Random As Rhyme

My friend Yuri took some new shots of me. I’m stoked on em.

Another day another whip

Tobagans have quickly become a favorite of mine

Last but not least I learned to table, which I am PUMPED on this trick is way harder than it looks

It’s been quite sometime since I have had a new bike and since I just finished my recent edit I figured it was well deserved.

I really liked my last Whitton 2 even though it turned out to be bent and I figured that sticking with the same geometry would mean not having to get used to a new feel. This meant a Whitton 3 was in order. I was going to get it in white but that is not out for public consumption until next month so I got matted red instead and I must say its a really nice color.

Here is the parts list and my gf took the photos for her 365 project.

Bars: Sunday Forumphs
Stem: Fly
Forks: Demolition Concord
Front Wheel: Odyssey M7 front wheel (G-sport marmoset and odyssey 7ka)
Frame: Whitton III 21″
Cranks: Profile 175s
Pedals: Animal plastic Steven Hamilton’s (Clear)
Sprocket: Kink Sound
Rear Wheel:Odyssey 7KA and Odyssey Hazard hub
Hub Guard: FBM
Brakes: Mono small/gtx/evo1s
Tires: Dirt path/Aitken
Pegs: Hoffman

Props to my friend Chijioke for getting me a good deal on the frame and fork and doing the build and Scott for hookin it up component wise.

I finally finished my latest BMX edit. I plan to reexport it to vimeo at some point to take care of those audio pops but for now this will do. Check it out!

I am getting a new bike on Saturday so I can’t wait to start filming a new edit with that one!

The GTA BMX scene has suffered from a tremendous blow this year with what the park formerly know as “The Warehouse” falling under new ownership. The news came down via facebook from Jamie Burke who has been down with the park from the beginning, I’ve transcript ed some of his originally message below:

“it truly hurts me to have to inform you that the warehouse is closed(to bikes) this season(or forever, who knows.)….i found out that i was in competition with some skateboarders so i was rushing to close the deal and open the park….. was dicked around with alot and he ended up renting the warehouse to the other people.”

Loosing The Warehouse is much more than just losing an indoor riding spot. There are a few other places to ride indoors in the area (with a new one on the horizon) some of which have just as many ramps (or more) than the warehouse with cleaner bathrooms and air quality. But that’s not the point, losing The Warehouse is more akin to losing a club house. This private/semi private park was the central hub for riders all over Ontario.

Every time I went to The Warehouse I knew at least 5 other riders, which is not something that I can say about the outdoor park closest to me let alone other indoor spots in the area.

For me a lot of the time going to The Warehouse wasn’t even so much about the riding as it was about being around your friends, friends you don’t really get a chance to see all summer due to conflicting schedules and different local spots. The vibes were always positive at the warehouse and I rarely witnessed any sort of beef.

The riding level was always super high but it never gave off that competitive vibe that can happen at some parks. I learned a lot of new tricks at the warehouse and have to attribute a lot of my growth as a ramp rider to that park. The Warehouse helped push our scene to notable heights. Every scene needs a place like this and now our scene is lacking it.

Rumor has it that the place that bought The Warehouse may have a bike night here and there, which while the intentions are good, probably won’t work out to well. The Warehouse being the size that it is and the setup the way it is gets crazy with high capacity. On Jam nights if you are not a local its tough to judge the flow of the place and to know when to drop in and therefore really easy to ball up the entire flow of the park. Having a solitary bike night every few weeks will draw a similar if not larger amount of riders (at first) which will just lead to frustration when dealing with the increased numbers.

The bike nights also won’t have the same atmosphere traditional Warehouse jams had myself and some of my good friends have celebrated our birthdays riding at The Warehouse, Jams were always sponsored and occasionally a few pros would stop by as well (or people from way out of town).

Our scene was lucky to have The Warehouse for as long as we did and I don’t think any of us ever took it for granted. RIP The Warehouse you will be missed.

Here are some of the videos over the past two years of past two years at The Warehouse:

I got the idea today to do something very nerdy today and that is google myself. I hear celebrities do it all the time and I think i am famous so I gave it a whirl with a few different terms/variations of my name and location and interests. Here are the results:

Preface
I don’t google “Dave Thomas” because of these dudes who are actual celebrities. RIP Wendys Dave.

Search:  “Dave Thomas Mississauga”

Text: My resume – Searching for “Dave Thomas Mississauga” this is the third ranked item and relevant to me.

Image: Bloodbath bowl Jam whip

This is the first result that comes up via images and is me, sweet! I didn’t pull this to pedals however, not so sweet.

Search: “David Thomas Mississauga“

Text:This returns my resume again as the 10th result.

Image: No images returned within the first 5 pages of me but this dude sort of looks like me (an older me perhaps), but he is wanted by the Peel Police so this is not a good thing!

Search:”David Thomas BMX”

Text: elicitconcepts : the freelance mind of lyndsey mcdonald :: blog » BMX – Links over to my gfs blog so this is fairly relevant my first whip video is on this page.

Image: No images of me withing the first 5 pages again but this is rad

Search: “Dave Thomas BMX”
Text: Dave Thomas Bmx // BlogCatalog Topic // BlogCatalog – My Blog catalog entry is the first result and it’s 100% relevant, I guess their service is a valuable one

Image: Hot bars from Muskoka woods

This image is the first result and 100% relevant to yours truly.

All in all this wasn’t really that exciting which means I have to put more interesting things of myself on the internet. However one interesting thing was that nothing from facebook showed up… is facebook not searchable?

Stole this from my friend, who stole it from the come up

Skinny bars? Yes.  My bars are uncut now and they are even considered skinny. My x ups were terrible for a long time for no good reason though.

Big bars? Not Yet
Chain wallet? Yes, a bike chain wallet actually, they told me I couldn’t wear it to school
Front brake? For a day
No brake? For a day, different day then above obviously
4 piece bars? No way,  I did want haro knee savers pretty bad for awhile

Pegs? Always, hell I made my own
Pegless? Only racing or vert.
Motor bike chain? Yes, on two bikes.
Hip hop jeans? Obviously
Girls jeans? Obviously not
Elbow pads? Never two at the same time though
Peg chinks? Downside peg misses count?
5 inch pegs? Maybe actually.
Dickies pants? Yes they ripped and were stupid hot.
New Era? Not yet.
Studded belt? Neg.
Roof drop? Not interested
Half barspin? Yes for about a week.
Kick flips/Crank flips? I’ve done 1 ever, hurts my ankle to kick them
3/4 length long sleeve? No
Gyro? Only after learning whips… really long cable before then

Nokon cable? No…
Slammed or no seat post? No
Manual to 180? I can’t really manual all that well
Hand plant? No.
Multicoloured frame? The condor above was the most colors I have ever had a bike
Flourescent bike parts? Had a bright green cable once

Unlook back? No
Bandana? No don’t know how to tie them
Multiple foot jams? No
Dread locks? Chea!
Roll out half cab-Parrick style? Don’t half cab often
Roll out sliders? Sometimes
Emo fringe? Nah

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.

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.

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

I have been riding for awhile now and have acquired some pictures a long the way. I figured it would be interesting to post up a few of my favorite (but not necessarily my best) and discuss why I like them so much.

This first one has got to be around three or so years old judging by the clothes and the bike set up (and lack of helmet).

From what I remember the entire session was pretty good and the weather was just right for riding and shooting photos.

We shot this photo about 5 times so that I could extend it as far as possible. This trick is a classic which I should do more often.

This next isn’t a great photo at all. Lyndsey took it with a point and shoot from the stands which were pretty far away from the course. The result meant that I am pretty much the only thing out of focus in the entire shot, but that’s cool because I think its a good representation of how fast I was going.

This box jump was sixteen feet long and with 6ft transition on both ends, it was made for men. It was pretty fun to jump but I pretty much died trying to trick the bastard.

I remember crashing once in practice and people thought I was koed because I was not moving, really I was just making sure I didn’t make in my pants.

This is a shot of me blasting over a height pole at my friend Harley’s (now Harley@tenpack) BMX Bonanza at the simcoe fair.

Mike, Teddy, Jeff, Lyndsey and myself made the trek out to Simcoe and were rewarded by great weather, great riding and a great crowd.

From what I recall Jeff, Mike and Teddy all rode pretty well.

Since I don’t remember my standings it probably means I didn’t do well however I had a ton of fun in the high jump contest and became a carnival spectacle at the same time. Awesome!

This is a picture of the group of riders from Southern Ontario wild boys who invaded Camp Woodward, only 2 of the people in the photo below are not from Southern Ontario.

We all basically rode non stop learning as much as possible.

I also hit my head and  forgot a lot of the weekend, but I take the good with the bad.

The shots above are both from the same day and it’s hard to put into words how great of a day it was.

The vibe of this session was amazing and it had nothing  to do  with the pros that where in attendance or the  tricks that  where being  thrown down.

Every single person  on this day came out to ride and have a good time, there was no competition, no rivalry,  and no drama it was just a great day of BMX.

Riders from all over Ontario  came out to  remember the short life of an amazing little shredder named Ian Carmichael.

Ian and this day were a gift and may he always rest in piece.