Out & In

Spring may finally be upon us although I sense one more major blizzard before we're totally in the clear.  This past Friday we did manage to set out for the first street session of 2009.

This is the rail that Stewy decided to attempt his first kinker.  It's crazy.  He came so close to pulling it.  If the sun would have stayed up 10 more minutes he would have hat it.  Now we have a reason to go back.  If I was the sun, I would hide from Stewy.

After about 50 attempts, Stewy excused his bike so that it could try some stunts on its own.  This is how it ended.

Stewy with a barspin off the wedge/ledge.

John Reed is quite possibly the funniest person on earth, and pretty good on the bricks and mortar as well.

If there was a rail in Ann Arbor Stewy found it.  Although this is like some mutant half rail half ski jump.  He got it, double peg to fly out.

This cop kicked us out of the spot where John feebled the brick ledge and he actually apologized for making us leave.  He caught up to us again at the big blue rail and was much less patient although he was still pretty cool.

Hello?

After a night of huge rails and even bigger gaps, Stewy needed a rest.

This post is dedicated to Stewy's beloved Blackberry that was once lost but now is found.

There's gonna be a special late session this Friday at TRP put on by Retro Rad.  I think there will be some prizes and an overall good time.  At the rate we've been going lately, this will be our one night of bmx this week, but it should make up for lost time nicely.

RETRO RAD LATE SESSON

FRIDAY, MARCH 13TH

11PM-2AM

BMX AND SKATE WELCOME

Oh-hio!

We were in Ohio this past weekend for the girl's weekend at Ray's.  It's taken us almost the entire winter to get down there for a session, but once we got there we remembered how much we've been missing.  They make changes every year and somehow that place just keeps getting better.  We spent the first day in Cleveland wandering around downtown looking at all the awesome street spots that were either too cold or too wet to ride.  That night we went out to Chenga 2 to see if it recaptured some of the original Chenga.

It's no Chenga o.g. and the multitude of scooterers and skateboards sans riders made it a little difficult.  After the park cleared out it got better.  There are alot of wedges and quite possibly one of my new favorite ramps pictured below.

This is the best wedged wall ever.  It's curved just enough.  The locals said the park is much better when it's not so crowded.  They're definitely right and a follow-up trip may be in order.

 

The next day we were off to Ray's where I was a little dissappointed to find only one fellow Michiganian. 

Heather made the trip out and was killing the rhythms.

I met Betsy at the last girl jam at TRP.  She lives in Cleveland and is rad.

We don't really have too many photos because we spent most of the day riding.  Buc did give up the camera to me for just a few minutes to get this one.

We're thinking maybe metro jam for our next trip, nothing in stone yet though.

Recruited

I have a shitty cold again and I am pissed off about it.  I can't be more than 3 feet away from a Kleenex box and I haven't taken a breath through my nostrils in four days.  I also did not appreciate being teased with warm weather only to be plunged back in the windy depths of winter the following day.  Needless to say I've been a little annoyed lately.  I'm itching for it to be warm and to ride without going through a sneezing fit.  Anyway, we've got some photos from recent sessions at modern and TRP.

These pics span a couple different days.

Wagel's been working on this for a while and has got it clean now.

Super Gordon makes his triumphant return to bmx.

That's Bryan up there in the light, I like this photo!

Jamie is textbook.

Carmickle's name is Matt.

I think this is the Modern session last Thursday, it's too expensive on Sunday.

Chipper is Buc's new muse.

Chipper over the hipper.

At some point during the session (not sure if it was before or after this) Jeff Tabb fell hard and dislocated his shoulder.  You would think that ended his session, but he just kept on going after a 5 minute recoop.

Kevin built this contraptions and then he bunny hopped over it.

It was good to see Ed again, it's been a long time.

Brad's got tailwhip airs.

Here are some of the better photos from the Monster Contest.  Overall it went really well, despite getting a little hectic in the last bmx heat.  The turnout was huge and it was good to see a skate and bike contest go well in the same park on the same day. The Monster Army now has two new recruits from the TRP clan.

Antonio was the youngest competitor.

Malcolm was impressive.

Allen may have dislocated his hip to tweak this x-up cancan.

Will's pretty much dialed most of the big flip variations.  Later in the contest he went to work on a front flip and hit the ceiling harder than anybody I've every seen hit the ceiling.  He went super high.  We would have a picture of it but Buc had to go out and move his truck for Aunt Millie--that bitch!

Rhesse  did some huge transfers including this 360 from the box lip to the quarter thingy.

Your winner and still champ, Stewy.  You knew it would be.

Stewy and Thorne have the same eyes, it's a little freaky.  Anyway, Stewy is the newest member of the Monster army and has access to all the Monster he could want (like he needs it).

You can see all of the good and/or decent photos from the contest on our flickr.

In other news, we are actually going somewhere different to ride, it's a miracle. A weekend road trip that actually involves more than one skatepark.

We're going to Chenga 57 on Saturday Feb. 21st, and then over to Rays on Sunday the 22nd. We haven't been to Rays yet this winter so we're totally past due.  Our truck is full but anybody interested in getting the caravan going let us know.