didn’t  remember learning flips, that it was my girlfriends birthday on Monday, or really where we were.  Losing eight or so hours of memory was enough to make me realize that no matter how crappy life can get it’s  worth remembering for the good parts after that trip I never rode without a helmet again.

If I could do that much damage wearing a helmet imagine how much more damage I could have done, or perhaps have already done, the countless amount of times I hit my head without a helmet and ‘just got a little  concussion’.

No rider is going to force another to wear a helmet, it’s  just an unwritten rule. It’s a rule that now I don’t like but I understand, I have been there. I have a lot of good friends who ride without helmets and I really hope to never hear about one of them being seriously injured doing so.

However  all it  takes is landing a 180 a bit back tire  heavy, or a shoe lace getting  caught in a sprocket during a roll  back to instantly send a rider onto their back and cause their head to whiplash into the ground. Nine times out of ten your might be able to keep your head from making full contact, but that one time your head does hit could be the  end.

Sure a helmet might cause you to lose a little “street cred” but to me it’s a more than welcome safety buffer. A helmet can be the difference between a trip to the hospital or a trip back up those stairs to give that rail another shot.

Something to think about.

This video, to me, is what BMX is about good friends getting together having a great time with some great riding. The vibe to this video is perfect. I hope to one day have a back yard as epic as that.

I woke up this morning tired, stiff, and a little sore, but also happy.

These are all the results of a good causal BMX session at my local skate park .

The outdoor BMX season is here and aside Whistler snowboarding stint next week I intend to make the most of it. So what better way to celebrate the upcoming season then a post of some Epic BMX shots.

The first time I saw this photo I was blown away, that’s far big of a set to casually whip in shorts. Check out the video here.

The Blue Falcon can do no wrong. This is such a rad shot/trick, I bet he was going mach 10 while doing it, move over Bubba.

Bang, zoom, straight to the moon!

Apparently right before blasting this Diogo Canina said this is for Stephen Murray.

I have been desperately searching for more info on this picture for years. But alas nothing. Still crazy, old school is the best school.

This is a 360, however I can’t tell which was he is spinning or how he got into that position. 360s have changed.

The Surgeon General warns against shit like this.

Not BMX at all, but still epic none the less.

The Condor loves to fly.

Here is a positive update on the selfless project, A-Wire sent me a message regarding the box of parts I sent:

“Been working on some new tricks but my ten ton bike not making it easy.. i am running the front wheel,fork, stem and pegs you sent. and i took my off my old parts and give some of the other riders..my front end is still heavy but its a lot lighter than how it was. thanks again man..

other than that its great, dan seige is coming here this month, we are going to doing a demo at a show here in jamaica.”

It’s cool to see that some other pros are heading out Jamaica to shred, I wonder if it will become another Barcelona. I might have to seriously consider a trip down with my dad and my bike in the winter.

In the mean time I am collecting parts again for the second shipment so if you are interested in contributing email me at thetrailpimpathotmaildotcom with Selfless BMX as the subject line.

Currently I am accepting donations from the GTA area since it is the easiest for me but if you are really want to contribute outside of the GTA let me know and we can work it out.

Here is the latest video of A -wire shredding his backyard ramps:

This one is a little short but sometimes being brief is the best way to be. The parts made it to Jam rock which is great and I talked to a few people at the bike show that just passed who are interested in contributing to my next batch as well as paying for some shipping so that’s really good news.

Whats also really sick is Cream BMX has an article about Jamaican BMXers in it’s latest issue so go cop that.

Hopefully I have some new pictures for the update next time around.

Today is the annual spring bike show here in Toronto, and with that comes the annual am/pro BMX contest. I have been riding in this contest since it was La Revolution, then it went to Metro Jam, now it is just the Toronto BMX Jam, or better known as Notro. As of right now I have it in my head that this will be the last time I ride in it. Why?

Well a few reasons, the first being that most of my original riding crew, though they all sent text messages bigging me up are not riding in it, and it’s not the same without my dudes.

Second is that while I feel I am riding the best I ever have I can’t keep up with the kids today. They take this stuff serious and are really ready to go in where as for me, while I am still learning and shredding I gotta worry about work Monday (well Tuesday) morning and just generally staying in decent condition to ride as long as I can.

So my main focus today is to put together a run that I am happy with, get a few people cheering for me and ride off into the sunset.

But I mean, I could pull some hypocritical shit and write this exact same post next year we will see.

I will do a post at the end of the weekend with how it went and some photos I wrestle out of Lyndsey.

I ride at 8:15ish if anyone is interested.

Here is a clip from a few years ago of me doing a trick I can’t even do anymore.

People love carnage so I decided to give the people what they want. 10 straight up BMX/MTB crashes. Some are pretty funny others are pretty rough, all worth the watch. The flip side of positives of riding are defiantly not very pretty.

10.
This one is pretty old, but “Flush” Fernandez actually did do a few successful jumps before this one in this video along with Robbie Miranda, Adam Strieby, and Colin Winkleman (rip).

9.
The first one in this is pretty stupid, but the one near the end is hilarious. Poor homeless guy (haha pun).

8.
I plan on trying some downhill riding this year and I really, really, really hope this does not happen to me.

7.
I’m really not sure how his front wheel did that. Were all his spokes lose?

6.
People always leave flatland videos out of lists like these. But this fall looks terribly awkward.

5.
Another old one but still pretty good. Not sure what he was thinking when he did that, or better yet what was going through his head as he cleared the second set sans bicycle.

4.
You can guess the outcome of this one after about 3 seconds. I really hope dude was ok. Damn.

3.
900s used to be a make it or get knocked the fuck out type trick. Not so much anymore.

2.
Poor girl, at least it hit her shoulder.

1.
This one was on MTV’s scarred (which I can’t watch) and is terrible. Not for the faint of heart. I hate stair gaps.

I know, I know, its Thursday and I owe you an article about something I always wanted. But I have been feeling myself lately (not like that) and I decided to pull the ‘my blog my rules’ card, again, and post some new riding shots of myself and a little commentary to go with them.

Sessions for me normally start out like this and throw down a few straight airs since unlike a lot of the younger kids I need to warm up. I can’t just drop in and throw down. Sometimes there is nothing more satisfying then just cruising the mini and airing it out.

X-ups are pretty much my go to trick, they are a fun simple timeless trick, I toss these out almost as much as I do smith grinds. I really don’t know what I would do if I hurt my shoulders and couldn’t x up anymore.

Tire-grabs are another old favorite of mine, I normally throw them soon after my first x-up of the day. Apparently this is about the time I start breaking out the funny riding faces as well. Good thing I am no model.

Toboggans are a recent addition to my shallow bag of tricks. My friend Mike has been doing them for ages, and since he is in Calgary now I figured I could poach his trick until he gets back. While filming this video I finally learned to get them decent.

I learned to whip on this very ramp about a year or so ago and it is still my favorite ramp to do them on call it nostalgia or just comfort but I can do them the best on this ramp.

Everyday I am out riding I get the excitement of my first session and hope it won’t be my last it’s a feeling that is hard to describe to people who don’t ride but those who do know exactly what I am talking about.

All photos credit of:John Best Challinor III

About 11:30 last night I was talking to  my friend Chijioke about a lot of the drama and BS surrounding the BMX scene lately and I got to reminiscing about the olden days. The days of BMX that were simple and raw. The days when it really really fun. So I figured a list of some of the stuff I fondly remember about BMX would be a good way to wrap up the week.

-Remember your first curb endo?
-Remember your first bunny hop?
-Remember when you had to tighten your headset by hand multiple times a session?
-Remember the local trails girl that peed in the woods?
-Remember when their wasn’t a local skate park?
-Remember when you learned to do a 1 footer?

-Remember when your BMX bike was also a mode of transportation (and you had a seat post!)
-Remember the sound of an ACS claw as you cruised downhill?
-Remember the sound of your face hitting the ground when your dicta freewheel exploded?
-Remember master links?
-Remember plastic Mongoose grips?
-Remember Mongoose?

-Remember launching to flat?
-Remember your highest number of stairs dropped?
-Remember riding without a helmet?
-Remember sessioning the same feeble ledge until your frame bent?
-Remember when bottom cup height was high?
-Remember when smiths were impossible?
-Remember stationary icepics?

-Remember your first contest? How did you do?
-Remember the first backflip you ever saw in person?
-Remember the first time your trails got plowed?
-Remember the first time you tried to impress a girl and ate shit?
-Remember when you ran a dirt bike chain on your 44 tooth sprocket, with a bash guard?
-Remember your first concussion?
-Remember your first video?
-Remember your favorite video?

-Remember your first road trip?
-Remember when your bike was 50lbs and you didn’t care?
-Remember when you didn’t talk shit on the internet?
-Remember the love?

Whenever BMX is getting me down, which isn’t often, I think back to the great times I have had on my bike over the years I have been fortunate enough to be riding and remember why I got into it and why I still love to do it.

It’s a shame a lot of kids starting these days won’t be able to appreciate these same things, but hopefully they will be able to look back on something, cause one day when we are all old it will be all that’s left.

So here is a quick update on my Selfless BMX project for those of you who have been following along.

On February 12th I sent the parts I mentioned before plus 3 of my “If Skateboarding is not a crime why is bmx?” T-shirts (that were produced in conjunction with the Action Sports Coalition), a bunch of stickers and one more Hoffman Bikes stem I found kicking around.

My parts box was pretty much empty aside form washers/cables etc I might need. But as luck would have it I snagged a pair of clear plastic Animal Steven Hamilton pedals in a product toss a few days ago, so I should have no problems getting a new box of goodies back together to ship out.

As far as cost goes, it was not cheap and it’s going to take about a month for the parts to get to Jamaica but I figure my karma points are threw the roof right now and that’s something that’s never bad.

I am probably going to start researching how to get some not for profit funding slowly so that the next box I send (I have people wanting to donate already) will not be at such a cost to me. Some funding would hopefully also allow me to send some new parts as well which would be awesome.

In other global BMX news it seems like someone else is doing some good stuff for BMX around the world. Chris San Augustin from North California organizes events in Thailand. Here is a video of the fourth one he has done.

I’m off to try and learn no handed airs.