FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

A lot of good ideas come from hanging out at the bar with a bunch of friends. You joke around, talk shit and all of a sudden you've got a new idea for a funny T-shirt or something else that no other BMX company has ever done. The next step is remembering the idea in the morning. If it's still a good idea when you wake up, you can make it happen. The people at Parano Garage in Germany decided to make beer coasters, checked into the costs, made sure there are no recognizable faces on the photos and simply had them made. They've got thousands of them so don't be surprised to find them in the bar at the next BMX contest.

What a mix of people this week.  All of them were big time in their day and Taj in fact is still up there as one of the most respected riders. Tell them happy B-day when you have their phone number or send them an e-card.

28 August 1963 - Woody Itson
30 August 1970 - Gary Pollack
31 August 1973 - Taj Mihelich

If you're waching the miniramp contest live you jus saw these four guys transfer to the next: Ben Hennon, Mike Spinner, Phil Aller and Ben Wallace. The level bar has been raised and there are no easy rounds any more. Markus Braumann rode well but Phil had a next to perfect one minute run and made it through. Mike Spinner beat tech master Dave Osato who tried a few big tricks (720 - whip to 270 toothpick) during his run but needed more than a few tries to pull it. Ben Hennon went through because Tobias Wicke sat out his run. He's injured and hurting giving Ben Hennon an easy transfer. Mark "120 SMS" Koenig could not match Ben Wallace's non stop trickery on the grey mini. Ben had a few extra's for the crowd and flipped the spine and did three flairs back to back.

The bands have started playing but more and more people are checking out the BMX riding on the ramp. Semi finals are coming up. Stay tuned for a report or watch everything live on www.freecaster.tv

The first round of the T-mobile Extreme Playgrounds miniramp contest just took place. We’re semi live here. The vibe is good and the sun is here. Perfect because this round is called the Summer Session. It’s head to head today and this is how it went:

First heat: Mike Spinner vs. Mark Konig. It was close and some were disappointed that Mark Konig didn’t make it to the next round because his first run was killer and he did a lot of technical tricks but Spinner went off too and showed a 720 over the spine, tailwhip tire tabs, 3-whip ove the spine, 360 drop-in, nosebonk-360 turndown over the spine, a sweet 540 manual, invert, tailwhip, 1 handed x-down, 360, plus one-handed 360 x-down over the spine.

We got the results below.

One rider will make it through to the next round by SMS voting.

Round one results:

The next rounds of the contest will be shown online.

We're at the T-mobile extreme playgrounds Summer Session (no we din't make up that name) in Pinneberg, Germany. 6 riders rode the qualifying session and three of them mad it to the finals with the seeded riders. Michael Sieren did hard tricks to make it through, Daniel Traeder rode very smooth, was all over the ramp, did some airs an some lip tricks to finish second. Benny Paulsen wishes he had more ticks but made it regardless. He was riding trails later on in the day and enjoyed that. Achim Kujawski finished fourth and did a street style 360 over the little box to flat. Yeah! 

Germany has two main BMX magazines. Zwanzig Zoll and Freedom magazine. FreedomBMX is already at issue number 76 and here's what's in it:
-News
-Dates
-Media
-How to build a schaufel
-PS The Champ Series
-Highway to Hill
-FISE
-Stevan interview
-People Store Tour
-Erfurt street jam
-Wiesbaden miniramp jam

Canadian Flatland pro rider Nathan Penonzek has a new project in the works: "I suppose you saw on TV the earthquake in Perú last week?? I was in that town last year on my way down to Chile, it was poor then, I can only imagine now. I have a plan, I want to raise money for a social project. As you know, my Quijote tour is still in the works, I will be on a boat to Colombia soon, I will organize two quick events there and in Ecuador."

The 2007 Mexican X-Games will take place at Sept. 7-9 at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City. We can make all kind of jokes here but I'm sure they've got things handled over there in Mexico. The invited riders list looks impressive on street as well as vert.

*BMX STREET*  
Ryan Nyquist United States
Edwin DeLaRosa United States
Van Homan United States
Will Love United States
Garrett Reynolds United States
Eric Holley United States
Aaron Ross United States
Jorge Olveda Mexico
Hector Garcia Mexico
Christian Balmaceda Argentina

Stephen Murray is receiving a lot of love from his BMX family and it's good to see that. He can use all the support out there and here are a few more things you can do to help.
-The Worchester jam that is coming up this weekend has a photo competition going on. Anyone can submit their pics of the jam and the best ones will make it in RIDE magazine. The pics will also be posted on a website so Stephen can look at them. Find all info on the image that Kung just sent.

October 11th, 1994
Actual Journal Entry
Went to Sheep Hills in the morning. Took my BMX bike & mountain bike. I rode with Greg Hill a bit before others showed up. Later, the guys from Haro showed up & did a photo shoot with me for a Haro ad. I mainly rode my mountain bike. I did pretty much everything on it, even flips! I'm going to be in a Haro mountain bike ad. Cool. Then rode my BMX bike & did all the same stuff. Was a good day! Came home & chilled it & then did sprints up the Edwards hill by my house. Then came home & went to the gym & got back at midnight. Ahh, a day full of goodness.

Looking Back Now
I think I may have been one of the first riders to flip a mountain bike. This was well over a decade ago, back in the fall of 1994.