rain rain rain

I made the mistake of telling someone today "the rain hasn't been that bad, it hasn't put me out of riding once this wet season" and today it did! But once again it was dry at Leanyer Skatepark throughout the whole day! Out of control.
Team Army made some progress on the trails spot we sussed out a while back and a plywood ramp began to find it's way to a new home.

head down arse up hard into it

felatio (the flay show)

supercan whip against the sunset

built...

pulled down...

and now on the move

Also... you may have noticed Ryan Guettler wearing a NYRM shirt in that vid I linked to yesterday.

If not then  nahyouritemate.

Guettler.

uploaded last night on the Mirraco Vimeo page.

Son Of A Ditch from Mirraco on Vimeo.

look at this... and this... and this.

raineturnbullphoto

According to his profile Raine Turnbull is from Canberra and lists his occupation as "Photographer/Bum" and I like that! He has a blog and really you NEED to go have a look at it HERE. It's awesome! The photos are crazy and it looks like he's been travelling a fair bit and even went to the TERRIBLE ONE ramp!!! soooo jealous.

I have been seeking out ALOT of photography type stuff recently and there really is no end to the good sites available online. Including www.dprubinich.com from David Rubinich out of Adelaide. Go there. Click Portfolio and check the third photo out.

what a hop! what a drop!

Also... Don't forget that Cairns has a bmx scene to go with it's awesome park too.

And it's own resident brand.

http://www.nightfallbikeco.com/ 

http://nightfallbikeco.blogspot.com/

and... Nick Cooper does Cairns for UNITmx - youtube

WHAT THE HELL MAN! (warning! rant in progress.)

WELL........................ what to say....

"Convic Construction was created with an aim to provide the most progressive & highest quality skatepark construction worldwide. Life long skateboarders Simon Oxenham & Cameron Melville (RIP) combined their 10 years skate construction experience to form this international company in 1999.
Convic have now been involved in the design & construction of over 300 skateparks throughout Australia, China & South East Asia, more concrete parks than any other contractor worldwide." - convic.com

CONVIC CONVIC CONVIC

Convic. YOU GUYS ROCK.

The City of Cairns. YOU ALSO ROCK.

but...

Darwin city council, NT Government. YOU GUYS SUCK!!!

and i really cannot stress that enough.

WHY would you spend a rumoured six-figure sum plus on the pile of clunky, block like crap and ridiculous bumps we call a "skatepark" at leanyer.

Not to mention the debacle of DCC talking about building only its second ever skatepark in Parap/Vesty's beach/WHERE EVER only to shelve the idea because of "a lack of suitable locations".

HOW ABOUT THE DARWIN ESPLANADE?!?!
how is THAT for a location!...

or... something couldn't be squeezed in down at the "waterfront" all these years later?

allow me to introduce.... Cairns. The OTHER northern capital and their skatepark/skateplaza/skatebowl/beachside WONDERLAND!

"Cairns, at 2300m2, is the biggest skatepark in Australia and integrates with the Cairns Esplanade and foreshore. It features a small 4-5ft clover bowl with rounded hips and pockets. The big bowl has a square 6ft shallow end and 7ft deep end. The bowl has an over vert corner, half pipe whip section and a vert wall ranging from 8ft -10ft (topped with pool coping) that snakes between the 6 and 7ft sections. In the middle of the bowl is a cradle, mogul and a three sided tombstone. Heaps of transfers as the bowl wraps around itself, but it can be tricky to get lines straight off, gotta work it out! The 2000m2 of skateable Plaza is essentially a collection of intersecting paths that cross each other to create session spots. Long runs with ledges, rails, banks, stairs and gaps all over the place. Heavily landscaped areas between the paths; which is ideal for escaping the northern heat. A shelter is located near the big bowl and at night the lights come on." - skateboard.com.au

if you need anymore proof of what a good idea this is and what a good skatepark looks like in a prominent location then look at sydney's iconic BONDI BEACH.

now go back to the top and look at that overview again....

ahhhhh. what a beautiful sight!

rant over. travel to cairns... i will be. as will many others.

Change your flat tyre but don't take the wheel off!!

from flybikes

WOW!

At first i didn't know what the point would be...

then i realised that with a pump and a few of these you wouldn't even need tools. Even just the ability to change the tube without taking the wheel off is AWESOME. (call it lazy but whatever)

Now i just wonder how much these will cost exactly........

available through triplesix distribution to local stores i would imagine....

and the story continues...

after a slow afternoon of internet and facebook trawling heres the goods...

the good keep flowing from Deanna... awesome to see.

and as far as slick photos go it doesn't get much better in this country than Cooper Brownlee.

FOCALPOINT originator and all round photographer genius. check out ONELOVEONELIFE

ONELOVEONELIFE

Leigh, Badger Bars and V8 supercar legend Russel Ingal's signature bmx? and a stolen freddo frog. really.

As most of us in Darwin already know. Leigh is the man.

but Deanna is also the man... the woman? whatever.

i also just got hold of a set of KINK KC BADGER bars... sweet 8' rise and not to wide. even though i toyed with cutting em down even more... and i still might.

and in other news... at my local supercheap auto today i saw this...

WHAT THE HELL! V-brakes... with a gyro... one piece cranks... radial laced front wheel... 1' threaded headset.

got on for a ride... brakes didn't work and reflector hanging there pointing at the ground.

yes it's for sale! and it could be yours for $139! bargain.

what a truely awesome piece of bmx inovation. HA.

and in one other vaguely bmx related news item...

a kid was arrested by police for having a STOLEN FREDDO FROG in his posession!!

he was arrested. charged. taken to court! and then had the charges dropped...

if you see this on tv check out the kids AWESOME MONGOOSE BMX SHIRT!!! hahaha

i tried to find a clip of it. the same one from tv but no.

LINK

Chris Arriaga... and Rick Thorne Sig Shoes!

Some of you out there might remember the name Chris Arriaga from a few years ago sponsored by KINK and ripping it up at parks across America featured on Props videos doing huge icepicks and alike well a little interview with him has popped up on the espn site! he's now the "Global Youth Product Developer" for Giant Bikes. It's one of the best things i've seen on the web for a while.

"We went to the E.R. but they couldn't do anything because they'd never seen anything so bad. He spent the night home alone puking and tripping out from all the bee venom. Ha"

"I've learned two main things about life's crappy situations. One is that things are always going to get better. And two is that, at some point, things are going to be crappy again.... Once you can get yourself to accept that everyday isn't rainbows and butterflies, you'll be happier"

There is also a good little edit of riding at the Giant headquarters warehouse ramps (also featuring the one and only Corey Bohan! man... that guy is everywhere! ha)

Check it out here

...but don't fall to in love with Giant. they just dumped Taj Mihelich off the team. you should remember the post about his back surgery from a while ago!

But in other news... Rick Thorne! Former Hoffman Bikes rider, Vans Warped Tour demo expert, TV presenter and all round celebrity bad arse has released a Signature shoe on Draven.

You can actually buy this brand in Darwin! I thought it was available at VOGUE BODYPIECING.

but now i think it's OFFYATREE in the mall.  The shoe looks pretty cool with a bandana print on it. almost as good as the zombie ryan guettler vans that i bought a while back. ha.

COREY BOHAN!!!

http://digbmx.com/digthis/dig-issue-73-out-now

Chris Doyle, Kevin Porter, Corey Bohan

i was trawling through the usual amount of internet bs when i saw this..............

WHEN IS THIS IN STORES!?!?

i might be oldschool but nothing can replace an amazing magazine... and this is one.

follow the link http://digbmx.com/digthis/dig-issue-73-out-now or buy it in real life.

know your history

I was going to write a big intro about knowing ya roots and supporting companies that do good in the world. but if you are really interested in the history of bmx i'm sure you can dig up enough online to keep you going for days... all the same...
start here - with a little write up about john povah. the man at etnies that does it all for bmx.

and while you are there check out some of the other gems they have lying around!!
Mike Escamilla - total legend often misunderstood

JOE RICH. etnies pro and T1 owner. 360 invert.

(another random gem from the espn site!)

also...

DON'T FORGET!

PARKWAY DRIVE!! 15 DEC 2009 7:00 PM!!! at Discovery (why i don't know) and it's a tuesday night!!! why. i don't know. but don't miss it!