Woodward West, MegaRamp, and DC Shoes Partner to Debut A MegaRamp structure at Woodward West The Woodward West MegaRamp training facility on the West Coast is officially open at Woodward West in Tehachapi, CA. Top-skaters such as Bob Burnquist, Lincoln Ueda, Jake Brown, and BMXers Andy Buckworth and Morgan Wade attended the kick-off celebration along with DC pro skateboarder and MegaRamp pioneer Danny Way, to be the first to tackle this behemoth. Built by Woodward partner CA Skateparks/CA Rampworks the MegaRamp structure was built to the same specifications as the MegaRamp structures used in competitions. The sloping roll-in leads to take-offs with 50, 60, or 70-foot gaps, skaters and riders land into a 27-foot-tall quarterpipe. During its trial runs, the MegaRamp structure saw its share of crashes but also produced an amazing session.

"Woodward West and DC are stepping up in a huge way to support the development of both skate and BMX riders with the first 

Being down in France it’s cool to look up the BMX spots. The Anglet trails was on the agenda again but since the former TomTom died we kind of had to go on what we remembered. After a couple of bad turns we made it to the spot. I’m actually not sure if the locals enjoyed the coverage we gave them last year because on arrival the place was locked up with a chain. “Locals-only” it looks like. Because it had rained hard the previous night the jumps were a bit too wet anyway. 

The directions we had weren’t too great: “ It’s just across the border in Irun, Spain. You drive over the bridge and you’ll see it right there.” Now we had three options. Either drive to Spain over the motorway, the Route National, or drive down from the beach. We opted for the Route National but did not find anything when we entered Spain. Next up was leaning towards the nearby motorway but driving along like that you could either be Lucky or drive around forever.

Last year the Lords of Dirt event took place in our holiday and it totally fit in our program. This year the event is on the same weekend as the FAT JAM so we'll cruise back for that but still stopped by in Tosse and caught up with Patrick Guimez and the locals who had a chill session on their local spot. The spot has changed from last year and already looks great, but with Markus Hampl moving to town today they're going to "concrete" the jumps before riders like Dane Searls, TJ Ellis, Mike "Hucker" Clark and Nasty come to town for the 2010 Lors of Dirt event. This seems a bit of work since Patrick  knows the trails will be demolished on Monday after the contest but Patrick wants things to be 100% for the riders and since he's a rider, he knows what riders want.

The session actually took off to a pro contest level where I snapped some shots. For the real big event, go to Tosse on 21/22 August, it's going to be a big one with all the pro riders in town and the Monster party taking place right next door.

When Nike stepped into the “Extreme” market with there 6.0 program it was easy to talk shit about them. As BMX-ers you want to support your own friends over the big companies. Hating on Nike was easy to do but they held on and did a lot of things the right way. The big swoosh probably has a bigger marketing budget than all BMX companies combined so it’s hard to fight the big dawg. But as they’ve progressed and put BMX into places that it normally would not go,

The Vans let It Ride comp was held at the concrete park in Kortrijk last year. € 10.000,= Euros were given out that weekend. This time a few BMX riders were riding the place, some from France, some from Belgium and us from the Pays Bas. Not sure if you can classify this as a scene report or anything like that. We've done one before, but we took some pics that day and here they are.

We're skipping this week's Nass event in the UK but will hit up a local BMX jam this weekend anyway. But next weekend is all about the BMX Masters in Cologne. The park course and the dirt jumps are under construction at the moment but it looks like things are shaping up. Check the latest pics, brought to you by CampRamps.

Upstate NY has always had an active BMX scene. Rochester, NY is home to Kink Bike Company and hometown of Tom Dillon and the Hamlin brothers, Tony, Jake and Mitch. What Rochester hasn’t been home to, for over a year now is an indoor park to support the local riding scene. That all changed on July 2nd with the opening of the Rochester Action Sports Park or R.A.S.P. as it is known. With over 25,000 square feet including a 23’ vert wall and enough quarters, rails and ledges to suit any rider, owners Ed Mineck and Tony Britt have answered the need for a top quality park in the city of Rochester and done it all in less than a year.

I stopped by today to talk to Ed about the park and his plans for the future. While the park design itself is truly outstanding, even more remarkable are the people behind R.A.S.P. There are a lot of people who open parks for a variety of reasons. Some know little about the business. Others think they can turn a quick profit. Some have experience and others are riders who open a park so they always have a place to ride. The rarity is the individual or individuals who are truly altruistic and see the vision of what a park can 

Monsun, screaming people, dirt, noise, joy, love, everywhere cows and dogs and in between big guys on small bikes… Camp-Ramps was in India, organising a show-tour with 7 stops all over India from New Dehli over Tachmahal to the border of Pakistan. Hannu Cools from Belgien, Sergej Geier, and Paddy Gross from Germany, Alex Johann, Brandon Christie and Scott Wirch from the States rocked the set-ups from Rajasthan to Delhi. We had the worst conditions (floated Ramps and dirt that mutated to mud) but nevertheless the 

Bike Park Lublin – the biggest complex in Poland already completed We are more than pleased to inform you that in Lublin is now being erected one of the biggest Bike Parks in Europe, the construction of which started in 2009. For quite a long period of time the authors of the project have been publishing on our forum their reports from the construction site.

Only two lines remained the same, the big ones on the left when you roll down the starting hill. Everything else has changed. A new line was built for the resi jump (to be finished) and the three tables were moved to the right. A little kicker jump was built last night for the long distance contest and a little kid already jumped 10 feet on it. Looks promising for Sunday. The jumps on the way back are almost done. They need some packing and testing so come ride your bike and bring the shovel to fix the damage. It will be a good challenge to

Locals have been working on some new sections at the Helm Trails in Helmond. With the help of new dirt and a digger the makeover was kicking off. All week the Helm Trails will be open for practice and maintenance from 17:00hr - 19:00hr so come check it out before the Open Dutch Dirt BMX championships will take place on June 13th. Here are a few pics from the Helm Trails blogspot. Looks promising.

The internet is a great thing, but being on the road it doesn't always work out the same way as back home with the high speed connection. It's not only the connection in China that is slow, it's also the sites that they're banning. No Twitter, no Facebook, no Vimeo and also no Youtube. That's the reason I haven't been able to post clips up straightt away that you guys sent in. Webmaster Jos is helping out though so don't worry. I said China? Yup. 

Vendetta-Lines presents: HIGHWAY TO AIR The first European BIG AIR 12 m high, 60 m long, 10 m large, quarter of 5 m high, Gap adjustable from 5 to 15 m. The structure will be installed in the leisure park of Opio (06) during six weeks. From the 1st of May to the 11th of June 2010 the BIG AIR will be open for training and photo shoots for all riders (Pro & Am). This training period will end on a high with our event on the 12th of June: Multidisciplinary demos and sessions: SKATE, ROLLER, BMX. 

Last night we made it over to the Helm Trails for a little session. Some changes have been made to the set-up and in the days leading up to the jam date this Sunday, a few more changes will be made. The weather has been super nice to ride so that's what happened yesterday too. Govert Schonewille showed up with his posse from America, Schep was there, Dimitris, Mike of course and a bunch of locals hung out at the bench. Off the streets, but at the trails. Don't know what's better actually. Dennis Keunen threw his first ever flips over bigger doubles. Doing them all the time at 040 during the winter has sure helped. Dimitris was going higher than everyone. He's not the one-line fan, but he made up for it by going to the moon and back. To all riders out there who want to ride the Helm Trails, this Sunday is the day. First Helm Jam in 2010. The next one has already been planned for 13 June. Some more changes will be made before then and also the Resi might be done by June. That's the good part about trails, there's room to change them up all the time. Here are a few pics from yesterday. Live action this Sunday. 13h00-19h00.

Last Friday the new dirt spot in Helmond Brandevoort was visited by a film crew. This brought many kids and their parents to the pump track at the Kaldersedijk. Four months ago, the place was just a field. After the BMX track was built, it turned into a daily visit for lots of local riders. The smaller kids can take the easy section. The more advanced and more adventurous youngsters can take the bigger track. The place keeps expanding and changes on a weekly basis. Check the photos of the day and we'll upload the clip once it 

The sun is out, finally. It took a coule of German riders two attempts to ride the street spots in Arnhem, NL. First try it rained, so they had to come back. Locals Riccardo Moes and Rik Jurrius hooked up with the riders and they did a lap around the Arnhem inner city ring and stopped wherever they thought was a good spot to ride. Riccardo shot some pics so for the spot hunters; pay attention. Will Arnhem be the next hotspot?

This Saturday 3 April the folks from Monster Energy will start setting up the PA at 10am. Paul's Boutique Fixie store opens its doors at 11am. Around 1pm the Mini FAT-JAM will be in full swing with a little fun session at 4pm when we will give out some donated prizes from the sponsors. The day is about having fun and we welcome riders who normally don't ride dirt too. Party at night? Oh yes. OJA.

Project Spark is a community based project originating from Staten Island, New York. The intention of the project is to bring New York City its first public indoor skatepark. This skatepark would provide indoor practicing grounds to the 3,000+ action sports participants in the five boroughs. Please take a moment to fill out the form to voice this concern to your local politicians and the National Parks Service.

Betonlandschaften is a Germany based company that builds action sports parks. With BMX riders in the company you know that the use of the parks is open for bikes as well. Now how big is the scene in Afghanistan? Probably bigger soon as they're building a concrete park over in Karokh at a school next to a volleyball field at this minute, which should be finished in 8 weeks. BMX worldwide!

Everyone will agree that it was a long rough winter in The Netherlands. The worst one in I don't know how many years. But we've seen the sun again, seriously! So it's back to getting the trails in shape. It's happening everywhere in the Helmond corner, at the Flame trails, the Sugar Hills and also the Helm Trails. Jams are coming up so work needs to be put in. Sugar Hills: 3 April. Helm Trails: 18 April. Flame trails: 2 May. Instead of showing up when everything is in shape, it's appreciated if you show up in the next few weeks with your bike AND the shovel. 

Mark Vos left Amsterdam by train together with Frank van Klinken. They are having a blast cruising around and filming for a new videopart. They made it to Barcelona and hooked up with some riders from Sweden and started scouting the streets to find new spots and existing spots from several BMX and skate videos. But then it started snowing, in Barcelona! Damn. One day a year they might get snow and Mark and Frank were there. Good timing. Expect the edit to pop up here on FATBMX whenever it's done. Enjoy the ride guys.

New ramps to ride but also new rules to keep things in control. The Roof BMX Halle in Berlin is opening up again on 17 March. After lots of work getting the place rideable again it's nice to have a BMX indoor spot to session in the Berlin area. It's € 4,= Euros per session or € 30,= Euros for a 10-ticket pass. But you have to check the Roof-BMX.de website first for opening hours. The address is: Nordring 15, 12681 Berlin, Germany. Send your questions to: info@roof-bmx.de

The combi pool will be resurfaced for the famous Pro-Tec Pool Party and BEFORE that happens, Steve van Doren gave the green light to all BMX riders to come ride the infamous Combi-Pool for one night only! Feel free to come this Sunday March 7th from 6 - 10pm to shred up this legendary monster bowl!

Address: VANS SKATEPARK - ORANGE, 20 City Blvd W Bldg. A - Suite 2, Orange, CA 92868, USA. Tel. (1) 714.769.3800

The plan was to make one jump rideable at the opening of the new pump track in Helmond. And even that was an impossible task. It rained cats and dogs and the spot looked more of a mud hole than a BMX pump track. Still about 40 people showed up with umbrella's and rain coats to unmask the official Flame Trails sign. After that the whole crew moved to a warmer place where the speeches were held by Mrs. Houthoofd, Gerrit Does and 2 of the locals. All in all it didn't take too long for the spot to get approved and built. It seemed that everyone involved wanted to get it done and believed in the little project. Now it's just waiting for the sun to come out for a few days. The first Flame Trails jam has been scheduled for 2 May.