Back in the 860

I'm back from Maine, it was a great time. I snapped a photo of a 4" flat rail that goes down 10 stone stairs into a grass courtyard. I can see some heavy sessioning of this rail going down if we take a TYRANT Maine Takeover trip this Summer as we're planning! I'll post the photo tonight. No riding this trip, but lots of hiking...a nice Winter get away! I'll resume blog posting this week.

Jay's Ramp in February

We rode Jay's ramp last night and it was my first time riding outside the basement since the doctor cleared me to ride. It it definitely going to take some time to get back to normal, but I felt pretty comfortable. The guys were going off as the always do. Steve was boosting the wallride and some huge tables, Arnwine was trying whips to disaster, and Tiny TYRANT was landing all kinds of madness! The banger of the night was when Brandon hang 5'd the whole deck of the ramp. Damn kids! Schmidt and Tony T. showed up later in the night and were getting loose. It's always a good time going to Jay's. Sounds like another session will go down next week too!

Jay's Ramp 2/23: CLICK HERE

Dirty 30 Bash!

WOW, Saturday was pretty nuts. It was my 30th birthday and we had 2 huge parties. During the day family came over and at night all the friends came through. The basement got heavily sessioned and I'm hoping to have some photos up soon. Thanks to everyone that made the trek out to the boondocks to get wild!

A few photos: CLICK HERE

CNN

Check out CNN today at 12:50. A news story about the Pawtucket Skatepark will be airing and I contributed a bunch of photos to them. TYRANT's gone national news! ;) Hopefully the feature will be available to stream on CNN.com after the initial broadcast.

More Basement

We had great basement session last night! A bunch of guys came out to ride, Schmidt put on rollerblades, and all in all it was a good time!

Basement Session Photos: CLICK HERE

Odds and Ends

Been busy working on the basement, painting banners, cutting stencils, and riding a bit. Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm sure a lot of cool stuff will surface later in the week/over the weekend!

Acock Art!

Friend, fellow rider & designer, artist and all around rad dude Anthony Acock will be painting an original graffiti piece at the TYRANT's Lair. I'm so psyched to have some amazing art on the walls and even more psyched that the person doing it is going to heavy session the ramps afterwards! If you don't know Anthony go check out his site and be sure to get your a$$ to his art show that opens at Channel 1 in New Haven tomorrow night!

Lots of Vinyl

I'm in the process of making several 3' x 3' star logo banners for a few for local shops, Haven, Jay's Ramp, and the basement. No digital vinyl plotter or $100 price tag here, I'm doing 'em the old school way...with a #2 pencil, a ruler, some acrylic paint....by hand! Here is a sneak peak of the lined out logo...paint to come very soon. If anybody wants to purchase/barter for one of these banners for their backyard ramp, man cave, shop, etc. contact me and we'll work something out. I'll get a finished product pic up this weekend!

Green light...GO!

I got the green light to start riding again today! It's been a long, lazy, painful 5 months since I destroyed my thumb and had surgery...but the wait is over! The doc took his last set of x-rays today and they showed my thumb is fully healed. The 2 screws are fused into place and the breaks I had are healed rock solid. I'm so grateful to have full range of motion and about 75% of my strength back. Still gotta work on building the strength up to get back to 100%. No rest for the wicked...I got right back on the bike tonight and got some easy riding in on the basement ramps :)

I have to send a huge thank you out to my long time friend Erik and Dr. Joyce for taking care of me in the blink of an eye when I initially got hurt. I was checked out by the doc. and under the knife 4 days after my crash...that is UNHEARD OF! People wait weeks and/or months to get into surgery. I also have to send a huge thanks to my physical therapist Karen for helping me get the majority of my strength back. THANK YOU ALL! I could never express how much I appreciate all your help!

I'd like to send a "thanks for nothing!" out to the Middlesex Hosptial ER who told me I only had sprained thumb when I went in right after my crash. Sprained thumb, eh? I wish that's all it was. Thanks for being completely wrong!..and thanks for charging me a $150 co-pay for your misdiagnosis!

Working on the Lair

Steve, Arnwine and I spent yesterday hauling wood, cleaning the basement, and re-assembling D. Whip's ramps in a new configuration at the TYRANT's Lair. A huge thanks to Shaun for providing us with a Suburban to haul the wood and making the long drive out to the house to unload it for us. Not much to say except we busted our a$$ working for the majority of the day. Good times and a great outcome! More work going down Tuesday night!

TYRANT's Lair photos: CLICK HERE

Snow Sesh.

The snow isn't keeping Tiny TYRANT from getting rad on his backyard ramp!

Backyard Ramp Edit from Brandon Begin on Vimeo.

TYRANT's Lair

Oh man, things are gonna get out of control this weekend...the TYRANT's Lair will be coming to life. D.Whip has donated his old basement ramp set-up to me and it will be assembled in our basement this weekend. Expect a super tight vert wall, wallride, mini sub-box, 2 quarters, and lots of ducking! OFF THE HOOK!