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

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