Bart de Jong
Mike has again surpassed all of our expectations and proven that he has the strength to conquer all. Just yesterday we were so excited that Mike was beginning to catch his balance for the first time, and now today he is walking on his own down the halls of the hospital. Mike was elated to have reached this goal so soon and spent the morning expressing how grateful and blessed he feels to have regained the ability walk without help. Taking this huge step forward gave Mike added peace of mind, and for the first time he can believe that he really is going to pull through this.For the first time since the accident Mike has started to talk about riding again. I think it’s the first time that he can see that as a possibility for his future. He also talked a lot about the need for a change in BMX culture concerning helmets.
The votes are in and have all been tallied for this years ABA/BMXer magzines Golden Crank awards as well. This year we received more votes than ever and the voting was closer than ever. The Golden Crank Awards are voted on by the fans and are awarded at the ABA BMX Hall Of Fame banquet in Tulsa, Oklahoma at ABA`s host hotel, the Crowne Plaza, Wednesday November 26th at 2:00pm. Seats are limited so be sure to get there early! 2008 BMXer Magazine Golden Crank Nominees (These are the Top 5 in each category listed in alphabetical order):
AA Pro of the Year
-Danny Caluag
-Mike Day
-David Herman
-Donny Robinson
-Khalen Young
4Down, the Hastings BMX distribution company, has won £2500 worth of Google adwords in the 2008 HSBC Start-Up Stars Awards. 4Down Distribution, founded in 2006, won the Google adwords campaign as one of the runners' up in the main 'start-up' category. The overall winner, winning £50,000 in cash, was Bulldog Natural Grooming. The awards presentation took place late last week at a black-tie ceremony at the Dorchester Hotel in London. 
Name: Corey Martinez Age: 25
Hometown: Decatur, AL
Sponsors: Red Bull, Levi's, United, Duo, Cinema, Orchid
You've gone through some little sponsor changes this year, are you happy where you're at right now?
Corey: Yeah, I guess so, it is what it is! I hate that it had to happen but I'm looking forward to see what happens at Duo and Cinema. Steve [Buddendeck] and Cory [Muth] are cool people to work with and the team road trips seem like they would be awesome.
How good did it feel when Levi's said they are taking care of health insurance for you?
Corey: I thought it was awesome cause I've never heard of anyone involved in BMX doing something like that before.
It was the 11th edition of the Vibrations Urbaines and we had not even been there before. For some reason I had this impression that the BMX contest was part of a giant festival but on arrival I did not see much else than a giant white tent which had the ramps inside. It was dark and it rained so I did not see everything but the next day all I noticed were the dirt jumps next to the giant white tent. No sight of flatland, breakdancers, music concerts, graffiti artists, skateboarders or a giant festival crowd. What was left were BMX-ers and there were a lot of them. Because of the rain a lot of things did not work out as planned. Flatland was moved inside a sports hall 2 kilometers down the road which I never saw a sign of unfortunately. Dirt was cut short because of the rain. The 60 minutes that it was dry on Saturday were used for the pro class first, followed by the AM class after that. Because of the bad weather forecast the riders were told that this might as well be the straight final. Patrick Guimez was in unique form and has added loads of flip variations to his long list of tricks. It was not a surprise for everyone that he won the 
2 new pivotal seats from Hoffman. Microdot and Repeater. REPEATER CIRCLE SL PIVOTAL SEAT Spec: Vinyl Cover, Thin Padding Design, Slim Style, 4 Colors; White, Teal, Purple, Pink. Weight: 9 oz
MICRODOT
SL PIVOTAL SEAT Spec: Vinyl Cover, Thin Padding Design, Slim Style, Weight: 9 oz