Scene reports: USA trip part 3. By BdJ

The Shorebreak hotel was a good move. Friendly people, killer location and stylish place. We didn’t manage to get out of there early but it didn’t matter, it was a holiday and stressing out wasn’t on the program. We drove over to Vans without grabbing a bite to eat. It was 11:45hr when we go there and someone must be getting ready for some lunch. Meeting up with Mike de Wit is always good. He was busy so he skipped lunch but showed us the new bowl that they had been working on at the Vans HQ’s. We had a chat with Sean Methven who took us out for lunch at Togo’s. We talked business, so it counted.Being at Vans is rather overwhelming. The place is huge and constantly buzzing. We briefly got back after the sandwich and got the address of Epic BMX as Andy Zeiss wanted one of those DK Golf bags. Epic is a well stocked BMX shop in Westminster, not for from Vans’ headquarters actually. A lot of the places there are about a 30 minute drive away. So was S&M, our next stop.

We arrived unannounced but Chris Moeller made some time for a talk. He also showed us the warehouse down the street which I had not seen before. Also the solar panels were new to me. It saves big on the electrical bill which used to be $2K per month with all the welding going on. Andy got himself a new FIT Inman frame and some parts so he could build up his bike and get some riding in. We had some plans for that later in the week.

We tried to avoid the daily traffic by leaving early to go to Temecula to meet up with McGoo. The 91 is always packed but all in all it wasn’t the worst traffic I’ve experienced there. McGoo had dinner plans for us at the local Japanese place. Let’s say it was on! Saki bomb toasts every 10 minutes or so lead by Harold’s GF Stacey Swift who had us all keep up with her. Man she can drink. Hanging out with McGoo is the best. If BMX had a live Google man, it’s him. He knows everything and everyone. 38 years in BMX. But he had news for us. Snafu was sold three days prior to the dinner and after 38 years McGoo has no connection with BMX any longer. What will BMX be without McGoo?

We ended up shooting some more shit in McGoo’s steaming Jacuzzi which felt good at the end of a rather busy day. Jetlag kicked in and off to bed it was.

BdJ