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RED BULL BACKYARD BUILD-OFF invades Cincinnati. Worlds’ best to compete on the unknown at inaugural course design competition Santa Monica, CA – August, 2005 – The inaugural Red Bull BackyardBuild-Off is hammering its way to the Queen City backyard of Matt Bischoff aka The Failure Compound October 5 – 9, 2005. Whether they use a jigsaw, drill press, or just good old fashion blood and sweat, the three teams of world renowned ramp designers and builders will each have the same amount of raw materials and three full days to design and construct the ultimate BMX course.

The BMX Park Prelims would go down early afternoon on Saturday and the Finals would follow that evening. As we got to the venue we headed straight to the Memorial Coliseum to watch the guys practice and as we took a seat in the completely empty VIP area, we figured we would be able to just chill there at least until they opened the doors to the public if not later. But we were soon told that Media was on the other side of the course, and Alex and I kinda looked at each other like "huh" because directly across is where the riders were so we asked again and they said yes, directly across on the floor from where we had been seated, so we walked over there. We felt so out of place because there was no Media there yet so it literally was us and the riders and their team managers. None of the riders or managers said anything about us being there but still feeling awkward we left to go check out the Festival Village and to find Noah, who was our Media guy, to make sure that's really where we were suppose to be seated haha.

Redline's Mike Escamilla broke the Guinness Book World Record for long distance backflip on a BMX bike over the Big Air ramp at the X-Games. First, he beat the world record of a back flip off the mega ramp. The previous record was 54 feet. Mike jumped 62 feet, 2 inches, and then went on to set another record for Distance 360's at 50 feet 6 inches. This was an unexpected record, that had never been attempted before. In setting this mark, Rooftop and his DEVICE frame spun a one-handed tabletop during the fifty-foot long 360.

Ruff Ride BMX Park Liverpool BMX enthusiast Marcus Gallagher held his first bmx event, the Ruff Ride Gold Cup at Liverpools Ruff Ride BMX Park . The event was arranged mainly for the youth of liverpool and Ruff Rides accademy students (over 40 commited riders to date) to let them appreciate a bmx contest type atmoshpere, and how it works, plus there were loads of cool prizes up for grabs, from Haro Bikes, Premium Products, Ride BMX Magazine and the cash from the local council. The contest: just over 60 riders for the day; 4 main age groups (under 10's, under 12's, under 14's and adult); warm up sessions; qualifiers

Jeroen Pleijsier a.k.a. Prik is putting on a flatland jam in Rotterdam. The jam is called No Licence jam and will take place on 4 September next. The event will take place on the "Schouwburgplein" which is easy for the foreigners asking for directions. If you don't have a licence and travel by train, make sure you get to the Central Station (CS) at 12:30pm. Someone will be present to show you the way to the jam circle. In case you need more info, got to the [url=http://www.010flat.tk]010 FLAT website[/url] and ask Jeroen all the questions you have and that should include how to pronounce the word: Schouwburgplein.

Friday started off with getting to the venue to only end up chatting with one of the Media girls who worked there who was totally awesome and really helpful. We sat in the Media Center talking about everything across the spectrum for about an hour before I headed on over to the Memorial Colleseum to watch BMX Park practice, it was an open Pro Practice so there were about 20-25 guys all out riding the course at the same time. That was something to see because every time you'd try to focus on one thing something else would happen right in front of you and distract you from what you were looking at before. But it also allowed the riders to throw some of the biggest tricks down before the public was allowed in. After about an hour or so of Open Pro practice they opened the practice up to the Free Flow Atheletes as well, which provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these amateurs to practice with the Pros that they have always looked up to, and I thought it was really cool of most of the Pros to stay out there and ride with them.

Dew Day 2: BMX Vert Prelims/Finals and BMX Dirt Prelims Thursday started with us heading on over to the Media Center to get the newly updated schedules and start orders for Dirt and Vert Prelims as well as the schedule of signings and events occurring in the Festival Village. We then proceeded to head on over to the BMX Dirt Venue to watch them practice as their pre-lims started at exactly 2:30 when the doors to the venue opened to the public. All the riders were looking good and were excited to get the 3rd stop of the Dew Action Sports Tour underway with their prelims. Now something happened here that has never happened at any other event I have attended, either a fan or media, the actual event started on time!!

A while ago we checked in with you to see who was going to the big TV events in the USA. Cathy responded and said she was going to Portland for the Dew Tour stop there. We arranged a press pass for her to get a bit closer to the action. Here's part one of her report: Dew Day 1: Media Day We arrived at the Rose Garden at about 12pm and found our way to the Media Room and got our credentials and the press packet. Inside the Press Packet as all the media releases from the past tour stop as

Doug Martin formed Blue Room Sports, a marketing and communications company serving the cycling and sports industries. Blue Room Sports formalizes the independent work Martin has been doing for the last two and a half years. "For some time now I've worked with a number of companies in a variety of marketing, communication and overall branding capacities including athlete and team identification and securing, team and venue sponsorship, co-branding partnerships, print ads, catalogs, PR, web initiatives and much more," Martin said. He has held executive marketing and sports marketing management positions within the cycling industry for more than 15 years.

For the past three years, each August, a group of USA BMX pros have been invited down to Bogota, Columbia to compete in a special BMX race event. The first year, it was formed to mark a celebration of the life of Mario Soto, one of the most promising BMX stars to come out of Columbia, who was tragically killed in 2001. The event has grown greatly since then and this year's BMX pros were brought over to compete and be honored at the BMX Festival. The local Government of Bogota funds the local BMX program and holds this event during a huge celebration in the city, on the city's anniversary of foundation.