three legs, two wheels

All is good in the hood!!!

2009-06-18T05:17:00.000-07:00

So things are so inconsistent at home atm. One minutes I'm rammed with loads to do, and the next i just get ridiculously bored. Now i sit here and think about it, i am so busy that the brief periods of rest i do get may seem boring but are much needed and definitely well deserved.

Its Cheddar Euro's next weekend and I'm psyched, haven't booked anything yet but am definitely looking forward to it. I'll be right, it should just be a nice holiday with some riding to keep me fresh. Plus i really have to make the main at the brits this year, 3 years getting 5th in the semi is really becoming a joke. BAD TIMES.

School is good, 5 weeks left, its crazy that my 1st year is almost over. I'm just going through transitions with next years intake giving them the grand tour and hopefully minimising any problems that could occur. Its good to be prepared and all that.Footy training started on monday, so i should be starting to get in summer shape soon, play abit of beach footy and just generally have fun. Talking of the beach, I was trying to plan a beach party but have come to the conclusion that it needs to be properly planned down to the smallest detail, except the date. Everything just needs to be sat waiting to go and in needs to be an impromptu decision when the weather is good and everyone is in the mood.

BMX isle of man is really going places too. Just had the call from Douglas corp to re-develop their track, bigger budget than Peel and we already have a base to start from, woop. More news on that another time.

Laters :)

I guess I better say something

2009-06-10T02:16:00.000-07:00

Now I dont have anything interesting to do / dont have any time to write about it the blogs are pretty sparce, so as a result these are just chunks of whats happenen. Its TT back home so things are mega busy, I worked all last week whilst practices where on which was hectic and then got sent home ill on Wednesday after some bad food at a BBQ on the beach on Tuesday night, as I was in less than good shape. Friday morning did a hot lap over the mountain to Dave Blacks, the moutain is one way for TT with no speed limit so it was a nice early morning blast to wake me up, boom, only got done by 3 bikes.Got to Daves only to realise I didn't have a ticket for the boat, so we packed up, drove down to the ferry terminal and £74 later I was on my way to Liverpool, oh my days! We got down to Peterbro at about 3, put the biggest of big tents I have ever seen up and I went and did some practice.

The track has had some changes recently and the new bits where OK, the big double at the end though? WTF? Any how, I was abit dubious that the rest of the track hadn't been touched since the brits, the last straight was U shaped with only one line being ridden. Most others seemed to share my concerns. I didn't feel to be riding too badly though so role on race day. After dinner with Jez, Jordan, Flip and Mrs Flip (pro pasta) I got a taxi back to the campsite and got some rest.The rain started at 1019 on Friday night, and I was pretty worried for how the weekend would turn out. It was still drizzling as I woke up on Saturday morning so I gave practice a miss and chilled out and tried to catch up with as many people as possible. Peterbro club worked really hard on the track in the morning and it was looking good when the sun came out and dried up all the fresh surface. 1st moto I snapped and was 2nd to the 1st corner, followed down the 2nd straight, and over the big doubles getting a bit more pump and catching them further, as I got closer and looked up I realised it was Twarn. Whats been going on? He must have been putting the hours in, I felt I was going pretty good, he was flying. Anyhow, I got on the inside into the 2nd berm and pushed him high and I nailed the 3rd straight building up a comfortable lead and took it all the way to the line, I did however want the throw up, I think I should have done a better warm up because I felt like crap. a 3rd in moto 2 and a 1 in the 3rd left me with 2nd pick. Maddocks had 1st pick and went 1, I got 2 and Vinyard had been cruising all through the moto's so was left with 5. Vinyard snapped and cut off Pople and Clarke (3 and 4) and came over on Maddocks, I got out the way and left them too it and managed to get a 3rd, Vinyard was flying though and took the points. I had pasta again on Satruday night, this time with the Goldcoast crew, one word sums it up, BANTER.

On Sunday it did reain, 1st moto was ok but then it chucked it down. I got 1.1.1. in my moto's but still got 2nd pick to Maddocks because of the alphabet. Pople and Clarke had learned from their mistakes on Saturday and left 3 for Vinyard, who made a great job of cutting me off and I had nowhere to go, 5th to the 1st corner, 5th to the line, bad times. but I do like Rich's summary of it over on BC...

he was killing it in the motos, enough to remark that 'today was the day' Come the final and he cheeses it, riding like my 85 year old nan on her zimmer
frame...

We rode Manchester on Monday before getting the new boat home, its almost a proper ferry. Huge and pretty empty considering. Had a big day at the track yesterday opening it up to anyone who wanted a go as they past and enjoyed sprint day festivities. A pretty good day but I was shattered. I slept 12 hours last night and eventually feel half human again, now I must make the most of TT.

Fill you all in soon.

I do...

2009-05-06T07:56:00.000-07:00

So its been ages, and to be honest if i wrote it all down you may fall asleep, so lets tell it with pictures...

The cycle club at school has been great, getting mroe and more kids each week. We held a ride to school day last week, 77 people took part, some coming from 10 miles away, a great success.Derby has been and gone, i'm sitting 5th overall, lucly that... It should be a good season, everyone seems to have stepped up their race game with the races getting faster, everyone looking more factory and the pits getting bigger every year. UK, on the up. Saturdays bloc racing though, was dire.Did some coaching over easter aswell. There where some big crashes, and this is proof you should always wear your helmet... oh and dont drive over it either.It was the first DH race of the season over here, as you all know, i used to dabble in off road and its a bigger scene over here than BMX so I've gotta play the game. I didn't get much practice in but it was a laugh, qualifying I got a time of 3.27, some young gun of a 12 year old had a time of 3.17. I was gutted, so I had 10 seconds to find to gain some dignity, luckily I did, 3.16 on my timed run, the kid didn't manage to improve and I managed to come 13 out of 16 adults, but most of these boys do take it serious so I'm happy, theres another race next weekend which i'll hit up.Everyone was back over easter, went out for chinese with the Linz and Emma Skills (good times) and Scott and Philli. You have to make the most of it when the students are back, because this place is dead as hell most of the time.Went over to Manc this weekend for a coaching forum with the guys from BC. Coaches had come from all over, but no one set off the night before to get there. It was a good weekend, did a bit of testing, listened to some expert opinions, played abit of golf..See ya'll at Burnham

Who still blogs?

2009-03-13T07:40:00.001-07:00

I'm gonna be honest, I'm rubbish at updates, work takes up some of my time, bikes take up the rest I haven't even played football for 3 weeks. Come to think of it, I haven't even given an update of my time away. Ok so I should have some time on sunday to write up whats gone on. Just to let you know I am still around and I do still exist. For now though, keep checking http://ramseybmx.blogspot.com for the updates there, because we have been a busy bunch.

I'm one of them

2009-02-24T02:19:00.000-08:00

Normally, my posts are like an Oscar winning film, you know? It starts with a tense scene, with moody lighting and loads of atmosphere but it’s actually the conclusion and the story is about the journey and how you get there. Well this is going to be nothing like that. I don’t even remember the last time I posted, but I do recall the consequences, it appears my little 11 year olds are quite smart and found my internet soap box, it appears I get quite the audience, so sorry I don’t update more, but I really don’t want to bore you with all the menial things that go on. I spend my time sorting the wheat from the chaff to give you the best 5 minutes of your last 10, that kinda thing.

Maybe I should stop “blogging” and start actually writing something productive. Balls to that, I’m having too much fun, so stuff back home... Works going good, dahnhilling is still loads of fun, BMX is feeling a little tired atm, the banter at football is alright, mums moaning I have too many bikes in the hallway, I split with the girl I was seeing, but none of that even begins to impact on how I’m feeling atm. So that was the re-cap, and where am I right now? Who am I one of?

I’m currently sat, on my laptop in Starbucks, sipping a venti mocha with cream IN LEEDS! Sometimes you just need to get away, and after having 2 days off over Christmas I thought I’d take the first chance I could to get back, see the boys, go ride my bike, and remind myself of how the real world works. Charlotte had been back home for her brothers 18th so we did that Saturday night, (yes, I did bad things, no, I’m not going to tell you) I spent Sunday on the sofa dying then yesterday I drove us back to LS6. I finally got to bed at 1:45am after leaving my house the best part of 8 hours earlier, its only a small stretch of water but its’ some effort to get across it.

Jackson woke me up this morning with his caveman like stumbling around having a shower, so that was me up at 7 and not getting back to sleep, Ciaran and him are on an 8-4 at work so I gave them a lift in, not before a bit of banter over breakfast. I really can’t comprehend how much I miss these guys, I laughed more in half an hour over breakfast than I have in the past month. Not that I don’t enjoy being at home, but, well, I can’t describe it.

So that’s where I’m at at half 8 on a Tuesday morning, a big week of plans ahead of me and a smile on my face. If your on the mainland and fancy a catch up holla at me on facebook asap and I’ll try and fit you in, ha. Leeds until Thursday, then over to Manchester for the afternoon/night, down Leicester way Friday night, hit up Derby track Saturday before heading back up to Leeds for Saturday night and Sunday, then home.

Good times x

Like a wizards sleeve!

2009-01-30T00:44:00.000-08:00

As promised, you’re about to be updated. So let me get to where I was last time, being a geek apparently, or so Rory McCann says. I’ve just read Fastlane for the 2nd time and it still amazes me that the hard copy is really in my hands. I have to give the boys at massive shout out, credit where credit is due, I really think that Fastlane BMX Racing Magazine is a great thing for UK BMX, ha UKBMX, that’s not me anymore, lets here it for BMX Isle of Man.So what’s happenin? Work really, its startin to be proper, my department launched a couple of weeks ago and it’s been non-stop since then, things are getting worse before their getting better, before I turned up the lads who are now mine where on the edge of another department so not under such a microscope, since I’ve been here things are getting noticed so it seems that their behaviour is getting worse, but in reality the majority of it is just the bad behaviour is being noticed more. It’s really a challenge and I’m loving it, earning myself the nickname of wonder boy is pretty ego boosting too which is a bonus.

It was my mum’s mum’s funeral last Friday, it went ok, I went up to help mum at work the night before and ended up just lying around falling asleep. We got to the church for me to find out that I was doing a reading, I read at my granddads funeral 4 years ago so it was fitting I guess. There was a line in this poem about halfway through that had no flow and would have been difficult to say on most days, let alone with my gran in a box about 10 feet away and 100 people watching, got through it though, I may have been slightly loud when next to the mic, so much so that people heard the sigh of relief at the end when I had got through it with tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat, ha. It was nice though, she had suffered too much, she’s at peace now, and mum and the rest of the family can move on.AUAFC football is going good, the 2nd team had our first win in ages the other day, and on my 2nd game as captain, I’ve started taking a couple of training sessions too, had the boys doing circuits on Wednesday, seemed to go ok. I’m liking the variation of coaching at the moment, a bit at football, a bit at BMX, and my Jo at work has asked me to do a sports based birthday party for her 5 year old. I’ve taken it as a massive compliment, it’s one thing giving me a job to look after someone else’s kids at school but to let me loose with her little boy and his mates is cool. Though for the first time in ages I’m nervous about coaching, because she’s a trained PE teacher so knows what she’s talking about, ahhhhh be right.

More on BBC IOM, the guy who is in charge of BBC Isle of Man saw the Ramsey BMX blog and sent me a message asking to get in touch, we talked and he liked what we are doing. So instead of putting on the football results or all that other boring stuff that everyone covers he’s going for the unique angle, he’s been in contact with the MTB club, and us. So every race day, I take a couple of pictures and write a little report, and it goes on the BBC website, now that’s publicity. Who knows, if it goes alright other BMX regions could use it to show their local guys and spread the word, all publicity is good publicity.

On the subject of MTBs, as development coordinator I’m going to the next MTB meeting to discuss a talent programme, it existed a few years ago for roadies and went by the name of an academy. But I want to put my fingerprint on things and be a bit more inclusive (something that doesn’t seem to happen over here). So looking at bringing together 10 – 16 year olds from different disciplines, who have potential, get them training together one night a week and pooling our resources.Anyhow its Thursday night and I’m off to do a dodgy deal, been after a downhill bike for a while now and was maybe looking at slightly the wrong budget so kept hesitating about spending a grand when I’m not sure how much time I can commit to it. Anyhow, an antique has come up for sale over here, an intense M1, one of the best bikes of its generation for sure, it’s up at £550, let’s see what I can get him down too, I might have a new bike by the time I post this online.

Ordered a new Haro crowser yesterday but shhhh, don’t tell the bank manager, should be getting my haul of Fly stuff through in the next couple of weeks. Like I said to rich at custom riders, it doesn’t matter how fast you ride, it’s how you look that matters.
Yep, I am the new proud owner of a downhill bike, already stripped it back to the original decals and it looks sweet, cant wait for tomorrow morning so I can go ride the thing.

All being well...

2009-01-29T06:25:00.000-08:00

There will be a blog to read tomorrow, so free up some space in your diary, buy a nice chocolate bar, or if you part of the Coach Wan training crew buy an apple because tomorrow, I'm going to bore you with lame stories of Ramsey BMX club, shopping, probably a bit of work and some plans of mine. So just to get you in the mood, new THE, is niiice, I liiiiiiike.
In the mean time if your looking for something to do, check out the Ramsey BMX Website. Or go buy something from Custom Riders.com ;)

Ok, i need to stick to deadlines

2009-01-14T01:56:00.001-08:00

Time… what an idea, and one I think I am only really starting to get the concept of. Charlotte, a really close friend of mine is doing a philosophy module at uni and I was helping her revise, which got me thinking outside the box about time. Think about it like this, there are 365 days in a year, because the earth rotates 365 times(ish) in a year, but why are there 24 hours in a day? Who decided that 24 was the best number to break it down into, and why 60 minutes and 60 seconds? Why is a second the exact length of time that it is? I’m sure its not random, but who knows why?So seconds, hours, and days, I haven’t really had any free ones, between the 15th of December and today I’ve had 2 days off work, be that School, MSR or Nightlife, the problem is, I’ve got bills to pay, and a national season to save up for so I’m not giving any of them up. I’m not online at the moment, what did I say I was going to write about this time round?2000ft decent I think, but to prefix that – DOWNHILL, comeback!?! I’ve been doing a bit of downhill recently, and loving it, the DH scene over here is pretty big, and where I came from, but how its evolved in 4 years. When I started spending more time at the track and less time in plantations there was a 50/50 split hardtails to full sus rigs and the courses showed that with most things pretty do-able no matter what your steed.Now though you really have to start missing out sections if you don’t have a £3,000 Iron Horse Sunday and I was spending more time on the chicken routes than on the main track. But it shows in the boys riding styles, every single lad (and sarah) ride so smooth and with a certain effortless about them it really is nice to just stand and watch sometimes. And as for Skilly, he really is the definition of loose is fast, quote “oh I didn’t really mean to hit that root but I guess it worked.” Anyhow, to summarise, DH is the scene over here and I’ve been loving it, so I’m on the lookout for a second hand bike, about £1,000ish, I can ride DH on Saturdays, BMX on Sundays, and rest, erm, well that’s not an issue is it.Now you have the background, here is more of a freeride story, but still MTB related, see I try and do BMX but get distracted. On the 27th scott went skiing and lent me his Kona Stab Deluxe, good times. 8 of us drove up the mountain to the old motor cycling museum, parked, pushed for what felt like an age, but was about half an hour to the top of Snaifell, 2000ft +. Then picked the straightest line to the beach in Laxey, it was a great experience, and although I doubt we’ll be doing it again in a while, how many people do you know that have ridden from the top of a mountain to the beach?My Fly deal, nothing new I guess. Outdoors Ramsey the local, bike shop has sorted me out with a deal to keep me fully kitted out in Fly racing kit and I got a pretty sweet hoody the other day. Just waiting on Scoop to bring the tops in so I can send it over to Rich at Urban Air to get printed up for 09, because lets face it, it doesn’t matter where you finish as long as you look the part.And finally, that Katie Perry song… Am I gonna be able to blag this? Nah, on Christmas eve I was doing my sleazy barman thing like I do, hold up, I mean flirty barman thing, and ended up giving this girl my number. Anyhow, there is now a girl on the scene, I haven’t really mentioned the fact that I’m a complete and utter geek who writes about myself on a website though so that’s about as much info as your getting on her.

Because although I don’t really advertise to anyone back home that I blog, I know people read it, some of the kids from the BMX club comment on the fact that I write about boring things (hi Liam), and this Tom fellow that commented about Mr Costa. Jesus has anyone at work stumbled across it yet? So there are people that read it who I genuinely don’t know about, have I earned the right to go on celebrity big brother yet?So I don’t really fancy splashing out someone else’s private life for all to see, mine I’m not so bothered about, not only do I have no shame, I also get the chance to edit what is going on in my head before it hits your PC screen, so I’m on a win win, but what about other people I write about, should I start to think about other peoples feelings? Balls to that, I’m too cool for school.

Its been nice to catch up, speak to ya’ll soon,

But for now, I got reet drunk on Sunday night, big shout out to all the nightlife crew still recovering 3 days later, good times.

P.S. I’ve just secured Ramsey BMX Club exposure on the BBC website on the local section, which lets face it, is ace! More to come.

The person next to be is bloggin

2009-01-05T06:18:00.000-08:00

I'm in the library and the woman next to be is writin a blog, I can't quite catch the url though, maybe i should tip her off to check me out. I was thinking about something similar last night, I'm gonna go blog searching, you know, for someone who I share interests or ideals with, but not someone I know, and just, follow their blog, kinda like a pen friend, but more of a crazy stalker kick about it. Now I word it like that, maybe not...

Anyhow just a quick one, I will write a proper blog with week, with photo's and stories and allsorts, this is just the press release...

In the next issue of THREE LEGS, TWO WHEELS

2000 feet in 2 hours

DOWNHILL - comeback?

FLYracing deal

I KISSED A GIRL, and i liked it

See ya'll soon

PS. Who's Tom?

hey ya'll

2008-12-15T01:04:00.000-08:00

So its blog time again, I’m really falling behind, and I am sorry, it’s a combination of a few things I guess, havin a proper job, being pretty busy and most of all i suppose, being on the rock. All you lovers out there are from the BMX scene, and I’ve gone from being a small but social fish in a lake, being in the know about most things UKBMX to being the biggest fish in a small B&Q garden pond. I recon you should pin your hopes of this next blurb of text on the “being pretty busy” part and pray something interesting comes up... You still interested in reading?

First things first then, LIFE IS AMAZING, I’m suffering from karma, but not the bad kind. All the good things that I have done in my life I am gaining from right now. Work is good, but can’t really say too much, and you never know who’s reading. Basically, some people are of the opinion; “your only 22, what do you know?” But the important people aren't, so what do I care?

I have secured a deal for riding next year, with the added cost of getting off the rock for the national series I may struggle financially, so the local bike shop is sorting me out with a race kit and some gear to keep the bills down. I put him in touch with Rich at Scoop so this is his way of saying thanks, so don’t forget kids, ask Santa for Fly Racing and Maxxis goodies this Christmas. And on that note, thanks to Sutty for all the help this season, I’ll be running Hoops again for as long as you keep building them, best wheel builds you can get.
Today I got a phone call from the cafe close to the track, they sponsored the club a couple of years ago to the tune of a couple of hundred quid, and wondered if we were still after some funding. He knows the promo guy for a company we have all heard of and is going to pass on my number as he was asking about the club. If this comes off it will be big. Other club news, we’re in the process of getting a new container for storage and getting a porta-kabin for all other admin needs. The local police station has 5 BMX’s that haven’t been claimed for ages so will be donating them to the club. The winter series is going well, it’s the 1st time the club has kept going over the winter for as long as anyone can remember and its going great. 29 riders at the last race, and the winter doesn’t seem to be putting anyone off.
Was in Douglas on Thursday doing some Christmas shopping and got my first real teacher experience outside of school, followed into a shop by half a dozen giggly year 9 girls, “hi Mr Watney” the guys in the shop loved it, hilarious. Met up with Adam afterwards and hit up Costa (no Starbucks on the rock you see) the guy who owns it, well, is the franchisee, is an absolute character. I couldn’t work in there, the guy is a nightmare, fair enough its his money on the line but oh my days... think David Brent crossed with Terry Tibbs, he got a phone call and I half expected to hear “talk to me”. Quality mid shopping interval entertainment fo sure.

That was your update kids, keep checking back, and don’t forget to hit up ramseybmx.blogspot.com.

Its been too long

2008-12-01T04:42:00.001-08:00

Jees guys, I hadn't realised that I've not really been posting until nmky.blogspot pointed out that I was MIA, and yeah, it's been 3 weeks. Krazy. So whats the news? not much really, same old, I love my new job, I haven't really been riding much, well much on the 20", I have however been gettin out with Skillz on the road on average about 2wice a week which is good, keeps the legs spinnin, plus a gate practice or a race I guess I'm doin enough considering its winter.

I have been posting over at ramseybmx.blogspot if your missing my illiterate charm. I was at the track on Saturday morning with Max sticking some surface down and mixin a jump up a little, well alot, sticking a new face on it and shifting the downside up 18 inches and about 5 foot back, so yeah, i guess not so little, woop. We had about 20 kids at gates and it was awesome, everyone was smiling, riding together and pushing each other, it's mental that some 11 year old kid smoothing a jump makes me happy. Ramsey BMX really is going places, and I'm at the wheel hahaha.

I'm as sick as a dog, I promise, I'll write soon. Oh yeah, and as of 2 weeks ago I've got a new position at the Cycling Association.

Yours sincerely

Juan Watney

Junior Development Coordinator
Isle of Man Cycling Association

Both ends of the spectrum

2008-11-08T07:57:00.001-08:00

You know when you come here and read a post that just bores you to oblivion; the place just past a 5 minute conversation with Flemdog about clips and just before you hit a conversation with Gamble about his guns. Anyhow, thats been because of the lack of life going down over here and my unlimited posting time, well, things are crazy and I haven't had a spare second. I started work on Monday and its mega, I'll fill you all in when I get the chance. But as for spare time, yesterday for example, I was up at half 4 to give mum a lift to the airport, and got to bed at 0330 after a shift at nightlife, with a half hour kip on the sofa in the middle.

So just to say I haven't forgot ya'll,

Keep in touch yer x

So I've been busy, at last.

2008-10-31T05:11:00.000-07:00

This week has been awesome, it's half term over here which has meant a weeks work, at last. Monday and Tuesday we ran 4, 2 hour "Cycle Skills" sessions around the island, with all 4 sessions being full. It turns out that out of all the sessions that MSR run, its the cycling ones that are always the 1st ones to fill up and the only thing limiting the amount of kids on the courses is the availability of coaches. On Tuesday afternoon we ran a course at the National Sports Centre in Douglas and had to finish 10 minutes early due to the arrival of Johny Bellis, team CSC professional road rider, World Junior Bronze medalist and most importantly, Olympian. The kids loved it, so cheers to Gee for sorting it out. He handed out some prizes and signed some autographs, it was a really good atmosphere, and the mums loved it.

Yesterday I did a MTB coaching course at South Barrulle Plantation, the Manx MTB Club have made a 5 k look there so in the afternoon we took the kids on it and they loved it, we where close to the end when I suggested pushing back over to a bermed bit of boardwalk for the guys to session when I looked at my watch and we had 5 minutes untill the end of the session, oops, time flies when your having fun. During the day one of the kids said I reminded him of one of his PE teachers, Ben Ayres, Ben taught at my school when I was there and I took this as a massive compliment. Its the small things these kids say and do that makes getting cold and wet worth it, that and nearly £14 an hour.

So I got my police check through on Friday of last week and get to start work proper at QEII on Monday, I'm beyond excited, it's going to be so good to get started and meet all the kids. Oh and talking of time flying, I've gotta shoot, got a "multi sports" session at my old school, for 5 - 7 year olds, hard work defined, fo sure.

Any idea how I'm getting close to 100 hits a week? It must just be you Farran yer?

Catch ya'll soon

"Pro" sections

2008-10-21T07:47:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I read an article over at The University of BMX. It was about the Olympics and where this guy sees BMX going in the future. Oh god, I went all uni in my head and was scared I was about to critically analyse it, ahhhhhh, don't worry, I'm not. Most of it made perfect sense though and I've been promosing to link it for a couple of people so here it is. But one thing that has stuck in my mind is the track design issue's, not just there but some guy over at go211.com was on about optional pro sections, and with my whole track makover thing at Ramsey happening the cogs slowly started to turn.

The idea of Pro Events is great, and the future of BMX I'm sure, a major spectacle for the crowds, and great racing. But what about at the lower levels? We need a steping stone, Pro Sections should be things of the past, deciders are where its at. Preston is a good example; at the Summer regional before the track had changed the outside "pro" line was slower so come race time it was less about hangtime and more about pumping the inside, which looked pants tbh. They noticed and did something about it, teched up the inside and made it alot closer about which line to choose.

With Pro sections there are stupid arguements, look at Wales national last year when junior men had to vote to see if they where alowed to jump to pro section in racing, thats just not cool and not the way to progress now is it? If we're gonna have tracks to do everything then we need more deciders. Look at South Park, the inside line into the last corner is a BIG pro double and its the fastest route, so if you can jump it thats the line you want to take, if you cant, you go round and it takes longer. Simple. I think its on Transit 7 that in the 14's a kid does it and goes from 3rd to 1st, props.

I really think that thats the way we need to start building our tracks, with something for everyone, Hartlepool is a great race track with something for everyone, and it showed come national time. Even better is the the youth they're bringing through... Adam Smith and Jack Hall are a perfect example, Hartlepool track has got them to where they are now, but where next? These two lads are at the top of their game, but now they're gonna have to move off their doorstep to find something bigger.

As well as that, Pro sections are really hard to get right, look a Shanaze at the Olympics, going to fast to get across to the am section. Wales, the Pro section is the longer way round. Bradford (ok I haven't ridden it) but from the looks of it getting into that last corner from the Pro line is going to be tricky. So why not just make more deciders? At Ramsey when I've got the track up to a decent standard top of my list is to build another straight.

In summary, I've got too much time on my hands, please someone tell the police I'm not a criminal and that I should be allowed to start work.

All exposure is good PR

2008-10-15T07:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was just flickin around on facebook when Shaun "the machine" Kelly posts this on my wall;

Juan Watney is the Ramsey kids hero! Forget the power rangers, David Beckham and Wayne Rooney. A bloke for ramsey riding a kids 20" wheel bike, is the main man! Legend!

Yer, I was as confused as you are, it turns out that in one of the Papers over here (The Isle of Man Examiner if you want a copy) has an article in, oh my god your not ready for this, im sat here chuckling to myself, are you sitting down?...

Tribute to BMX hero Juan

I was in stiches, so from now on, I shall be refered to as Hero, and will not be answering to any other names. Once you've stopped laughing I guess this is a great thing for BMX over here. The club get a couple of paragraphs in the Manx Independant everyweek to print the results from the previous Sundays racing but normally due to so much going on on the rock are hard pushed to get stuff in.

The way I see it, getting people into BMX is all about good PR, the Olympics was great for us as a sport but now we need to jump on it and work hard to get people in. Over the next 6 months I'm gonna be so pro-active and in everyones face they'll be sick of me, but they'll be talking BMX, riding BMX and hopefully racing too. Anyhow just thought I'd let you all see what made me laugh.

5000+

2008-10-12T13:44:00.000-07:00

It's just another Sunday night after a national, isn't it? Ok so 1st things 1st, this time for the 2nd race running I haven't been camping, I've been stopping with Sutty and Sweep at Hoops HQ. These guys have helped me so much over this season and for nothin more than the thanks I can give them, so once more, I know its not much but thank you. Ooooooh its the end of the season, maybe a list of thank you's is in order... Maybe later. Anywho, on Thursday, after squeezing 2 full race bikes, and other assorted crap into a singular bike bag and heading over to Leeds for some night time entertainment (make of that what you will) and Friday Morning I trained it over to Warrington to meet up with Mr Hoops and check out his new Vito, the BMX motor of choice, I'm sure you'll read all aboot it over at sutty.blogspot.com.

So after not really getting a gate practice at home since Coppull Friday was a pretty slow start for me. You know, things take time to get fine tuned and I know how to take a Friday gate session, loosen up and just let it happen. Having wannabe coaches left right and centre telling you your gates are wack and "do this," "do that," doesn't help, I'm sure its meant in the nicest way but its ridiculous, everyone's an expert you know? And especially as I've never been down to EIS, or done gate analysis, or planned a disertation on it, lucky these people are here to tell me drive forward and not pull up so much.

Saturday went ok, got a 3. 3. in my moto's but wasn't as clear of the gate as normal so was getting abit of elbow bashing down the 1st straight. but 2 moto's, whats the theory? Don't have all 3 on the Saturday because then you'll only have semi's and final's on Sunday and that wouldn't be good for spectators. Or was it, don't have all 3 moto's on Saturday because people who're out will go home and not stop the night? Whatever the thinking is Saturday seemed like an absolute non-event to me, after my 2nd 19+ moto I was ready for a lunch and a drinks break, not to go home.

Sunday and it was all or nothing, 1st lap I noticed that my knee's where pretty sore but guessed that a warm up and a few more laps would sort that, so 1 lap, then another, 5 laps later I limped off to the sidelines to contemplate what the hell I was gonna do, I could hardly clip in with my right leg, let alone snap on it. I needed a 6th to be on 12 points and go through to the main, I snapped, my head was telling my leg to push and some other useless part of me was saying "woah now, that hurts, stop it!" So last to the 10 meter line, 7th to the 1st corner and the sketchiest lap of the season, pinched 4th down the lat straight and got 4th pick for the main. Rode my bike over to Mid Lancs tent, put it down, went n got some grub.

Bumbled about abit, did some stuff, and hour went past and it was main time, got my ride, headed to the pens, watered the bushes, watched TJ nose everything and come out ok, watched Sharpy try and get some of the action only to eat dirt big time, check it. Kieron went 2, Issit 3, Dan P 4, leaving 1 or 5, now lets be serious, that's the easiest choice I've ever made, "gate 1 cheers berni" sniggering to myself. Sat on the gate was the most perfect I've ever felt come national time, I wasn't nervous or putting stupid idea's through my head, just chilled enough to do well, "ok riders... Watch the lights." long pause, snap. huh? I haven't got my finger on the brake, errrrrrrrrrrrr. "It looks like Wans got a mechanical" (vernon kay in the background) Yer weekend over, my chain tensioner is hangin off and my wheels sideways rubbing against the chainstay, I watched the race from the finish line, Kieron won his 1st race on a cruiser, and looked rad, #1 next year if he races, no doubt in my mind. Dan H got 2nd n bagged the title so well done to them both. It still worries me how loose a 15mm spanner nut on a back wheel can get in an hour though, you know?

The only way the day could get worse is if Jacob could mess up in any slight way, the kid is amazing, so talented and handles a stack load of pressure so well. Sat up last night with the Sutton's and the calculator working out the different points scenario's; Jack Hall could win with Jacob in 2 and Jacob would still get it, anything less and things got confusing. Main time, check out bikevideos.co.uk for the video but don't expect it to be pretty, Jacob went down hard, KO'd for a couple of seconds and lay there for a good while whilst the useless "emergency responders" set about doing a shite job of sorting him out. Jacob got stretchered to the ambulance, he was battered but ok, which is such a relief, after he realised he was ok he got to realising he may have just chucked his #1 plate away, I was confident he hadn't but non of them believed me, I love being right though, and in the car there was a big trophy and a little trophy (mine) 5th overall in crowser, woop, ha, its better than last year I guess. Just sad I didn't win 1.
Wows this is going on abit, ok so there is the diaryish version, check back in the week for some pics and opinions. Oh yeah, and a big shout out to Pete Lavender, 2nd at the Brits and 8th overall in 15/16s. I can't see, I'm off to bed.

Get a hobby you can put on hold

2008-10-08T03:38:00.000-07:00

I love my BMX, there is no better way to have no care in the world than to hit the track and just flow forget work, forget the bills, forget women, whatever your beef, just get rid of it. But there are times when riding isn't an accessible option, and times when I really can't be bothered, simple, the bike sits in the hall and I dont have to feed it, or clean it, or look after it. But horses... oh my days, mums horse went lame the other day and I spent 5 hours in the rain yesterday helping her get it into a stabble, at the end of the day, I didn't wanna be there, mum didn't want her horse to be lame so was in a bad mood and it is a costly affair, vets call out fee's alone more than most of the components on my bike. So be warned, if you dont want a high mantance hobby, avoid animals, if you want your kids to stay in a good mood, avoid emotionally blackmailing them to help you with said hobby.

So its Preston this weekend and i'm psyched, I'm not that assed about how I race, yer I wanna do well, and I know I'll get there, it'll be main time and I'll be in focused to say the least but you've just gotta go out there and ride the best you can, nothing else you can do so dont worry about it, dont get tied up on a result cos at the end of the day anything can happen, judge your performances not on where you finish but how you got there, wow, thats profound.

Went to book my ticket to head over on the boat Friday morning but it was fully booked, oops, heading over to Leeds for the night on Thursday instead which should be a laugh, infact, should be more than a laugh if I happen to bump into the right people whilst out, you get me? wooop. Its been pretty quiet back here, mums off work so I'm helpin her out with stuff, Tax forms where due in on Monday and I count get mine done so thats a £50 fine, great. Still haven't heard back from work so gonna get on the blower to them today and see what the score is with my police check, if they can hurry it up or something, that or I'm going to sign on next week, its gettins stupid.

See ya'll at the weekend, and don't forget to check out ramseybmx.blogspot.com

If I Didn't Have You

2008-10-06T04:29:00.000-07:00

Then someone else would do... Ha, love it, watched The Secret Policemans Ball last night, as normal some of the acts where pretty good, and some where pretty standard, this one stuck in my mind as clever comody, I've seen Tim Minchin on Buzzcocks before and never really found him that funny but this is really good, check it out;

It was the last race on the rock yesterday, the new track changes are ok, still need some tweeking but the extra time I've been putting in down there seem to be working for the littluns. Wish I'd have made it to Coppull on Sunday to race in 17+, could have came 4th to Jacob, the kid is fast. But back to the rock, there is a possibility we've found some funding to buy 10 new club bikes, we've sorted a 6 race winter series out, and I had a meeting in Peel on Saturday morning with a commisioner about updating a track they used to have there. It is a U in a U single line "track". The plan is to turn it into a little 2 meter wide play track. With that we could easily stick a pro gate on a start pad and hold little dual races for the kids, it should be ace, plus its 5 minutes from my new job, so come sunny summer afternoons, i'll roll out of work, and do some gates with the locals, could be ace. BMX Isle of Man is happening.

Its Preston this weekend, the last national, rumour has it Kieron was spotted on a cruiser at Manchester on Sunday, lets hope so. I'm not expecting much, gates back home have felt poor to say the least, I'm just not feeling it, lets hope once I've got the track up to scratch I'll be re-motivated, looking at a Euro trip sometime next year with Oggy and the boys, I wonder where we'll end up.

Sorry guys, I'm feeling pretty flat at the moment, check back in the week for excitment, I promise

1 blog down, 1 to go

2008-09-29T06:40:00.000-07:00

With all my free time I started up a blog for Ramsey BMX Club, check it! So after just writing the update for that, here is mine. Thursday night after the fun mornings building I had, Skillz, Bri, Sarah and me went down the track to have a play, you could ride around the 1st berm but it wasn't what you'd call finished, and not much had changed, the only thing really going off was the 2nd straight which hadn't been touched, it was just a case of, the weathers good, lets ride. It turned into, who can jump that with the smallest run up, so all about getting you power down, the MTB boys had a bit of an advantage over me by dropping a gear or 2 down to get spinning, but it was a laugh.

I worked nightlife on Friday night, it was dead, just over 60 people in. Got home at 4am and was at the track at 8.30. Max and I worked pretty much solidly all day untill 7 to get things finished. For more info and what have you check ramseybmx.blogspot.com, basically cos I've just written about it once, can't be bothered doing it again. Or can I? From a different perspective really, you know when you'r doing alterations at your track and all the rider muck in? Well it was like that only the kids helping weren't club members, just you're average, out for a ride in the sun kids. It was awesome, a really atmosphere and community spirit thing going down. A mum was down with her 3 and 4 year old sons and was helping chuck some surface on the double into the bomb hole, she was mega impressed with the whole set up and really keen to lend a hand, her motivation, "well everytime I come down with the lads now, they'll remember mummy building that jump." Tbh its true, when the whole community mucks in and helps out it gives them a good feeling as well as the track getting better, so watch this space for more child labour and big things from Ramsey BMX.

Got home about 7:30pm, washed, ate, got ready for work and was at Nightlife again for 10, busier night with only 3 on the bar and 250 drunks, your average Saturday really, pretty ladies to keep me entertained, and drunken yobs for me to wind up. Home at half 4 and up for 9, theres always time to sleep when I'm dead. I headed down to Arrasey plantation with Charlottes little brother to watch the Downhill race they had on, practice, 10-1, first run at 1 should have meant we could have watched the 1st run in time to get Henry to football for 2. It all got held up and we didn't get to see any flyers but it was still nice to walk to course and see a couple of people going hard at different sections. I don't even know who won, but be sure to check the forum later on if your keen to get involved with downhilling on the rock. And yes, that is the sea in the background of this pic of Bri, you don't get a view like that at many downhill tracks in the UK do you? I can think of three like that on the rock.

Managed to drop Henry off in time out at Ayre for me to make it to the track to DJ and commentate on racing, I love watching the kids ride and we've just bought a wireless mic which means I was running around the whole joint getting loud and lairy, its great to have the freedom to rome and see things from a different angle. Commenating is a nightmare though, not many of the kids ride with number plates and we dont do a copy of moto-sheets for the guy with the mic so I'm just expected to know their names, its fine with the kids that come to gates, as they're the guys who's names I know, and they're out there in front so I know to big them up, but I feel bad for the guys at the back of the younger ages, cos I have no clue what they're called. But it was fun, I rode abit in the break and launched the new jump into the bomb hole, taking it like a tripple rather than the double on top, it needs abit more tlc but should be good by next weekend.

Hit up the cinema last night to watch Tropic Thunder, took Philli just to make Scott jealous, mate, she kissed me on the cheek. After the initial, hilarity of JDjr as a black man had worn off things got a little stale and I was gettin bored, it all kicked off around half way through and did get alot better, so if you do go, fight the urge to walk out and you may enjoy it. Tom Cruise plays the money behind the film, but is so well made up I didn't realise, it was only when the credits rolled, n I was like, wtf? A couple of good one liners, and one moment where its silent and then the whole room laughs, 6/10. Wen't to the Royal afterwards to see what they've done in the re-furb, is nice, I liiiiike.

Now I'm just waiting for this stupid police check, c'mon, I'm innocent.

Oh yer, and Bloomy at Peter-bro...

Oh my days

Facelift

2008-09-25T07:12:00.000-07:00

So all the tracks are getting this and that done, and being back home and having to ride a track straight from the 80's I thought I'd jump on the train and get Ramsey BMX track looking more like a BMX track than a cycle speedway circuit. For the purposes of a development plan (and sounding like I know what I'm doing) I've split the re-vamp into 5 stages.
So Stage 1 we did the week before the Brits, by sticking a roller in at the bottom of the start hill and changing the 1st double into a longer lower tripple, its worked pretty well and teched up the track a load, this small change is just the challenge the kids on the rock are needed, its brought on their riding loads in just a few weeks.
Stage 2, in the past couple of days I've had 180 tonnes of sub soil and hardcore dumped at the track. I headed over the track this morning with £100 cash in my pocket, the promise of a 5 tonne digger and driver and BIG plans. I talked the digger driver over my plans and he sorta went... "3 hours? Don't think so." Plans got adapted and sacrifices got made but we managed to get the main job done, a proper berm in the 1st corner. Now when you look at something in your head and think how it will look, is it normally smaller than it turns out? Well this is, seriously, chaos corner has nothing on the "wall of death", I can't wait to get it fine tuned, whack some surface on it and get it riding, its awesome. Max from Lezayre Landscapes who did phase one with me is coming on saturday with his mini digger and we're gonna get everything fine tuned as well as stick in a jump on the exit of the corner into the bomb hole.
Big shout out to Liam, who is gonna be getting his crowser game on next season as well as repping in 19+. Holla to Rich with his new haircut, friends soon to be in the Isle of Wan, and mega fast clock, like a week fast. Brrrrrap snap to Sutty, 2 chains in 2 weeks, and you say I've got too much power. OJ's also got a blog, check it. Keep an eye out for Ramsey BMX's new blogspot which will be coming soon, and check out manxcycling.com for all your IoM related news though its pretty bare. Infact, so many more blogs to check, whats Oggy.net been up2? Hoppy won a NBL race! What fly kit will I be buying for next season? And what THE lid will I be shelling out for after my near fatal accident last weekend? I'm sure I noticed something else I should be linking the other day, ah well if its you, im sorry, message me, I'm fickle, you can have a link if you ask nicely.

What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger

2008-09-23T03:55:00.000-07:00

It’s been a week since getting home from Coppull and what a fun week, not. Everyone has pretty much drifted back off to uni so the rock is getting quiet. Mums been off work all week cos she’s been ill so I was chauffeuring her round on Wednesday n get a phone call from Charlotte, “I’ve got a puncture, what do I do?” Tbh it didn’t take much persuading to get me to take the half hour drive to save her, beats cleaning horses. So went and sorted that to the tune of “so do boys get special classes at school to learn this stuff?” gotta love saving the day ha. But the price I paid for ditching mum was I had to go for a horse ride with her on Thursday, it’s been about 8 years since I last rode, n I remembered why about half an hour into getting ready, it just takes so dam long, getting them in, feeding them, putting all the stuff on, it’s such a ball ache, but meant I got to spend some time with mum which was good.

Did some work at the track on Saturday to make it ready for the Manx Champs on Sunday, just tidying up corners and throwing some surface down but it made for good racing come the 1st moto. So I’d got Skillz to come down and give this whole BMX thing a go, he rides downhill mainly but also hits the track up on his hardtail, he’s mad fast and I lent him me crowser for the day. I won the 1st two moto’s, but just before the 3rd the gate failed so we did dead man starts off the top of the hill, Skillz and Stephen got better starts than me, I passed Ste round the 1st corner but couldn’t get 1st, 1.1.2. in moto’s, to Skilly’s 2.3.1. It was grand prix so I had the advantage going into moto 4, I won, but Skilly’s gonna get a cruiser, do some gates over the winter with me and I don’t think I’m gonna catch him next year. Hopefully he'll be hitting up some nationals with me next year, repping Team IoM. Pic's right and below from last weekend at Coppull courtesy of rhodopsin.co.uk

Do things come in 3's? 3rd year in a row I’m club champ, I love it. I got a THE plate and £15 for winning, and a pair of Fly gloves courtesy of Ramsey Outdoors for getting the holeshot in the main. Winners in the other classes where Matt Black in the 6 and under, Tom Murray in the 8 and under and Brandon Cain in the 10 and under age group. A big thanks to Mark at Groove Racing who donated some prizes for the holeshot winners, so you know where to go for all your BMX racing needs. Anne Crain a local MHK came down and watched the whole days racing, she presented to prizes and really seemed to get into the spirit of things.

And 3rd time in 3 days riding that I've come off. After racing I was riding the 1st straight, and managed to snap my chain, it was right at the bottom of the start hill and going over the roller so there was no staying on, I remember seeing the ground and inch away from my face as my helmet slid along the floor, I’ve got a black eye, a cut above my other eye, grazes all down one arm and wrist, the other wrist is mega sore and doesn’t really move, I’ve pulled the muscles around my left hip and cut my knee pretty bad, and what have I learned from it all? No more XC chains. This one has lasted about 3 months, you save a couple of grams but lose ultimate strength, and with a chain there is no warning, nothing you can do, once its decided to go, your off and going down big.

So I’m really sore and feeling sorry for myself, went to a pub quiz with the lads last night, we got 3rd, and free chips. I could hardly lift my pint though which sucks. Got more big track plans this week, things are pushing forward and I’m excited, had some dirt dumped today and got shouted at by the grounds keeper for the park, I’ll explain more next time. L8rs

Number plates

2008-09-16T06:52:00.000-07:00

I can just see it now... "who's is that number plate? Its dead hard to read"
"its 110, thats Anthony Ives"
"ok, lets get him over and tell him because he's followed the rules and used big numbers that are a bit close it hurts my eyes." Gotta love it, ha. I'm pretty sure I heard Kelv gettin told off too, ha. The other good thing about number plates; just ordered 6 from mark at grooveracingshop.co.uk, for the Manx Champs which are happening this weekend, each catagory winner will get a #1 plate instead of trophies, cos lets face it, my shelves are getting slightly full ha. Cheers mark.

But back to the weekend, Thursday night I went out with everyone from back home before some of them went back to uni. Shauns back off to Leeds and Scott back to the Burgh, as well as other assorted locals town is gonna get very quiet in the next couple of weeks. So got back home about 11, got packed, went back out to nightlife to pick up my wages and finally hit the pillow at 2am, up at 0530 to make the boat and I was shattered. Met up with mum in Liverpool to do some shopping for work clothes and spend quality family time, I dont get to see mum enough so have to make the most of it when we're both at a loose end, plus it was her wallet that was out not mine. Went up to gates with mum at Coppull and rode, alot, being at home is great but boy my riding suffers. It takes about 20 laps to get confident to start to take off rather than 2. The track was riding sweet and I had a bed at Hotel Sutty for the weekend, whilst drifting off on Friday night I'd never have thought that I would be this close to a national win.

Saturday went good, moto's where ok and my 1st straight was keeping me in cruiser, a 2.2. in the 1st 2 moto's was ok, a bit of shoulder action with Kieron in the 3rd and an off and 5th left me with 7th pick for the main and an ice pack on my wrist. Gate 8 was open and to be honest I was counting my blessings, its way better than being on the outside. Snap, pull, power, next thing I know and everyones gone wide round the 1st corner and I'm side my side with Josh over the 3rd in joint 1st, he boomed the big step up and I couldn't get any pump off the downside, followed him round the 90 right and went up the inside to make the move, it didn't pay and left me too far back to compete for 1st in chaos corner. I quality race though, and fair play to Josh, the fastest cruiser yowth when he wants to be.

It was great staying with Roy and Co for the weekend, its such a relaxed vibe and a nice place to be, Shea is the best, always smilling and even helped me clean my ride on Saturday night. Jacob is the most modest British Champion ever even if he made me clean his bike too. The head of the house is obviously Dianne, ha, cheers for letting me stay. Sutty, well done on Sunday man, and cheers for everything, that girl in Liverpool wanted me and you know it.

Sunday wasn't so great at the track though, I had a big off in my 1st 19+ moto leaving me limping and with a huge need for a new set of race pants (thanks mum). So with the tags still hanging off my ass it was straight back up for cruiser, I only really wanted to qualify for the main so was just chilling, 3rd moto I put OJ off at chaos corner, sorry bud, couldn't resisit. Main time and I snapped ok, again from 8 but it didnt quite go the same, I got caught up in the bunch and was really hurting so ended up 6th and started shouting my mouth off over the finish line as Kieron had won, If you wanna read more on that its the last 2 paragraphs.

So I had a great weekend, thanks to Gav at bikevideos.co.uk for putting the 3 most important finals up first on Saturday night, cheers to Rich and Scott for the best comentary (you 2 on the mic are an unbeatable combination), thanks to the NEBMX crew for looking after my mum, she loved it, Reidy, cheers for letting me have a blast on the Dolan, rode sweet, cant wait till I get mine ;) and again, thanks to the Sutty's.

So see ya'll at Preston, I've got some fun to have.

So the controversy on Sunday regarding me and my big mouth, during one of my cruiser moto's I thought I'd heard Kieron's shifter working overtime, after hearing from a "reliable source" that his shifter didnt work I didn't think anything of it untill Dan P said he'd heard it too, so I went and asked Kieron was he shifting, he said yer! Whats he playin at? For one, he really needs to start hitting gates if he's using different gears for the start hill and the rest of the track if he's still getting pulled. The way I see it, no matter how close his bike is to a cruiser; 24" wheels, his "forks were pretty much locked out" and whether he's shifting or not, its still not a cruiser, its a mountain bike! My mates have seen pictures of Kieron racing before and think its wack, "what a 4Xer doing at a BMX race?" and these guys ride, let alone trying to explain it to the girls that dont understand the difference between BMX and downhill, "but its just riding bikes isn't it?" Yer it is, and I've never complained at regional level before, or even been that bothered when he's turned up at nationals, because I was under the impression that the reason he wasn't buying a cruiser was because he has no money, so assumed (yer i know, assumption is the mother of all fcuk ups) that he wasn't going to follow the national circus around, its an expensive game and all.

But now he can get a ranking and will probably push people who have supported the series all year round (OJ and Twarn) down a ranking place I think something needs saying. I'm pretty gutted for OJ to be honest, he's in 9th spot and needs a good result to move up to 8th otherwise he wont get anything to show for this year. Even if not OJ, there are 8 BMXers who've qualified for an end of year trophy, one of which wont get one because of Kieron. Anyhow, I was pissed cos he won, and I told him, better that than be one of these people that says stuff about people rather than too them. I'll be e-mailing the commission after Preston asking for a rule change, BMX should be looking forward and at a national level shouldn't want to rely on mtb's.

Written On Friday

2008-09-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

Ok so, all the pictures are sideways, yer i know, i've been on the picasa website and tried to rotate them but it aint having any of it, just at hotel sutty and loving it, expect that write up another time, and i'll sort it out tomorrow, but for now if you recon your neck can take it, tilt to the right, and this is where i was at on friday...

You're Freakin Me Out, You Wore A Mask Called Counterfit

2008-09-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

So went for the interview for this job as ESO at QEII yesterday, all tarted up n lookin pretty slick, i'm pretty young and inexperienced at this whole interview lark, never mind looking after kids with autism so knew I had it against me. Walked in, and was so nervous, they picked up on it straight away, "dont worry, we're not looking to trip you up". It was my first interview for a proper job so had nothing to gauge it against, it went ok I guess. They pointed out that my CV was written pretty badly but full of so much quality content that they couldn't pass me up and wanted to get me in to see if I could put what was on the paper into what they where looking for in the role. Loads of challenging questions and me being conscious of talking too much, it went ok. I headed over to Douglas to catch up with Charlotte who's just got back from the states, waited around all afternoon with her n Becky, nervously for the phone call, I only went and bloody got the job. So chuffed its mental, so now I've gotta wait for all the paper work to be sorted and I start in a couple of weeks. So yer, I'm 1:1 on the interview to job ratio scale, wooop.

In other news, its ERA this weekend, I think, there is stuff on the website but not much talk of it anywhere else. From the looks of it its part of a bike festival in Kingston Canada, in my eye's the way elite racing should be to get it to the masses. Go211 dont seem to be covering it, so I guess we'll have to find the video's next week. For more, obviously head over to BMXtalk to hear all the latest bull and e-heroes opinions. oooo I sound so bitter, but seriously, this event looks awesome with some great riders rumoured to be going, can Clayton still pull? His names not on any rider list I can find, but he's still Doc Smooth right? Well Cisar is gonna be there and that boy has mad skills.

Can't wait for Coppull, I know i'm not riding great but its just being there, I'm gonna love it, can go for a coffee with John B and watch some quality racing. Just been looking at Abi's pics and the track looks to be running smooth, cant find any video though so lets see how that last straight works, I've heard things but havent got any closer than the title pic, looks shrweet though. So the question is... One footer or about to fall off mate?

Its raining here, had 50 tonnes of dirt dropped at the track on wednesday and its gotta be dry before we can do anything with it, sad face. Big downhill race on sunday, no doubt i'll post pics. l8rs

From bad to worse... NOT

2008-09-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

Just a quick one, I'm up at scotts watchin mtb DVDs, I've had loads of thoughts for my caddy but dont have one, which sucks. On the top of my head is that I've gone from being a no hoper uni drop out to, Junior Cycling Development Officer for the island and I've got an interview tomorrow for an Education Support role at QEII high school, seriously, I'd be soooo happy if I got it. all my worries would be gone. But dont wanna jinx myself so not gonna say too much, talking of jinx though, one of the favours i'm doing for mum this week is looking after one of her friends who's on holidays kitten, called jinx, how do i get roped into this stuff?

But on the bad side, mum went away for 2 weeks today on the 3 o'clock boat, I get a phone call at 1 from her whilst I'm at work; "can I borrow your car?" It appears that the gearbox has fallen out of the megan, a four day turn around and about £1200, so after abit of panic she did the sensible thing, and bought another car, yer thats 5 cars between the 3 of us now. WTF? I guess we'll sort it out when she's back. So other things on the list of stuff i'm doing for mum include, looking after her 2 dogs for the full 2 weeks, looking after someone else's dog this weekend :S sorting her horses for a couple of days, taking her boss out to the horses to make sure she is capable of riding, oh yer, and looking after this kitten.

Coaches night out was last friday, had a laugh with the guys, not many people turned up though, spent saturday recovering from a mammoth hangover and then worked till 4 at shiters, got covered in blue stuff as there where smurfs out for a mates birthday, and some 35 year old bird would not leave me alone, plus a girl i got with a couple of weeks ago was all "why havent you called?" its this small pond, i cant escape. This sunday coming is the Isle of Man Downhill national so I'm gonna go and marshal for scott and watch some mint racing apparently, they've built the course especially for the race so it should be a good one.

Anyhow, I've gotta go cram for my interview, anyone know anythin about ASD's?

I need a writers caddy

2008-08-26T08:09:00.000-07:00

That’s right, you read the title correctly, I’m after a pen fairy to follow me round with a selection of fine biro’s and such so when I have an idea I can write it down. You know when so much goes on in your head you forget most of it, that’s exactly the problem I have, or maybe the blessing? Is it that I forget most of it because its utter garbage? Well to a couple of those things I’ve forgotten here goes;

Oggy, if my memory serves me correctly I didn’t put you on my list of people to thank a few weeks ago, or maybe I did, but I’m currently on the floating slave ship from Liverpool to the rock with no internet access so who knows, but if not here’s a special shout out to the legend himself. I still remember 3 years ago when I rocked up at Bradford for gates and you where there, it was crazy. I’d looked up to you for years; even sold my soul to get a 24/7 Oggy Special 4X bike for Christmas and ended up with a DDG shooter instead, apparently my soul wasn’t worth that much. It was like meeting David Beckham or some other generic icon type guy, except you are the real deal, and a couple of years later a true friend, cheers for everything dude. Or maybe I did mention you before and that was just a pointless rant, see, I need some sort of magical help.

The brits, again. Farran, dude your pull this weekend was great, but every time you get on the track I worry your gonna do something stupid. This weekend you held you own man, that move in the final was great, showed full on composure. Great racing bruv. Nate, you where the under-dogg (sorry) for sure in that run off but again made it count, great move man, the crowd loved it, n it’s good to see you in an elite main. There’s a load more but I’ve forgotten, ha.

I’m still gutted for Jordan Perry, and pissed off at the same time, I haven’t seen any video but I’m convinced the result should stand, like I said before, if we’re gonna DQ people for making moves, especially when they are blatantly faster on certain sections, then we’re gonna get the follow the leader style racing that no-one wants. On the plus side, you can definitely tell he’s been attending some route55 one to ones.

Oooooo another thing, John Butterfield, thanks for the call today, It’s nice to know you check wan.com, even if today was the first time, ha. Again, you’re up there with Oggy, maybe not in the “wow aren’t you ....?” but for sure in the friends I’m gonna miss category. Ok so there are quite a few of you, but you’re a special bunch, remember that. Yer even you Owen, and I’m gonna try and get back soon.

Next questions, who’s going pro next year? Which pro’s are gonna call it a day? Will any pro’s hit up the Manchester SX pro line? How will the 16 year old Talent Team guys get on in Junior? Oh hang on, there are still 3 races to go, this is strange, the brits is normally where all the fun stops and the winter begins so all these stupid questions get brought up to make those early nights pass by faster. Only one question then... Will BC allow Tambo to go pro at Coppull and keep his junior points now he has the title all sewn up? I don’t think so, but they should!

P.S. just spell checked this and Microsoft wants me to replace Oggy with Orgy, hope that made you smile if nothing else has.

P.P.S. just checked my Lets Not Forget post, yer i thanked Oggy, oh well, count yourself twice as lucky mate.

Im cursed

2008-08-24T14:50:00.000-07:00

Peter-bro was ace, really smooth run weekend with a super smooth feel to the whole event, big up to all those involved. So Friday was pretty laid back, I travelled down with loads of time to spare just to get the tent up and chillax some, practice was hard, going home is like takin those 2 steps back for every one step forward, yer there is alot to be said about havin a decent track to ride but if your not riding with your buddies your not gonna stay to the same level you can be at, so I really had it against me, 6 weeks out, a lame track to ride when I could get back on and no-one to ride with then, this was gonna be a long weekend getting back into the swing of things. Friday practice session was pretty laid back too, for everyone, just a nice place to be, loads of smiling faces, I was trying to get my gates back to some sort of decent standard and get the 3rd straight semi dialled. Met up with Jez after practice for dinner and a catch up, its good to be brought back upto speed by someone in the know.

Saturday was abit more panicked, on Friday night some local youth rode off on a race bike in a hurry down a lane near the track, anyhow I spotted his mate and a few of us followed him to a house to see if we could get the bike back, instead of confront him we left it, well lets face it, no-one had said their bike was missing. So Saturday we found out it was stolen and the local wannabe cop wanted me to show him where the house was, instead of coming with me to the house he hid round the corner whilst I got the house number and street name, my last words to him; "if you hear me shout, I'm being stabbed". They went in the house later on but didn't find anything. Remember kids, keep hold of ur ride. So Saturday practice for the manx youths and they looked out of sorts, the track is a million miles from Ramsey in techincality, and the guys just havent had enough riding at this level, come Sunday though they all did themselves proud with some making semi's, which for a small club aint all that bad.

My Sunday though was slightly different, well lets face it, I'm not meant to make the main at the brits, Cheddar 05 - moto'd, Harworth 06 - 5th in semi, Burnham 07 - 5th in semi, oh yer, you guessed it, Peterborough 08 - 5th in semi. I'm not as down about it as i was last year though, cruiser was stacked this year with 32 riders, a couple of which where pro sandbaggers. I was happy to make it to the semi's but after being in 4th for most of the lap to getting a move made on me in the last corner to slow me down so i get passed on the line was abit upsetting. It was however probably my best lap of the day so I can't really complain. Twarn, what happened to you? Andy Clucas, could have won the main, what the hell happened? Josh, wtf? big names not makin the semi's let alone the main.

Jacob Robert's, your a legend full stop! 3rd in the 1st corner and I have to admit, I was slightly concerned. Jordan, in the 13's, smoothed the 3rd straight like only a pro could, only to get DQ'd for going off the course whilst in the air? Seriously officials, what? Its moves like that that make racing exciting, if you keep DQing people the moves are gonna become less and less and people will stop watching, if thats the way you want it take the corners out, and give everyone lanes. Paddy, nice once footer kid, gutted for you going down. Reidy doubling up and making both mains, your the man. Farran, that move in the last corner was epic, 4th to 2nd, wooooooooooop. And Kelvin, you killed it, your at the top of your game, fuck BC, keep going man. Your an inspiration to all, I wish you the best of luck with route55. See ya'll at Coppull

2008-08-21T16:58:00.000-07:00

So what’s the story morning glory? Things are great still I guess, just on the boat at the moment, taking a break from writing the Junior Development Plan for the I.o.M. Cycling Association, long story, I’ll explain later. Work is going well; it’s the coaches’ night out next Friday and the tripod that is Helen, Nicola and I where on full organising duties last night, we finally agreed on a lifeguard theme which should be a laugh. Was doing a multi sport session at QEII today for 8 – 11’s, one of the kids said it was the worst session he’d ever been on, granted he was stuck on the losing team and didn’t appreciate his twin sister beating him at most sports. But the same kids are on this boat and have come over and said hi, even the miserable one has cheered up in the past 2 hours. On reflection all three of this brothers and sister duo had a good day which is great from my point of view, it’s nice to know that their getting something out of my time.

So the JDP, Mike Doyle is the IOM CA’s head coach and he came down to the track on Sunday to say hi whilst we we’re doing a pre brits training session and track maintenance day, oh yer, after finishing work at 4 am on Friday I was at the track at 9 to start work on changing the 1st straight, I was the hands and Max from Lezayre Landscapes was the digger driver. Headed over the mountain to get some stuff from bikestyle for the brits, as they are sponsoring the club riders with water bottles and go bars etc. So after a weekend of hard work the track now has a roller and a BIG triple on the 1st straight, which riders pretty sweet, I’m leaving it for a weeks to settle in and will go back next week to re surface it.

So Ramsey's 1st straight now has a roller and a big tripple, im slightly concerned its a bit too big but oh well. The Brits are this weekend, if I can find enough money to scrape together to pay my phone bill I’ll be doing blog updates, if not, well... you’ll all be there. I’m shattered and boat is just nearing Liverpool, better head. Oh my, i've just read it, im so boring now, please someone help me, I want cutting edge journalism and i get no inspiration, hopefully i'll be buzzing in 2 hours, c'mon shinny!

Lets not forget

2008-08-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

First off, before you read this you have to understand that although it may sound like a sad story I'm really happy. So I guess I better drop the bomb... I'm not going back to Uni, or Leeds for that matter. Stop. Digest. Ok. So last Thursday I was driving home from work and thinking how much I was getting out of coaching and seeing the kids happy, for the first time in ages i felt like i was achieving something with my time, i got home and got the letter through from uni saying that because of getting bad grades two years in a row on a core module that they weren't allowing me to continue, after loads of thought it isnt such a bad thing, I've had my 3 years in Leeds and I've pretty much loved every minute of it, there have been the all-nighters up doing work which havent been so great, but on the flip side I have an unlimited amount of happy memories of some of the best times of my 21 years.

Being in the real world I'm gonna go out, get a job and help people, I dont have to delay it any more with pointless lectures to get a rediculously overpriced piece of paper. As I said before its a great place but I've had my chance and its over. I have however met people who I'm not sure how I'm going to survive without. To the boys; going out will never be the same again, my happiest nights have been with you lot, the incubus gig, haloween next door, many a poker night, those nights at Hi-fi and just waking up knowing your surrounded by friends. Helen; you work so hard and deserved that 1st, sorry I won't be around to save you from burglars and let you cry on my white shirts. Charlotte and Emily; God knows how you'll survive without me, just look after each other and I'm only a call away. Plus I'll be back in freshers week to try it on with all your mates.

Next to the thing I'm really going to miss the most, the BMX community. So many thank you's, so many sorry's. In no particular order, Ian T, Oggy, Jez, Sutty and Co, Mr n Mrs Flip, Mrs Strick, Nigel S and Mr Butterfield thank you for everything, I wouldnt be where I am today if it wasn't for you guys giving me lifts, advice and inspiration. And thanks to the rest of you, from all over the country for being part of the BMX family that I've been part of for the past 3 years, Ok so I was an annoying little brat back in 05, and now I'm an annoying big brat. When i get myself sorted out and have some money behind me I'll be back, and bigger and faster than ever.

Whats next? The sports development job I've got is just for the summer so in September I'm looking to start a full time job, just browsing the paper for careers, the plan is to get a role in education or sport, a teaching assistant or learning support seems to be a good plan at the moment. Give me a shout if you hear of anything, in England or on the rock, I'm as free as a bird and will go where the work is.

As to how life is for me apart from that, its summer and I'm loving it, I raced for the 1st time in a month on Sunday, I was shattered by the last straight and really am not fit but my shoulder was ok, and I won, just. Work is going great, as well as the Mtb course we do (see title pic), I ran 2 Cycle Skills sessions on Monday with all the kids loving every minute and I got a load of possitive feedback from the parents, its nice to be appreciated. All the other coaching is going good, I even did a cricket session yesterday. I'm making new friends at work, got a boosh night planned next week, woop. Sessions at the track are going well with 11 riders planning on hitting the brits, on Monday I had a 4 year old jumping the small table top, with the older riders getting some air over a bar, check Luke Murray doing his thing.

And my friends are great, Rowe laughed a little too much when i told the boys in the pub about the whole fail thing but its all good banter, went down the beach on saturday before hitting town, I love life. ON a geekier note, blogger aint letting me upload pics so these are from photobucket, its not great quality web editing but it'll do.

Whats up, Bradford, whats up?

2008-07-25T04:12:00.000-07:00

I really want to just be getting into my car and heading down that 4 hour drive to Burnham but instead im stuck on the rock with my stupid shoulder injury. Had physio again yesterday with another load of ultrasound, Hannah said that I could give up with the rubber band and start doing some strength and conditioning work in the gym instead which rocks, but pressing 30k on each arm I can only hit 16 before it starts to hurt, this is gonna be a long road to recoveryville. But when im fit i can get back to Radford and ride there, this pic is a couple of weeks old but things look to be in good shape, the north is where its at, Manchester, Bradford, Leeds, Preston, Preston, Coppull, thats 6 tracks that could happily hold a national, even Crewe, wooooop.

Not only is it national time weekend but its the Red Bull Empire of Dirt comp down in Cider country, check the Video Gallery, it just takes smooth to another level. Anyhow I'm not where its happening, I'm on the rock, was out in town last night for dinner with a friend before she goes off to Turkey, it was the end of term at my old secondary school and the teachers where out in force, had a catch up with some of them after dinner, its so much easier to get on with them when their not telling you their right all the time and you know they're not. 52 states Darren, 52 states! Philli and the girls are back from euro-tripping so caught up with them which was cool too. Anyhow my aunty has split with her boyf an is moving into our spare room so im off to do some heavy lifting and general man stuff. Scotts back tommorrow so i assume beer is on the cards.

Freestylers - Push Up Word Up - Freestylers

Oh and go out and buy Ultimate Streetdance its been blasting the speakers in my car for a week or so and im not even slightly bored.

Back on track, kind of

2008-07-22T07:07:00.000-07:00

Im gonna ride my bike this weekend, I've decided! So i was riding up to the hospital on Monday for my physio thinking to myself, "hmmmm, as long as this isnt a complete write off I may sneak on the boat on Thursday and make it down to Burnham" no chance, after gettin poked and proded for half an hour, Hannah, the lovely red head appointed to make me better had talked down any hopes of racing for 3 weeks. So i've got a 3 week course of physio that entails playing with an elastic band and getting ultra-sound, but im not pregnant?! I never really noticed how much you need full body fitness to ride, you know? legs to pedal and hands to grip, you can ride whatever else just not as good, not so true, last week i could just about make it to the shops.

Was Jenny's 21st BBQ on Saturday, was a really good afternoon/night. The sun was out and I "borrowed" the PA from the BMX club so we had some serious base. Jen seemed to have a really good night which is all that matters i guess. Rumour has it Joe (right) didn't make it home, but i'll discuss that with him at the gym tonight. I dont remember much past bar logo which is never good, I'm gonna go easy on the boose now for a while, its not big or clever, and the phone call i made at 3 in the mornin for a booty call did not need to be made, no-one should ever be that drunk. Especially as I had my gym induction at 10 the following morning, I headed over to the track after that to be call up boy and finish line girl for the days racing, some of the littluns are looking really strong this year with some krazy last straight sprint. Then back to bed for the rest of Sunday afternoon before my top gear fix.

After physio on Monday i headed up to MSR office in douglas as their re-introducing a "cycle skills" coaching session for the summer holidays and wanted to talk things over with me as i'll be lead coach. Spent an hour talking to Gianni about what we could do and how to get more numbers involved, as well as being part of MSR Gee is also the Cycling Associations Developement Officer so we get on quite well. Anyhow, i spent this morning putting together a lesson plan for these 2 hour sessions so there is some sort of lay out if i get sick. Who'd have thunk that I'd be advising the Sports Developement Unit on how to plan sessions, that should look great on my CV.

I'm gutted that i'll not make it back to Burnham this year, it's a great venue and always gets some good racing, plus there's always a pretty girl or two to be found. To all the guys going to Burnham have a great time and good luck, to all those not going - sorry the blog updates wont be bringing you the news as it happens.

The best thoughts come at the worst times

2008-07-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

This occurred to me the other day whilst being bummed out about not getting to ride, it’s been 2 weeks and I’ve been on my bike once, that was just a ride to the shops and it hurt like hell. Is it a case that you think more clearly when down and out or that mediocre idea’s just seem better because of your state of despair? I’m not clinically depressed, or even miserable by the standards of some people I know who have problems controlling their emotions. As it is I’m a pretty laid back kind of guy, not much gets me down, or not so my friends would notice, I get on with it and try to make the most of a bad situation. Because of the whole not riding thing my mind has been on bikes just as much if not more than usual... Can you crown an all round MTB race king? Like a big race weekend where everyone competes in all categories for the one title. DH, XC, 4X, but not with points for positions but maybe percentage scores on times or something? In retrospect, an alright idea but more of a conversation starter whilst pushing a big rig up the fire road at Brookdale, than motivation to get started on event organisation and sponsorship.

On the other hand a not so middle of the road idea was the light bulb that appeared above my head whilst sat having a coffee at work one day staring out into the square watching the minions go about their routine. Pump tracks have been fashionable for a year or so now and instead of riding recently I’ve had time to put pen to paper, in a hunt for a space to stick one I found my mind wandering to a spot where their are some trials, see previous post. The downside to this location is that it is on a hill, after a couple of no go’s I finally got a decent track sorted that could have worked and still meant no pedalling. It took 24 hours, give or take, but then it hit me that I had a BMX track with land in the middle and an idea that instead of benefiting me and my buddies could get used by some of the younger kids to really bring on some skills, so its sorted and I dug the 1st burm yesterday, woop, woop.

So what else has been going on? Helen came to the rock to see what it was like, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself, Georgia, Helen and I went to the Wildlife Park, it was awesome, there where penguins, a duck goose, snakes (see top pic), bats and a miniature donkey with a twinkle in his eye and a not so miniature length, hilariousness ensued. Had my follow up appointment this morning with the doctor, re: sore shoulder, he said he was happy with the range of movement, the x-ray on the day looked like it could be really messed up but seems ok now but that I've got about another 4 weeks till I can ride. I've got a physio session on Monday, and unless anythin major happens between now and then I'll be missing out on what will most likely be the best national of the year. The latest I recon I can leave it is next wednesday before makin up my mind, so its a case of I'll decide then, its taken a couple of days for me to realise it too, I truely am gutted.Apart from that it's been pretty boring on the rock, I worked the final shift at the royal before it got shut for a 3 month re-furb on Sunday night, had a pretty cool talk with the boss about the state of things in Ramsey and other fun drink related topics, also managed to get quite alot of cool pub stuff, JD playing cards, assorted pint and whisky glasses, a nightlife poster for Shaun, and some pretty retro pub artwork to stick wherever in Estcourt Terrace when I eventually get back. Jenny is finally turning 21 and the party if anything like her 18th should be off the chain.

On the rock

2008-07-09T04:14:00.000-07:00

Havent ridden in a week and i'm clawing at the walls. There is only so much more i can take before im just gonna go on a bike ride of any sort, jees it may even be just on the road, my shoulder is still in no state to hit the track. Racing was cancelled on Sunday because of the bad rain but in the phone call round to tell everyone it was decided that we'd do a gate practice on Monday evening, we must have done 10 or so gate sessions last year with maybe 6 kids turning up to each, so when 22 turned up on Monday night I had to change plans pretty quickly, then the worst thing ever happened, the rivets started falling out of the gate so it was a case of plan a skills session for 22 littluns, worked okay though and we're on again for Sunday, hopefully the gate will be fixxed and we can split the kids abit better.

Was up in Douglas doing the SCUK Safeguarding and Protecting Children in sport workshop last night it was OK I guess, just one of those things you have to keep upto date on to stay insured, the main crazy point of my night was getting back to Ramsey, for those of u in the UK, Douglas is a half hour drive from where I live, or an hour bus ride, but the busses are a joke, by the time i got to the bus station at 2125 the next bus wasnt untill 10 to 11, so i figured I'd walk the bus route and hitch when I could.

I'd never even consider hitchin in the UK but on the rock its a whole different story and i'm not that adverse at all, by the time I got onto a main road out of town I started thumbing and the 8th car picked me up, a young lad in a yellow MG rover 200 copy thing, he dropped me off about 10 minutes up the road but it really made a difference, filled me with confidence, then i got a phone call from Scott who told me I was stupid for doing it and he was coming to pick me up, I wandered along abit more and managed to blag a lift to the other side of Laxey which was cool, then met Scott and went for chinese. Cheers to the 2 guys that picked me up, its a nice reminder that even in this age of knife crime and car theives that there still are alot of nice people out there, get out and meet them.

Check the cruiser final from Hartlepool and all the other finals at bikevideos.co.uk. Ok it wasnt the best lap in the world, Dan P had a good line round that 1st corner, 4th to 2nd is all good, 3rd to 4th, i wasn't so pleased with. Just gotta hope my shoulder heals up for Burnham now, for me thats where this year is gonna be won or lost.

Pick a berm

2008-07-03T05:12:00.000-07:00

Yet again I’m sat on the boat blogging, but with no idiot women distracting me, Shaun’s watching The Unit, but subtitles just don’t do it for me, “oorah”. When did I last do an update? Sunday I guess, there were about 6 of them this weekend, and it seems to keep the fans happy, well Oggy likes it anyhow, talking of the Bradford #1, he’s off to Mega Avalanche this weekend, probably the toughest downhill race in the world, good luck pro.

So this weekend, it was crazy, some proper racing, 6 straights, 5 dirt berms, 300 people, and a forecast for heavy showers on Sunday. Luckily the weather held off and the racing went down a treat, the Elite guys had it all on the line and it made for some pretty rare action, Lawrence wasn’t doing so well in the moto’s and Harrison Brit was killing it, I thought it was all over for Mappy but he found form main time and took the money and the place in Switzerland. But 6 riders, what the hell? It was about quarter to four on Saturday and I was registering, it was so tempted to go elite, I’m not chasing points in 19+ and there is pay out for top 8 no matter who turns up, I like a laugh as much as the next guy but I wasn’t up for making that much of a fool of myself.

For me this weekend was about making up for missing Chesterfield and getting back in the top 4. After being at home for a month and not really riding much I wasn’t on it at all, my snap was wack and what if was lacking in gate technique I sure as hell didn’t make up for with 1st straight pull. Slow doesn’t cover it, I went for it pretty hard on Friday night really pushing myself and had a bit of a rest on Saturday, come moto time though it didn’t really pay off, 1st cruiser race and I was in 4th, Snazel got a great snap, Chad was playing on his new dialled and Dan Pople was ahead of me as well. After that hiccup though I found some form and got 2 3rds, 5th pick, Dan went in 6 which left me with 4, my gates still were not great but the outside really is a long way away. Chad won, Pople in 2, and the MTBer from Crewe in 3rd, I thought he was only going to ride a couple of races this year but it seems like he’s going for it, now he’s starting to influence points is it not time he got a cruiser?

As always 19+ was a laugh, especially as I had no pace what so ever, ended up locking elbows with Chad in my 3rd moto but couldn’t put him over the corner, it’s a long way down. That’s the thing with the UK atm, we’re all really matey, and no-one seems to want it that bad, I’m not sure if I could put someone over a berm; we’ll just have to wait and see. There's only one guy I'd put over a turn and that's this slow youth, he's just gotta get ahead of me.

Got home safe Sunday night after a petrol related diesel incident with CK and the Peckham crew, cheers guys, I owe you. Moved house Monday which was cool, the new place rocks, expect lots of stories from 22, Escort Terrace. The only thing is my room is on the ground floor to accommodate for the bikes and its strange, people just wandering past, I’ll get used to it I guess. So after a busy Monday and Tuesday getting moved and unpacked we had a BBQ then I went over to Fearnville to do some gates, the gate wasn’t happening but Jez and the guys where sessioning the 3rd straight, so I played ball and joined in, then we hit the last straight backwards, after a few runs the pace started to pick up and I was chasing Jordan round from behind the start hill full chat over the finish line backwards and then into the 1st double, we both manualled but I was going that little bit faster than Jordan, tried braking mid manual bonked the front wheel down, bounced of the lip and hit the next roller with a massive bang, winded myself and banged up my shoulder and helmet pretty bad. After inspecting my helmet it just shows why we wear full faces, I’d have been eating through a straw without it. My shoulder is still killing so I’m gonna pop by the hospital on the way home, I refused to go to LGI last night as the waiting times are huge. Played poker one handed instead and won so many hands on the river card, I’d had my bad luck for the day and took home the money.

Anyhow, keep checking back; rumour has it there is a meeting this week with Douglas Corporation about a BMX track they’re wanting to do, I wonder if their ready to hear the number’s I’ve got in mind.

Part 2

So ended up going to the hospital yesterday, the doc told me I'd broken my collar bone, I said I hadnt as i had to race in 2 and a half weeks, 2 x-rays later and he was more into my way of thinking, no brake but quite abit of damage to my acromioclavicular ligament, the doctor recons if this doesnt heal quick the other ligaments in my shoulder will pull my arm out of place, bad one. ah well, im in a sling n taking drugs so all is good. This doc however was in the know, he was talking about BMX racing and saying that he'd heard about the Brits in Peterbro', it just seems to me that BMX is becoming more and more mainstream again, this is a good thing for sure. Parting shot, W5 Ivesy changing his tires for the dirt berms, see ya'll at Burnham ha

Elite main 3

2008-06-29T06:46:00.001-07:00

Mappy wins dan 2nd, u do the points. Carnage in the 1st corner but i recon lawrence is of to switzerland. Flem wins 19s. Jason fay 15.16s, jessop masters, i got 4th

2nd main

2008-06-29T06:23:00.001-07:00

White, mapp, brit 1 2 3

1st main

2008-06-29T05:54:00.003-07:00

Mappy, brit, cal, 1 2 3

Elite moto's

2008-06-29T04:28:00.001-07:00

With only 6 in elite the moto's have been for gate pic in the mains. Harry Brit has had 1.1.3. and i guess will have 1st pic, he's lookin fast and my money is on him. Although dan white and gamble are on a mission and all about carving line's round these tight hartlepool burms.

6 elite riders

2008-06-28T15:22:00.001-07:00

Daz reid is here and lookin fast, 19+ and cruiser expert is on for a double win. So in the mix in elite 2morow; gamble, tuffs, strickand, white, mapp and harry brit has made the trip over to get some olympic fame. Not only that but against a weakened GB squad, i'm not a massive fan of rumours but flem text Twarn a picture of a broken hand/wrist earlier this evenin. Kelvin has come off in switzerland and hurt himself bad, it really does suck, bad luck man, get well soon. Remember guys, check back tomorrow for updates as they happen.

Hoops are where its at

2008-06-28T06:24:00.000-07:00

So got to hartlepool last night, chilled abit, rode abit, snapped abit. The track was ridin sweet last night with everythin jumpin nice, the corners are startin to carve slightly so racin is gonna be krazy. I wouldn't wanna be refin elite. Suttys turned up wit some stickers so i'm happy. 2 n half hours to gates, what to do

TJ Lavin - Soldier : a tribute to Stephen Murray

2008-06-26T06:52:00.001-07:00

watch it, tell your friends, do whatever you can

OH MY GAYS

2008-06-25T05:24:00.000-07:00

So I’m sat on the boat, slightly grumpy after having to empty mum’s car of horse paraphernalia to fit bike, rucksack and I at 0645. Anyhow, made the boat and sat down to a breakfast bap, coffee and a fresh copy of Dirt, nothing could go wrong, could it? Short of scolding my face off with my coffee I couldn’t be more annoyed than I am at the moment, I can’t hear myself read thanks to conversations of the most irritating people I’ve had the displeasure of breathing the same air as in a while. So... do you want my opinions or my life story?

Well, Phlegmdog seems to think my opinions share a resemblance to nails on a chalk board, if you’re of a similar disposition click BMXtalk and remember, you’re entitled to your own opinion as long as it doesn’t contradict his. Basically the threesome sat on the table opposite ruining my life have way too much money and think they’re better than everyone else, “I’m over educated for most jobs”, “when I was at my house in southern France”, “I’m meeting mummy for lunch in London” argh, people stuck in the past. I’m all about keeping culture in the UK but people like this really aren’t a great representation of today’s Britain, Ok their not coke dealers or carrying knives but how do they add to society? The more I ponder about it the more I’m starting to analyse myself and start to notice my bad points, I’m just the same, offering my mixed up ideas to anyone who’ll listen/read. Luckily though, the tapping of my keyboard is muting out the nasal word vomit that is coming out of these twits.

So talking of my bad points, I’ve got all these idea’s that I’m quite adamant about, new school is the way forward, faster is better, clips are cool, are these all wrong? There are some people who believe so, cant these people stick to the trails? First things first, new school, the US Olympic team kit is everywhere at the moment, and after disregarding it as looking like pyjamas when I first saw it, its really grown on me, it’s clear, bold and not old school at all but retro, I love it.

Going faster? I was convinced that Crewe didn’t work as a race track as you didn’t have to pedal your ass off to get over the jumps, on reflection is this just another style of racing, a progression even, having to slow down to hit jumps and get the most out of downsides, is it just like in moto-GP, having to select different speeds for different corners? OK maybe not the TV spectacle of the SX start hill and jumps over berms but... Does it open up the possibility of busting moves in corners, slowing right down then getting a couple of cranks in, hitting a double, boosting downside and being back up to race speed?

As for clips, well that debate is played, and my opinion has been swayed both ways in the past three years, that’s the thing with me, I am open to change, it’s how things develop, so don’t make a decision and take it as gospel for the rest of your days, go back and re-evaluate in 6 months, the equation may have changed.

Honey, i'm home

2008-06-24T11:55:00.001-07:00

So we're here at preston and its pretty rad. The 2nd n 3rd straights don't just have deciders, they are deciders, a massive steep step up and the step up into the berm is much bigger. The 3rd has 2 medium steep doubles, do em or get smoothed. I'm ridin like dog shite, dylan has made it look easy n every1 else is in the middle. OJ is rockin Hermans cruiser, marco is in attendance, the green machine has blonde hair, sharpy is pullin and i'm off to lancaster. I wrote a killer blog whilst on the boat, stay tuned.

Blogging is for people with a life

2008-06-18T07:39:00.001-07:00

After Jack e-mailed me to tell me that my blogging game was weak recently instead of bore you with well, boring stuff really i'm gonna keep it quiet for a while. Just some advice for now, when your bank account says you have £500 then you spend £500 and it says you have £1000, your in the red, stop spending and sell some stuff! So apart from being up shit creek without a boat let alone a paddle, all is good, got my coaching confirmed for the summer holidays which is ace, before uni teaching was an option and i never really thought about full time coaching but its brilliant, I'm not even bothered if its not a sport I'm 100% behind, just seeing the kids enjoying themselves is great.

Talking of coaching 3 youths turned up to Ramsey's 1st training session on Tuesday, apparently this clashes with the track riders we've got so they wanna do that instead. Anyhow, after running that i did some sprints on the prom and chain came off when i got to full whack, so lucky not to eat concrete, was spinning out and i guess thats the only thing that kept me on.

Getting back to Leeds next Tuesday, so expect to see me soon

Told you that was the end

2008-06-12T05:02:00.001-07:00

I walked to work on Monday night at 6 pm through the middle of Ramsey and passed 4 people, there are 10,000 that live here, where the hell are they?
This pic is of the park just 10 days ago. I cant believe how dead it is now, so it seems I'm really gonna have to make my own fun, which for the next hour means sitting watching the apprentice on Iplayer as i was at the gym last night.

I've had TT off for riding and gyming it and all that, and I feel it, its only been 2 and a half weeks but im caked, i rode 10 minutes to the gym last night, did some upper body, a few low weight over head squats and some plyo and flet ok. I'm using the gym in one of mum's friends garages, its pretty basic but does what i need, they have a gym bike and i was sitting spinning off as dave was doing the bench, "ooo how fast are you going? I average 43kph, we think it only goes to 50" says his missus, strapped my feet in, and 72.8kph later we found out it went a little faster. So thought i'd do some sprints on the way home, bad one, i feel like i've lost all my leg speed and threw up on my doorstep.

I watched the video's from chessy the other day, cruiser looked good, 19+ scott killed it, and elite... main 1, what the hell was tuffy doing? maybe it was just the camara angle but that wasnt a move, that was a deliberate KO and i'd have DQ'd him for it. but thats just me, woop woop, i get my 1st race at ramsey this year on sunday, i'll let u all know how it goes.

Thats whats up

2008-06-08T08:51:00.001-07:00

TT is over and the rock is back to being boring, have been working the afternoon shift in the pub all week and its been dead, giving me time to read the independent and watch the extreme channel. There was a good article in the paper about things that have died a death in modern society that we should try and bring back, it all came about because orange sales have fallen because we cant be bothered to peel them, so for me its back to making fruit smoothies, having a proper wet shave and getting up an hour earlier to walk the dogs and have a proper breakfast.

Went to watch Athlete on Thursday night at the villa, yer they were tight and everyone was bouncing around to the 2 or 3 songs they new but as a band i really wasn't impressed, the guitarist who was awesome was stuck at the back of the stage in the dark and only being allowed towards the front twice, making sure that the lead singer/rhythm guitarist was given the limelight, he just seemed to be ur average skinny jean wearing twit for my liking, what the hell did he need with 4 guitars anyhow? if a band is gonna have a front man like him he may as well just have a house band play and see how well he does on his own.

Friday night was Jo Bo's 18th birthday bash, i was an ass, drank waaay too much at a pre party BBQ at scotts and really let myself down, drinking is fun and all that but don't go mad with it, you could go making mistakes that you just cant fix. I tend not to have regrets, you know, things happen, get over it, but the 2 i do have are both drinking related, its not big, its not clever and if your not a fun person sober don't go taking mind altering substances, just get loose on your own. Unfortunately there are sometimes when sorry doesn't quite cut it, i think this is one of them.

Went downhilling today, Scott rode his hardtail and let me get crazy on the Stab Supreme, had a couple of scary moments, but in general was a right laugh, Its just riding your bike innit, go out there and do whatever, I've still got my trials bike in the garage, i may even get that out for a play at some point, took a couple of good snaps on my phone too, this one of Touson, and the one at the top showing just why i love the isle of man, top of a downhill section and you can see sea, woop woop.

Check rich's blog, he moans that no-one blogs but i don't even have a link on his site, maybe one day hey.

27 e-mails later

2008-06-04T03:18:00.000-07:00

We forget what an internet reliant world we live in, when I'm at uni my laptop is on most of the time and if i get an e-mail or there is a new post on the message board i know about it pretty asap. But being on the rock and not having broadband at home is a nightmare, I'm only home 3 months of the year and the prices are stupid over here so mum refuses, meaning I have to trek to the library every time i want to get the gossip.

Ah well, rant over, apart from that being at home is awesome, the weather has done its usual thing over here and been extreme, either good or bad, mostly sunny though. Saturday was 1st race so we went up to the Gooseneck to watch the last couple of sidecar laps, before hitting the beach for some american football, loads of fun, John mate, you got done!

Went out with the boys again on saturday night and had a right laugh, the thing about TT is that everyone is in the same frame of mind - HAVE FUN. So after getting a few beers at JC's and finding out his dark howls at police sirens, hilarious when you've had a couple, we hit the last bus into douglas, the nearer town you get the busier it gets and the banter started to liven up, with cider spraying and other stuff i'm not willing to tell you about. Town was good, same old really, fair, Bushys tent, then hit up The Outback, what a shit hole, funny though, the South African bouncer wasn't to keen on our rowdy behaviour, I soon ripped him to shreds, behind his back, the guy was huge.

Mad Sunday was abit wet but still loads of people around, i went over to street fighter but nothing much was on so we decided to go to peel, by complete fluke missed all the actual entertainment except the last band, Uber Room, great timing guys, we win, then we went over to douglas to watch the purple helmets, on the in the Isle of Man could you get away with such casual racism, sooo funny though. Monday a few of us had a BBQ on the beach but forget a lighter, so i rode round to a pub, went in for some matches and came out with a job, the good old Royal George, bad one. It was also Jo's 18th birthday so went out for a couple of drinks with that crew, the young lady was wasted, hilarious, more of that on Friday for her propper party, woop.

Tuesday was sprint day, Ramseys biggest day of the year, was pretty good, loads of stuff going on, with fools on bikes doing an 1/8th of a mile in under 6 seconds, and hitting 125+ mph in that time, kkkkrazy. Had a catch up with the North East John and Dan Butterfield and Adam Smith who have come over for a couple of days which was cool.

Anyhoe I've got work, more pics to comer

laters

They get china, i get the isle of man

2008-05-31T01:53:00.000-07:00

So been back home since Wednesday, was pretty worried I'd get bored quickly, two and a half hours in and it happened, I was like, rrrrrrrright so what do i do know? Its all good though, after an initial slump i was getting occupied left right and centre, after the obligatory evening in the pub with the lads I could get into planning the next few days. Went for a run on the beach on Thursday morning with the dog which was cool, and then helped mum out doing some stuff at the yard shifting fences and all that man stuff she leaves until i get home.

Friday morning I went over to where there used to be some trails before uni, well i say trails, but they're more bumps with gaps in the middle, hey roy? ha. was OK though, people have been there and doing a bit but they just seemed in need of some TLC. So after 2 and a half hours with a spade the 1st 3 where looking pretty smooth. Heading up there later today to see how they ride so, woop woop.

Hit up Douglas last night to enjoy the atmosphere and catch a mates band. The prom got busier as the night went on, was going pretty good, we saw wheelies, doughnuts, endo's, 2 Lamborghinis, a Ferrari, ourselves on telly and boobs, love it. Headed up to the pub after that to see a mate from schools band, Uber Room, and without sounding too much like a massive cliche, check out their myspace. The supporting act are also pretty good and I know a couple of the guys, check them at On A Friday Space. Turns out that they wernt supporting at all and the only sign of Uber Room was Brian rocking away in the crowd, had a catch up with him and he assures me they will be playing somewhere in the Isle of Man in the next week, where n when, who knows?

Today is the 1st race of the TT and my house is on the inside of the course so i'm either in, or out for the day, out it is, the trails are calling me. The sun is out, and nothing is gonna get me down. As i write this Shanaze has just won the worlds, well done girl. Kelvin made quarters and in turn should have just qualified GB for an Olympic spot, lets hope so. Today is a good day. Big shout to all the other GB guys who did well this week, Flem W2, Andy Shaw W3, Ivesy W5, DH.com W1, Hilly W5, Marco W5.

I'm going home now

2008-05-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

I'm off to the rock 2morow, and still haven't packed properly, its 0120, I've got to be up at 5 to drive to Liverpool and my room looks like a bomb site
Its all good though, today was down at EIS again doing much of the same from yesterday but experimenting with gears, all was good until i got back to Leeds at about 7 and realised i had the key for the laser timer in my bag, uho, a quick call to EIS later and Pete is going to drop it off on his way back down south tomorrow night, cheers man, much respect.

So yer, going home, its crazy, i haven't been back since Jet was put down, although he was a massive scary dog to some he was turning into one of the family and its gonna be strange without him about, what else has changed? mum's bought leather sofa's, new car, the track has changed apparently, there will be 60.000 bikers then when i get back, i guess the weather will be great one day then rubbish the next, but that's same old.

Keep checking back for blogs and things, although they will most likely be less frequent and pretty definitely be dam boring, I'll be back as soon as i can though, cant have Twarn ruling the north for too long.

Testing Talent

2008-05-27T01:08:00.000-07:00

So Yesterday I headed off down to EIS in Sheffield to meet up with the talent team guys and guests to do some more prep work. This camp has got a strong emphasis on testing so it was all about getting your best times on the sprint straight. So this was each rider doing 60 meter efforts of the start gate with split times every 10 meters being measured. After that we had some time left over on the track so they did some 10 meter efforts just to get their snap on, Dan wasn't impressed with his times so decided to go for it and really get the fastest time he could, so... this happened

The funny thing was, it did improve his 10 meter time, it shouldn't really have with wind resistance not meaning that much at that stage, its all in your head Dan, but if you can do it here you can do it on the gate next to bloomy. Headed to the gym after that for some more testing, its all pretty basic but gives a good measurable indication of physical strength. I think we sometimes forget that this is as much of a sport if not more than other mainstream disciplines and we are athletes, so stick some salad on your plate and put another plate on the squat rack.

catch ya'll later

What to say

2008-05-25T10:32:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna put it out there before all the bitching starts, I didnt race today because I was scared. Crewe track is huge, with really lippy take off and MEGA sharp downsides, even rolling out of the gate i was finding it hard to hit the downside of the 2nd jump when manualing it. I pulled out of racing after practice, I've got a busy couple of days coming up, didnt want to really push it and come off, and at the other end of the scale I didnt want to just roll round at the back making up numbers. Its not all bad though, abi can make even me look good(ish)

So the track and all that, its just really hard work, as a track to learn how to jump there isnt a better one but I thought the racing sucked, Wozza and DC went big over the pro section so i guess that was the big show people where after but there wasnt any tight racing that i saw. The locals killed it, fair play to them, they ride there all the time and it really showed with a couple of the teen riders really ripping up their classes. Dave Swain had a nasty crash on the 3rd straight when manualing the 3rd set his top and downtube snaped clean off at the weld in his 2nd moto and he's broken his collar bone, get well soon man, give me a txt and let me know your OK.

So Wozza took the win, with Levi 2nd, DC 3rd, Cal 4th, Boota 5th, Sharpy 6th, Snazel 7th and Peebz 8th, well done on ur 1st main Josh. Check out BMXtalk for all the debating you want converning the track, im sure there will be loads of idea's and opinions, cal has said it best so far with his idea, "if long nice bowled out landings were made for some of the jumps with short steep landings, it would work much better, without losing the radness to be had out of a session." Seems a good compomise.

Went to manchester track on the way back to just have a look around, looking really cool with loads of different types of jumps to keep everyone happy, Horticon dont quite seem to have found a happy medium yet with downsides tho, with a couple of really flat ones :s I'm looking forward to riding it, HUGE first corner, loving it. Rotherham or bolehills tomorrow morning anyone?

Wozzaaaaa

2008-05-25T06:29:00.001-07:00

Warren wins payback, levi 2nd, DC got 3rd with a wicked number plate, strickers 4th and homeboy boota gets a 5th. I'm off to manchester, l8rs

Final time

2008-05-25T06:15:00.001-07:00

The north east's john butterfield repping the new club hoodie and lookin smooth. According to john "its been a good turn out by those that got here". His youth dan has just won all 4 moto's. Well done kid.

Crewe BMX

2008-05-25T04:41:00.001-07:00

Here at a wet and windy crewe at the north regional, i've pulled out of racin and so has oggy, whats call up man Ethan got to say about it. "only women don't race a national standard track, can someone bring the sun back" he's also saying the gate not coming up is levi's fault ha. Check his blog later at tethal.blogspot.com. Stay tuned

I've been keeping my eye on your movements

2008-05-24T13:18:00.000-07:00

Just counting down to going home for the summer now, I was really looking forward to it but as the summer is starting to get into full flow here, I'm really not too keen. I love the rock, its where i grew up and I'll always have that special connection with it. but what is there? The next couple of weeks should be cool at least with TT and i'll stay busy with mates i guess, and play in the new car. TT, because I've grown up with it i dont enjoy it as much as i could but it is a really good couple of weeks and the racing is always fast as, the course record was set last year with the top guy AVERAGING 140MPH, thats over a 38mile lap, seriously fast. Check it out on iomtt.com/ and it should be on ITV4 next week most nights.

It turns out mum cant surf the web properly at work so doesnt hit up blogger, but has her friends spying on me instead, mental. So this week I've mainly been going to church, helping old lady's cross the road and been to the occasional strip club. Yesterday ended up on a pretty random date, wanted to go on the sly so found this italian place just on the edge of headingly, walked in the door n one of the guys who's on my course (also re-sitting) was working the bar, BUSTED. Gaz is a bit of a legend, so all was good. No gossip on the girl tho, a gent should never kiss and tell.

Hit up Fearnville today with Mr Hoops himself (check his account of it all) and Gav (BikeVideos.co.uk, not related to Brian) Foster. Was hella windy but still a laugh, Jacob didnt come as he's off on his 1st talent team camp tomorrow and resting, good luck yoof. I'll be catching up with the guys down at EIS on Monday to remind myself how all the timing works and come up with a plan for how to do my MIS next year.

Gav has got mad skills and I saw a different side today, quad manualling the last straight, wish i could do that. I was still tring the jump to manual on the tripple and landing heavy every now and again, not that bothered, rolling on a really strong set of HOOOPS. And proving my Leeds last straight theory right, Sutty turned up and spotted ANOTHER line, so come on down and add what you can to the mix, gate sessions to start soon. Also went to the trails and after a dismall "these arent trails, they're bumps with gaps in" start, sutty was loving it, doin more runs than the rest of us put together, its so nice hearing the front wheel buzz on his foot as he's doing an x-up.

Crewe 2morow, go on do it, even Oggys talking of coming and riding his special needs cycling. You know you want to, but if not, check the blog, i'll be phone updating, might even get a celeb to do it. Talking of celebs, you know your famous when you ride like a heap and still get a mention on the BC site - "Wan didn't have the best weekend but looked good in his shades trackside, nonetheless." cheers Mr Clifford, good luck in China, to you and all the brits.

So fresh n so clean

2008-05-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

Been a pretty chilled week, havent really done much riding. Monday went to the gym and really drilled myself, was gutted about underperforming at the weekend. I've got to win a national this year, it'll be such a waste if i dont! Tuesday did radford and yeadon, had a hot date wednesday and then thursday decided to round off the bolts on one of the cleats on my shimano shoes, so any tips how to take out cleats with rounded off bolts would be much appreciated, I'm currently thinking drill them out.

Thursday night headed over to Fearnville, had an hours(ish) ride before the rest of the guys turned up and we had a go at mellowing out the 1st straight. So after throwing about 20 barrows of surface on the take off of the 1st one it was looking really nice with a smooth transition and slightly less kicky take off. It still needs about 6 inches in the middle but we'll wait for a digger to get on that case. Its better than it was and should be ready for gates next week. Even Jez was booming it with his dodgy wrist ;)

Went to watch Indiana Jones last night at the midnight showing, it was pretty dead considering it was the 1st night, Ciaran was wasted and i did feel slightly sorry for anyone else in the cinema but it was comical from where me and shaun where sat. Gigidy. The film was ok, a-bit far fetched for my liking, didnt really seem to be in keeping with the others, but still it was ok. I'm just really excited about Hancock (trailer at the end), and what is going to be the best film of the year - The Dark Knight! woop.

Headed off to Feanville tomorrow for a session with Sutty and Gav, if your around come and have a play, should be goooood. Crewe on Sunday, be there, or be... square :s

New phone

2008-05-20T15:12:00.001-07:00

Got a new phone today so just setting it up to the site. Went over to bradford for a couple of laps with oggy this afternoon to say bye to the track, i can't wait until its flattened. Then headed over to yeadon with the leeds bmx crew. Jordan was all about the suicide moves, check him lining up the T-bone.

It's been such a long time coming, I thought you'd understand

2008-05-19T09:22:00.000-07:00

Well I had to have a couple of bad races at some point this season, slightly gutted I had both of them in one weekend. Just to clear some stuff up, I decided to ride only cruiser on Saturday to see if racing both bikes was having a negative effect on my racing and so I'd have time to do some video recording for my MIS uni work, which Mick Hall helping out on the 2nd and 3rd sets of moto's, cheers man. Unfortunately though racing didn't really turn out all good, had 1 1 3 in my moto's, had a good gate in the final but unclipped, of all the gates I do a week why oh why did it have to happen in the main!?!

So yer, headed down to Mansfield on Friday after downloading the new pendulum album, its awsome, get it. Set up camp and had a couple of laps practice, which turned into quite alot of practice, you know once you start to flow its hard to stop. Went for a pro beer with the Goldcoast crew, but walking into a pub and hearing DMX is always a good thing. Twarn is a legend, throwing down some shapes on the dance floor.

Saturday I spent the 1st bit of the morning avoiding open practice, picking up my new wheels from Suttys Hoops, BFR rims with a Pro Factor Hub on the back and Primo on the front, slightly heavier than my old wheels but they roll so smooooth, so remember, if your after some wheels, get in touch with Sutty. After that picked up my jersey from Rich at UrbanAir.co.uk, loving the print, cheers man. Was gutted with my results on cruiser, and I dont like loosing, so sorry for not saying well done to you OJ but thats just the way I am, after racing its good to go and spin your legs off and have some time to yourself. Of the evening got to socialise, cheers to everyone for being in a good mood, Arran, hope your exam went well.

Sunday, another day another dollar, was racing both bikes and it didnt really seem to affect things too much, was just rubbish on both, 19+ is stacked so i was happy to be in the mix halfway down the 1st straight, I need to ride more, do some sprints and be able to be pulling all the way to the 1st corner cos at the moment i'm getting left. If you look closely i'm just the other side of the chaos, ha. Cruiser i blew my gate and couldnt find a way through, got 5th. Sitting in 4th in the series at the moment but hopefully with a round to drop.

Name check - Dan Mcbride won 15-16's, not only is this lad fast as but he's abit of a legend as well, nice race kit but not enough co-ey's. ha. Lawrence Mapp as always was on top form on and off the track, gettin a 2nd and 3rd in elite, but his best of all, lending me some snips, cheers to you and EA-Revell Racing, cos i know your all checking. Well done to Jordan Hayes and Johny Hastings who got 3rd and 4th in their semi on Sunday after the officials changing their minds 3 or 4 times, it really was that close, at least with the finish line camara you can review it now instead of all the pressure on the ladies at the line.

See ya'll at Crewe on Sunday

Day 2

2008-05-18T07:22:00.001-07:00

Elite has been about bloomy all weekend, and he's won it again smoothing all 3 finals. I'm not gonna call 2nd place tho, if my maths is anythin to go by its between Mappy and Tuffs?! junior men won again by tambo with brad watts and billy lockhurst in 2nd and 3rd respectivly. 19+ the same 2 days in a row but a bit more swappin, check the video on bikevideos.org.uk, baker, flem and reidy 1, 2, 3. Masters was carnage, CJ won again. 15-16s McBride 1, fay 2, Hayes 3. Junior female won by lauren smith.

Man sfield

2008-05-17T10:51:00.001-07:00

Bloomy takes elite, mappy 2nd, also in the mix - gamble, hilly, dan w, hilly, l batey and cal was really unlucky in the main with 2moto wins. In (picture) 19+ Lee Baker takes 1st all the way from the 10m line, Flem 2nd and daz reidy in 3. CJ 1st in masters, BB Ives 2 and jason "pull" jessop got a puncture n 3rd. Tambo won junior men. and i blew my final, unclipped, nightmare. More tomorrow!

UP date

2008-05-16T03:19:00.000-07:00

Dont forget if your not hitting mansfield up this weekend then you must have a good excuse, Oggy and Nigel are going to the 4X national champs so their excused but if you want to know whats going down at round 4 and 5 of the UK National BMX Series, here is the place to be, I'll be doing phone updates as the results happen so keep checking back.

Bradford gates last night was pretty chilled, Flip was doing the tripple, Arran Skow also trying it and gettin close, keep em peeled for him this weekend if you are headed over to mansfield. We've just got the new 2 man MH gate, its gonna be usefull when the tracks not riding, work starts monday for that, wooop. Right im off to have a mint weekend.

Print this

2008-05-14T06:26:00.000-07:00

So yer, after my horrible update on Monday night with the stresses of revision and all that im in a much better place right now. The exam went ok, it was on research methods, so loads of stats questions and "what test would you use in this situation" a couple of questions got me thinking about next years MIS and the best way to go about conducting my own research, im really psyched about where its all going to end up. Pic from my 20" final on Sunday, cheers Rob Hawker.

Your not allowed to leave the exam in the 1st or last 30 minutes, so in an hour exam your there for the whole time, finished with 10 minutes to spare, checked it all through and then started doodling. Came up with an awsome idea for a logo for Suttys Hoops and headed straight for the computer labs afterwards to get it dealt with. Suttys really sorted me out recently and its good to do what i can to pay him back. Rich over at UrbanAir.co.uk has already done a brilliant job printing up my jersey with my name and the 3 legs so its back with him getting sorted for the weekend to show im rolling on Hoops.

Tuesday night went down to Mansfield in the GBbus with Jez, I need a van, the estate car is good but a van is sooo easy. Adam Smith had come all the way down from Hartlepool for a session, the local big hitters where DC, Tuffs and Jason Jessop where there doing their thing, and it was a pretty good session, the pressure is off now i recon, after Sunday i feel i've got the track pretty much as sorted as im gonna get it, just gotta hold my head come race time. Going to watch Iron Man tonight for the 2nd time, its brilliant, you gotta watch it, oh yer and a late happy birthday to Snazel, who was 18 yesterday.

Come together

2008-05-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend has been awsome, Bradford gates in the sun on saturday, then took flip to the trails to see what was what, Jordan was already on the floor when i got there after attempting the 5th one, and well erm, not making it. Get well soon yoof. Got back to the house at about 6 and the lads had been to buy a BBQ, a great investment me thinks, had a few guests round and generally a good one, decided to sit out of the poker that was starting at 11 to get some pro sleep.

And it was well worth it, mansfield is only 80 minutes away, but i hardly ever get there cos they do gates tuesdays which is a uni day till 7. Anyhow i drove down with Ben and Snazel, Ben wasnt racing, and is off to Egypt tomorrow, have a great time mate. Anyhow, the track is great, ended up killing some kid in the 1st corner during practice (really sorry youth) didnt see him until mid air on the doubles into the turn, i locked up on landing but still went into him, Snazel recons i should have T-boned him over the berm, but who knows where he'd have ended up (feel free to come and kick me in the shin at the national kid). I havent raced on that 1st straight before and you need some pull, that 1st corner is crazy, the jump into it kinda kicks you to the outside abit so its a strange feeling, and there is only 1 line round that 1st corner, woop woop. Had a perfect day on my cruiser 1.1.1. in moto's, gate 5 in the main and led from the gate.

20" was mental, 29 riders in 17+ which was amazing to see at a regional, even tho it was a midlands/east anglia round there where loads of northerners coming out to play. I felt i had an OK first straight but need to start doing some longer sprints to be able to spin round the whole track. Was everage down the 2nd straight into the wind and then, really empty come the 3rd straight. But with this track i can really see whoever has the holeshot having a massive advantage. Me, Ethan (sponsored by Monster) and Snazel from the north in the C final, ha, Ryan Yearsley took the win with Eth in 2nd, I was in 3r into the last corner and tried railing the corner, apparently not such a good idea and got swooped, ah well, its all good practice before next week.

The real memory of the day for me though was sitting up on the start hill just before my final and Andy Restal getting on the mic and giving the crowd the full Kelvin story, it really was an emotional moment. I wont be forgeting it for a while, and it'll be a nice anecdote when Kelv does well at the worlds in a couple of weeks and books is place in The Olympics.

Great news for me though, my cruiser back wheel that i was having trouble with was still kicking up a fuss on Sunday so I have a set of custom built Sutty Hoops on the way for the weekend. Sutty built up my 20" wheels as well and I love em, Sun Rhyno Lite camo rims built on DXR hubs, front and back, with custom nipples, b, e, a, utiful. Cant wait to ride these.

Bit of a lame blog, sorry, I've got an exam at 9 tomorrow and this is just a rest from revision, I will be motivated mid week for a good one. As per usual pics coutesy of abitaylor.com and guest blogger, BootaTM

BC screw Batey

2008-05-11T14:18:00.000-07:00

For the full story from Liam Batey, Kelvins brother, check out BMXtalk, and show your support on facebook.com. I really dont think anyone can explain fully whats going on here, i try and stick up for BC as much as i can with all the flack they get but seriously, wtf?

Tuffy takes 17+

2008-05-11T09:39:00.001-07:00

After a stylish semi and boosting the triple into the last turn GHPs ant tuffs 1st alan hill 2nd and johny hastings with a mint final to get 3rd, i won cruiser if ur interested Twarn

Mansfield picture of the day!

2008-05-11T07:22:00.000-07:00

Peebz excuse for getting moto'd. More to follow from sun soaked mansfield inter-regional.

post by BootaTM

Summer in the city such a very special time

2008-05-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

Things are awsome, the sun is out, which means that the girls come out, so many hunnies around at the moment its crazy. Had a pretty chilled out day yesterday, eventually, went to the gym in the morning, spent most of the afternoon outside, played abit of basketball and wrote some e-mails, pretty much spent all of it waiting for today.

THURSDAY - Gamble woke me up at 8ish on the phone asking about going riding so i was up a couple of hours before normal so decided to hit the gym wit Jackson, managed to sneak him into the strength and conditioning room n did a good two hour session, squats, deadlifts, bench and even some plyo. I kept it cool though, riding in the afternoon and wanted to be fresh. All the Leeds crew where out in force at the trails, mixing it up. Lukey G owned everything pretty much within 5 minutes looking smooooth as, Jordan race jumps trails like you've never seen, krrrrazy, and I got abit further than last time, which is awsome, this trails thing is wicked, I know I've got the skills to do it, its all in my head, and thats a barrier thats getting knocked down in a big way, Twarn aint gonna touch me when i turn it on. Talking of really getting into it, Gamble's taking things seriously from the looks of it, expect big things.

Then we hit Fearnville for some track time, mostly mashing up the 2nd and last straights cos of wind. after sprinting at the 2nd straight for an hour attention got turned to the last straight, right lets talk you through this, it goes; tripple, table, double, step up, roller, double. Doesn't sound that interesting until you really start pushin it, its gotta be seen to be believed some of the stuff that was going off, get up here and check it out, club sessions to start soon. I was trying to perfect the jump to manual on the tripple, maybe got it smooth 2 out of 10 times. Seriously words just dont do it justice.

Heres a video of Me and Andy C doing the last straight on Monday.

See ya'll at Mansfield, I'm thinking 250-300 riders.

Life is what you make it, make it great.

2008-05-06T15:37:00.000-07:00

I LOVE BMX. what was going to be a rest day on Monday turned into being at the track for 2. So me, Andy C, OJ Francis and Reidy hit up Fearnville for 2 hours, meeting Drinkie for the 1st time and getting shown some trails near Seacroft in Leeds. After an hour or so there we got some food, pasta's faster n OJ had fried chicken. OJ really impressed me though during the day, going for most things, and the locals at Fearnville where all making coments about the "guy on the red bike" being really fast. Cheers for the pic OJ, for more check out BMXtalk. Turns out Tuesday was going to be my rest day.

Today the sun came out and so did the flip-flops and the wife beater. Sat in the front garden with a fresh copy of MBUK, coffee and a muffin in the morning before moving to the back garden in the afternoon to catch the sun. Gave both bikes a once over and managed to snap a chainring bolt whilst tightening them up so drove up to Stif to buy some new ones, none in stock and got a bloody puncture on the way home, changed that just off a busy Headingly Lane and got a text from Jez about a session at Fearniville. Managed to get hold of Mark at Groove Racing, and he is gonna sort me out with some steel bolts for the DXRs. Anyhow, apparently there is no rest for the wicked, and Leeds BMX is exactly that, wicked, a great little ride with Jordan fresh from the Euro champs trying even more new lines on the last straight, tripple in anyone? jump to manual is soooooooo fast its scary. Then managed to hit up the trails too.

After the good time we had on Monday, Andy text me today saying he had Thursday off work so its on, ripping up the trails will be, the Leeds locals plus guest appearences from Snazel and some lancashire yoofs, then going over to Bradford for some gates. Here's the pic of me on the floor on Sunday at Preston regional after the 1st moto, cheers Abi, check her pics at abitaylorphoto.com

I love BMX, its the dogs, brings everyone together and it always makes me smile.

Breaking News

2008-05-05T03:06:00.000-07:00

Dave Ives injured himself yesterday jumping and has cut his knee, in a telephone interview with him at 3am this morning he explained all. Also coming up, how Twarn is preparing for Mansfield Double National, Daz Reidy - Daddy Cool and all the other latest from BMX north.

"I was jumping this yellow beetle but slipped and fell, I've cut my knee, but I'll be fine" - BBMX's Dave Ives explains the circumstances behind yesterdays big off, "it was a yellow beetle, I was jumping it. I'll be OK for the world's cos i'm bringin a trophy home." Wishing you a speedy recovery mate, feel free to send me a follow up text for the fans. Daz Reid was doing it for the fans yesterday at Preston regional offering photo opportunities, autographs and showing off his youngest to whoever had the time. Rumour has it Darren was pretty fast in his day and is on the comeback, I can reveal for the 1st time that the dilemma on his mind isn't whether to ride masters at Mansfield but its if he should go pro or 19+, big up yourself daddy cool, and his exact words "I want to race pro by the end of the season"

Now to the real story, Anthony "Twarn" Ives, got a great result yesterday at Preston regional finishing 3rd, beating the current BC ranked #2 rider who ended up 4th. After a controversial move down the last straight in the 1st moto bringing me down (I'm over it). But the biggest talking point about his final lap, following Andy Clucas (who won, great lap mate, well done) cutting the whole of the 2nd straight out completely, missing all the jumps, riding nearly on the gravel to get a faster line to the 2nd corner, lets see how that works out for you on a track with no short cuts. Cheers Rich for the pics, more on his blog.

But on a serious note, Twarn and I where seriously close all day which is what the fans want to see, and he got the better of me in the final, its not like I'd been at the velodrome for 2 hours the night before and then going out and having a few jars with some preston lovelies. A big thanks to Preston Club, as always really welcoming and friendly, and a great session on Saturday too, get well soon Rob Hawker, and Josh Hanlon. Finally did the photoshoot thing for Linzi's coursework when i got home last night, it was a right laugh, some pics for that coming soon.

Thats all the news for today, tune in next time for an interview of... Me. Questions courtesy of Goldcoast BMX club. You stay classy San Deigo.

DC takes the money

2008-05-04T07:38:00.001-07:00

Dylan clayton 1, ian sharp 2 and pete power pickin up the other podium place. Proper update after midnight, i'm hangin round for a session. Andy C won the cruiser battle, i got 4th, really tired after a full on weekend.

1001 hits

2008-05-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

It seems i'm pretty popular ha, been a good week, had my Major Independant Study lecture and got the go ahead from the physchology lecturer to start doing my prep work onto a research paper looking into reaction times in relation to the start gate situation. Already got some pretty interesting data, this time next year it should be worth a read.

Its the Isle of Man Youth Tour this weekend back home. The last stage of the event finishes right next to the track so Ramsey BMX is doing its come and try day at the same time to give the roadies a chance to watch some BMX. I guess it'll be a pretty small turn out of riders compared to England but the passion is still there from the guys and there's always lots of smiling faces. I've got big plans for Ramsey BMX, just wish i had more time to be there to big up the club to the locals. Heres some of the track changes that have been happening over winter.

As for me this weekend, I'm off to Preston in the morning to get some gates in against the big guns in the North (Blogger Sutty's got the snap) before catching up with some mates in the afternoon, then hitting the Manchester Veldrome for a Chris Beagley organised session, it's nice to just let your legs go for a spin and oh my, those corners are steeeeep. Spending the night in Preston before the regional on sunday so no doubt i'll be found on a curb somewhere at 4am ish, pick me up and carry me home please. Sunday, expect the same updates as normal, if your interested in the final placings ASAP then i'll be doing the text update so you know where to go. Sunday night, me n the guys are helping Linzi out with her final piece of work modelling some of her T-shirts. You know its cos i'm pretty.

If you holeshot you have a 79% chance of winning, believe.

Speed bumps suck

2008-04-29T16:23:00.000-07:00

After the funny sound my car was making when i turned up at Cheddar Saturday night i thought it better go see the car doctor, he got it up on the lift poked the back box and it swung, hit it abit harder and it fell off, cause... traffic calming measures, not only do they ruin my car but im convinced they add to polution, as i have to accelerate back up to 30 after going over one, rant, rant, rant. anyhow, quick fix and 60 notes later and im back on the road, woop. whilst I'm driving i want to be listening to the new Dizzee Rascal and Calvin Harris song but cant download the proper version anywhere, Trevor Nelson said it was fresh, but i want it now. Check it.

Went to the gym yesterday for a light spin, which turned into a sweat till I'm dry session, I've really got no self control. Went today did another half an hour sweaty bike session then wanted to hit the weights hard, maxxed out the leg press machine, after my 3rd effort i wanted to stop but decided on the spot i was going to win at least one cruiser national this year and quiting is for losers, ended up pushing out another 3.

Added some more pictures to the weekend write up, check em, at least 8 hours in uni 2morow or I give up, need some motivation, other than gettin a degree obviously. Oh, and pictures, the lad going down in this pic is Jack Hall, who's a fast as ken, up and coming youth straight out the North East, his dad's making some pretty rad practice gates, go to youtube.com for a look at how it works and how to get hold of him. check out fastlanephotography.co.uk for more pictures like this one, some great action shots, the guys got vision. Good luck to all the guys heading out to Germany this weekend, especially those talented youths pimping it in CK's van.

Cheddar, what rocked, who sucked

2008-04-28T03:38:00.000-07:00

Better explain the lack of practice on Friday and Saturday at what has pretty much been my favourite event of every national series for the past 3 years. In short, you've gotta put your friends first, it was Helens birthday so we went to Flamingo Land, i was dubious at first but after seeing Marvin and Benson the sea lions I was the happiest kid around, they were awsome. So after driving 350 miles on Saturday and getting a crack in my exhaust (uho that might be expensive) just after Bristol, I arrived at Cheddar, about half an hour before TomTom said I could, ha. I made last orders and had a couple of ciders with all the guys, then went to lie down in the back of the car in the car park, no camping fee's for me. Pic, Ciaran scaring the tiger away.

So it was all about Sunday, everyone had an extra days practice on me and were already flowing round the track smoothly, even OJ had smoothed the 3rd straight. Jumped on the 20" and made the most of gates, 1st lap getting the timing right, chilling, then going for the 3rd straight, the track has mellowed abit since last year so over jumped the 3rd, stayed on but it was disconcerting. Anyhow, the rest of practice was ok, got to grips with most things but hitting the downsides on the 3rd straight was a real challenge. Big shout out to Farran, who recovering from a nasty Humurous break at Burnham, cheers for looking after my phone bro.

Race time... Gareth Bates was practicing for the Euro's next week in Germany by riding 16-29 aswell as elite, so it was nice to see where i'm at compared to him, i know he's only chilling in cruiser but its a marker aint it. Moto's went ok, 2.2.1. getting beat by Bates and Dan Hodge, 3rd moto had Twarn on my tail and got slightly squirly over the tripple but stayed on to take the 4 points. 19+ was another story however, having pretty much full gates meant my weak 2nd pedal was always going to let me down, I felt ok on the bike though and even if you get boxxed, its pretty easy to keep your flow cos its a fast track, got 5.6.5. and went out in 20th, but its ok, 29 riders in the class, so its not last. Joey Gough tho, well done girl, missing out on semi's by 1 point in 19+, this girls going far.

Not much big news in the quarters and semi's, a great run off for 30-39 cruiser saw JD from Cornwall smooth his way from 3rd to 1st on the 3rd straight really commiting on the last double and getting the inside line. Main time. 3rd pick, Bates went 4, Dan went 3, i knew if i went 2 i had to snap Dan, but it was better than having to beat Gareth out the gate, voice starts, cadence comes in, gate drops, i hear dan shout "nooo" he'd had that late snap, i was in 2nd, moved over to get a wider line around the wet 1st corner, did not expect Dan to get inside of me but there he was, didnt fancy putting the elbow on just incase of a slippery downfall so thats the way it ended, i got another 3rd in the main. last year I'd have a good lap then a not so good lap so its nice to show some consistency. Just waiting for BC to publish the points, its going to be tight at the top. Twarn got 4th, Pople 5th and Josh H 6th. I know im not racing in this pic but its such a great photo it had to go up, i am in the background watching the action, Twarn and Dan fighting for 2nd place, who got it?

So what else happened? Loud noises putting Flem off in the 30-39 main meant an appeal from him but for no reward, if the other 7 guys went why not race then complain later? For the full story check BMXtalk.com. Elite was great, Tuffy was killing it, an awsome rider to watch, has made the step up to elite this year and shown he can do it on his day. Gamble made the main, along with Wozza who was doing his last national before going for a knee operation. 19+, Marco unclipped, Tom Palmer pulled, Flem swooped, Palmer swooped back in the 2nd turn but went down, Flem went down soon after just before the double, I got really confused after that but there was another swoop and someone went over the last berm, Scott Waterhouse went from 5th in the 1st corner to take the win, who said BMX racing had got boring. Junior men was wicked, Tambo's gates and 1st straight are spot on, but out of no-where Dan Thorn got the 2nd straight perfect, got the line around the 2nd berm and took the lead, but Luke got the 3rd straight right and pushed Thorne up the last corner taking the win, leaving room for Levi Ashley to come through and get a 2nd.

Had to do 65 on the motorway all the way home to save some petrol, I felt like a gay. Home safe last night just intime to have missed the 1st hand of poker so went to bed. Loads of uni work this week, might go out with Oggy for an MTB ride tomorrow then got Velodrome on Saturday night before going out in Preston with some mates from back home, then Preston regional on Sunday, busy week but I love it. Props to thegreenwoods.com and Richard Robotham for the pics.

Tuffy wins elite

2008-04-27T08:30:00.001-07:00

A 1st and two 2nds for tuffs means his 1st elite win. Tambo won junior from levi ashley.

19 + carnage

2008-04-27T08:19:00.001-07:00

After flem leading and 3 riders going down Scott waterhouse wins 19+. Jessop has just won masters.

Bradford Sesssshion

2008-04-24T16:37:00.001-07:00

Went to Bradford tonight and did some gates in the car park with some of the older kids, was good to get the timer mat out and see who was consistently pulling. Looking at the video of me i'm having trouble getting my 2nd pedal in and getting my head up. I've managed to mess this up and lost the video from here but its on youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t29xrWwPB3Y

After gates we hit the small skate park in the park for a bit untill it got really dark. To the left, Flip. On the right, Jordan Hayes

Captains blog, star-date 23042008

2008-04-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

Sunday was ace, really enjoyed my 7 hours at the track, Monday I met up with Ollie, Snazel and Nigel fresh from his top 8 finish at the 4X NPS. It was meant to be a pretty chilled out relaxed session just to wind the legs down but was super windy meaning any takin off and you had to crank hard at it. About half an hour into the session a local yoof came off and busted up his wrist pretty bad, after tryin to get hold of his mum and dad finally got on the phone with his sister who came to get him soon after, i missed about 15 minutes of riding but wasn't that bothered, anyhow to cut a long story short, got a kiss on the cheek and a phone number for my troubles. Proof, karma works, so be nice.

Anyhow, got back to the track and ended up riding for another hour just blasting around. Hit the gym with Oggy on Tuesday just doing low weights but focusing on a quick explosive reaction. I'm only weak so he's gotta drop the weight to play with me. Then we did some plyometrics, we normally do a couple of plyo exercises but i found a new one this week so we tried that out too, its pretty good, jumping from standing as high as you can onto a box, shrweet. Was a really nice day so chilled in the garden in the afternoon with the lads, Owen tried to cut my hair but failed so i had to go pay a professional, nightmare.

Hit uni up later on, having my 5pm lecture then stayed in to get some coursework done, getting towards the end of the year now so most module stuff is done and the lecturers are padding, looked at the effects of PE in later life the other day, apparently old people suck because society tells them to, physiologically a person only declines in performance by about 10 percent between 35 and 65, makes me think 40+ cruiser should be faster, Jez Hayes to the rescue at cheddar anyone?

Talking of cruiser, found this pic on Rich Eames Flickr site, which there is a link to on his blog. Rich is off to the states today for a holiday/to race the NBL Freedom national at Woodbridge, good luck man have fun. Anyhow today Oggy and I went Wrexham for one of his sessions with the locals then we went to Crewe, first time i've been to both and they were both as i expected. Wrexham is loads of fun, tight and technical, can't wait to get back there for a session with a load of racers. Crewe was big, like i've heard, steep up and downsides, big gaps, just a general challange, great to see loads of locals there tho. Expect to see some big names emerge from Ghost Riders in 3-4 years.

Anyhow, texts to send ;)

Coppull Regional, its all about having fun

2008-04-20T12:55:00.000-07:00

Awsome, the mobile update worked and Rich liked it, a few comments about the blog today at the track which was ace, nice to know you guys are enjoying the read, except Silson, sorry man but I'm all about being PC mate.

So yesterday I decided I was going to make a full day of Coppull. Its worth getting up that extra bit early to give you some free time to drag out practice and only ride when you want too. So 8am i left the house and made it onto the track by 10. Pretty windy down the 1st straight but meant the last straight tail wind might lead to some moves going down. I again decided cruiser and 20", it was a good idea, and tbh it went pretty well, a lot better than bradford anyhow, cruiser was grand prix again so my 1.2.1. meant i had to win the 4th to get the points, twarn was gettin closer every moto and i kept leaving room to see if he was willing to make the move, he wasnt and i lead it from the 1st jump to the line, c'mon man, you've got the skills, where are you?!!!

Payback was OK, i think i could have made the main if i wasnt doing cruiser aswell, but, meh, ifs n buts n all that. Was with the big guns untill the 1st corner but then got tired n had nothing, cruised round the moto's just making the B-main, had a pretty good lap managing to snap the other guys and had my pick of lines round the track to take it, Boota did well missing out on the payback main by 1 moto point after doing his first full laps in 6 months.

The A main was awsome, Cal, Flem, Reidy, Ivesy, Levi, Kyle, Ethan Taylor and... Liam Snazel! Mrs Flip was on the finish line and couldn't believe it when hearing Snazels name on the mike. Cal lead from the start, this win should do his confidence a load of good. Reidy busted a mint move in 2nd to last corner lining Flem up, getting the step up smooth and swooping. Reidy interview coming soon.

Got another chance to see Mr Halls gate today and it really is growing on me. Bradford have just picked up a one man start gate and will recieve a two man version at Preston regional next month. I'm pretty excited, the gate works of a battery, magnet and spring, has random, NBL and ABA voice sequence, and a timing mat. This should be awsome! Great photo OJ, you can see Twarn watchin for tips. Sutty's already updated his blog after racing today, not only is the guy fast on the web, but he's looking rapid round the track, keep it up man, Cheddar 30-39 main has your name written all over it. Talking of which, its round 3 of the national series at Cheddar next weekend, and, I am excited! Cheers to Abi and OJ for photo's.

Anyhow, hung around after racing for a couple of hours and had a wicked sesh, just messin around and enjoying ridin my bike.

love life, love BMX

Cal takes Coppull

2008-04-20T07:32:00.001-07:00

30 seconds ago cal strickland took payback from start to finish, daz reidy bustin the move on flem in the last corner for 2nd, with flem 3rd and ivesy in 4th. More pics, report and reidy interview coming later.

ready for the weekend

2008-04-19T09:01:00.000-07:00

All's good in the hood. Tomorrow i plan to try and give the mobile update a go from Coppull regional, so keep checking back for the results and a picture as it happens! As well as the North Regional its the 4X NPS this weekend down in Chicksands, good luck to Nigel and Oggy going down from Bradford as well as paddy and all the other BMXers making the trip. On a blog note, been reading Suttys blog alot, check it out in the links, its a good read.

I went to a possible venue for a new track in Leeds on Friday with Jez, the track is on a Youth Group site with football pitches, high ropes and motorbike course. The field where the track is gonna be is right next to the canal and kinda has an amphitheatre vibe going on, so gonna be great for atmosphere when events roll round. The plan is for a 300m ish track with a duel trails line running on the outside around half the track. Lets hope its as awsome as it could be. Then i hit Fearnville for abit, managed about half an hour before it started raining, so cold my i couldnt feel my fingers, riding on my own i dont really fancy pushing it just in case somethin happens, but its good to give the legs a spin.

Gate session at Bradford today, a good few gates giving me the holeshot at practice, its hard when oggys not around to gauge how fast i'm actually going. We closed off the 3rd straight and started giving that a go backwards, did some cornering moves with Flip, Snazel, Nige and Rob and Josh T, then had a few runs at the 2nd straight just copying each others lines. The youth are the future, its all about the carrot and the stick!

Pic, Snazel, me and Flip after a mint Bradford session

Jager bomb!!!

2008-04-17T03:39:00.000-07:00

Yo, just a quick shout about what's been going on in the world, monday was back to uni and reading about walking being good for you, wow. A pretty cool thing I've been looking into this week tho is training and competing in one sport giving you an advantage in another, i.e. transfering from playing football at a good level but not the greatest, getting into rugby and already being pretty good just because of being physically and mentaly trained at an invasion game, again it sounds pretty simple but some studies recon future elite athletes do more physical activity at 8 years old compared to people who end up doing sport at a uni level. mental.

anyhow hit the gym Monday and Tuesday but decided to give it a rest on wednesday and went down to the place to be... Chesterfield! So grabbed a lift of Jez, who is just back riding after time off with a broken wrist, and Jordan was gonna make the most of gate time with nothing going on at Leeds yet. Tuffys got it going on down there (I owe you £2 buddy), not many riders but all pretty quality, DC doing 6 full effort laps in a sessionm, he's coming back from China with a medal! I've gotta admit i only did 2 laps, i felt slow and sluggish, it wasnt until the end of the night that i finally got a couple of good gates, and felt like it was worth doing a big effort. Its one thing being fast at your local stomping ground, but when you go to someone elses it puts you back in check, Ive got a long way to go! If i've got the time (and petrol) im all about traveling to do gates wherever they're on, it can only help

Got back to mine and the front room was full of hot ladeees, a quick shower and 2 big bottles of beers later and we hit town. I recon the best nights are always the unplanned ones where you just end up going out cos your in a good mood, and when i get back in from gates i tend to be pretty pysched most of the time. Found a club called Wire which we've heard abit about and thought we'd give it a go, it was pretty quite and apparently wednesday night isnt the night to go, but it was better than i'd expected, massive dancefloor and little "cave"esque booths to chill in. After a couple of beers the adrenaline wore off and i got tired really quickly so hit the jagerbombs, and that was the downfall, didnt last more than 2 hours out and went home asap, a really good find tho, we will be going back!

Pic, me and DC.blogspot.com

Work it Harder

2008-04-13T08:54:00.000-07:00

What a week, i guess this is my first proper post about life and all that, now i'm getting linked up all over the place i guess someone must be reading this. Just the weekend to update on then, I was planning a trip down to mansfield to do some gates on saturday with Jez and Jordan but with Coach J having other commitments i made my way over to my local gate session at Bradford. The weather held out and i got some solid gates in, my timing seems to be spot on but i look at the gate and have a mental block about it not falling so chicken out every now and again, think its time to start looking at the lights. David Brown who is a Bradford local and ex British Champ is killing it, lets hope to see him at a national sometime soon. After a few gates i took a few of the better riders into the container to watch a section of the http://www.stileindustries.com/ "how to race BMX" DVD on gates, i think its good for them to see it in this format so its not just me and Billy getting on their back and telling them to do stuff for the sake of it. Back on the gate after that and all riders showed an improvement, some really starting to show potential.

Today i wanted to head over to Fearnville in Leeds for a session, so called up a couple of buddies and were all ready to rock and roll but the weather took a turn for the worse, Snazel got sick and we decided to give it a miss. I'm really starting to enjoy the track, ok its not the best to go to for hang time but as a BIG race track its going to work, the start hill is pretty big and should be great when we get the gate running, 2nd straight is fast as, but easy to mess up and loose speed, the 3rd all about getting smooth through the doubles and hitting the downsides and the last straight has more lines that Pete Doherty, its just a mint place to play around.

Yer so that didnt happen so I did a gym session followed by some sprints, oggy has really helped me in the gym and given me a few new things to try out, it seems to be working, im killing cruiser and Twarn is nowhere ;) The whole house is pretty fitness mad at the moment, Ciaran is doing 200 bicep curls a day, housemate A (doesnt want to be mentioned) is obsesed with bulking up to be bigger than the maximuscle guys so is training with Owen and all about the protien shakes. I'm just doing my thing and enjoying riding, havent got the patience to do all this cardio lark tho, get bored to easily.

Pic, Me, Ethan, Dan P (current cruiser points leader) and Twarn and Coppull last year

Oh my days

2008-04-11T08:55:00.001-07:00

I can blog from my phone, expect more from this at national weekends. Be lee dat

edit - so sent the above message from my phone, what im thinking is race day photo updates straight here, dont bother with BMXtalk, its all about checking out wan's site and seeing whats going down. Just offering something for those guys who cant make it to the race meets, will try it out next weekend when i go to chicksands for the first NPS 4X race, which should be an experience,

L-haters

Blogging

2008-04-10T15:54:00.000-07:00

So it seems everyone is at this blogging lark, and im a always one to do whats in fashion so here it is. I'm 21, a student in leeds but hail from Ramsey in the Isle of Man, home of cats whith no tails and people with three legs. It's gonna be a case of playing catch up with the BMX bloggers in the UK, DC http://danielclifford.blogspot.com/, Joey Gough http://www.joeygough.co.uk/index.html, Rich from BMXradio http://nmky.blogspot.com/, sutty, someone else who's joined in the revolution http://roysutton.blogspot.com/ and abi who's moved onto pastures greener with her own .com, http://www.abitaylorphoto.com/. The biggest test i have is though, who is gonna read this?

Things are pretty mental at the moment, its the start of the BMX season, the end of uni year so its a case of trying to ride as much as possible and enjoy the summer thats on the way, but on the flip-side make up for the mistakes i made last year and work hard at uni and make the grades. Last weekend was the 1st North Summer regional of the year and I thought i'd make the most of it and race cruiser aswell as 20", ended up really tired with results getting worse and worse all day, but its a good training method me thinks.

Pic, Me and Andy Clucas leading out the cruiser moto at bradford summer regional, props to thegreenwoods.com for the pic