Slow Week

Sorry, it's been a lazy week. I've been nursing a bum knee that I tweaked at the NoHo Park on Sunday and have just been laying low. This weekend looks to be amazing, so I'll have somthing to report sooner or later.

VERY WILD WEEKEND!

This weekend's riding was pretty insane! Saturday I hit up The Lot for a few hours to watch a bunch of guys huck themselves off the freshly groomed jumps. Blachura and Erik Z. were going huge and Dave was firing out flip whip attempts one after the other...coming oh so close! Guaranteed he has them dialed by next weekend! A few dudes from UCONN showed up and were getting pretty comfy on the jumps. Always a good session when lots of heads are at The Lot!



















Sunday was a really fun day, despite the chilly low 40 temps. Tiny TYRANT, T, and I met up with Schmidt and Sean Milnes and we road tripped it up to Matty Still's place to get our day of riding started. We hit up the Belchertown Park for a bit, but the place was pretty shotty. Schmidt was blasting a few gaps and Sean was getting rad on his fixie. Jay Bych and Danny Todd joined the caravan at B-Town and we made our way to the Northampton Park for an hour or so. The temps were dropping and we still has plans to hit up the trails in Northern CT before dark, so we skipped out of Mass around 5 and headed South. Jay lead us to his local trails and the place was pretty bonkers! He had some lines dialed with ease, and Schmidt and Brandon we're getting comfortable on their bikes as dark fell. Props to Schmidt for strapping on a set and hitting a huge jump that supposedly nobody has ever cleared. Props also go to Tiny TYRANT for hitting the same jump brakeless...and over shooting it! Damn kids! It was cool to see T and Sean pumping the roller sections and jumping some stuff, both a bit out of their element on dirt...but riding just fine! All in all it was a super fun day! Can't wait for the warm temps to return and more of these trip to go down!!!



















Saturday's Lot photos: CLICK HERE
Sunday's Mass./CT Trails photos: CLICK HERE

Newtown Park?

This POS is the newly proposed skatepark in Newtown, CT. It has some fun elements, but it's a lousy linear layout that will get congested with like 8 people in the park. No word yet if they are anti-bike.

Blachura In The Cut!

The latest issue of In The Cut Magazine has an interview I conducted with Dave Blachura...along with a few photos. Props to Dave on the exposure and the TYRANT love!

C-C-C-Crompton!

To the kid named Joe who sent me an e-mail asking why I call the Cromwell Skatepark Crompton:

Gangster wanna-be suburban white kids acting all hood like they're living in Compton + Cromwell = Crompton

Jake was hucking himself as usual...and as usual he blew out a tire and had to leave. Dave and Bry were busting out the tailwhips and tooling around. It was a fun session, but that place gets old quick! Rumor has it Guilfords park is open for the season so we'll be heading South for a session in the near future.

Crompton photos: CLICK HERE

Sunday Mass...

...no I'm not talking about church! I'm talking about a crew of us rolling up to Mass. again next Sunday to hit up some more parks and trails. Should be a good time, meeting up with the Team EAST crew again and hitting up some new free outdoor parks I've never ridden. This old school cement set-up is on the "to ride" list. Gonna be rad!




Photos from Concrete Disciples.

I'm excited about getting to ride Sunday...but deep down inside I'm totally bummed because I should be down in Philly supporting Hebrank at the Philly Convention. Unfortunately, my money tree isn't in bloom yet and I'm stranded here in New England with empty pockets and no fresh Hebrank hotness! Sorry Shawn! Have fun! Watch out for poop in the hotel stairwells!

Spring Time!

It is officially Spring and time to start playing in the dirt. We were fortunate enough to get a little taste of trails on Saturday at the Orchard up in Mass. but now it's time to get our local spots up and running. Time to get dirty!

March Madness in Mass.

Arnwine, Brandon, and I headed up to Mass. on Saturday to meet up with Matty Still and some of the Team EAST/old MSC crew. We started our day at the Greenfield Park and it was sunny and 70 out...epic! I haven't been to that park is a solid 5-6 years, but it's still the same...a fun set-up. We rode there with Matty and Stan for a few hours before heading South to Easthampton. We had a little lunch at Matty's house (thanks again dude!) and hit up the Orchard Trails for a bit. The trails are really cool, but sadly the property owner no longer wants the guys riding in their so the trails are very neglected. As the day rolled on it cooled off a bit and we made our way over to the Northhampton cement park. The bowl at NoHo is no joke, 100% burly! Despite the fact that people were going off on their bikes pulling some big tricks, the highlight at NoHo was local Andrew Gilbert KILLING IT on his scooter! Yeah, I said scooter. The kid was boosting 3' bar spin airs over the 7' hip in the bowl and airing 3' out of the 10' bowl corner. So rad! We hit up a little wallride to cap the day and said our goodbye's. A huge thanks to Matty for his hospitality and tour guidesmanship ;) and to the riders up there for coming out to have a good time and show us around. We'll def. be back numerous times this Spring and Summer!

Mass. photos: CLICK HERE

Straight Outta' Crom-pton!

"Straight outta' Crom-pton, crazy mutha #ucka named Blachura!"
Good times at Cromwell tonight. First session of 2010 at the Crompton Park and it was a chill one. The temps were pushing 70, dudes were hanging out and riding bikes, and the sun was shining...ideal to say the least! Hello Spring!

A few snaps of Blachura: CLICK HERE

New Knees

In and effort to protect my battered body, I got some new Team Blowin' It knee pads this weekend. Macisco hooked it up old school, barter style trading me the $50 pads for some new Bern pads I had that didn't fit. I'm, psyched, these pads are kick a$$! Ride safe!

Wash Out!

So this weekend was totally lame! I was all pumped up for the time change, an hour+ more light to ride on Sunday night, and it rained all weekend! I tried to make the best of it Saturday and adventured over to CT Bike's park. I haven't ridden that park in 6 years and nothing has changed a bit since my last visit. The place is still a complete sh1t hole...but it was fun to ride there and it brought back a lot of old memories of the days when we rode that place 2-3 times a week in the Winter. Tiny TYRANT and his buddy Jake were getting rad on the vert ramp which was fun to watch. Today was a wash out, attempted to ride the basement ramps and that last a whole 10 minutes or so as I had no motivation....so I returned to the couch. Looks like Tuesday through Friday is going to be gorgeous and sunny. You bet I'll be riding outdoors each day after work!

CT's Photos: CLICK HERE

TYRANT SIGG

I just got my new TYRANT SIGG bottle today and it's rad as hell! If you don't know about SIGG's eco-friendly, reusable bottles here is some info...

As tough as they are on the outside, it's the inside of SIGG bottles that make them so special. Due to SIGG's special, proprietary internal coating, these high-tech bottles are resistant to fruit juice acids, energy drinks, alcohol and virtually any consumable beverage. Because the liners are taste and scent neutral, you can enjoy any beverage you'd like - without any lingering smell or taste of the last beverage you drank. The composition of the liner also reduces the chances of bacteria build-up. And because the liner is virtually baked into the inner walls of the bottle, it will not flake or chip even if dented on the outside.

These bottle are ideal for riders cause they take abuse! Drag this thing with you to the park, trails, track...anywhere! SIGG quality comes with a price, but think about it...you waste $2 on a bottle of water when you can fill this for free and help out Mother Nature while you're doing it!..and they have a LIFETIME WARRANTY! You can purchase one by CLICKING HERE.

Lot & Lunch

Rumor has it work has already started at The Lot to get the place going for the 2010 season. The jams last year were off the hook and the place was starting to really come around by late November. 2010 should be pretty nutty if Dave and Bryan's ideas become reality! Put on your straight cable and knobbies...time to get dirty!

I stopped by the Wethersfield park briefly on my lunch break and rode around for 20 minutes with Bry and Blachura. Here's a little 1 megapixel camera phone action of Dave...

860

Tiny TYRANT has a new blog: eightsixoh and here is his latest hotness...

860 chillin from Brandon Begin on Vimeo.

Sunday East Side Sessions

Yesterday's Riding on the Eastside trip ended up being somewhat of a bust. A few people were sick and a dozen people were lazy and bitched out yesterday morning to stay local and ride the same damn places they ride on a weekly basis. Does anybody have a sense of adventure anymore? LAME! Anyway, the few people that did come out had a super fun time and we had 3 solid sessions at 3 very cool cement parks. The weather was amazing, people were getting rad, and nobody got hurt...so it was an ideal day after all. A huge thanks to Brett and Shamus for trekking down from Mass. to ride with us. We'll definitely be riding Baltic and Owen Bell a lot this year since each of them have lights at night and are 10x more fun that the shotty Clinton prefab park. We're already planning a Riding on the Westside trip for sometime in April to hit up the Milford park, the new Fairfield park, and a few other cement gems.

Next weekend is the time change, that means after work riding will begin since we'll have some light! So psyched!

Riding on the East Side photos: CLICK HERE

Steve blasting a table over a big gap at Norwich

6 Months Since Haven

Wow, I can't believe it's been 6 months since I've ridden Haven. Steve, Bryan, and I met up with Erik Z. at Haven last night and it was great to be back on the bike...despite some slight pain and weakness in my hand. The session was pretty dead, but picked up later in the evening with the usual suspects going mega-big and super fast at everything. I witnessed Chris Childs come at the box jump in a mach speed manual and clear the box out of that manual...f-ing bonkers!

Don't forget, Sunday is gonna be nuts! and the temps are now anticipated to reach 60! DAMN!

A few Haven photos: CLICK HERE

Riding on the Eastside!

We're planning on hitting up the far eastern portion of the state on Sunday for some sunny, 50 degree weather BMX action. The plan is to leave M-Town at 11am and hit up the Norwich Park, Baltic Park, the Owen Bell Skatepark in Killingly, and on the ride home maybe hit up some street in Willirico. Who is down? Hit me up on the Facebook event page: CLICK HERE.

Hello Spring!

Haven Bordeom

Photo/video extraordinaire, Peter Krol, threw together this little edit of Blachura and Arnwine riding Haven last week: CLICK HERE.

Sorry, Pete has his YouTube set up for no embedding!

Yeah Craig Samuels!

Craig's No Cassettes section is up on Vimeo!

NO CASSETTES PART 2 CRAIG SAMUELS from FonsecaFilms on Vimeo.