Brent Webb posted this video of himself and Ty Z the other day; it’s got some pretty nice artwork.
Desson is working on something for the print version of Red BMX Magazine, that will be out sometime in the future. Matt Lindsay has a photo in the Van Orman’s new magazine, which is called Life. It can be purchased at most mailorders.
David, Zac and I are headed up to Fairbanks this weekend to finish up filming for good. We’re planning to meet up with Ryan Harley, who recently did this.
I met Ryan at a contest in Fairbanks a while back and he’s a pretty awesome dude, we kept in touch a little bit and eventually I got him involved with no bikes. Ryan’s pretty quiet but when he talks, it’s usually something interesting, or funny and I like that. In a time when people seem to be specializing more and more, he’s one guy I know who can still ride everything well; he doesn’t really follow the trends, it’s just straight up solid riding. This is a short interview we threw together.
Name, age and where are you from?
-ryan harley, 20 years old, and I was raised in pennsylvania, but moved up to north pole just before I turned 13.
When and why did you make the transition from riding flat to ramps, street and everything else?
-When I started riding into the actual city of north pole and seeing people like kinkaaron jumping stuff and grinding bikeracks, I just thought it was awesome. I still rode flat all the time back then, but I caught the bug. Then I moved to fairbanks and there was so much more stuff close to me. I had some buddies that would only really dirtjump, so that’s what we would do, hitting ledges and stuff on the way to the jumps. Then I started hanging out with the Fleagles/Natuffs, and those guys got me really into just riding everything.
Do you still ride flat? Can you compare the different riding styles at all?
-I do every once in a while when I’m by myself. Flatland is actually a lot more painful than you’d expect, and it takes a lot of time to do stuff, but that good feeling you get from landing a trick lasts longer because you’re not just landing a trick that’s it it’s over, you’re doooing a trick.
How do you deal with riding in what is probably the northernmost bmx scene on the planet? How many months of the year do you guys have snow?
-It’s actually pretty nice, because (most of) the people don’t care too much about stuff like fancy parts, style wiggles, or fashion crap, so riding is just riding and doing sweet tricks instead of showing something off and bragging.
There’s normally snow on the ground for seven months or so. It sucks, but that last month when it’s the perfect temperature and stuff is staring to clear off is awesome.
What are some of your interests outside of riding?
-I like making noise with the bass and drums, but I normally don’t like when people can hear me so it’s kind of a secret. I should snowboard more, but I’m not going to pay $30 every time I want to play. If I lived in a warm place I’d be out trying to catch animals and stuff, but that’s not really an option up here. I also play a lot of davemirrasfreestylebmx2 on the playstation. The course editor inspires me?
Who do you ride with on a regular basis? Is there anyone up in Fairbanks that we should keep an eye out for?
-I haven’t been riding with anybody specifically lately, just at joels place, but Tim and Andrew Fleagle are both awesome, Jesse’s good with the street stuff, and Icepick nick is crazy when he actually rides. Darrel’s real good too, and aaron’s always got something cool to do. Tommy’s super good too.
How often do you hear/read the phrase “CONSPIRACY!” and where did that originate?
-I only get that one from bmxboard, and one kid who reads it. He’s just jealous though. I made some threads pointing out why I think our government is responsible for what happened on 9/11. Operation Northwoods, PNAC, and wtc7/the salomon brothers building are evidence enough if you ask me. There was some alien stuff too, but even that was on cnn just recently, pilots and military officials trying to force the government to reopen investigations, so I’m not just some lunatic.
Anything else you want to add?
-If what I just said sounds ridiculous, look it all up for yourself instead of just blindly accepting someone else’s stories. Googlevideo/youtube aren’t just for the crazies
I don’t know if I’m supposed to thank people or not…Thanks for the interview Aaron
We do have some photos to go along with this, I’ll post them when I get home.
Working on videos can be really frustrating sometimes. This weekend Travis and I tried to transfer 800 mb of footage from Vancouver to Anchorage; my computer crashed once, his crashed once as well, and then after 10 hours of downloading msn messenger did something weird and killed the transfer. Couple this with the numerous problems we’ve had converting mac files to windows, and the hd codec on ty’s camera that I have to convert using a Vegas trial, and you’ve got one complicated video process. If you are sending me footage, forgive me if I seem frustrated sometimes; it’s not you, it’s the process…
That was just a bit of venting I had to get out. Despite that bit of frustration, editing this thing has been a lot of fun so far. Right now I’m working on the slideshow and going through all the photos brings up a lot of good memories from the past couple years.
It’s snowing right now, which I thought would be the worst thing ever, but it’s actually a nice change; we’ll still ride, just at a bit slower pace. I love filming, but it was a rare occasion when I could put down the camera and just ride. I’ll be doing a lot more of that this winter.
Brian is picking up a vx2100 soon, which is exciting. He seems to be pretty good with a camera and it means there will be a lot more footage of him, along with Wayne, Marlo and Terrence floating around. Those kids are awesome.
There is a comp in Fairbanks next weekend apparently, and there will be another one on Christmas break.
It finally snowed in Anchorage. Last year at this point I put my bike in the shed and only saw it twice for the next six months; I think this year will be much different. Everyone seems to have a plan for keeping it up at least a little bit through the winter, from Brian’s ramp to torching the trails (how awesome would that be?!) and although we bike riders are notoriously bad at following through with plans, winter plans seem to have always worked out around here. There is going to be a contest at Joel’s place sometime during the break, I’ll post more when we get some details from Tupper and the crew up there. I may be in Florida while that happens but some of you should definitely go; I had two of my favourite weekends up there at Fairbanks comps last year, they are always a blast. Still chipping away at the video… if you’re reading this, and you were supposed to send me footage, and you haven’t yet, do it soon.
Just a bunch more clips that probably won’t end up in the video. David and I went riding today and filmed some rad stuff and some ridiculous things didn’t quite get pulled.
Since we’re in full video mode around here I thought I’d take some time out to post some of my favourite sections from through the years. I’ve got another edit of scrap footage to post, that should be up sometime this weekend.
Van Homan Criminal Mischief
Not much to say about this. If you’ve been riding for a while I bet you remember the first time you ever saw this section.
Joe Cox Voices
I think it’s amazing that nobody had ever heard of anyone in this video before it came out and now they’re all in the limelight. Voices was just a little local video and they only pressed 500 copies, but it was so well done that it’s influence still remains. It always bugged me that Joe Cox’s section wasn’t last. it’s totally the best part and Marv’s section isn’t all that entertaining; nobody would have faulted him for putting his section last….
Lou Rajsich ./Blueprint
I found a bunch of copies of this at a bike shop recently and was delighted. Here was a guy that was doing something subtly different, made his mark and then totally disappeared. Apparently he just got bored with bmx… he does an opposite 180 backwards rail in a time when there was only a handful of guys who could do it regular.
Kris Bennet Demolition
Some of the best trail lines ever.
Steven Hamilton Can I Eat?
This was the section that made Steven Hamilton a household name. I was ove rin New Zealand when this came out and I asked a friend what would be a good purchase since I hadn’t seen any bmx media in a while, his reply was “get the animal video, Steven Hamiltons section will make you dance”
