FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

Thanks to all those who came out to the last meeting on October 27, 2010. Though that meeting was successful, the Ben Soto Skatepark needs your help again. We need MORE bike riders, rollerbladers, scooter riders, skateboarders, and especially your parents to come to the next meeting Tuesday the 23rd of November. The meeting will be held at 7pm, in the same location. Those who come will also get to Meet Staten Island’s new Congressmen Mike Grimm; this is important because not only can we ask Grimm to help

Oakley invited everyone for a few laps on their newly built pump track in Foothill Ranch. The bumps and berms are located in their backyard. When the people at Oakley do something, they do it right so we decided to check it out. The Oakley fort is always worth a visit, from their inhouse museum to the new vehicles they've come up with, or the tank track that we hadn't seen yet. It's an amazing company making awesome products, but what about the pump track? Sure, it's not the most impressive set of trails ever seen, but that's not the point here,

Vegas was a blur. We put a lot into it but all turned out well. On Monday Paul and Andy left for a Harley Trip. I don’t have a motorcycle licence so I stayed behind and did some working from the Mardi Gras hotel all day. It was actually cool because I took my computer outside and was answering the mail at the pool. When it got too hot (it was close to 40 degrees) I dove in the water, dried off, and continued with the mail that had stacked up over the last few days. I hate to be behind on that stuff so it felt good to get

Going to Las Vegas for the 10th time sounds boring but you have to make the best out of it. So Andy Zeiss and me hired some Harley's at our friends from Eagleriders and hit the road on our Low Rider Dyna and Street Glide's. We planned this for a long time and our route to San Barnadino CA was already in our head....but we changed it half an hour before we took off and went the other direction towards Arizona. Riding the Rout 66 is always good so we decided to ride the "66" loop from Kingman to Williams. The weather was in the 100's so even riding with a t-shirt was too hot but you got to wear something. Our "DOT" Biltwell helmets (NOT!) were doing a good job and weren't sweaty at all. The route to Kingman is a long one but for us Europeans its never boring, passing cars on the right hand side is fun for us and even the desert is like heaven for us. The bikes were great and my Stereo was awesome, I never thought I would have a radio on a motorcycle but its an awesome feature. 

The Camp Ramps Crew pimped the Skatepark in Siegen Eiserfeld in the last days. Now there is a new Jump Box and Spine, which are waiting for you. But there are not just new elements. Local Graffiti artists gave the place a colourful facelift. This art and the art of the BMX-Riders can be seen at the 25.9 during the Under the Bridge Jam, which is already taking place there for the 6. time. The fun starts at 12 am with different contests and goes over in a big party till late night.
Hope to see you there, your Camp-Ramps Tea.

When you are traveling and not sleeping in your own bed, you have to take a few seconds when you wake up to see where you landed that night. When I woke up in the ABA camper in the double bed I was like, holy cow! It made me laugh, because I couldn’t believe this had just happened. Paul was sleeping on the couch and was waking up as well. It was 07:30am but we needed to get out of there before the ABA people had to get to work and use the RV as a home base. We shut the door, said hi to the Monster man across the street and walked towards our trusty car that was standing in the parking lot all by itself. 

The BMX Hall Of Fame inductee evening was amazing. Such a good time, hanging out with everyone. But the morning came quick and it was off to Cardiff by the Sea as Bob Haro had invited us for a cup of coffee.
I’m not a big coffee man but if the father of BMX Freestyle invites you for a cup of coffee, I drink anything. It turned out to be a Vanilla Frappucino at Starbucks, right around the corner of his Haro Designs offices near the beach. 

Over the years I’ve stayed at many amazing places but the place we stayed at on our first night beat most of them. Amazing place you got there Sean and thanks for letting us crash. The day started off cloudy but to be honest, that didn’t bother me one bit. Just cruising around in Cali is awesome and we opted for breakfast near the ocean. We found this small surfers shed that had fresh coffee and breakfast burritos. It was possible to see the surfers go off on the waves while the pelicans flew by. So Cali, bro, shakkaa! 

For the next 10 days we’re in the United States of America. You’ll get to read about our experiences of our travel, the people we meet, the things we see and all sorts of things we encounter. But the 10 day travel update was almost cut short, by US immigration customs. It’s always a challenge to get through customs. You need to fill in an Esta form even before you leave your own country. You also need to be prepared on the questions they’re going to ask. Don’t even think about joking with these people because they won’t understand and will make your life miserable.