2007 news

And the award for Finest Associate Editor of a BMX Magazine goes to.....Ryan Fudger!

So I got a call from Seth Mason a few days ago, and he asked me if I had just posted some shit about KC Badger on swbmx. I told him no, and then I went to check it out for myself. Some cocksmoker named Dan had posted some pretty vicious stuff on there, and immediately KC jumped to the conclusion that it was me. I wasn’t surprised. KC could travel to Indonesia and catch Chinese bird flu from some dirty hippie cockatoo and he’d find a way to blame it on Old School. He thinks I’m behind every problem in his miserable life, you know. It’s alright, he can think whatever he wants about me (it is a free country after all), but if he aspires to run a bmx message board, he’d better grow a thicker skin than that. Of course, if he was all that goddamn offended he would have edited the post, but instead he’s milking that fuckin’ Holstein for all it’s worth in an attempt to build animosity towards me. Anywho, an intriguing development came out of all this. Ryan Fudger had KC post a response to my critique of Ryan’s review of The Impetus of Cletus. Check it out:

(For those that don’t know what I'm talking about, go here and search my name)

[To Old School] I actually had idea that I wouldn’t have to type up some long-winded reply to this since when it originally appeared on your site right before Interbike. I figured you’d be there, I could ask you for some coke, and we could settle it face to face. Nope. Then I thought about replying, but I quickly remembered that I wasn’t honest enough with myself to care about bagging on a “former friend,” so I let it be. I figured I’d run into you eventually and it’d be all tense and you’d probably try to fight me like you did with EVT. Nope…not even an appearance at Fort! So then this shit with KC comes up and I realize that you’re a trite child—I’d call you washed up, but you’d have to actually make something of yourself at some point—who gets their kicks trying to get in schoolyard tussles and posting anonymously on web sites.

I never really did have a problem with you; I sensed tension through my association with, yes, KC Badger, but mostly through your words about my good friend, Ryan Sher. Remember that one Fort contest report? Or that time you tried to fight him in the parking lot because you had to resort to acting a fool? That’s one of my best friends, who I lived with for many years, so I chose to not exactly be cordial with you. And you obviously felt the same way, until you had your new video and acted all buddy-buddy in order to get something out of me. You know, since we were “friends” who just so happened to not talk in the last two years, but it’s all good now that you want me to review your video, right? So anyway, my retort to this way-off-base rant of yours:

I never stayed at the “original Dirt Bro’s house in Tucson.” I don’t know what that is, or who lived there. The couple of times I stayed in Tucson, I was with Dave White and stayed with the owner of Celestial Skatepark—I think his name was Ross. And while you and I may have been cool to one another and exchanged web links, it never really made us “friends.” I don’t know about you, but a little banter here and there over the course of months doesn’t really get you invited to my wedding, you know?

You did give a copy of The Carnie and Trailer Trash show to Gary, which also not happened to work in our VCR for some reason…and besides the horrible review that Joey Cobbs wrote in Ride and the laughable response I heard from everyone else, I never saw anything past the titties flying upside down in the preview. And, I don’t remember ever giving you any feedback. Maybe it was one of those, “Yeah man, it was way cool” type things to appease the little kid inside of you that needs to lash out, but I honestly don’t remember. Either way, it’s a moot point, since liking CATT has no bearing on how shitty Impetus was.

Heaven forbid I actually go back and watch the Impetus of Cletus for a third time, but I know a majority of my review was focused on Josh Small’s section. You, being a pillar of the Arizona community, the head of the 3BC, and all around good person, should realize how a part like that can reflect on BMX as a whole. I’m sorry, but BMX has moved past grabbing your junk and shaking hands with security guards. The rest of the video could have been gold and Josh’s lack of skill on a bike and morals as a human being would still have been the focus of my review. The Impetus of Gay? Sweet dude. Yeah, I laughed hysterically at the lake jumping stuff, but I saw that shit the month before when you sold it to Maximum Exposure or whatever that shit is on Spike. Besides, it gets a little creepy as the girls get more ugly. If you want to get into filmmaking, go for it. I even said that the intros and production were good, but for fuck’s sake, stop making BMX videos that no one wants to see. I’m sorry if this hurts your feelings and you can’t take an honest opinion, but if you can’t come at me like a man about it and feel forced to tuck your tail and spread lies on your web site, then that only reflects on you as a person.

For anyone reading this that doesn’t really know me. I started smoking weed in eighth grade. I quit in ninth. Spare a few drunken nights over the years and a recent trip to Amsterdam, I don’t even smoke weed, let alone do coke. I’ve never even tried the stuff. I’ll drink gin until my eyes roll up into the back of my head, but I don’t even know what “cecil” or “sketch” is. Ask Old School about those.

Alright, let’s get one thing straight right from the start. My response to Mr. Fudger’s review was not written for him. If I had wanted to speak to that fool privately, I would have called him up or e-mailed him or talked to him at the S&M party, because by now everyone knows I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with confrontation. I wrote it for you guys.

First off, I know goddamn well talking to Ryan wouldn’t solve one goddamn thing. It’s not like he would ever write an apology for his biased review in the nation’s biggest BMX magazine or anything. I wrote to inform all of you of the situation. I wrote to expose him for putting his personal feelings towards me (actually, his bitch friends’ personal feelings towards me) into what SHOULD have been a professional review of my film. I wrote to warn all of you that if you were to send in a video or product for review, if Ryan or any of his little buddies had any kind of beef with you, then you would have no chance of getting a fair review. Chadwick’s video sure didn’t get a fair review. Ryan spent three-quarters of Chadwick’s video review trying to bag on my film again. Making a bike video is a shit-ton of work, and if a reviewer talked more about someone else’s video in my video’s review, I’d be seething. Like I said before, Ryan’s was the only negative review out of all the mags that reviewed my film. You haven’t seen me calling out any other reviewers, have you?

So for a pathetic cover-up excuse as to why Ryan gave my film a bad review, he bags on Josh Small with some rigged-up holier-than-thou attitude. Alright. Howz about we take a closer look at this angelic associate editor of the nation’s largest BMX magazine?

He supports Screech’s (Ryan Sher’s) problem with me. That means Ryan Fudger thinks it’s just fine to trash a rider-owned company’s products in the most mean-spirited way possible on a contest loudspeaker right in front of his hometown and main customer base, where he (I) couldn’t defend himself. That also means Ryan Fudger thinks it’s fully acceptable to vandalize another rider’s truck after said rider (me) defended himself on his website to Screech’s wholly unprovoked and unwarranted verbal onslaught. (I finally ended the bullshit with a few hard knocks to Screech’s fat head after he told me he was going to slag off my company again over the loudspeaker at Fort. Two things you’ve got to remember in this world, kids. You don’t mess with a man’s woman, and you don’t mess with his business.)

Considering Ryan’s unswayable devotion to the stance Screech and KC take on, well, pretty much anything under the sun, I can only assume that this whole time Ryan has been in complete and utter agreement (like any good yes man) to KC and Screech’s opposition to the massive efforts of the Bike, Blade and Board Coalition. Remember how Ryan’s BFF Screech said that EVERYTHING I’ve done in leading the 3BC has been wrong and we would NEVER get public, legal places for bikes to ride in Arizona?

He’s had KC and Screech’s back on all that’s come out of their wretched, deceitful mouths heretofore, so why not this as well? Is it a coincidence that absolutely nothing the 3BC has done has been mentioned in the pages of Ride for the last few years? Unbelievable! The skateparks problem is without question the biggest issue in BMX, and Ryan supports whining, bellyaching, bitching, crying, pissing, and moaning over solid activism and WORK to get shit changed. No wonder there’s still barely any California skateparks that allow bikes!

Then there’s the coke thing. Ryan got SUUUUUUUPER bent out of shape over that one. Personally, methinks the lady doth protest too much, but that’s just me. Some mongoloid on my old message board accused me a few times of doing meth, but it was such a ridiculous accusation I never felt the need to gratify him with an answer. I didn’t even erase it off the board, because I knew people would get a healthy chuckle out of it. Maybe what I said about Ryan wasn’t so ridiculous……..

Now His Worshipfulness The Almighty Lord of BMX Ryan Fudger has officially forbidden me from making videos in his kingdom. I’m pretty happy with how The Impetus of Cletus has done, going international and all, especially in the light of all the rampant copying that is going on nowadays, but my first two videos are nothing compared to what I’ve got in the works. I’ve made KC eat his foolhardy words, I’ve made Screech eat his bitter, malevolent words, and I PROMISE I will make Ryan Fudger eat his ignorant words as well. He really should stick with his job of snapping pics of riders in acceptable focus and writing boring pablum about interesting people, because he’s way out of his depth trying to fuck with me. I run the shittalkingest site on earth, and I’ll type his thin ass straight into the ground.

I just wrote up a story about the X-Court's Grand Opening on October 6th. Go give it some love in the ARTICLES section.

The great Glenn Danzig once wrote: Hallowee-ee-ee-een, Hallowee-ee-ee-een, Hallowee-ee-ee-een, Halloween! Loves me some Halloween! Halloween finally arrived this year, and I was happier than Ryan Fudger with a sack of eight balls! Jose Yanez and I celebrated All Hallows Eve (as is our wont) on both the Saturday before Halloween and October 31st. This is our story in pictures and captions. All photos by Jason Ryan except where otherwise noted.

All jacked up and nowhere to go.....Walking with a dead man over my shoulder.

These pleasant young ladies couldn't figure out who I was dressed as for Halloween. I was Smiths-era Morrissey, complete with roughage coming out of my back pocket (not shown). Photo by Jose Yanez

And this is the look on their faces when I told them who I was. Hey, we can't all be cool enough to know who Morrissey is.

Machine gun jumblies! I hope the one on the left isn't a man. Something in the face...Photo by Jose Yanez

I called the guy on the right scooter boy all night. The guy on the left is Daniel and he used to ride.

Oh my goodness gracious. These little honeydips can make anything look sexy, can't they?

This girl looked good but she was a straight up bitch. The clink will do that to a woman.

By now we all know and love the fact that women use Halloween to dress as straight up hizzznoes. Jose's daughter Gabby went as a sexy Harry Potter. Now I've seen everything.

Jose does an Alice Cooper impression while Gabby celebrates her acquisition of a brown-colored bag.

There were many Captain Jack Sparrows out on Halloween night, but Jose was definitely the only one with a RAD tattoo on his arm.

We helped these lovely ladies over the patio fence at The Tavern before the bouncer could stop us. From what I gathered from his grunts and mumblings, it's illegal to come up on the sidewalk to a patio fence and even talk to someone sitting on the patio. So gay! Photo by Dee Dee

Damn right I'm a charming man! I'll charm the pants right off ye! Photo by Jose Yanez

Just to the left out of frame, a bunch of pimps had set up a portable stripper pole. I heard it was amply populated later in the evening.

May I introduce Ruby and Carmen, part of my crew on Porn Shop Heckler. They do a great job on film production, except when you need some heavy sand bags carried. Then not so much.

See that scar above my right nipple? That's where my brake lever went six inches into me a few years back. Almost makes me want to ride brakeless like the trendy kids. I won't! Photo by Wendy

Remember that skit on Chappelle's Show where Dave said black people will dance anytime there's a good beat?

I was the first person all night to correctly guess this lass's getup. Little Miss Sunshine, everybody.

Cops will bare their fangs if you get too close to take a picture of them. Photo by Jose Yanez

Seriously dudes, out of all the Halloweens I've celebrated, I've never seen this happen.

Meet Vincent Pascoe. He's slated to be the Director of Photography for Dark West, an independent film that will start production within the next couple of months. I'll be operating camera under his command, and I'm looking forward to learning shitloads from him. For more info on Dark West check out http://www.thedarkwest.com Be sure to check out the trailer for the movie on the site. I was cinematographer when we shot the trailer since Vincent was on another project at the time.

Only one person guessed who I was dressed up as correctly. No matter, because the ladies sure liked my costume. What a sweetie this little cowgirl was. I think I could have made it happen but she was hooked up with some Chinese businessman guy.

The Paper Heart will be holding their monthly Film Nuit ala Paper Heart next Wednesday, November 14th. My short film "Porn Shop Heckler" will be shown along with other short films, and you should come out. Everything kicks off at 8pm and entry is a measly 3 bucks. The Paper Heart arts venue is located at 750 NW Grand Ave. in Phoenix, and you can get yerself more info about Film Nuit and The Paper Heart at www.thepaperheart.com

Congrats to Johnny Stevens for an excellent performance at the Orlando Dew Tour stop! Johnny said he was happy with how he rode despite the super snake/jam session qualification round, so I'm happy for him. Johnny didn't qualify for the finals, but if anyone asks, you got 11th place, buddy.

A new article appeared in the Arizona Republic a couple weeks back about the Surprise BMX/Skatepark. Seems the parks and rec board thinks it's a good idea to have separate days for skaters and bike riders. We at the 3BC have been working with cities for six years on bmx/skatepark issues, and we have learned that having separate days for users does not work. They tried it in the skateparks of Santa Clarita, California, and Marana, Arizona. After a couple months the skaters realized how stupid it was that they had to sit on the sidelines while the bike riders rode, and the bike riders realized the same thing about the skaters' turn. The different user groups knew they could get along, so they started breaking the rules by co-mingling. Surprise, please don't start your great new park off on the wrong foot. Don't make it so that kids don't want to obey your rules from the very beginning because you haven't done your due diligence. Co-mingling of bike riders and skaters is legal and working excellently in the bmx/skateparks of Fountain Hills, Mesa, Glendale, Prescott, Prescott Valley, Show Low, Douglas, Nogales, and hundreds of other bmx/skateparks across the U.S. Comment on the article while it's still up at http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1014skate1014.html

We've got a good 3BC representative up in Surprise, Ray Telles. The problem is, the guy is virtually impossible to get ahold of unless you go to his house. Never answers the old telefono. I've been wanting to talk to him about this new development for a while, so if any of yous guys that ride at his house regularly could ask him to call me, I'd much appreciate it. Otherwise I'll have to train some messenger pigeons from birth to communicate with Ray, and we all know how stinky baby birds are.

Ryan Letcher broke his leg doing some kind of fence ride to 180 out at the Fox Glen Skatepark in Flagstaff a while ago. He actually broke off the top of his tibia, and you know how fun that is. At least by now he's over the stage where you can't properly wipe your ass. Get well soon, Ryan, and let's go ride some pools. It's totally pool season, broseph!

Kore Bike Industries recently moved a little further north on Scottsdale Road apiece. It's just a couple blocks, no worries! They are now newly located a little north of McKellips, in the strip mall just south of the Salvation Army Thrift Store. Ryan told me that he had a clause written in his contract with the landlord about having events in the parking lot, so we can let the fur fly! I don't think the clause included the trashing of cars, though. I'll have to investigate that.

The newest issue of Ride UK contains a 20 Questions I did with The Ratboy. It's always the same questions to different riders, but after awhile the answers seem to sound the same. Not so with Ratboy's answers. Congrats to Kimbro Staken for getting his photo of Ratboy's barspin out of a car window ride at a Kore event in the mag along with the 20Q. Kimbro also got hitched recently, so congrats to him and his new wife Lisa for that too, you sons of bitches!

I just got confirmation that the Fort contest will happen on the 16th, 17th, and 18th of November. You can go out and wreck your shit on a bunch of beat-ass ramps and asphalt if you want, but I'm going out of town that weekend. Hmmm, let's see here. I can either pay Steve $100 for the "privilege" to shoot video at the Fort for the weekend, or I can make $350 for two days of freelance video work plus per diem and a nice Tucson hotel room. That's right, $100 to shoot photos or video at the Fort, last I heard. But the big magazine guys get to do it for free. Fuck the Fort. I'm over it.

NBC produced an excellent segment about Stephen Murray's life-changing injury that can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf-tUBLN7uw There are three parts to it, so check them all out.

Prescott Valley just finished renovating their old skatepark, and they added on about another 20,000 square feet of sweetness! The new stuff is steep and deep, unlike the original part, and they took out the stupid wall next to the spine to open that shit up! The park used to unofficially allow bikes, but it's official now that the add-ons are done. We're not winning. We've WON.

During October, I made a commercial for a contest Panasonic was holding called Share the Air. They've got all the entries up now at http://www.sharetheair.net/videos
My commercial is called Share the Spaghetti. You might recognize the location and you might recognize one of the actors/riders. Peep that shit, and if you likes it, throw some stars my way in the rating system! The winner gets a Panasonic HVX 200 High Def camera, so stakes is high....

So tomorrow's the big day! It's the grand opening for Glendale's X-Court, and the park rides like a wet dream. I know this because Glendale had a little private session for the X-Court Advisory Committee members and their invitees last night. I think even the saltiest, bitchiest, whineyist, ugliest, gnar-gnarliest AZPX skater would have to agree that the bike riders did a pretty damn good job designing that son-of-a-bitch! Here's the schedule for tommorow:

APA staff will be in charge of general announcements and serve as Master of Ceremonies to keep event moving and various scheduled activities on time.

Just like we did at the Goodyear Grand Opening, the 3BC wants to stress the importance of respect for all park users and bmx/skatepark etiquette. Check the flyer:

If you haven’t heard by now, I’ll be more than happy to tell you that the city of Glendale, Arizona will be holding a grand opening for their new X-Court on Saturday, October 6th, 2007. It will be an unsupervised, free, concrete, public park that will allow bikes, skateboards, inline skates, and all other un-motorized wheeled use at all times. It’s sick as hell, too, seeing as it was designed by bike riders. Want to see how we got the job done? Trust me, it was hardly a coincidence, dumb luck, or a stroke of fate.

Out of all the cities and towns in Arizona, this whole movement here in Arizona to get free, legal places for bikes to ride began with Glendale first. Riders had attended skatepark meetings here and there, but in addition to being a very small group compared to the skaters and rollerbladers, there was no organization present to unite us. Things got kicked off when the owner of Build-A-Bike held a meeting at her Glendale bike shop in February of 2002. She had received a good response from her councilman Phil Lieberman before when she had a problem with the city, so she organized a get-together between bike riders who wanted a legal place to ride, Glendale City Councilman Phil Lieberman, and Mike Gregory, from Glendale Parks and Recreation. Glendale already had a concrete skatepark under construction at that point (Foothills Skatepark,) and the bike riders wanted to let parks and rec know that they didn’t want to be excluded from the park as Scottsdale, Mesa, Phoenix, Chandler, and other Valley cities had done with their respective skateparks up to that point.

That night we didn’t get far with Glendale parks and rec, but bike riders did put our voice on their map. The best thing to come out of the meeting was that Rex Golos, an avid skater, and myself, Jason Ryan, met for the first time. We talked extensively for two hours after the meeting was over, and formed the Concrete Bikepark Alliance that very night in Build-A-Bike’s parking lot.

We began talking to Phil Lieberman and Glendale Parks and Rec officials extensively, but we weren’t getting the response we wanted, so we went to speak to Glendale City Council on July 10th, 2003. About 30 riders and supporters showed up, and Andy Leeland, a Glendale resident, spoke to the council, as did Rex, myself, and a couple other riders. After the meeting, the mayor called us over and tried to chastise us for telling the city council that they would be turning good kids into criminals if they didn’t allow bikes in their new skatepark. Rex pretty much got in the mayor’s face and very firmly stood by our position. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but it netted us Glendale’s undivided attention. The city manager arranged to meet with us within the next couple of weeks. We knew this was big, because in Glendale, the city manager holds the highest-ranking unelected position in the city.

The Foothills skatepark still wasn’t open, and bikes still weren’t going to be allowed, but Glendale already had another skatepark planned, and that’s all we talked about when I and another Bike, Blade and Board Coalition member met with the Glendale city manager and high-level parks and rec officials (we had changed the name of our organization from the Concrete Bikepark Alliance to the Bike, Blade and Board Coalition earlier that year.) They decided to pass surveys out to Glendale bike shops to see how many riders there were and what kind of park they would like to have. Things were coming along slowly, but we at the 3BC decided it was important to keep pressure on Glendale, so we began planning a protest/rally at the grand opening of the Foothills skatepark.

A couple months later in August, 2003, we were notified that the first community input meeting for Glendale’s 2nd skatepark, the Glendale X-Court, had been scheduled. When I showed up to the meeting, I was confronted by Officer Mark Mabee, a gang resistance instructor for the city of Glendale’s police department, about our planned protest at the Foothills Skatepark. He had seen our bmx protest/rally plans on my website and thought he’d try to intimidate us into not standing up for our constitutional rights at the grand opening. I politely told him we were bmx riders, not a gang; we were going ahead with our protest/rally, and it would be peaceful and orderly, so he didn’t have anything to worry about.

That meeting went very well for us, as approximately 60 bike riders came out and only about 10 skaters showed up. Through the sheer number of bike riders willing to come to a meeting, Glendale got the message screamed at them that their next skatepark HAD TO ALLOW BIKES. We were really nervous, though, because Glendale had already hired Site Design Group to design the skatepark. The 3BC had been at odds with SDG since we started, because they had always told the cities that they shouldn’t allow bikes in their skateparks, and they wouldn’t warrantee any damage incurred to the facility if bikes were allowed.

A second community input meeting was held on the X-Court’s design, and even though there was the same ratio of bike riders to skaters attending the meeting as at the first meeting, Glendale officials still had not fully made the decision on whether or not to allow bikes in the X-Court. I specifically remember Rex and I going toe to toe with Glendale Parks and Rec Director Warren Smith, presenting him with all the facts and logical arguments as to why bikes needed to be allowed in the X-Court. Even after we had soundly shot down every single reason he had as to why bikes should be banned from the new park, he STILL wanted to meet us for lunch to talk about it more. Rex and I were done, though. We declined to meet with him again, because there was just nothing more to talk about. We had won the debate, he knew it, we knew he knew it, and the only thing to do was to leave him to make the right decision.

Meanwhile, SDG started designing the park around bike rider’s input, seeing as pretty much only bike riders came out to help design it. They took a lot of advice from Andy Leeland and I as to what should go in the park, including a concrete box jump, multiple hips, a sub box, and other more bike-oriented features not commonly found in skateparks. SDG, however, wasn’t the only business that started to change their rigid stance against bikes as a result of our efforts.

Cowtown Skateboards, a prominent Phoenix area skate shop, made their view known shortly after the second community input meeting that bikes should be allowed in the X-Court. The owner of Cowtown had pushed very hard to get Valley cities to build concrete skateparks starting many years back, but had always been against bike riders being allowed in them. At last, they recognized that skaters had plenty of concrete skateparks already, and bike riders needed a free, public place to ride as well.

The X-Court has endured many delays, most of them due to funding problems and the high cost of cement and skatepark construction. In 2006, though, construction finally began.

Some riders out here on the West side of Phoenix are afraid that what happened at Goodyear Skatepark will happen at Glendale’s X-Court. They think that bikes will be kicked out after being allowed for a few weeks or months. That is pretty much completely outside the realm of possibility at this point. Goodyear’s parks and rec director hated the idea of bikes being allowed inside “his” skatepark from the beginning, and he never took one crumb of advice we gave him, whereas Glendale officials actually asked for the input of bike riders, skateboarders and inline skaters.

In May of this year, Glendale parks and rec called a meeting about the X-Court and invited all citizens to participate in an X-Court advisory committee that would meet every 2 weeks until the park opened. A few Glendale citizens, Andy Leeland, his girlfriend Miranda, and I have met with parks and rec officials regularly since May, and they have listened closely to every bit of input we’ve given. Most of what we have recommended has become park policy. Bikes, skateboards, inline skates, and all non-motorized wheeled devices are allowed in the park at all times when open. Bikes will have no stipulations on their setup, except no knurled pegs are allowed. Smooth pegs are just fine.

If you would like more information as to how we got this concrete park opened to all non-motorized users, please visit http://www.psychicflyingmonkey.com/The3BCpage.htm and click on the Glendale link. We are working on some specific guides to getting public places for bmx bike riders to ride that we’ll post on the 3BC page; however, the most important part of the process is putting the work in. Another big part is having older riders or parents of riders lead the charge. Sadly, there is a bias in the bmx media against older riders because most of them wear too many pads, don’t do all the trendy tricks, and have gray balls. The reality is that older riders are vital to getting parks open to bikes. Most 15 year-olds just don’t have the maturity it takes to deal well with parks and rec officials, city councilmen, and newspaper reporters. Hell, most 23 year-olds don’t either. If you’re an older rider that wants places to ride, lead those kids! The younger riders will support you. If you’re a younger rider that wants parks, get those older riders and parents off their collective arses and get them to lead you guys. Go to the meetings, go to protests, go to the newspapers, and don’t stop until you have public places to ride! The system only works if you work the system. In December of last year, we had no legal places to ride in the Phoenix area. By the end of 2008 we’ll have 6 concrete parks that allow bikes here! I’ll hit you back with the story of the Tempe bmx/skatepark when that opens in April. Until then, monkey out!

You'll be sure to notice the concession stand/pro shop at the Glendale X-Court tomorrow. "Who the hell are these guys?" you may ask yourself. They are Action Park Alliance, owned and operated by Mark Laue. Mark Laue was the guy who started the private skatepark Real Ride up in Utah, and then expanded to a second Real Ride facility in Lake Perris, California. He enjoyed running the private parks, and they went well, but he saw the future of skateparks, without a doubt, was public concrete parks. Mark decided a few years ago to team up with cities to administrate their public parks while providing skate/bike lessons, contests, jams, demos, concessions, a pro shop, and a lot of other things that riders and skaters like to have at their parks.

The APA won't be monitoring the X-Court, but we will get all the benefits they have to offer, so I think it will be a real win-win for everyone. Since they will provide an adult presence, I don't think we'll see the kind of bullshit that has gone down at PV skatepark that has gotten it closed for months on end. Mark and his staff are all bike riders and skaters, so they understand the culture, and they're cool people to deal with. For example, Andy Leeland is managing the X-Court's pro shop. I'm looking forward to this new kind of way to run a public skatepark, and I think it will work out very well. A bmx contest is already being planned at the X-Court for the end of October, so what does that tell you?

Super quick update here. The Glendale X-Court WILL NOT open tomorrow, September 29th. The latest I've heard is it might open next Wednesday, October 3rd, but that's not a definite. It will, however, definitely be open on Saturday, October 6th, which is the Grand Opening day. A bike contest and skate contest are planned for that day, so you kids better hop on the come up!

The opening pic for the site still hasn't changed because no one has won the contest yet. I got correct answers from two people but they already had The Impetus of Cletus so they both told me to let someone else win it. Other than that, I've had many guesses, but they've all been wrong. Here's a clue: What do the people in the photo do for a living?

Get on it! You gots to get you that video! If not for bad person Josh Small, then for the Gonz cameo. If not for the Gonz cameo, then for the internationally-acclaimed intro. If not for the internationally-acclaimed intro, then for the hidden sections. If not for the hidden sections, then for the titties! If not for the titties, you're full homo for real, dood!

Here's a little promo I edited together for the Redendo Continental Ranch Skatepark Demo coming up on September 15th, from 6:30 pm to 8 pm. Robert Bender shot Ruben's stuff, I shot Johnny's stuff, and John Dale wrote and played the song.

The date for the Glendale's X Court's soft opening has just changed. The park will open on Saturday, September 29th. It could possibly open a couple days earlier than that, but it all depends on how smoothly the finishing of the concession stand/pro shop goes.

Glendale X Court opening

The date has finally been set for Glendale's X Court opening! The park will open on Saturday, September 15th. Now this is just what they call a "soft opening." There won't be any bands or demos or free Kool-Aid that day. That stuff will all happen on Saturday, October 6th, the day of the Grand Opening. I would be at the soft opening on the 15th, but I'll be announcing Redendo's Marana demo at the Marana Skatepark that day, so I'll be hitting up the X Court on Monday morning when all of you little bastards are in school.

That's right. It's poppin' off on Saturday, September 15th from 6:30-8:00 pm. Visit www.redendo.com for the details.

Pic jacked from another AZ bmx site. It's for a good cause, so it 's cool, aiight?

Smoker Dave and I used to have a bitter rivalry going back in the late nineties. He didn't like that I wore pads while riding, I didn't like that he was always so competitive and contentious. Although we rode together willingly when I first met him, our riding relationship became more and more strained until we pretty much refused to ride around one another. When the Arizona State Fair set up a street course for bikes and skateboards in 2001, The Gonz and Dave helped to run the demos that were held. One night, I showed up to ride a regular session, and Dave came up to me. He said we should bury the hatchet and just get along, because riders shouldn't be fighting with each other over stupid shit. I agreed, and we've been friendly ever since. It was really big of Dave to approach me and propose we get along. I just can't see most of the people who have decided to make me their enemy ever doing anything remotely like that.

A few weeks back, Smoker Dave found out he had Burkitt's Lymphoma, a type of cancer. Everyone immediately thinks that Dave's smoking caused it. He's not called Smoker for no reason, right? It turns out that smoking hasn't been directly linked to causing Burkitt's Lymphoma, but that doesn't mean smoking won't weaken your immune system and make you more prone to diseases, because it certainly has been proven to do that. Irregardless, we should still help Dave out as much as we can. He's got a wife and a kid to support, and the chemotherapy makes him too sick to work, much less ride. He has quit smoking, so don't worry about that. Ryan at Kore Bikes got a shitload of shirts made up with one of Dave's designs to sell to help Dave and his family with their finances. They're going for $13, and every bit of the money made goes to Dave. Go get yourself a shirt to help a fellow rider out. He'll appreciate the hell out of it.

Big props, once again, go to Ryan at Kore Bikes for stepping up to help riders and this scene. Other bike shops take notice! This is what it means to be a good BMX shop! Being involved in the scene, helping riders out, helping get places to ride, it all ties together! BMX is not something you can just make some bonus money off of in addition to your goddamn mountain and road sales! We want shop owners like Ryan that give a shit!

I’m sure you’ve heard about S&M’s 20^th anniversary party on August 4^th by now. Well your boy Old School rolled in there with Shawn Butler, his wife Jaye, and Randy Russell that night, and I want to talk about it a little.

I had heard rumors of female mud wrestling and roller derby going down at the party, but what actually did go down was Barspinner's box jump and quarterpipe, the little bowl config in the warehouse lobby, Taj’s band Snaketrap, all the PBR you could drink, and an S&M museum housed in a semi trailer. The party wasn’t as good as what I expected from the likes of S&M, but there you go. Shawn wore his old S&M jersey to the party, and he rode a little bit before deciding it was too crowded to ride, which it was (I think there were over 1000 people there.) It was really cool seeing Shawn wearing that jersey, showing his respect for the S and the M. That's how I always think of him, not in a Schwinn jersey, and definitely not in a KHE jersey, but rocking the black, white, gold and red while barspinning, 360'ing, and superman frame-grabbing with stylish silky Lumberblack-ness.

The highlight at the party for me was easily the museum. The S&M guys had taken what looked like every ad, promo photo, and catalog they ever made, laminated them, and arranged them for display by year starting with 1987 going to 2007. They had S&M frames and parts hanging under the appropriate year as well. I saw photos and ads I've never seen in my life, even though I've always been a big magazine guy. As I studied the ads on display, the thing that struck me the most was how Chris Moeller had never missed an opportunity to talk shit about other bike companies, mostly the ones who got their shit made in Taiwan. Not only did he talk mad shit, but it was always in the most creative and hilarious of ways. Robosaurus could have bitten the roof off the semi, the heavens could have farted, and a golden shaft of light could have teabagged me, and I wouldn't have been more inspired. The museum actually inspired me to write this next segment....

I know a lot of you have been waiting for what I had to say about the review Ryan Fudger did on The Impetus of Cletus in Ride. As you may or may not have noticed, no one ever seems to talk shit on magazine editors because they’re always afraid they won’t get coverage, and justifiably so. Well, I haven’t gotten coverage in Ride since 1997 and I just don’t give a fuck anyways so grab your socks and hold on to your cocks ‘cause here we go!

To put things in proper perspective, I’ll first need to provide you with a little back story….

I first met Ryan back in 2001 when he was just a guy running a site called sandiegobmx.com. He, along with younger heads like Gary Young, Jim Worobec and Mike Grosse, had been riding with the OG Dirt Brothers Vic Murphy and Jim Sibley and had become assimilated into their crew. During Will Bissell’s Old Tucson dirtramps contest, I stayed at one of the original Dirt Bros’ house in Tucson, and all the San Diego guys stayed there as well. I quickly became friends with all the dudes I hadn’t known already, Ryan being one of the new guys. At that point, I hadn’t released The Carnie and Trailer Trash Show yet, but I showed them the preview and they were all psyched on it.

Soon after the Tucson contest, Ryan and I traded links between our sites. Vic had Ryan working on making a re-release of the first Dirt Bros. video Hicks In Action with new music and additional footage of the modern-day team, so we also exchanged commercials to put in each other’s videos. When I released The Carnie and Trailer Trash Show, I gave one to Gary Young and one to Vic. I got feedback from all the San Diego guys, including Ryan, that they loved it.

Not too long after I released The CATT Show, Ryan was hired as assistant editor of Ride magazine. I would see Ryan now and then when I went out of state, and eventually he started coming to Arizona to cover contests. Around that time, he started hanging out with KC Badger. Ryan progressively acted more and more distant towards me every time I saw him. Over the years, it finally got to where he wouldn’t even greet me anymore. I knew it was because he was listening to the mountains of lies KC and his friends were feeding him about how “uncool” I was and how I was doing “everything wrong” with my leadership to get legal places for bikes to ride.

I can’t count how many people told me The Impetus of Cletus was a hundred times better than The Carnie and Trailer Trash Show, including my own family. I haven’t been able to find one soul except for Fudger that liked my first video, but didn’t like the second. Generally, people’s sense of humor doesn’t change over time. I mean, your tastes will change between the time you’re a little kid and an adult, but I’m talking about grown folks here. I received reviews from three other BMX magazines, and every one of those were positive. Ryan’s review was the only negative one.

It’s a shame that Ryan compromised his obligation to his readers by allowing the opinions of some buttcake trying to suck his way to the top influence what should have been an unbiased review. Ryan won’t be bothered one iota by my little stitch of criticism. He’s not near honest enough with himself to be bothered with it. I’m guessing he’ll just go to sleep tonight, telling himself over and over what a peasant everyone in BMX is compared to him because he takes an okay picture, writes pathetic to mediocre text for a major bike magazine, and can freely bag on any former friend because he’s in a powerful enough position to do so, and he’ll dream of an untamed mountain range made of pure, snowy, uncut, 100% Colombian cocaine. Before long he’ll wake up, snort a couple lines of low-grade cecil spiked with sketch that he scored at the local coke bar, and finally go back to sleep 48 hours later just like the rock star he thinks he is.

A few months ago I found out some rider had put my protest segment on You Tube. I'm glad he did, because I've always wanted it to get out there as much as possible, and boy howdy is it ever. Last I checked, it had been watched 92,000 times, and commented on 269 times. The link to the You Tube version is in the "Films" page. Peep those comments, because they're pretty entertaining.

Brian Jacobson added Pier 49 Pizza to the list of rider-owned businesses when he bought his franchise a little while ago. If you remember back, Brian was the guy at our PV protest who got in that skater's face that was trying to tell us why bikes shouldn't be allowed in skateparks. It was so excellent. Brian straight up told that fool, "Why you gotta sit there and talk shit, mang? Why can't you just be cool?" I've always thought that statement really boiled it down to the essence of the bike/skate divide. Some skaters have invented thousands of reasons why they can't skate with bikes in the park, instead of just kicking back, being cool, and getting along. You can see Brian in the protest segment on the "Films" page, and you can read the original PV protest story by clicking on this link.

Sooo, Pier 49's pizza is really tasty stuff and it's located at the northeast corner of Priest and Washington, just down the street from Kore Bikes (Curry becomes Washington when heading west.) They serve gourmet pizza in addition to the usual types of pizza, and for your first meal I'd like to recommend the BBQ chicken pizza. I should start doing restaurant reviews on here. How delicious would that be?

Chandler 3BC Captain Pat Blackburn met recently with Mickey Ohland, Chandler Parks Planning Superintendent, and Mickey told him that things are going so well at the Chandler Bike Park that they (the city) don't even really think about it. So thank you to everyone for just riding and respecting the park and not doing any stupid shit there, and keep it up. Also, thanks again to the City of Chandler for making such a sick park and running it well. Every time I've ridden there I've had a great time, and, similar to what Mickey said, I don't even think about the city when I'm there. When they're doing a good job, there's no need to think about them.

I recently entered Johnny's Good Year in an online film contest at www.ourstage.com It's doing pretty good, ranking 8th out of 46 entries. The way they judge the winners is to pit one vid against another and the one that wins the most, well...wins. I want to ask all of you to go to Ourstage and vote for Johnny's Good Year in the action sports category. There's some shitty stuff on there, and there's some really good stuff on there, but me and Johnny gots to get ours, gnaw sayin'?

Stephen Murray is a BMX Athlete that could use help from the BMX community. Stephen is a professional dirt jumper that is well known for his amazing tricks like double back flips, 360 back flips, turndown back flips and so much more.

Stephen Murray came to the United States from New Castle Great Britain over 10 years ago with a dream of riding with the best athletes in the sport. He came over here originally as a BMX racer but quickly took to Dirt Jumping and Freestyle in the scene of Huntington Beach and Sheep Hills.

2001 and 2002 marked the biggest year for Stephen Murray of his career. He won the Gold Medal in Dirt Jumping at X Games and back to back wins at the Gravity Games, the two biggest contests at the time.

Stephen is quoted on his own riding style, “I go 110%, go big and send it!” (EXPN.com)

On Friday June 22nd at the AST Dew Tour BMX Dirt Finals in Baltimore, MD, Stephen Murray took a horrific fall on the final set of the dirt section while sending a double back flip. Stephen has received career ending injuries to his spinal cord and vertebrae.

Unlike the NFL or other major professional sports which have unions that provide funds to athletes who are injured, BMX has nothing like this. BMX however is much more like a family than any other sport. Now is the time we need to reach out and support one of our family members like never before.

The injuries that Stephen sustained are no doubt going to affect him for a life time. Medical bills alone can reach astronomical dollar amounts. As a BMX community we have the power to help him. Stephen is a young 27 years old and is the financial provider for a wife and two young children.

This message has the potential to reach millions. Even if you are only able to donate $1 if we did it all together we can accomplish a great deal. This is for real, this is an opportunity to help out one of the most loved riders in our sport. Please find it in your hearts to contribute any dollar amount that you can, and say a prayer for Stephen Murray and his family in this difficult time.

Although it's been completed for half a year, I am finally releasing my first narrative short film, "Porn Shop Heckler" starring Josh Small. It was shot on 16mm film and every time I've shown it people laugh their asses off. That's good, because people are supposed to laugh at a comedy. Check it out in the "Films" section.

I recently received this e-mail about Houston, Texas' public skatepark situmuation. I would like to join with T-bone in encouraging anyone who lives near Houston to write these city councilpersons and the mayor and everyone else listed below. If you don't live near Houston, at least say you do. Also, take a lesson from T-bone mistakes and use a spellchecker before you send anything off to these officials.

the city of houston is about to build a massive concrete park in downtown houston. this isnt some small little pre-fab shit park.... this is the real deal and it isnt going to let in bikes. this park is wait yall have dreamed of having in your own town and its NO BIKES ALLOWED. pushhouston.org are the ones doing alot of planing and it the have it thier way a bike wont touch that park. thats where YOU come in and fight to change that. THE CITY OF HOUSTON HAS THE MONEY AND THE DESIGNS ARE DONE. they are going to BREAKGROUND VERY VERY SOON!!!. ive emailed pushhouston a number of times asking about the no bikes and they ignored every email. guess they figure that we wont fight this and we will just go away. sure they raised alot of money but that is public land and is ment for public use. BIKES ARE GETTING STABED IN THE BACK ON THIS DEAL. this has to change and has to change now so everyone needs to GET INVOLVED!!!! once they pour that concrete they wont change thier mind. so tell everyone from your friends , parent , local bike shop, neibors to the people you work with. this can not wait THINGS HAVE TO CHANGE NOW OR NOTHING WILL!!! email the city of houston over and over. even call them. EMAIL AND CALL THE MAYOR OF HOUSTON BILL WHITE!!!. CONTACT JOE JAMAIL AND EMAIL HIM cause after all joe jamail did put the most money up andf should have the most say. contact the parks dept. and ask them questions.... BOTHER THE HELL OUTTA PUSHHOUSTON.ORG!!!! go to thier meetings and raise hell. go to city meetings and ask questions. go to events and show support as well as protest. THE TIME IS NOW TO DO SOMETHING !!!!!! dont wait till its too late cause once that concrete is poured there is no going back. the money isnt pushhouston's money its the people that donated it to have a place for everyone to enjoy aka "the public". iIF NOTHING IS DONE BY YOU THE YOU ARE TO BLAME FOR THIS. LETS GET THIS CHANGED AND LETS NOT LET THIS FORM OF DISCRIMANATION HAPPEN IN OUR OWN CITY!!!! WEVE GOT THE NUMBERS TO CHANGE THIS SO LETS DO THIS !!!!!!!!!! FIGHT - Tbone

call dirtwood 713 680 3442
for more info on what can be done. im going to be starting a petition for yall to sign here at dirtwood when yall come in. this free park isnt going to be free we have to fight for this!!!!

-pushhouston.com-
admin@pushhouston.com

-joe jamail-
info@joejamail.com

-mayor bill white-
mayor@cityofhouston.net

-city council-
districti@cityofhouston.net
districtf@cityofhouston.net
districtc@cityofhouston.net
atlarge3@cityofhouston.net
districth@cityofhouston.net
districte@cityofhouston.net
districtb@cityofhouston.net
atlarge5@cityofhouston.net
atlarge2@cityofhouston.net
districtg@cityofhouston.net
districtd@cityofhouston.net
districta@cityofhouston.net
atlarge4@cityofhouston.net
atlarge1@cityofhouston.net

PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL OF JOE JAMAIL ...HE DROPED A LOAD OF MONEY TO GET THIS THING DONE AND DOESNT RIDE BMX OR SKATEBOARD, SO BE NICE TO JOE AND CITY OFFICALS .... INFORM THEM HOW THIS IS WRONG AND WHY BIKE SHOULD BE ALLOWED AND WHAT IT CAN DO FOR THE CITY TO HAVE A WHEEL FRIEND ENVIRONMENT FOR ALL. PUSHHOUSTON.COM WILL PROLLY JUST GIVE YOU SOME KINDA RUN AROUND LETTER BUT KEEP GIVING THEM HELL AND LET THEM KNOW WE ARE READY TO FIGHT TO GET BIKES IN. -Tbone

Robert Verhalen-1st place
Jose Yanez-2nd place
Billy Burghout-3rd place
Jason Ryan-Ruptured eardrum

That's right...it's party time. And the only way to do it right up in the PHX during the summer is by doing it at the lake! The only things I can really say to add to the flyer is we've got big ass trophies for the lake jump contest placers and the wet T-shirt contest winner (the latter of which will also get $100). It looks like we'll also be giving away a new race frame to the jumping contest winner as well. Wacky, huh? But fuck it, because anybody who wins a lake jumping contest is lucky they get anything! Lets see.....Bring shade. I remember one particularly sunny lake trip where there was a whole grip of us out there but only one wise man brought a pop-up. Round about 1 pm that sum' bitch was packed with people laying all over each other trying to get at least their red wrinkled faces in the shade. If I think of anything else I'll get it on here before the event.

Things have been going really good at the Chandler Bike Park, but there have been some serious injuries already. Billy Swan broke part of his spine a couple weeks ago when he hung front wheel coming in from a manual on the sub box. The doctors replaced it with a disc from a cadaver. As you might have guessed, none of that surgery is exactly on sale, so Ryan at Kore Bikes is holding a raffle to help Billy and his family out with some cash. He's raffling off a Fit Am Complete bike (which retails for about $300), and the tickets cost $7 for one, $12 for two, and each additional ticket you buy after two is $5. The drawing for the bike will be held on June 17th at 7pm, and you don't have to be present at the shop during the drawing to win.

Mike Gregory, Project Coordinator for Glendale Parks and Recreation, sent me these tasty bites of the Glendale X-Court from construction to near-completion:

Look again at the photo of the just-shot, just-smoothed wall. It's a shiny dark grey apple and I wanna sink my toofers into it. MMMmmmm! Tastes like sweet success!

Some bike riders (and a few scooter riders and possibly skaters) have foolishly been hopping the fence and riding the X-court while it's been under construction. A few weeks back some bike tire tracks were found in some fresh cement, and it was messed up so bad that the whole slab had to be pulled out and re-poured. It set the workers back about a week or two. I don't need to say how retarded this is that kids are riding this place early. I just want to say if you know of anybody who's doing this, you'd better get them to stop. They're delaying construction and doing us a lot of harm by their selfishness.

On that tip, the park is still scheduled to be completed this summer; that is, if there are no more delays from vandalism. The park is practically done, but the pro-shop/concession stand has to be finished before the park opens. Thanks to Mike Gregory for the great pics and all the good work he's doing in getting this park ready to operate the right way. Glendale Parks and Rec are not setting themselves up for failure like Goodyear Parks and Rec did. Glendale is doing it right, so everybody pay attention, aiight?

Speaking of Goodyear, Ray Telles tipped me off about this article that appeared in the AZ Republic a little bit ago. It talks about how virtually nobody is using the Goodyear Skatepark now that bikes have been kicked out, helmet rules enacted, and monitors put in place to enforce all the exciting new rules! Whereas the park would normally see about 200 people using it at night, now only 20-30 people use it at night. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Brian Barnes, Goodyear's Director of Parks, Recreation and Sanitation, saying he had been getting numerous phone calls and e-mails from skaters and parents saying that all the bike riders in the park were preventing skateboarders from coming out to use the park? Where are all of those alleged skaters now? Did they all move away on the morning of March 27th just after the prisonification of the skatepark? Maybe they all got tired of the best skatepark in Arizona at once. Maybe they're giving out free hot dogs at Desert West Skatepark every day. I'll get to the bottom of this, because Brian Barnes couldn't possibly be wrong, perish the thought! I've got a hunch about those hot dogs....

The Chandler Bike Park Grand Opening on Cinco de Mayo was a damn great time. About 300 to 400 riders came out and broke the new park in right proper-like. Chandler didn’t have any money to bring in pros from out of state for the demo, but luckily we got a couple anyways. John Dale from Redendo.com had flown in A.J. Anaya from Denver, Colorado for a contest in Hermosillo, and he stayed in AZ long enough afterwards to come to the Chandler opening with John. Mike Saavedra from Riverside, California heard about the opening and came out on his own dime. I want to thank both these guys for coming out and throwing down, because the kids really appreciated seeing some shredders that they don’t already see riding all the time. I’d also like to thank A.J. and Mike for graciously allowing themselves to be interviewed for my “bikes in Arizona skateparks movement” documentary as well. They were both psyched on the effort the riders had put forth here in getting Chandler to build the bikepark. Both of them also separately said they thought this was an extremely well-designed park, and Hoffman could easily hold a CFB here without even bringing in any extra ramps.

At the Chandler Bikepark Grand Opening and afterwards, a few different people were trying to take credit for getting Chandler to build their sick bike park. I was going to do a whole history of who was directly involved, but I decided against it. If you really care to know specifics of the history, you’ve got plenty of good references to research between the Chandler section of the 3BC page, the Chandler Public Record, and the multiple articles in The Chandler Connection, the East Valley Tribune, the Ocotillo News, and the Arizona Republic. The fact of the matter is, as I’ve said on here many times, that anyone who helped push for places to ride, whether in Tucson, Flagstaff, Prescott, Glendale, or anywhere else in Arizona, can share credit for getting the Chandler Bike Park built. This is a movement. No city has made isolated decisions in this thing. Chandler talked to Scottsdale who talked to Glendale who talked to Mesa who talked to Flagstaff who talked to Tempe, etc…. We put pressure on many cities at the same time starting in 2002, and almost all of those cities have responded by providing bmx riders with places to ride. If you attended council meetings in your area, wrote letters, went to protests, talked to newspapers and all of that, you share in the credit for getting the Chandler Bikepark built.

There is someone, however, who cannot take credit for these new BMX-friendly parks because soon after he started helping with the movement, he turned and started working against it. In 2002, KC Badger wrote a couple letters to city councilmen, and even went to meetings and protests here or there. Sometime in the next couple years, though, he decided it wasn’t “cool” to keep going to meetings and keep pushing until we got places to ride. He said on my message board that the cities would never provide places for bmx riders, and that I was doing more harm than good by pushing on the cities until we got equal treatment along with the skaters and inline skaters. He criticized this movement to anyone who would listen to him in Arizona and outside of Arizona. KC’s lies and loaded words did keep a lot of kids from coming out to meetings and protests when we really needed them (like the McDowell Mountain Ranch Skatepark community input meeting). He was able to slow down our momentum. Obviously, it didn’t hurt us too bad, with Mesa, Chandler, and Fountain Hills opening their parks recently, and with Glendale and Tempe opening their parks in the near future. Now that, through much hard work, we’ve secured places that he can ride freely, he acts as if he was entitled to them, as if we owed him that. He’s got the typical spoiled, elitist, rich kid attitude (Read: Paris Hilton on a bike.) I don’t believe he’ll ever admit he was wrong in saying what he said, no matter how many bike-friendly concrete parks are built in Arizona. He’ll just get to reap the benefits of all our hard work.

Another person who hurt us to a degree was Ryan Sher (Screech). Along with KC, he had been talking a bunch of bullshit about the 3BC and how we were allegedly doing everything wrong to anybody in or out of Arizona who would listen. He told me at the Fort contest in November of 2005 that I was making things worse rather than better by the way I was running the 3BC, and we’d never get places to ride. When I told him that we’d have multiple parks here open to bikes within a year and a half, he laughed in my face. Be sure to remember that when you’re thinking about spending any of your money on his Subrosa shit. And yes I do mean shit.

But all this is fine. Tons of riders that never lifted a finger or weren’t even riding bmx when all this was going on will benefit, and you know what? They’re welcome to it. All I’d like to see is that they appreciate what we’ve sacrificed to get these places, because in the end, we did get the goddamn job done! I don’t need a plaque from Chandler commemorating my work on getting the Chandler Bike Park. My reward is having a well-designed place to ride with other riders that doesn’t charge and doesn’t have session times and isn’t sequestered off to certain elite pros only.

Riders at new Chandler bike park go with ‘flow’

Jill Redhage, Tribune

How to make dry concrete flow. That was one of the primary design goals of Chandler’s new BMX bike park at Espee Park.

By all accounts on Saturday during the Grind Park’s grand opening, “flow” was achieved. Hundreds of BMX bikers, ages 5 to 45, graced its concrete hips, quarter pipes and boxes.

Professionals kicked off the event at 8:30 a.m. with demonstrations, and city leaders and park planners cut the ribbon at 10 a.m. at the facility at Knox Road and Hamilton Street.

By 1 p.m., the 21,500 feet of undulating, brushed concrete swarmed with small, expensive bikes.

Riders raved about the design.

“It’s really smooth and fun,” said Matt Nothnagle, a sixthgrader at Hartford Elementary School in Chandler. “Smoother than most bike parks.”

“You’ve ridden two bike parks!” chided a voice nearby — Matt’s 14-year-old brother, Jimmy.

Dakota Moore and Aidan Schermerhorn, both 12, of Chandler, said they were happy the park was reserved just for bikers.

But most wished the park also could be used by skaters and skateboarders.

“After getting kicked out of skate parks, we know how it feels,” said Jason Ryan, a filmmaker and president of the Bike, Blade and Board Coalition.

But the 35-year-old Tempe resident praised city planners for implementing the majority of the suggestions he and other bikers gave them.

Ryan recommended planners include a lot of transition areas such as curves, which help bikers carry their speed without interrupting their lines of travel. The design also focused on depth and included large, rectangular boxes, which Ryan said are rare in skate and bike parks.

Riders on Saturday complained of the crowds but said they expected them to thin out over time.

Young riders wheeled their way from as far away as downtown Scottsdale to get the pros’ autographs and try out the slopes.

The park also features a pagoda with picnic tables, where bikers escaped from the sun and rehydrated.

Summer hours are 6:30 a.m. to 10:15 p.m. In the winter, the park will open at 9 a.m.

ON A ROLL: Riders cruise over a double roller during the opening of the bike park Saturday in Chandler’s Espee Park.

Thomas Boggan, Tribune

Mickey Ohland asked me to get the word out that the Chandler Bike Park closes at 10:15pm. I know the press release for the grand opening said it closes at 10:30pm, and so does the city website, but the signs at the park say 10:15pm closing. I asked Mickey to change the city's site so there's no confusion, and I'm sure he will. Mickey also requested that everyone be respectful of the park rangers when they come to close the park. I couldn't agree more. If you can't find time in your day to get a decent session in the park, then you need to change your work or school or whatever schedule. That's just the kind of park this is. It's worth changing your life around for it.

Moving on to Mexico news, our friend Anthony Galicia is holding another one of his badass contests in Obregon, Mexico. I went to one of his comps in 2004 and it was one of the best times I’ve ever had. Here’s a flyer:

Anthony is doing a bmx camp for kids at his facility as well this year, so I’d like to congratulate him for getting that going. Also, I noticed that John from Redendo is doing a little sponsorship deal to take some riders down to the comp. If you like to go off at comps, I suggest you go to www.redendo.com and hit him up. You'll have a blast.

If you liked the psychobilly songs in The Carnie and Trailer Trash Show and The Impetus of Cletus, you know who Grave Danger is. They were kind enough to mention The Impetus of Cletus in their latest blog on their myspace, along with major movies their songs are being used in. Check out http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=10846645&blogID=235268370&MyToken=0be8d193-90ff-4861-9203-d3f7a640e7d7 to see the blog. I shot them performing a few songs in the studio on HD a while ago, and I'm looking forward to editing it soon. We did a 3 camera shoot, so it will be challenging but fun.

Lastly but not leastly, I want to let everyone know we're having a huge summer inaugural lake jump event on Saturday, June 23rd and Sunday, June 24th. at Bartlett Lake. We'll be bringing a bunch of different ramps, we'll be camping out overnight, we'll have a lake jump contest for prizes, and we'll be holding a wet T-shirt contest for cash as well. This will be the baddest lake jump sesh ever, so heads are gonna want to come down from Flagstaff, up from T-town, and from all around because you'll shit yourself if you miss this. We're seeking sponsors to throw down prizes and cash for the contests, so if you or someone you know wants to promote their stuff, you e-mail me through the site, aiight? Can't go wrong with titties, beer and bmx at the lake! Titties!!!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I entered Johnny's Good Year in Scottsdale Community College's Annual Film Festival, and it won first place in the documentary category. I was probably the most stoked that they screened my film in front of about 300 people, and I could tell by the response that people were really digging it. I got a good response at the end, too, when the titles came on about bikes getting kicked out of Goodyear but we're going to overcome anyways. Congrats again, Brother Johnny.

Local Exposure Tour. A changing of the guard. Certainly the next generation of Arizona riders was in control of this one. I mean, I know it was an am competition and all, but all of those riders in the finals would have given any of the Arizona pros a run for their money.

I don’t have any instant gratification photos for ya from either one of the days, but you’ll be getting an assfull of photos and video from the LET stops soon enough from other mags and sites. I did, however, shoot 16mm film at the Mesa stop. I’ll be incorporating it into my full “bikes in Arizona skateparks” documentary, to mix some film up with the video footage. I was shooting a music video on Sunday, so’s I couldn’t make it out to the Fort stop. Frankly, I didn’t mind the schedule conflict too, too much. I had already obtained a full press pass from LET, but I still suspected that Steve would be trying to charge me to shoot out there anyway. From what I hear, Steve was indeed trying to charge anyone with a still or video camera $100 to shoot inside the course, just like he was in November at the last Fort comp. Uber-lame.

Speaking of uber-lameness, an incident occurred at Reed Wheels Court just as the LET comp was winding down. A park maintenance man drove his truck into the park to do some cleanup or something, and someone jumped their bike from the quarter onto his truck. Next thing I knew, a cop with an economy-sized jug of mace in hand was kicking me out of the park. When he told me why he was booting us out, I figured some pre-pubescent white trash kid from the neighborhood had decided to get a little rowdy with the maintenance guy to impress his gay little friends. After asking around a bit, it turns out the instigator was indeed white trash, but was not a little kid. Lo and behold, it was Eric Van Tine, who, in theory (and in theory alone), is a grown-ass man. Deja goddamn vu, eh?

So here’s what I’m guessing (and after running this site a good few years, I’ve become quite the snappy guesser): Eric was feeling more than a little one-upped by this new crop of shredders, and since he couldn’t get any of the visiting pros’ attention the old fashioned way, he thought he’d do it by f-ing with “the man.” So he jumps on this maintenance guy’s truck, who’s only there trying to do his job. The guy’s not messing with riders, or anything like that. It’s just like when Stuart from MAD TV says “Look what I can do!” and does his retarded dance. Eric gets a little applause out of his audience, but the maintenance guy feels threatened, like a bunch of riders are starting some shit. So the maintenance guy calls in the cops. If Eric hadn’t skinned out, maybe they would have taken him away and not closed the park. But Eric did oh so conveniently skip out, so everybody else was punished for his foolishness.

Now some may say, “Hey, no big deal. We were done riding anyways.” I beg to differ. It is a big deal. It’s a big deal because a perfect event had taken place, the first BMX event at Reed Wheels Court since it opened to bikes. Catfish (LET’s announcer) even said it was the biggest turnout they’d had for one of their contests in the 3 years they’d been doing this. And here comes this dooshbag Eric Van Tine, who ends it on a very sour note. Think of what parks and rec is thinking. “Okay…so we opened this park to bikes, and at the very first bike event our police force had to clear the park. Sooooo…why did we open this park to bikes again?” Now I don’t know if they’re thinking that. I sure hope they aren’t. That’s one of the reasons I’m writing this. It was one enormous jerkoff that caused this, and the other 300 bike riders were perfectly grateful and well-behaved.

Hey, I like a little rabble rousing just as much as the next rider. But people, there’s a time and a place! Yelling at some bums at the transfer station downtown isn’t going to invoke any problems between us and a city that just decided to cut bike riders a break! Eric went to 2 and a half meetings in Mesa when we were trying to get them to provide us a place to ride. When it looked like they weren’t going to hand a park over to us instantly, guess who bailed out? Now that Mesa has finally accepted reality and given us Reed Wheels Court, he’s got to pull a boneheaded move like this. If he had half a brain, he’d be insulted by this. Never fear—he won’t be.

And so, on behalf of everyone who worked with the city of Mesa to get bikes allowed in Reed, I am pleased to pronounce Eric Van Tine the Biggest Dipshit in the State! Eric has also been the proud recipient of the Biggest Asshole in the State Award, and has received multiple certificates and plaques for smaller honors of selfishness and inconsideration of the hard work of others as well. Incredible job Eric! You’ve earned it!

In other news, in the "Films" section I just posted a new segment I filmed with Johnny Stevens at Goodyear a few weeks ago. Johnny also happened to be the winner of the Local Exposure Tour Fort McDowell stop last Sunday, so big congrats to Johnny for handling that bizz-nass. Quick note: If you only have dial-up, you're going to be pissed.

Here's a couple articles about the Chandler Bike Park, which opens at 8:30 AM this Saturday, May 5th.

On the Tucson tip, bikes are now allowed in Marana's Continental Ranch Skatepark! Big ups to John Dale of Redendo.com for convincing the parks and rec director to allow bikes. They have separate sessions for different groups throughout the day, but the word is it's not enforced too much, so that's cool. I'll have official hours and directions on here shortly.

Finally, I just wanted to remind all the Tucson riders that I'll be having the Tucson premiere for The Impetus of Cletus at BICAS in downtown Tucson on Saturday, May 5th starting when the sun goes down. I'll also be premiering Porn Shop Heckler, a 16mm short comedy starring Josh Small. You guys will be the first to see Josh Small get his acting on. I'll be releasing Porn Shop Heckler on the site a few days after that. Right on, brother.

Just a quick update here. The date for the Tucson premiere of The Impetus of Cletus has been changed. Sorry for any inconvenience this causes the Tucson guys, but it's just as well since I know a lot of yous are coming up for the Local Exposure Tour stop at Reed this Saturday. The new date for the premiere is Saturday, May 5th at BICAS in downtown Tucson. Yeah, that's right, BICAS! You don't know, you betta axe somebody!

Hey, while I'm here, I may as well toss up the rest of the Chandler Bike Park (AKA Chandler BMX Park) pics that our Chandler 3BC Captain Pat Blackburn took on his way to the track yesterday.

SDG did a pretty damn good job at using the riders' input on the park. I don't think anybody's gonna claim responsibility for this heah boomerang ledge, though.

You've probably heard by now that the Goodyear city council banned bike riders from the Goodyear Skatepark. Here's a link to the Arizona Republic's article:

The council also voted to mandate helmet wear and have monitors at the park, which is at Litchfield and Thomas roads. Temporary signs have been posted at the park and staff is already enforcing the new rules.

Two monitors will be on site when the park is open. City staff originally recommended three monitors at an annual cost of $225,000, but with the removal of BMX riders, only two are needed, Public Works Superintendent Brian Barnes said.

The city doesn't intend to leave the bikers out in the cold, however. The council also directed city staff to prioritize the construction of a similar facility for BMX riders. Money from the city's Capital Improvement Program for next year's budget has already been set aside for another park.

"We'd like that done soon," Mayor Jim Cavanaugh said. "We owe that to the BMXers."

A few sites are already under consideration, including the new community park being built in Estrella Mountain Ranch; at the northeast corner of Goodyear Community Park; and near the Goodyear Dog Park, south of Interstate 10 on Estrella Parkway.

The promise of having a park of their own didn't seem to take the sting out of BMX riders being banned from the skate park.

"Building a separate BMX park is ridiculous," said Carlos Vivaldo, a Litchfield Park resident and BMX rider. "If I had a bike park, I would still want to go to the [Goodyear Community Park]. It's two blocks away from my house. I wouldn't want to drive all the way to Estrella Parkway to ride my bike when I could go two blocks away."

Liability factor
City staff did not recommend separating the users, but was concerned about drug use and increased maintenance costs.

However, a new development regarding the city's liability was brought to light on March 23 when Dean Coughenour, the city's risk manager, attended a meeting of the Arizona Municipal Risk Retention Pool.

"Our insurance carrier is concerned that because our park was specifically designed for skateboards and not BMX that our recreational immunity, should there be claim, could be in jeopardy," Barnes said. "The insurance carrier stated that the city could be deemed to be grossly negligent and as such, punitive damages could rise to over $10 million."

The insurance pool board members expressed concern, and it was suggested the pool might wish to consider limiting coverage or eliminating coverage for skate parks that allow BMX riders that were not designed for BMX, Barnes said.

"It's important to note that we continue to be insured today," he added. "As of today, we have not had any claims reported to risk management relating to the skate park."

City officials will still implement plans to make the park safer, including increasing the height of the fencing surrounding the area by three feet at a cost of $40,000. Surveillance cameras, costing $15,000, will also be added to monitor user behavior. Both are to be implemented by May 15.

Rising costs
Other issues under consideration include changing the park's hours and possibly adding a fee for use.

The general maintenance cost of the area, which includes repairing the coping on the skate park, already has exceeded its budget.

The council had approved a total annual maintenance cost of $31,000. Currently, the general maintenance is projected to cost $51,000 and coping repairs $51,500. Money from the city's general fund pays for the repairs.

City workers have spent seven to 10 hours a day cleaning the park, have witnessed numerous rules violations, have been the target of abusive language when they try to enforce the rules, have found evidence of drug use and other inappropriate behavior and have received phone calls, e-mails and letters from parents of skateboarders indicating they would not use the facility because of safety concerns, Barnes said.

Since the park's opening, there have been 129 police calls, which represent 203 officer responses, including four incidents when the entire on-duty police force responded. Seven arrests have been made for a variety of violations and 14 fire calls were made, mostly for serious injuries including head and facial trauma. One call was for a fire in the restroom, Barnes said.

City officials have also begun discussions with the legal department, the city prosecutor's office and the police department on implementing a zone around the facility similar to school zones, where fines for violations would be doubled or tripled.

Damn! Do I look pissed off in that pic or what? It must have been snapped while Brian Barnes was standing at the microphone, lying to the council. Yeah, I said it! He lied. But that shouldn't have surprised me, because he's been lying to the council, Goodyear citizens, and the press for some time now. Anything to get your way, right Brian? This surely does not indemnify the council in this whole thing. Pat Blackburn and I busted our asses to get the facts in the hands of each individual council member last month by researching, typing, and making multiple copies of "The Ryan Report: Bike Friendly Skatepark Resource Packet". It is overtly clear that zero council members looked at it and made calls to the cities we did research on. That actually shouldn't have surprised me either, because since the park's grand opening, the city council has not been listening to the park's users. They've bought into Barnes' bullshit--hook, line and sinker, and ignored what the bike riders and skaters had to say. I'm glad the press finally did look at the packets, though.

If you wanna do a little time-traveling, here's a West Valley View article that appeared just a few days before the city council meeting. I didn't have time to get it up here before the meeting.

Goodyear Superintendent of Public Works Brian Barnes said the urgent concern for officials is to ensure a safe environment for park visitors.

"Our issues go back to safe management," he said. "The bottom line is resident satisfaction with the facility. If it's not a safe place for parents to bring their kids, then that's a real issue with me."

The park, at Litchfield and Thomas roads, has never been supervised since it opened in January. Complaints concerning the shared use of the facility by skateboarders and BMX riders have arisen, but those concerns are minimal, Barnes said.

Now officials are developing a phased-in approach to prevent litter, graffiti, vandalism, drug use and coping damage from happening while user safety is maintained. The plan will be presented to the Goodyear City Council March 26 for recommendations and comments. Barnes will not ask the City Council to separate the users at this point in time.

"There's been a lot of drug use and inappropriate behavior there," he said. "We find the roaches, the razor blades that are used to divide coke lines; we find bags of pot. We've seen the aftereffects of meth, as it was described to me by one of our police officers."

The general maintenance cost of the area, which includes repairing the coping on the skate park, has exceeded its budget.

Barnes said the total annual maintenance cost was estimated and approved by the Council to be $31,000. Currently, the general maintenance is projected to cost $51,000 and coping repairs of $51,500. Money from the city's general fund pays for the repairs.

"All of those issues have spiraled out of control and that's having a financial impact on us," he said.

The second phase of Goodyear Community Park, which includes tennis and basketball courts, sand volleyball, ramadas and a splash pad in addition to the skate park, cost about $5.38 million.

Management plan
The first part of the plan will increase the height of the fencing surrounding the area and add surveillance cameras to monitor user behavior. Changing the hours of operation will also be considered.

"We have the highest number of police calls occurring after 8 p.m.," Barnes said.

Phase 2 would identify and obtain any additional staff deemed necessary to control the issues. This could come in the form of a park ranger who oversees all city parks or a skate guard who has similar duties as a lifeguard to monitor behavior.

Phase 3 would depend on findings from the first two phases. A user fee for local, state and out-of-state users could be implemented. There's also a possibility of eliminating or separating users and building a separate facility for bikes.

Tempe residents Jason Ryan and Pat Blackburn, representing the Bike, Blade and Board Coalition, have spoken at recent City Council meetings on the separation of bikes from the park.

In a document titled, "The Ryan Report: Bike-Friendly Skate Park Resource Packet," Ryan and Blackburn asked the council to "use empirical data, not speculation," in their decisions.

There is a misconception that city officials are seriously considering banning BMX riders from the park.

"The BMX bikers seem to be focused on whether or not they can continue to use the park. My focus is not about whether the bikes are in or out. I have no problem with the bikes being in there. My problem is the other issues," he said. "Only two of those concerns are specific to the bike/skateboard issue - coping damage and user safety."

Godammit, Brian! Again with the lying!!! It's going to be awhile before we get into that park again or get a BMX-only park in Goodyear. We've got the new Glendale X-Court coming, so all the west-siders are going to have to wait for that to ride a park legally. I'll talk about Goodyear some more later. I'm too disgusted to continue right now.

In east valley news, Chandler is opening their BMX Grindpark on Cinco De Drinko. Here's the good word from their website:

In 2005, after many public requests, the Chandler City Council approved $750,000 to design and build a 25,000-square-foot Bike Grind facility. This will be the first BMX/Freestyle bike-only public facility in the State, and it will be located at Chandler's Espee Park at 450 E. Knox Rd.

BMX/freestyle biking is a relatively new sport that continues to gain popularity. This 25,000 square foot facility will give the youth in Chandler an alternative place to business districts and school grounds to release their energy, learn their sport, grow with their accomplishments and develop a camaraderie with fellow BMX/freestyle bikers. This project was developed with considerations for safety, to be economically feasible, and to not adversely impact any nearby residents. This facility will incorporate features that allow the users of different levels of ability to be challenged.

The Chandler Bike Grind Park was designed by Site Design Group, Inc., which designed and built the Chandler Skatepark at the Snedigar Sportplex in 2000.

Once again, the Bike, Blade and Board Coalition would like to thank Chandler for listening to bike riders and providing them a place to ride. Those are some great hours of operation, too! We are encouraging Chandler to form a citizen's committee that meets with parks' staff on the operation of the bikepark every two months or so to discuss any issues. Jim McCasland, Prescott's Parks and Rec director has formed a committee like this, and he is convinced that it has really helped to resolve problems by getting buy-in from the users.

When we showed up to the Goodyear City Council meeting on March 5^th and discovered that parks and rec wouldn’t be talking to council that day, I suspected something was up. It is actually a common political tactic to pull a switch like that. It is done to wear out the people that have a problem with the city government that they want resolved. At first I thought that’s what happened, but Pat Blackburn and I spoke a little with the city manager before the meeting, and he thanked us for the informative packets we had given them at the February 26^th council meeting. It appears that parks and rec wanted to do research with the contacts we had provided, so to give themselves more time to do that, they delayed approaching city council about separate times for different user groups at the skatepark until March 26^th.

So once again, we need as many skaters, bike riders, inline skaters, scooter riders, parents and supporters as possible to come to the Goodyear City Council meeting on Monday, March 26th. We're going to tell the mayor and council that we do not want to be separated. We're going to tell them that although the park is indeed busy, we are getting along fine. We're going to tell them that closing the park early as a shotgun punishment for the users is completely unacceptable. And we're going to tell them that plastic pegs need to be allowed in the skatepark, as they actually cause LESS wear and tear than aluminum skateboard trucks.

The City Council meeting will be held on Monday, March 26th at 5:30 pm at the Justice Facility, located at 986 South Litchfield Road. Actually, the meeting starts at 6 pm, but seating is extremely limited, so get there at 5:30 so you can get a seat. You won't do any good standing out in the hall where the mayor and council can't even tell you exist. The council members will be able to speak on the subject this time, and probably vote.

After the March 5^th meeting, I was outside talking with a bunch of riders. We were discussing how Goodyear Parks and Rec was going to start closing down the park at 8pm instead of 10 pm. One of the riders asked why that was, and I told him one of the reasons was all the trash left around the park all the time. He suggested that we start cleaning the park up at the end of the night. I thought that was a brilliant idea. Goodyear’s skatepark has never seemed to have any more trash laying around than the other cities’ skateparks do, but this doesn’t mean it’s right to be leaving our cups and shit around. Someone’s got to pick it up, and ultimately it’s the taxpayers paying for it. All we’ve got to do is take some personal responsibility and walk over to dump our cups and food containers in the trash can.

I always pick up after myself and expect others to do the same, but that’s not reality at this point. I decided to lead by example and clean up the park starting at 9:30 pm a couple weeks ago. Will and Zack jumped in and we got all the trash from inside the park and from just outside the fence in about 10 minutes, in addition to sweeping the gravel off the concrete. I was psyched to learn a few days ago from Will that he and other bike riders have been cleaning the park pretty much every night. The Parks and Rec staff have been taking notice and they like what they’re seeing.

I don’t think just bike riders should be picking up their shit….I think everyone should be doing it. I guess it’s up to bike riders to show skaters how to take care of a park. All the users should pitch in to keep the park clean. All the users should go to city council if they want to make a rule we don’t agree with. All the users need to take responsibility for the park so we don’t end up being babysat by cops and having to deal with oppressive rules all the time. Big props to Will and all the riders who’ve been cleaning at the end of the night! Keep it up! Eventually our good example will catch on and all users will know not to leave shit lying around. Good trails have garbage cans that are always used, and this is no different.

The Local Exposure Tour is coming to AZ, and it should be pretty sick. Check this press release out:

Also on tour is our resident tattoo artist Brian Lee and musician Jayk
Announcing at each stop is Catfish and Micah Kranz
We have recruited the dynamic duo of Chad Shackelford and Will Stroud to shoot all the action for the DVD and added Brian Purdy of Strict Nine Films to bring his flavor to the DVD which will be shot on all HD equipment!

Tour Stops:
4/20 Albuquerque, NM - Los Altos Skate Park (free to ride)
4/21 Mesa, AZ - Reed Park Wheels Court (free to ride)
4/22 Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation - The Fort Bike Park ($10 entry to park)
4/23 - 4/26 Days off for pros
4/27 Escondido, CA - Escondido Sports Center ($free to ride)
4/28 Perris, CA - The Compound ($15 entry to park)
4/29 San Diego, CA Mission Valley Skate Park ($15 entry to park)

Make sure and visit as many of the stops as possible even if you come out just to watch. You won’t be able to miss us as we are rolling three RV’s deep this year! Allan’s DC bus, Fox bus and Boost Mobile’s bus! Some of the pros will be making the road trip on two wheels by riding their Harleys to and from the stops!

For those amateur riders that impress our pros the most there is more on the line than ever before! Each year an overall champion is chosen to return on next years tour. The rider this year will also receive a full sponsorship package!
Specialized Bicycles one year flow sponsorship and travel expenses to get to the first two ASPT stops where you can qualify against the best pros in the world!
Fox clothing flow sponsorship for one year
Bell helmets flow sponsorship for one year
Boost Mobile free pre paid service and phone for one year
Video part in the next Strict Nine Films Production

Never before has this much been offered for an amateur tour!!! There are also individual prize packages that will be rewarded at each stop. Keep an eye on www.localexposuretour.com as we are getting ready to update in the next week. You can check out what last year looked like and see what’s coming your way.

That's going to be a busy ass time for me, as I'll be holding the Tucson premiere for The Impetus of Cletus on the night of April 21st at BICAS in downtown Tucson. I'll get more specifics as the date gets closer, but Will Bissell is getting ramps and bands out to BICAS for the premiere as well, and good times are sure to be had by all.

The 3BC is going back to Goodyear city council yet again. We went on February 26th, but Brian Barnes switched his date to approach council to March 5th for some reason. The meeting went well on the 26th, and in addition to giving all the councilmembers and the newspapers packets of research on skateparks compiled by the 3BC, Pat Blackburn and myself, Jason Ryan, spoke in the non-agendized comments part of the meeting.

Brian Barnes will be most naively recommending to the city council that they segregate the park into separate sessions for bike riders and skateboarders at the meeting. The newspaper also said he'd try to get the council to charge a fee for park usage, but a source in the Goodyear Parks and Rec Department told me that's not true. This source also happened to tell me that Goodyear Parks and Rec was going to get bikes banned from the park. Does this mean Brian Barnes is on a mission to keep Goodyear residents that ride bikes out of "his" skatepark? It sure looks that way to me.

Another thing we'll have to bring up to council is that Goodyear Parks and Rec workers have been purposefully shutting off the lights about 15 minutes EARLIER than the sign says the park closes, to get users to leave by the time the worker makes it over to the park to shut the gates. THIS IS A PURE SIGN OF LAZINESS AND IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS! IF GOODYEAR PARKS AND REC DOESN'T PULL THEIR HEAD OUT AND STOP THIS FOOLISHNESS, THEY ARE OPENING THEMSELVES UP TO A HUMONGOUS LAWSUIT WHEN SOMEONE IS BADLY INJURED BECAUSE THE LIGHTS WERE TURNED OFF ON THEM BEFORE THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE TURNED OFF!!!

Brian Barnes also came up with yet another rule, which according to my source in the department, is designed to punish the kids for the litter and graffitti in the skatepark. Beginning on March 11th, the skatepark will start closing at 8 PM EVERY NIGHT! This would mean that Goodyear' Skatepark would be the earliest-closing park in the Valley! Cheese and Rice! Even the retards in charge over at Gilbert wait until 9pm to close Freestone Skatepark!

So once again, we need as many skaters, bike riders, inline skaters, scooter riders, parents and supporters as possible to come to the Goodyear City Council meeting on Monday, March 5th. We're going to tell the mayor and council that we do not want to be separated. We're going to tell them that although the park is indeed busy, we are getting along fine. We're going to tell them that closing the park early as a shotgun punishment for the users is completely unacceptable, and so is turning off the lights before the posted closing time. And we're going to tell them that plastic pegs need to be allowed in the skatepark, as they actually cause LESS wear and tear than aluminum skateboard trucks.

The City Council meeting will be held on Monday, March 5th at 5:30 pm at the Justice Facility, located at 986 South Litchfield Road. Actually, the meeting starts at 6 pm, but seating is extremely limited, so get there at 5:30 so you can get a seat. You won't do any good standing out in the hall where the mayor and council can't even tell you exist.

Superintendent of Public Works Brian Barnes said he has visited the park several times to speak with users about the importance of abiding by park rules.

The skate park, at Litchfield and Thomas Roads in Goodyear, has been closed for repairs twice since it opened in January. Damage, including litter, graffiti and wearing down of steel and limestone coping around the edges of the park features has caused officials to ban the use of pegs on BMX bikes.

"Several of the users suggested that rather than ask for bikes to buy the plastic or acrylic pegs to prohibit them so they don't have to worry about protecting the pedals," Barnes said. BMX riders use pegs for certain tricks and stunts they perform but they aren't vital to enjoying the park.

"Clearly 90 to 95 percent of the people using the park were not adhering to the rules," he said. The former stipulation asked users to either cover their pegs and handlebars with duct tape or buy plastic or acrylic pegs to prevent damage when riders grind on the concrete.

Barnes will go before the Goodyear City Council March 5 with a list of recommendations for the future of the park. Council members will consider separating skateboarders from BMX riders, asking for a user fee and installing a video surveillance system.

More negativity from the media....AGAIN. When is the paper going to report all the good that is happening at the skatepark? Kids are learning to get along with other kids that are different than themselves. The park is keeping kids from riding their bikes and skateboarding in front of Target and Carl's Jr. and a myriad of Goodyear's privately owned retail establishments. The park is a world-class skatepark and it's busy because it's good! If it was a shit-ass park, it wouldn't be used, and it would be a humongous waste of 1.5 million dollars of taxpayer money!

Time to go back to council, people. Brian Barnes, Goodyear's Director of Parks, Recreation and Sanitation will be going to Goodyear City Council on Monday, February 26th at 6 pm. He will be recommending that the council split use of the Goodyear Skatepark into separate sessions. "That's not so bad", you may say, but check this: For some reason, Brian is under the impression that bmx riders make up only about one-third of the park's total users. That means bike riders could get as few as two days a week to ride the park! I don't need to tell you that is completely unacceptable. What's more, a segregation like this is totally unenforceable. Bike riders will ride the skate sessions, and skaters will skate the bike sessions. At this point, Brian is flabbergasted that the Goodyear police have had to respond to calls from the skatepark 49 times in it's first month of operation. That is nothing compared to the calls they will most assuredly be getting from skaters, parents of skaters, bike riders, and parents of bike riders when "the others" are riding/skating in "their sessions". With segregated sessions, everybody loses, because everybody loses time to ride and skate.

The 3BC will be going to Goodyear City Council on that Monday to tell the council that their first decision was an excellent one. Although there was a little tension between bmx riders and skaters on the skatepark's grand opening day, there is no tension now. Every time I go to the park (and I go plenty), I see skaters and bike riders talking and getting along well. Many new friendships have been made, and most everybody is communicating and watching out for each other's lines. The only reason Brian could give me for segregating the park was that he had received calls and e-mails from alleged Goodyear citizens who said they refused to go to the park because bikes were allowed in. What Brian Barnes is doing is buying into rhetoric instead of relying on facts. He is letting the prejudices of a few people (possibly a very few people who are trying to seem like many) influence his decision. This reasoning is not even close to being sound enough to warrant driving a wedge between the skaters and bike riders. No one should have to sit on the sidelines because a few alleged Goodyear residents are so closed-minded that they can't try to get along with people that are different than them. Here's something to chew on: Public pools in the southern U.S. didn't allow black people to swim there until the late 1960's. Now that's a fact.

We need as many skaters, bike riders, inline skaters, scooter riders, parents and supporters as possible to come to the Goodyear City Council meeting on February 26th. We're going to tell the council that we do not want to be separated. We're going to tell them that although the park is indeed busy, we are getting along fine. We want to tell them that the crowded park is a sign of success on Goodyear's part, not of failure. There are masses of public tennis courts and softball fields sitting empty in the Valley every day. That is a failure, and a waste of taxpayer money. When a park is busy, it is being used by the people who paid for it: The taxpayers. What Goodyear parks and rec should be thinking about is how fast they can build the next skatepark. And the next skatepark. And the next one after that. The mission of parks and rec is to enable and help people to recreate, NOT to hinder them from it! I swear to God, if parks and rec staffers in Arizona were actually focused on their mission, we'd never have to go to a city council meeting, or back candidates, or hold protests, or any of this stuff. All skateparks would allow co-mingled use of skateparks at all times, and everyone would be happy.

The City Council meeting will be held on Monday, February 26th at 6 pm at the Justice Facility, located at 986 South Litchfield Road. The nice thing is we can go to the meeting, and afterwards go a little ways up the road and ride the park!

While we're on the topic, why don't I show you this letter that a very prejudiced individual named Adam McKinney wrote to the Editor of the West Valley View:

Skate park is no place for bikes
Editor:
West Valley skateboarders waited at least 2½ years for this skate park, if that's what you want to call the bike-infested Goodyear concrete facility on Litchfield and Thomas roads. Bikes aren't allowed at other skate parks around the Valley, and that should be the same for Goodyear.

I'm not saying I have anything against the bike riders, I'm just saying that there are way too many at the park at all times of the day. This is because the Goodyear Skatepark is the only one in the Phoenix area that allows bikers. The bikers can finally go to a skate park and not get kicked out, and it sure seems that all the bikers in Phoenix are flocking to Goodyear.

Bikes and skateboarders don't mix well. I have already seen numerous arguments between skateboarders and bikers at Goodyear, both threatening the other, this all within the first three weeks that the park has been open.

Then, you have the possibility of accidents. Actually, it's not a possibility, it has happened every time I've been to the skate park. Luckily, none of the accidents have been serious, but sooner or later, someone's going to get badly injured, and it's not going to be the person riding the bike. What do you think this is going to make the parents of the hurt kid do? They're going to complain to the city of Goodyear, and keep complaining because the accident rate is bound to get steeper, as well as skateboarder/biker tensions.

I have heard rumors that the city is doing a three-month trial period to see if they will continue to allow bikers to use the facility. I am unsure of the validity of these rumors, but I hope that in two months all I see are skateboarders using the skate park.
Adam McKinney
Litchfield Park

Oh, what fun it is to poke holes in the arguments of fools! So bikes and skateboarders don't mix well, eh Adam? Why don't you tell that to Jim McCasland, Parks and Rec Director for Prescott? Prescott's skatepark has been open with co-mingled use for almost a year and a half, and Jim just told me that at this point, NOT ONE PERSON, no resident, no councilmember, and no user, regrets mixing bike riders and skaters in the park. Many people from his community, and from other communities actually commend him now for his controversial (at the time) decision. Jim also related to me that Mark Richwine, Director of Tempe Parks and Rec, told him recently that he wished he had built the Tempe park to allow bikes just like Prescott did.

Moving on to the collision statement..... So if a 220 lb. skateboarder is going 15 mph after dropping into a bowl, and he runs into a 50 lb. 5 year old on a 16 inch bike at the bottom of the bowl going 2 mph, then according to Adam's "logic", the toddler won't get hurt. Wow. Maybe you should have someone go over your calculations, there Adam. Because the laws of physics that have been well known by humankind for over 300 years would strongly disagree with you. I guess not everyone here is living in the "age of reason".

If you can't bring yourself to get along with bike riders, Adam, just go skate one of the 11 concrete skateparks in the Valley that don't allow bikes. You aren't a resident of Goodyear anyways, and Brian Barnes has told me numerous times that all he cares about is providing for the recreational needs of Goodyear citizens.

All I want to know is: What the hell are tire pegs? Actually, I want to know one more thing: Can somebody please tell Derek Bejay he's half a moron? Bar ends don't mess up the concrete (even if they're aluminum) any more than the ends of skateboard truck axles mess up the concrete. Go take a look at the bottom of the pyramid rail at the Wedge skatepark or the bottom of the ledge all the skaters ollie off of at Paradise Valley Skatepark and tell me I'm wrong. And Derek's cats and dogs statement.......Jeez. Proves that some bike riders are prejudiced just like some skaters are prejudiced, and they're all wrong. I'll tell you who's not prejudiced, though. Jemil Castillo. That kid's got the right attitude.

Surprise City Staff and the skate park design architects (Site Design) are asking for resident input regarding the city’s first skate park.

Residents are being encouraged to provide their thoughts on design concepts at a meeting scheduled for February 20, 6 p.m., at the Surprise Regional Library, 16089 N. Bullard. The meeting will be hosted by city staff and the Surprise Recreation Advisory Board.

For more information on the skate park project or the Community & Recreation Services Advisory Board meeting, call 623.266.4500.

We need as many skaters, bike riders, inline skaters, scooter riders, parents and supporters as possible to come to this meeting. The 3BC will have representatives attending, and we're going to tell them they need to build an 80,000 square foot park that allows all users at all times. Surprise may be small now, but the need for a big park is there, and all parks and rec needs to do is look at how crowded Goodyear Skatepark is.

Fountain Hills did a soft opening for their new skatepark a couple of weeks ago, but they will be holding a grand opening ceremony on Wednesday, February 21st at 4:30 pm. For some strange reason, the skatepark signs say no bikes are allowed, but it's not enforced. I talked to Mark Mayer, the Director of Fountain Hills Parks and Rec, and he said the signs will be changed by the grand opening, and the park will officially allow co-mingled use of the park by bikes and skateboards at all times. The skatepark is not yet listed on the Fountain Hills city website, but you can get directions by calling Parks and Rec at (480) 816-5151.

These were the questions asked by Buckeye town officials at a public meeting Feb. 6 regarding what to do with a 65-acre parcel of land set aside for a park.

The land, at Rainbow and Lower Buckeye roads, was given to the town by the developers of the neighboring Sundance community, and plans for a community park are in the works.

The town presented a master plan for the park, but the plan is in no way set in stone, Community Services Director Jeanine Guy said.

"We had to have some type of master plan for the facility, but this is just conceptual. There is nothing on this plan that we can't change," Guy said, adding that the meeting would be the first of several regarding the planning of the facility.

The initial master plan calls for a variety of amenities to be built in the large community park, including an aquatic center; multigenerational facility; courtyard, baseball, softball, volleyball and basketball courts; soccer fields; playground and splash playground; trail system; and areas for skate, bike and dog parks.

The park will also have security lighting, the parking lots will be closed at night and eventually the park will be patrolled by park rangers, Parks Manager David Showen said.

Funding for the park will come from various sources, Library Manager Cheryl Sedig said.

"We have some money in the pipeline already. We will also be pursuing grants," Sedig said.

"We wouldn't need all of the facilities if the new houses were not coming into the area," she said.

The park is planned to be a large community park, not a regional park, but Buckeye's parks and open space master plan calls for other regional parks in the area, Guy said.

"This [park and open space plan] is so awesome. It is one of the finest in the nation. We will be defined by our open space. I truly feel it will be nationally recognized," Guy said.

Included in that plan is White Tank Mountain Regional Park, which is part of the county park system; a trail system and camping facilities in the state land below that park; the Buckeye Hills recreation area; and the proposed Buckeye town lake, among other park and open space amenities in the region.

Finally, here's some news that doesn't involve skate/bikeparks. On Sunday, February 25th, Kore Bikes will be holding a Vintage BMX bike show from 1pm to 4pm. AZ Mid School is teaming up with Kore to hold this shizzle, and it's open to all makes and models, including stuff from the 70's to now. Right now, I'm betting you'll see the likes of Chuck Dogg, Randy Russell, and Lance Palko at this shindig, because those dudes loves them some BMX bike collecting. Kore Bikes is located on Scottsdale Rd. and Curry in Tempe, approx. 1 mile north of the 202 freeway.

Ah…..Goodyear. Goodyear opened the best skatepark in Arizona on January 13^th, and about 400-500 people showed up to help celebrate. Over the course of the day, I observed just as many bike riders as there were skaters. Just goes to show that Goodyear City Council made the absolute correct choice in allowing bikes.

Being sensitive to all the issues that could arise, the 3BC handed out this flyer to all the users on opening day:

Although before the opening I heard a good few disgruntled rumblings from skaters about bikes being allowed in the skatepark, everybody was pretty chill. Actually, the only people who we heard pitching a fit were the skate moms, airing their unfounded fears to police officers of rabid bmx riders running roughshod over their 4 year old babies on skateboards. The cops just told them that bikes are allowed, and there’s nothing they could do about it. Damn right. If your kids aren’t ready to play with the big boys, then bring them back when it’s not so busy, or take them to any one of the 11 other concrete skateparks in the Valley.

Pete Ulibarri from Show Low and Ryan Letcher from Flagstaff came down and did the bike side of the demo. It took them a little while to warm up to the park after just hitting it cold with no practice, but by the end they made the big snake run their collective bitch. Ryan was getting gap to tire slides on the pool coping in the deep end, and Pete was almost fully looping the capsule. Later in the day, Pete became the first to fully loop the Goodyear capsule. He also saw fit to go on its backside and pretty much 360 over it.

While Pete was a standout performer, I happened upon one even more salient than him. Rudolpho had come all the way from New Hampshire to shralp this virgin concrete, and that he did. At the end of each of his blistering flatland skate runs, he would look around to see who was watching, but there was no need. Everyone was watching. We couldn’t take our eyes off him. Click on the pic below to see both Pete and Rudolpho in action.

I didn’t ride on opening day. It was way too packed and I was sick with that sore throat/shit in the lungs/cough thing that everyone’s been getting. The park is much less busy now, as expected. Mornings, nights, and weekdays are the best times. I’ve ridden there since and it’s incredible. I haven’t even begun to imagine all the lines in this park. There’s just so much potential.

On opening day, the authorities were allowing bikes to ride with plastic pegs, no pegs, or with tape on the pegs. They were also requiring that bikes have plastic bar ends and pedals or tape on the aluminum bar ends and pedals. The rules have changed since then. I talked to Sergio Lopez, who is the Goodyear Parks worker in charge of the skatepark, and they’ve determined that aluminum bar ends, pedals, and pegs won’t hurt the concrete. It makes sense, seeing as skateboard trucks are also made from aluminum. They aren’t allowing tape on steel or chromoly pegs anymore, though, because tape doesn’t protect anything. I know it’s kind of a pain to have to take your steel or chromoly pegs off or to go out and buy plastic or aluminum pegs (aluminum pegs with chromoly sleeves like T1 or Fly are also okay), but just do it. If Sergio or any of his parks guys approach you, just be cool. They’re cool with the bike riders and they’re just trying to figure out what’s best for the park. Dealing with this little thing is a lot better than getting kicked out, ticketed and arrested. Be grateful for what we’ve got.

Once again, big thanks to Goodyear City Council for allowing bikes in the skatepark. I’m stoked, and every rider I’ve talked to is stoked. Believe it or not, a lot of skaters are stoked too. The ones that aren’t will get used to it, just like they have in Prescott and Show Low. Everybody watch out for each other and we’ll get along just fine.

I don't know what you know about Tucson's bikes in skateparks situation, but it's really bad. Check out www.redendo.com to see just how bad it really is.

Instead of whining about it, John Dale from Redendo has organized a protest of Tucson's anti-bmx bike policy at Tucson City Hall at 4 pm this Friday, January19th. Tucson City Hall is located at 255 W. Alameda in downtown Tucson. The news will be on hand to take quotes from all who will give them. Now obviously the bulk of protestors needs to come and will come from the Tucson area. But even though it's a ways to go for riders from the Valley, if you possibly can, show some love for the T-town boys and support their efforts!

We've had an assload of newspaper articles come out recently over Mesa's Reed park opening to bikes and Goodyear's grand opening. Peep these, peeps:

1/16/2007 Skaters, BMXers converge on park opening

John Machay
staff writer

While the weekend ceremony near Litchfield and McDowell roads was ostensibly staged to herald the opening of Goodyear Community Park's final phase, even the most casual observer likely wouldn't have had trouble figuring out why a majority of the spectators really came to the party: to experience the feel of virgin cement beneath their wheels.

Along with several other amenities included in Phase II, Goodyear's long-awaited, highly anticipated and much-debated skate park on Saturday opened its gates to anxious skaters and BMXers, some of whom began camping out in front of the facility as early as 7 a.m. for the opening ceremony.

By the time Goodyear City Council members began taking the podium at 11 a.m. to deliver their obligatory speeches, more than 100 teens had conglomerated at the site, representing approximately two-thirds of the group that would eventually arrive - and outnumbering the adults by at least three to one.

"I've never felt so old," remarked one man, looking over the sea of fresh faces. "They're really excited about this thing."

Hot topic
With a roster of features that reads like an extreme sports enthusiast's wish list, the skate park in the past year has become a hot topic on blogs and Web sites dedicated to BMX and skateboarding. The zeal grew to such a fever pitch in recent weeks that Goodyear had to hire a 24-hour security guard to keep overeager adventurers from sneaking into the park at night.

"This is a real big deal for BMXers," said 18-year-old Todd Smalls of Buckeye. "There are skate parks all over the place for skateboarders, but if you want to take your bike, you have to go up north. So you end up riding down in drainage canals and things like that."

Leaving drainage canals in its dust, the Goodyear skate park features a peanut-shaped bowl for beginners; a 16-foot-high, 16-foot-wide half-capsule that's being promoted as the only one in the state; a 2-inch-thick steel coping for grinding and other tricks; and two treacherous-looking snake runs. In all, 1,200 cubic yards of concrete was poured during construction.

With such potentially bone-breaking temptation dangling right before them, one can almost understand the audible wave of disappointment that passed over the crowd when it learned that the facility wasn't going to open to the public until sometime after the ceremony's scheduled 2 p.m. completion.

"This is so lame," said BMX buff Brett Kantor, 16. "We got up at 6 o'clock and drove all the way up here from Tucson for this. Now we have to wait three more hours?"

A less vocal member of Kantor's peers expressed his displeasure by holding up his hand and extending his middle finger - and leaving it that way throughout the entire opening ritual.

"I guess a lot of these kids didn't read the press release," said Rob Antoniak, a member of the Goodyear City Council. "There's also a bunch of BMX riders with steel pegs and exposed handlebars who just found out that they're not allowed in there unless the handlebars are covered and they have acrylic pegs. So there are some kids who are a little disappointed."

Not just a skate park
Still, that didn't stop council dignitaries from carrying out their duties as the emissaries for each of the $5.38 million expansion's elements. Leaving the crowd of teens behind, a handful of people followed city officials around the community park to watch them christen its biggest attractions with their less-than-professional sports skills.

Georgia Lord broke in the four new tennis courts with a few overhand serves that barely made it over the net. Pressured by Lord's taunts from the sidelines, Dick Sousa - who last April voted against construction of Phase II based on safety issues related to the skate park - baptized the two sand volleyball courts by smacking a ball squarely into the net. And Antoniak inaugurated the two basketball courts with roller hockey overlays by lobbing several free throws in the general direction of one of the baskets.

While no city bigwigs were brave enough to romp around in the park's new splash pad area, which essentially provides parkgoers with several glorified sprinklers to run through, a few children stepped forward and took aim with the feature's three water cannons.

"He wanted to run through the arches that spray water down on you," Goodyear resident Marcia Gomez said of her 4-year-old son, Edward. "I told him, 'Are you crazy? It's barely 50 degrees out here!'"

Wipeout
Sousa's worst fears concerning the skate park came to fruition early on, when a noon demonstration by skilled skaters resulted in one teen wiping out, leaving him with a bloody mouth.

Reacting to the crowd's concerned gasps, 17-year-old Art Ramirez, also a skater, said they ain't seen nothin' yet.

"That's a really steep drop," the Phoenix resident said. "You're going to get a lot of guys dropping there who aren't ready for it. If you don't know what you're doing, you could get really messed up."

The now-completed park covers 27 acres, giving the city ample space to stage such annual events as its fall and spring concert series; its summer Movie in the Park nights; the Spring Spectacular; Goodyear's Star Spangled Fourth; the Howling Halloween Bash; and the Holly Jolly Festival. Superintendent of Public Works Brian Barnes said attendance for such festivities has grown by 250 percent in the last two years.

So you're at Goodyear Skatepark and you blow out a tube like Lionel from Flagstaff did on Saturday. Where the hell is the nearest good bike shop? I'll tell ya where. It's called AZ Cyclery and it's located on Dysart Road just south of Glendale Road. They're just starting to get more into bmx, but they're quickly building their arsenal. AZ Cyclery is owned by a younger guy that doesn't hate bmx kids like so many of those craggy old bike shop owners do. His name is Ray and he's cool. If you mention this site, he'll even swing you a 10% discount. Go there!

Hey there! Just got back from court in Apache Junction a few hours ago. They reinstated my original sentence after my appeal failed. Of course, the conviction was for riding a bike in the AJ skatepark. So I get to give AJ $400 and change to help them build more nice edifices like the courthouse so's they don't look like a such a bunch of trailer trash hillbillies. Good luck with changing your image, AJ! You're gonna need it!

My AJ punishment won't get me down, though. The way things are opening up around here, I don't have to ride a skatepark illegally anymore to ride some quality concrete terrain. We've got Goodyear Skatepark opening up here this Saturday, January 13th. The park is located on Litchfield Road, a little north of Thomas Rd, on the east side. The grand opening, complete with bmx riding and skating demo, starts at 11 AM and ends at 2 PM. After 2, the park will be open for bike riders, skaters, and inline skaters to ride, just as God intended. A giant thanks goes out to Goodyear for allowing bikes in the new skatepark. Yeeeeeehaaaaaaw!!!

Goodyear Skatepark

And Mesa's Reed Park. You KNOW I'm psyched that's open! Did you know that there are already some fools going around saying the ONLY reason bikes are allowed in there is because Mesa couldn't afford to enforce the "no bikes" policy? It doesn't get much more dooshy than that. Scottsdale rarely enforces their "no bikes" policy at the Wedge Skatepark, but you sure as hell don't see them changing the rule! Same with Coolidge and many other Arizona cities and towns with skateparks. If you've followed this site relatively well, you know the huge amount of effort that's been expended to get a legal place for bikes to ride in Mesa. If you haven't followed it well, check out an overview of the story on Vital BMX at http://www.vitalbmx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=986&Itemid=37

Hmm, what else? Oh, Seth Mason tipped me off to this info and renderings of the new Glendale X Court, which will ALSO be allowing bikes, I'm proud to say. It is currently under construction. Site Design Group used a lot of input from bmx riders to design the park, and Andy Leeland and I helped them to dial it in. Start drooling.....................now.

Man, the new park news just don't stop! I'm happy to say that Chandler is well on their way to completing the Chandler Bike Park. Construction is going at top speed, and coping is hung, rebar is in place, and I'm guessing concrete will be poured any week now. Big thanks to Chandler for keeping this construction rolling right along. I'll try to get photos up as soon as I can.

Gilbert Leon sent me the above flyer for a flat jam he's holding, unfortunately the same day as the Goodyear Skatepark opening, so I won't be able to make it. That won't keep any of you flatlanders from going, though, so git your asses out there and jam. You heard me....GIT!

Riders at new Chandler bike park go with ‘flow’

Jill Redhage, Tribune

Thomas Boggan, Tribune

Goodyear Skatepark

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