Well Waihi turned on the great weather consisting of…rain, rain and more rain!!!!!! We got absolutely plastered in mud trying to ride a motocross track but had a blast, then heading out to Bowen Town to ride the reserve (nice little road run too, just beware of intersections…) And also checked out the proposed site for the community park in Waihi which I must say looks very promising. Crashed at Viv’s place that night for a wicked feed and hospitality….

On our way to Rotorua on Sunday (now that the weather was a bit more favorable) we stopped in at Tauranga. Met up with Shredder and went riding Oropi Grove mountain bike trails which turned out to be the ride of the weekend! Some sick lil jumps, trails, drops and chutes…. We then continued on in a very tired state and had a bit of a jam on Rotorua BMX track before carrying on to crash at Scotties.

Unfortunately we didn’t get too many shots as the weather was pretty harsh for most of it and cameras are expensive…. but here is a nice shot from Oropi Grove (taken by Scottie Agnew)!

I’ve somehow been picked up by Burger Fuel for sponsorship!!

Yes, very out of the blue I know, but they came to me with an amazing offer, so it’s all good, and it’s friggin Burger fuel!! Yes, that’s right, FREE BURGERS!!

It’s cool though, Burger Fuel has an awesome programme, they help out with everything! From up and coming emerging bands, to tri-athletes, to go kart teams, so it’s awesome to be part of a company that looks outside the traditional sponsor window, and they’re an awesome brand to represent cause it seems from day one they’ve done everything on their own terms and not conformed to what other burger joints were doing, I guess its the same sorta principle as bmx, stepping out of the box and doing things for yourself, creating a certain style. Big thanks goes out to them and I’m syked to be part of the team…

Bring on the friggin combustion veges!!!

Shoot, and as if BMX wasn’t keeping me busy enough, I’ve taken up a part time position at Etnies here in Auckland. Basically, I’m the P.R. manager for Etnies, Emerica and E’S footwear and clothing. Three awesome labels that have top quality products and firm roots in skating and ‘alternative’ sports. My job is to promo products to magazines, newspapers, and also look after the teams as well, making sure that everyone has enough products, and keeping everyone smiling and stoked. I also have a hand in some design work that we’ve got going on with some of the labels, and take care of photo shoots and stuff like that. So all in all, very very very busy part-time job!!

I was the last of the group to pull up to Castle Rock on Saturday night after my days riding in Napier. I arrived to meet Joe, Blair, Stephen, Carl and Carrie-ann. Then started the usual castle rock nightly shenanigans.

After waking up bright and early in the morning (with some feeling better than others) and popping down to the cafe for a pie it was time to go and check out the tracks. Joe and I got down there at a reasonable time to find a couple of surprisingly interesting things to ride (much better than last time I attended).

Started off by riding the rhythm jumps which are a row of about six tabletops end with a small gap jump. unfortunately the running was a little slow for them on the day but they were still a lot of fun after pumping the 1st few you got plenty of speed to start jumping and having fun. This was followed by the usual antics in the jump bit, unfortunately the lips had been mellowed out a little which meant you could really hammer then jump or you’d find yourself falling a long distance to a flat landing! Everyone got there bit in on this session with Joe throwing down a very nice f/s indy 3 and blair gapping it for the first time. This was satisfying enough until we discovered how fun the gap jump in the lower section of the bsx track was….. A nice 6-7m gap (18-21ft) with a perfect up ramp and a well matched landing. This was given a good thrashing before lunch time.

After lunch in the sun and a few dews it was time to head back out again. After another session on the gap jump it was time to throw down the gauntlet on the bsx track. With the exception of the loose and rough top corner (which both Joe and myself came very close to eating dirt on) the rest of the track was reasonable fast and flowing. Then after a bit of a warm down on the rhythm jumps again it was time to head off. On the way back up we stopped in at a few on the skate parks we passed although we were a bit too tired to really throw down at the parks.

And that about sums it up, summers nearly here and the dirt’s getting firm and fast….

above: Ben at Castle Rock

above: Joe at Castle Rock

Ben A

Another year, another bicycle trade show, and another few days doing demos on the portable spine ramp. I was all booked and set to go, and bout a month and a half before the show was to start, turns out that the people who run the show want to drop BMX. So that means that no one is gonna have a stand there, which sucks, cause apart from the riding and seeing all the cool new stuff that everyone is bringing out, its a good chance to catch up with friends and have a brew or 12.

So a plan was made for me to just go to Sydney anyways (the show was in Melbourne) and catch up with a few friends and sponsors and shoot some pics and get some footage for the upcoming Colony bmx dvd that is scheduled for release next year. So that is all tee’d up, set to go to Sydney, and my lady was gonna come over for a few days to chill and we were gonna do the tourist thing in Sydney. I’ve been to Sydney bout 4 times now, and never actually had a look round the city, or seen any of the sights, it’s always been for demos or road trips and stuff. So I’m at the airport checking in, and the lady behind the check in counter gives me some pretty bad news! My friggin passport had expired in August!! I was pretty much dead in the water, I rushed around the airport in a mad rush, lugging my huge bag with my bike in it, got in touch with the passport people, and turns out I can get an emergency passport the following morning but it ended up costing me $650!! Plus another $100 to get my flight changed, so I was a little bummed to say the least, but the following afternoon I was on my way to Sydney. I arrived in Sydney and was met by my good friend and Colony bmx co-owner, Chris Harrison. Chris lives on the central coast which is bout an hour and a half drive north from Sydney, so we jetted up to his place for a few days to shoot some pics and do some filming. We rode a few awesome parks in the next few days, and got some good pics and footage, we also went to the new triple 6 warehouse. Triple 6 do a lot of the core brands that come into aus and NZ, and the new warehouse was custom built just for them from the ground up, so it was awesome to see all the new products on display. I had a few bleary eyed mornings after a few brewskys, but that’s always to be expected when traveling overseas and hanging out with friends, and the weather there was top notch everyday. A few days later my girl flew in from Auckland, and we got a sweet hotel right in the city. We spent the next few days tripping around, going to the zoo, Luna park, catching ferries, eating at 5 star restaurants, and from sun up till sun down we spent most of the time in the CBD doing what she loves to do the most-”SHOP FOR CLOTHES!!”

I’m lucky enough to not have to really worry bout buying shoes and clothes, I have awesome sponsors who look after me a whole bunch, so I wasn’t really looking at buying anything, although i did buy a swell pair of nail clippers from the markets! but holy cow, girls are crazy shoppers, I enjoyed it though, and I’m sure I was a great help in carrying bags from place to place!

All in all, the trip was great, and am looking forward to my next trip away, hopefully sometime next year to the states to catch up with friends there and get in some serious riding and filming for the colony bmx dvd.

Ciao for now.
Haimona

Heya,

I’m heading up to Auckland later this week to compete in the Auckland Champs at Maori Bay (my home break) this weeekend. I’ll then be heading down to Raglan for the Maori Nationals the weekend after. I’ll let you know how I go!

Sweet,
Soph

I’m heading off overseas tomorrow for another season on the snow. I’ll be catching the All Blacks play in Paris then heading to London to work in a snowboard shop till I head to Tahoe. I’ll post some updates later in the season,

See ya,

Tim

Hey there guys and girls,

I have been back in NZ now for about a month. My season in the USA was an extremely difficult one to get through. For those of you who did not hear, this is how it went…

I arrived in Orlando with some big goals for the season, I started riding a couple of sets per day in preparation for the first stop of the Junior pro tour. I made my way up to Atlanta for the tour stop, then I made my way back home to Orlando the next day as I had a bad ride and didnt make the semi finals. Not only did I not make the next round but I failed to qualify for the rest of the tour!!!
A week or so after returning to Orlando I hit a big double up and tweaked my lower back on the landing, I didnt really think it was super serious but it ended up keeping me off the water for 5 weeks!! This ment I was visiting my new friend Dr G, the Chiropractor, 4 times a week for the remainder of the season.

I got back on the water just in time to do some final filming with Christian Fitzpatrick for his second masterpiece ‘Deliberate’ (Due out in December 06). The filming went really well as I managed to land some tricks that I had never got on film.
Christian left the states and I was back to training, with my main focus being WWA Worlds where I was making the big step up into the Pro division. A couple of weeks went by and the final pro tour stop was drawing near, I had been desperately trying to get the Wild Card for this event. Sure enough, two weeks before the final stop I recieved the email saying that I had got it!! But my good fortune was short lived… No more than an hour after getting the email I was hanging out with some kids from my apartment complex, one of them started doing backflips, so I started doing backflips, and then I broke my foot… Idiot!

I went to see Dr G to get my foot xrayed, and sure enough I had chipped a bone in my foot. It wasnt as bad as I had thought so I pushed through the pain and started riding on it a week later. This left me 4 days to prepare for the tour stop.
I was riding extremely well, landing all of my tricks consistantly including toeside 900s off the wake, things were looking good.
The evening before I was due to fly out I stopped in to see fellow Kiwi, Glen Fletcher, at O-Town watersports. I went out for a slider set to practise hitting the transfer box, I was killing it doing heelside 270 and toeside front board transfers to the rail. My last pass of the sliders I went to front side boardslide up a double step up rail called ‘hillary’. I slipped out onto my stomach and slid along the rail, I hit my leg on a 4 by 4 post fracturing my fibular, goodbye final pro tour stop.

I took a month off the water to let it heal with Worlds approaching rapidly. I was back on the water with 2 weeks to prepare… To cut a long story short I went too big on a moby dick and landed heavy over my front foot, I hit my chin on my knee splitting my chin and re breaking my fibular. 2 DAYS BEFORE WORLDS!!!!! I was on the next flight home.

Hopefully I have got all of my injuries out of the way and will be able to bounce back from this.

As I am off the water for another 3 weeks I am available for private coaching sessions (only untill the end of December)

$60 per hour or
$200 per day (2-6 riders) + traveling expences.

Give me a call on 021 150 1316
or email me at bsmeele@hotmail.com

You can check out the Trailers for ‘Playback’ and ‘Deliberate’ on my Myspace www.myspace.com/bradsmeele

Peace

Brad
www.bradsmeele.com