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With covering street riding and flatland at the 25 years of BMX event in Eindhoven earlier this month, the Mini-FAT-JAM (little brother of..) had miniramp riding and dirt jumping in mind. On Saturday the PA was installed at the rather new miniramp at the Bosscheweg in Aarle-Rixtel. With a bunch of banners, flags and EZ-Up tents set up, it actually looked quite good. The weather cooperated with sunshine all day long and that was exactly what we needed to open the BMX outdoor season. From 13:30 - 17:30 the ramp was used non-stop. Highlights on the mini were brought by Ricardo Moes, Dennis Keunen and Daniel. Let's start off with Daniel. The name had been circulating on the Dutch scene as "The New Barry". We don't have many talent in Holland so "another Barry Kohne" is always welcome. Daniel has the flow and pulled the first fufanu on the fence and made it look so easy. He also pulled tailwhips, high airs and tech liptricks on his pegless bike.

To be honest, we had not ridden dirt at the Sugar Hills all winter. With some shaping (and no time to test) during the week, we were hoping that things would work out for the mini-FAT-JAM. It's a good motivation to fix the trails up as you are inviting people to come ride and they're expecting something rideable when they show up.

With months waiting for sunshine it was the MINI FAT JAM to start with the good weather, so the party started at 3 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. I was surprised to see a poster taped on the Mini ramp says that OJA had a band playing that night: LUPU NEGRU. Never heard of the band so I thought it couldn't be any good cause they booked them only a couple of days before but when Corné visited my shop he said he was at a Lupu Negru concert the day before and it rocked so I might got it wrong.

For the second year in a row the Backyard jam is an indoor affair. The series of three is divided over three indoor spots in England. Round one took place at the BIC in Bournemouth. Paul and I had left in the Vito on Thursday evening. We opted for the ferry so we could bring all the beer we wanted and had a place to crash in case we needed it. England is an expensive country. Diesel is more expensive than gasoline so we luckily filled up the tank before we started driving on the left side of the road. We gained an hour on arrival in Dover but were too tired to make it directly to Bournemouth. We threw all the bags on the front seats and installed the fishing stretcher and mattress in the back of the van. Luckily it wasn't cold and the night went by quick.

Having USA PRO's coming over for a contest in Holland is not a yearly thing. In fact it was the Worlds in 1997 since the top of the PRO's were in the country of hookers, beers and weed. This didn't impress the Dutch scene cause I saw 2 empty stands on one site of the arena on Saturday Pro day but who cares, the ones that were there enjoyed it and the ones that missed it will regret it for the rest of their BMX lives.

This contest was created in the beginning of the year, I always looked for the best for BMX and all disciplines, Flatland deserves respect of everyone. Then we did something to show the potential of that. In my simple opinion, people who follow BMX nowadays sometimes forget this highlighter discipline, THE FLATLAND.

FAT Paparazzi in da hizouse Some things you cannot explain, you should have been there to understand what was going on. If you're boring and go to sleep early with a cracker and a bottle of water, don't expect to understand all the stories from the wild ones in the morning.

When it's early March and you live in Holland, it does not make sense to organize an outdoor event. It snowed heavily the week prior to the Battle Of The Lamp (Flatground weekend) and things didn't look too bright for Saturday March 6th. The initial plan of having the contest indoors at the Beursgebouw in Eindhoven failed so it was all or nothing depending on the weather as the contest was moved outdoors to the Stadhuisplein. It rained/snowed in the morning but we had good hope it would dry up. Yes, it was cold but you can dress against that.

To get people together you need to find a good excuse. Paul and I have been into BMX for 25 years now and that was enough of an excuse to get together for the Flat Battle and a Street Ride in Eindhoven. Saturday March 6th was picked for the occasion. With a party in De Effenaar lined up at night at least something would happen (the party). We had to depend on the weather for the outdoor activities. The street ride didn't take off until 17:00hrs. Peter van de Riet from South-Africa (currently living in Eindhoven) was willing to show the Dutch street riding scene the spots that DownTown Eindhoven had to offer.

Lots and lots of flatlanders from all over the world were moving in the direction of Amsterdam on the last weekend of February to attend the Braun Flatground 2004 contest. It was advertised as the biggest flatland contest of the world and they could be right! All the ingredients were there: the perfect floor, a stunning location, numerous riders from all corners of the globe, lots of media attention, a positive vibe and big pro names to shock the spectators with their magical moves and styles. The location is a unique building which has a dome shaped ceiling and a very industrial atmosphere, check out the pictures!