Sometimes things just ball up. One of those things is the Empire DVD review right here. I first watched it on the way to the Rebel Jam at Dortmund Airport. We actually set it up well with 2 Germans, Paul and I watching the DVD before taking off. Just by watching it, it doesn't automatically translate your opinion into text for the website. Then I also needed a photo to go along with it, but where was the box?

Anyway, it was time to sit down and do it all over again.

Danny Hickerson has moved up the ranks lately and when he keeps whipping like he does in the Empire DVD, you'll be hearing of him more often. The Kink rider shows he can do more than whips. Favorite section of the DVD comes next with Chase Hawk. Boy does he have style (and he knows it). The flow and grace at the 9th street trails is unheard of, a treat to watch, again and again. Joel Moody and Jake Finley get a part each and so does Neil Harrington.

Life's a Beach. The only thing missing on the cover is a BadBoy. Oh, maybe Josh Elkington is the bad boy, I need to see his biceps next time. The biceps of the postman got some training too on this round, the mag is 180 pages thick and damn heavy. Take 15 of them and start doing some exercises. With so many pages you can expect some ads too. They're in the first part of the magazine. Oh you want the list?

Adams 157
Alans 91
Alone 53
Backyard jam 100
BCF BMX 141
Bdoen 151
Billy's 121

A lot went on this summer in Germany and Freedom is the magazine to give you all the German coverage. After the usual Inhalt, post, termine, videocom and news, it time for the articles. First one up is an article about flatland. The title: Is Flatland to be saved? Next article: The Fear Factor with Markus Wilke. Then we're getting into the contest scene reports starting with the Rebel Jam in Berlin with great photos. The Federal tour was in Germany and the report starts on page 32. Straight into the 2005 BMX Masters article and the Nokia Fise report. Up next it's the German Meisterschaft in Coburg. 2 pages of riding and two pages of partying. Nice one! The Backyard Digger tour gets explained on p.54/55 before moving into a Christoph Steen and Daniel Tinhoff BIO sort of thing. Melloshit and the Darmstaedter BMX contest fill the next few pages plus a report from a flatland contest in the Black Forest. Repo in the house: Recklinghausen jam and Dormagen jam. Learn how to Nosewheelie with Timo Mrukwia or do the Unlookdown with Jon Robinson. Your pick. Some product pages follow and then the Exit 65 page with another opinion on: Can Flatland Be Saved, written by Lowcash.

Just finished watching RF 4. Don't know what to type here right now. It was fun to go back in time but I'm usually not the one watching videos over and over again. RF 4 had McGoo and Chris Moeller on the Hank bus and it looked like they felt a bit uncomfortable being on the bus with riders being the "entertainers". The riding is great but a bit dated compared to now when we're 10 issues further down the road.

Since RF 4 and 5 came out on VHS tapes and not everyone has transferred all their VHS tapes to DVD's yet, this is a must have if you are a collector of the Roadfools videos. DVD's will stay where magnetic tapes will see the dustbin sooner or later.

Roadfools 4: Leland Thurman, Mike Tag, Cory Nastazio, Chris Moeller, McGoo, Chad Kagy, Van Homan, Dave Freimuth, Mike Escamilla, Kris Bennett and Brian Castillo visiting Ohio, Pennsylvania, NY, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachussets. Nice slideshow.

Bert Jan Blok and Kim
Fontijn of quarter 9 productions put together a DVD of the Dutch, Germans and Belgians riding the skateparks in The Netherlands. Spots visited are all of the XL Series (Heerlen, A'dam and Rotterdam), Zwolle, Deventer, Zaandam, Glanerbrug and Deventer. The footage ranges from 2002 - 2005 and there's a good chance that you made the video too. You see, Quarter 9 does not have a big rig to take people on board nor do they need a trailer to carry all the video equipment and lights. Consider RIDE of your LIFE a home production with a limited budget.

Still it shows a lot of the Dutch riding scene. Everyone can join the party and riding is more important than delivering. Having a good time is what counts. What does a 360-whip mean if you can't put a smile on your face? The MAP shows you how to get to all the spots from Zwolle. Music varies from Classics to Heavy and everything in between (Foo fighters, GangStarr, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Madball, Drowning Pool, Bad Religion, MC Solaar, Naughty by Nature, Bouncing Souls, BMX Bandits, Franz Ferdinand, Beastie Boys, Bob Marley, DJ Candela....).

Had no clue who the guy on the cover was or where the shots was taken. Osato gets the cover of the November issue doing a nosepick at the Little Devil warehouse in PA. Sergio Layos gets the contents page, always good for a full colour picture. Castillo makes Pizza and the Shadow crew has finally come to rest. What's NKE6.com's deal anyway? Letters, yeah, pretty stupid ones. Up Front always has some good stuff. TJ on MTV and Hoffman in ESPN magazine, Steve Crandall hanging out with P-diddy. Mainstream or what? Kill the camera thieves. Rockledge, PA. What?! exactly. Downs explains. Danny Hickerson is answering your look in the face tailwhip questions in Pro Q & A. Did he say where the button is on his bike to spin it around?

Reviews; sure, they get some swag over there at RIDE too. Burnside, been there, done that. It was early too. Wilkerson then and now, the perfect guy to answer those questions. Products: Adio shoes, Volume Frame, Premium Sprocket, SNAFU grips, Oakley glasses and

#38 Aout/Septembre 2005. It's the TOUR issue with reports from the Roadfools tour, the Shitluck Mow-It tour and the Eastern Dragon tour (Hey Leigh, still worrking on that report?). The issue starts with Soulfood and then Wicke grinds up a rail to tailwhip off in the contents/sommaire page. This mag is in French so if you don't speak the language, all that's left is watch the photos. In the Blah/Blah section we can figure out that Kabal is on standbye, Gazoil is on SX, Poupou organizes BMX camps and tha the park in Rennes is about to get shut. Que Pasa with wethepeople and superstar? They're throwing in Spanish now? Damn. News and reviews on page 14. Contest reports on page 16 (4 of them on one page!) and more summer jams packed on page 18/19 (including the UCI Worlds, Festy Urban contest, Destroy Jam and Isbergues). At Soul they sure know how to use their space.

Manu Massabova's bike gets tested and then it's off to the TUNING page. Eastern tour follows and then there's a city report on TOURS, a city in France (p.34). Roadfools 14 by Rob Dolecki starts on 46. Ends on 060 where the Shitluck tour starts.

FLATtv DVD Volume Six Spring/Summer 05

To start: This is a five star Flatland DVD!

Why: If you ride flatland this DVD is a must have, if you like the European scene and music this FLATtv will be in your player for months!

What's in it: FLATLAND of course!

Who made it: Renato aka Ninja Inc Productions from Hellmond NL

Features: Summer Sessions, Ninja Spin 2005, Eberswalde Scene, Worlds Prague, Raphael Chiquet, BMX Masters Köln, Daniel Fuhrmann and the Famous Dreamsession.

At FATBMX we received another issue of Props Video Magazine. We gotta give props to the PROPS crew for bringing out issues for so long. The bonus issue that came along with issue 57 is from the summer of 1996 and has a bunch of stuff including the '96 X-Games and Kris Bennett and Neil Wood interviews. If you did not have those on DVD yet, you do now when you purchase the latest Props production. It's amazing to see how far the development in production has come and watching issue 57 compared to issue 14 is a big difference.

Word on the streets was that John Parker was going to do a magazine. When we ran into John in Barcelona he had the first issue with him. Sophisticated rider is about the RIDER which means it has different sports in it as well. The Premiere Issue has interviews with Jamie Bestwick, a Joe Kid On A Stingray premiere report, an article about the current state of Flatland, a "Welcome to the Circus" article about living on the road and also a report about the Bangkok X-Games Cup. That's the BMX stuff that you get for your money (well, I believe the first issue is free). Next to that, you also get an interview with FMX Cowboy Kenny Bartram, skateboarder Chris Livingston and Andy MacDonald. The magazine has the overall picture of the "extreme athlete" in mind which isn't a bad thing but the question remains if people are willing to fork out a couple of bucks quarterly to buy such a magazine. With John Parker footing the bill for issue one (there are practically no advertisers) let's hope he can get some of his connections in gear to start supporting the magazine.

RIDE keeps on pumping them out. The October issue has a lot of stuff which includes:
26 Letters section
32 Up Front (News)
42 Pro Q&A with Brian Foster
44 Diversions (reviews of Music and videos)
46 SPOTS: Brooklyen Banks NYC
48 Then & Now: Taj Mihelich
52 PRODUCTS: gotta keep 'em happy
54 SETUPS: Garrett Byrnes's welded seatpost is no more
56 Buyer's guide: Pedals ready GO!
Watch this, they're counting 8 pages for the pull out poster
68 Product test: Primo/Mosh
110 Regional news: Aarle-Rixtel Rules
112 WorkBench: Mechanix gloves not allowed
Wait a minute, another pull out poster: 8 pages!!

Animal and MacNeil are pleased to announce that an agreement has been reached between the two companies. The agreement allows Animal to use Mac Neil’s patented Pivotal seat technology on Animal bike seats.

“It’s been a our goal to work with other companies and to get more of them to use our Pivotal design.â€? Said Jay Miron of MacNeil. “ I’ve been a huge fan of Animal since the beginning. So I’m really excited that they are the first to go with the pivotal design.â€? Miron added.

A long time ago at our local fair, it was possible to win BMX stickers. BMX was a hype at the time but it was strange to be able to win BMX stickers at the local kermis. Focused on BMX, I needed to win those stickers. I forgot what I had to do to get them but it was probably shooting some chalk pipes. Anyway, one of the stickers I won had the text: "Step On It" next to RL or Mike Buff doing a one-hand-one-footer. I think I still have it, somewhere.......

This has got nothing to do with the Orchid Footwear DVD other than the title of it: "Step On It"

With a super crew of riders such as Van Homan, Shawn Arata, Dustin Gunther, Wiz, Berringer, Martinez, Jay Miron, Max Vincent, Robin Fenlon, Adamski and Kevin Porter it is hard to fail a video. Most of the crew went on a 3 week trip to the North-West and flimed the complete thing. It has a bit of a RoadFools feel to it with the riders being on the road, riding new spots and having fun. The actual video is only 25 minutes long but it's full of amazing stuff. Loads of parks, pools and street in this DVD so if that is your cup of tea, this is for you.

What the hell, Eddie Fiola makes the cover of the summer issue of Cream with a picture from 1984, taken by James Cassimus at Upland. That photo tells a 1000 stories and later on in the magazine you can read the full on interview with Eddie himself. Cream is 50% in French and 50% in English so the non-French readers need no worry. The Cream posse obviously went to the USA but the French scene was not forgotten. Where Mike Ardelean sports the Edito page, Stephane Renaud gets the Contents page. News, who's that Frog fucking Duval in the ass? Hiroya Morizaki gets interviewed for all the flatland riders out there. Lille gets visited. Braun Ninja Spin gets reviewed before going into the Super**** UK tour (French only). Pessac de Nantes follows and then it's a report about the 2005 IBMXFF World's in Prague. Calvin Tan is a flatland rider from Signapore. Learn more about him on page 62-63. Sean Lai, same thing. Page 64-65 for him and a Ground Force 0.2 report on page 66. Back to the homeland (France this time).

Road Fools 14 crew includes * Robin Fenlon * Ian Schwartz * Chase Hawk * Brian Foster * Lino Gonzalez * * Cory Martinez * Brian Tunney * Tobias Wicke * Morgan Wade * Chase DeHart * * Danny Hickerson * Aron Ross * Dustin Guenther * Chris Doyle * Van Homan *

The crew of Roadfools 14 started off riding Brian Foster's local park in New Jersey. BF lives 12 miles from the park and shows he's got the lines down including big 180-s over the concrete spine. Tobias Wicke does all kind of new liptricks (to the Americans that is) on the quarterpipe. New on the crew are two announcers who talk one video segment into the other. Leigh Ramsdell and Steve Crandall set up for a street session in NYC next. After letting the Sept.-11 drama sink in, it's off to the 3 feet high cobble stone bank for a shesh. As long as you have talent on board, it is possible to fill a whole section at a little spot like this. Edwin Delarosa makes a guest appearance in the Big Apple and Chris Doyle did a huge 180 over a street. T-Nez is soaking up a lot of the street coverage at this point and so is Chase Hawk.