Annual Sticker Order

It's been a year since I've ordered stickers, time for some newbies! The below stickers will be arriving in the next 7-10 days from 123 Stickers and I'll be dishing them out as soon as they arrive!

Southwick, Windsor Locks, and Howard's!

Yesterday was a pretty epic day. Steve and I rode the Southwick Trails for 3 hours, we hit up the new Windsor Locks park for a bit, we rode some nice banks with the Enfield Crew, and we hit up Ry Howard's house party till 1:30am. Gotta love Saturday's full of fun! The highlight of the day was a young kid and his WT mom at Southwick. The kid drops into the medium sized line like he knew what was up and attempted to roll the 3' first lip...which isn't rollable...it's a 4' gap! So the kid at sh1t hard, scorpion grind to the max! What's his mom do?...looks at me and says "his step daddy is a motocross champion...he wanna be like him" in the most WT Joe Dirt voice ever! I nearly peed my pants! You stay classy Southwick!

Saturday photos: CLICK HERE

Heaven Skatepark?

I received this e-mail today...

Skateboarding Task Force to hold public input session September 26 at 2:00pm at Heaven. The Hartford Skateboarding Task Force will hold a public input session on September 26 at 2:00pm for the future skatepark at New Ross, County Wexford Park-- “Heaven”. The goal of this session is to solicit input from local skaters, BMXers and others about what they would like to see at a formalized skatepark in Heaven. Task force members are mindful of the history of the space and it is very important to them that any addition to the park be made with the support of the local skaters and riders.

The Hartford Skateboarding Task Force was empanelled in winter 2009 by the Hartford Court of Common Council to explore the viability of a formal skatepark in the City. In April 2010, The Task Force recommended that a skatepark should be built at the City’s de facto skatepark, “Heaven”, New Ross, County Wexford Park atop I-84. The Council accepted these recommendations and since then the Task Force has been exploring funding opportunities as well as creating design recommendations. More information is available at http://heaveninhartford.org/.

FIND IT ON FACEBOOK! CLICK HERE

Middlefield Almost Done!

The Middlefield Skatepark appears to be almost complete, I'd say a few more weeks max! There are skate wheel marks and bike tire skids already on the cement, so somebody's been poaching it. The place looks rad as hell, can't wait to get over there and ride!

Middlefield Skatepark photos: CLICK HERE

Vertigo Closing!

So it appears Vertigo Skatepark is closing it's doors after 5 years of business. Just like Academy did in their dying days, Vertigo has been letting bikes in once a week for the past several months. Needless to say, it sucks to see a rider/skater owned park and shop close! Get on over to Vertigo one Wednesday night in the next 3 weeks and give it a rip before it's gone. There are some fun lines and a few rad wall rides.

RIP Interbike!

...well it's not dead, just being moved from Vegas to Anaheim next year! Really??? Anaheim! How do you go from cheap booze, gambling and strip clubs to Disneyland and the Mighty Ducks....so lame! Long live the real Interbike, the one that had nothing to do with bikes and everything to do with free swag, free beer, and raising hell in Vegas!

Lot All Day!

Rode The Lot for 6 hours yesterday, awesome! We had some new faces, a little rain to keep the dust down, some fire, some guns and lots of fun! Loving The Lot right now!!

Lot photos: CLICK HERE

Long Got Longer!

I stretched out the my bike even more today! I added 2 links to my Shadow chain to move my rear wheel back 1/2" in the drop out. On top of that I moved my bars forward 1/4" to give me a little more knee room. So big, so comfy!

9/11 Hamden Trails

Steve and I hit up the Hamden Trails today and rode for a few hours. The place was a total dust bowl, but it was still a good time. That place is absolutely amazing! I give so much props to that trail crew, epic jumps!

Hamden Trails photos: CLICK HERE

Lot: 9/9

A bunch of us got together and rode The Lot last night. It was pretty brisk out, awesome riding weather! The place was kinda dusty, but we made the best of it and had a good time. Looking forward to stopping by the Hamden Trails on Saturday for a little dirt action.

Lot photos: CLICK HERE

Krol Cam

Pete posted a quick video he filmed with his new Canon 5D Mark II last Thursday when we rode his backyard....so crisp! Man I need a 7D!!

122 on the Market

Know anybody doing some house hunting. 122 is officially on the market, spread the word!
CLICK HERE to view the house online

Jake Break

So all those 8 foot flairs at the Newi. park finally caught up with Jake, fortunately he is OK.

Southwick Trails & Krol's Backyard

Yesterday was an all around kick a$$ day! The weather was spot on...sunny and in the low 70s, we rode all day, and nobody got hurt. Schmidt, T, and I headed up to the Southwick Trails around noon and to our surprise the place was empty. A few little kids on Walmart bikes bombing around for a bit, but then the place cleared out. It was pretty dusty, but all the lines were ridable and we were having fun jumping for a solid 3 hours. A few guys showed up late in the session and were getting rad on the 4th and 5th jumps in the 6 pack line. Looking forward to getting back up there a lot this Fall!

After Southwick Schmidt had to head home, but T and I were still down for some more riding. A crew was meeting up at Krol's backyard to ride the pump track and do some digging on the jump line. We rode the pump track for a bit and then moved the kickers in place on the jump line to get things going. The new set-up at Pete's is very similar to his old one, but it's going to be a good time when it's done. On top of that, Pete got a new Canon 5D Mark II so lots of high def. video is going to be shot at his place in the near future. He was shooting some test clips last night and they were epic! So nice...5D's a bit much for me...but a 7D would be nice. Santa, can you make that happen?

Sunday photos: CLICK HERE

Middletown Skatepark Approved!

UPDATE: I had this info passed onto me from a reliable source:

"The skatepark will be roughly 2,000 sq. ft. Rampage is a Connecticut skatepark contractor with many years of experience in not only skateparks, but general construction as well. Rampage bid the project using a Who Skates design and if it is awarded Who Skates will be building the park."

It appears there will be a meeting between city folks, skaters, and riders in the near future to confirm things. Pedal Power is a part of the skatepark committee so the riders are being represented! The park is not going to be pre-fab, which is nice. From what I've seen on Who Skates site they make some rad sh1t...they're responsible for the new Windsor Park too! It may be small, but hopefully it's fun!!

It appears the Middletown Skatepark will be complete before the Winter and will be letting bikes in. The park looks pretty small and has a limited number of obstacles/ramps, but I guess beggars can't be choosers, at least the skaters and riders are getting something. CLICK HERE to read the article from the Press.

Photo courtesy of the Middletown Press

Belltown Skatepark Done!

I'm not going to re-write the whole article, it can be read on the park blog: CLICK HERE.

A Real Live HellTrack?

So I heard some rumors on a BMX forum that Red Bull was considering building a replica of HellTrack from the movie RAD. I don't know if it's true, where it would be built, etc. but that would be the wildest thing possibly ever. I'll keep my ear to the ground on this one!

Keeping it RAD at my house

Cutting Edge Newi. Jam

Yesterdays jam at Newington was off the hook. A ton of riders showed up, the most I've ever seen at the park! The start of the jam was a bit delayed thanks to some dumb broad rear ending Ryan Howard's truck full of Cutting Edge goodies, the grill, tent, etc. as he was on his way to the park. After a brief visit from the cops and the usual accident BS Ryan was on the road again. It was great to see Don Pavelka, haven't ridden with him in almost a year...and he was going off as usual! Tom Kalmanidis took home the bunnyhop win at 40" after a long battle with James Nelson and "California" Ethan Pawlak! Instead of a product toss Howard decided to hide all the merch around the baseball field about 1/4 mile from the park. We rounded up all the kids by announcing "Who wants free stuff?" and once we got their attention we told them to run like mad and go get it. Some kids were hustling for that free swag...too funny! Thanks to everyone that came out and thanks to Ryan and the guys at the Edge for making it happen!

I'll have a short video of the bunnyhop contest that T shot up later today!

Jam photos: CLICK HERE

Krol's Pump Track

T and I stopped over Pete Krol's last night to check out his new pump track. I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting much cause the photos I saw of it made it look really small, but it ended up being fun as hell! It took a little getting used to but once you get comfy it gets faster and smoother to ride. With a little more width to each jump, roller, and bit more height to the berms the place would be even more fun! Looking forward to going back and helping sling some dirt and riding some more. Thanks Pete!

Krol's Pump Track photos: CLICK HERE

Here's a Flip Video clip Pete shot of me...

Jam on Sunday!

The guys from Cutting Edge and holding a late day jam this coming Sunday from 4-dark at the Newington Skatepark. There's gonna be some free swag from Animal, Eastern, Cutting Edge, TYRANT, and a few others. The bunnyhop contest should be a good one. Past jams have seen some riders getting over the bar around the 4 foot mark. Show up, ride your bike, and have fun...it's supposed to be sunny and in the low 80's. Should be fun as hell!