lazerdick

I told you I have old photos. Clearly, Andrew is like ten years old in this. I scanned a bunch of old photos of Andrew today that I’ll probably post tomorrow, so stay tuned for more from the guy with the weirdest nickname in bmx.

fullpipes

I shot this photo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At that point I was not traveling with my bike,  but every time I saw a spot I would still get excited. Sometimes I would take a photo just to remember it. Malaysia had some cool spots, but overall it didn’t compare to western city. There were lots of cool things to see, but the infrastructure was a bit different and more basic. I wish I  had brought my bike, it would have been an interesting thing to do there, even if in convenient. Traveling is mostly exciting and fun, but long term it can get boring; it’s nice to have something to do in that case. 

old photos

I found a big stack of old photos while moving, so I’ll be posting a bunch of them up over the coming months. This is a photo from Canberra, Australia – a two day overnight trip that I mapped out below.  This spot has been in a few videos, and it’s awesome. I rode something like 30 km to ride it. The rest of my photos are mostly from ‘01-’05, there’s a lot of cool stuff from that time period of BMX in Kelowna, and a bunch of stuff from around the world. I look forward to sharing it.

Stay Fit

I’m underwhelmed.

Van Homan’s part is really good though, and it makes me feel like I at least got my money’s worth. It’s never fair to compare parts to his Criminal Mischief part because that was so far above what anyone had done up to that point, but it’s up there. You can tell he put some serious sweat and blood into this part.

back on the 7th

I have a professional exam on the 6th of November, so I won’t be posting until after that, but expect an update soon after, I still have lots of extra video to post.

presence trailer

This trailer’s been up for a while, but I want to point out how excited I am to see the video. The last Presence video was awesome, and this one should be even better.

gnarly

http://vimeo.com/7056028

some gnarly street riding

vancouver trails

These remain the best trails I have ever been to. Seen on Red.

the return of raw footage/anchorage reminder

Just a reminder that the Anchorage premiere of two thirds of no bikes seven is tomorrow. That may seem a bit strange, but David and Dane rented out an arena to do a demo and video premiere, so I wanted to give them what I have done at this point. It should be a really fun day. The bmx demos are at noon and 3:00, and there is a combined demo at 6:00. The video plays at 8:00. Everything costs $5 according to ADN, and it’s at the AT&T Pavillion, which is the arena by O’Malley and Old Seward.

I’ve been really busy lately, but as the video gets closer to completion I’ll try to post lots of leftover footage here. This edition consists of three clips of me from the trip this summer. The first clip is from a spot that Brent and Nick took us to in Squamish, it’s apparently the only street spot in town, but there’s a few versions of those ledges around the building and it’s a really fun spot to ride. That was my first sprocket grind down a stair ledge and I was really stoked on it. The second clip was also a first for me; Travis took us to this really awesome wallride in Vancouver and we sessioned it for an hour or so. The last clip is from the Igloo – somewhere I had always wanted to go, and it lived up to my expectations. Considering the bowls around Vancouver, the locals have high standards, and this place is especially amazing for the small amount of space they use.

bmx and insurance

This post is a response to this blog post on the come up.

“And just for the record, the reason why people like Ben have such a hard time in situations like this is because we’re one of the only country’s fucked up enough to not have public health care. If you oppose Obama’s health care reform plan you should kill yourself.” -Adam Grandmaison

I appreciate the bmx community taking an interest in politics (although on this particular issue it may come off as a bit self-serving), but if you make a remark as strong as that one, you should at least get your facts straight. First, Obama does not have a health care reform plan. At this point, the Obama administration has not submitted a plan to congress – read through this article for some good discussion on that issue. Second, the plan that is currently making the rounds in the senate does not include any version of public health care. It is nowhere near the single payer system used in other Western countries, and at this point it still has co-ops in the place of a government run insurance company. The only plan that it really resembles is the one currently in place in Massachusetts, which is “an incomplete result for an unsustainable cost”.

I would love to launch into a full-scale healthcare debate on this blog and bum you all out with seriousness, but it would be nice to keep things relatively fun here. I will say this – of you want to talk single payer health care, research the good and bad things about it. Also note that the United States faces the additional challenge of having healthcare costs that are significantly higher than the rest of the world, and we don’t have unlimited resources. Many of the reasons for this are legit, and some are unfotunate, but I’ll give you a hint – it doesn’t have much to do with insurance company profits.

Also, I think it’s awesome that the rider in question had his bill waived. I know some hospitals will set up fairly generous payment plans, but I’ve never heard of them waiving fees almost entirely.