On the 4th January is the premier in South West London of the new "stf" video "SEQUAL". It's going to be the London premier of this video, also playing is the new video by James Weston "it all comes out in the wash". There's also a possibilty of there being a preview of the T1 vid.

See the flyer below for more info...

...dressed for the 202426 party not for our session at Leeds skatepark.

Kung Dad and myself took a trip up to Leeds so I could check out out another riding emporium where people didn't speak with the usual Brummie accent - For me it makes huge change.
Driving up the M1 was windy as hell and we were being blown all over the show, but not as much as the old boy in his artic who got blown over just in front of us as I was about to overtake! FUCK, talk about shitting bricks. We watched this thing go onto half as many wheels as it needs to stay on the road a few times before it just toppled over. Deciding not to overtake and hold back was the right decision. The driver seemed OK albeit in pain and and with a few cuts to his arm. To me it summed up the best and the possibly the worst in human nature. A few people stopped to check on him (good thing) and even people who were driving on the opposite carriageway. Two guys just pulled up in the outside lane to check on things - Why the fuck do that. Full compliments to the caring nature of these people but why not just park on the hold shoulder. This then left a mammoth tail back on the other side where there were no problems. I moved the car of one of the guys that had parked up on the outside lane of the other carriageway and was disgusted by the volume and the shit he was listening to - some people have no taste!
After making sure emergency services were on the way we continued the journey. After about five minutes I started getting these massive adrenalin rushes, you know the feeling when you just about pulled a 'do or die' trick and you start vibrating all over. Funny how fear takes over until your all calm and then normality resumes and your finally aware of the seriousness of what just occurred.
The resulting crash left one closed motorway and 4.5 hour delays - lucky we were so close!

Leeds seemed like a good park to session, probably if there's a load of you who can all feed off one another. Whether it was what we saw on the way up or the drinks from the 202426 Xmas party the night before I just wasn't really feeling it. There's so much to do at the park you could do with a good few days just to figure the place out.

The journey back presented no traffic problems although I was having trouble sitting in the car having suffered a tyre burn to the sphincter which had started to bleed.

As it's almost Christmas it seems only fair that there be some bad news to spoil everyone's fun. If you were hoping to receive a bike, deck or god forbid a snakeboard for Christmas and were thinking of heading down to ride Brizzles finest indoor park, the simple message is don't bother.
Due to financial troubles and that the lease is due to expire the doors have been closed in-definitely. Not sure if there are any plans to open any other indoor park but it can only be bad news for wet weather riding in the South West.

Skate and Ride - RIP, along with the Mexican cantina and bar.

Hidden Nation is now flowing Stu Clark (Ride cover shot from Rhys art studio) various parts. Stu will be riding a new Azreal frame, which is slightly more heavy duty than the Akira but with a shorter top tube. Just don't ask Adi when he is getting his frame!



Turndown at Tripod Gathering, Winchester.

I think Graeme Hardie has found his ideal xmas present...



I will forward your message onto santa for you mate.

The park in Stourbridge which I believe is called Ramprage has had an addition of some new ramps. The guys at 202426 donated the stuff which was left over from the Custard Jam04. The set up consists of a hipped volcano and a 5ft quarter wall ride. Well worth a visit. One thing to beware of though. You pay by the hour, if you go over your 'paid' time you end up going in debt to them - not a good thing!
Open every day except Tuesday and situated under the multi storey carpark inside the Stourbridge ring road.

A while back now, Kung came back down to London so he, i ,and a group of mates all took a trip out to a park that Kevin Garwood had made out in Gravesend with Aaron Bostrom. We met up with Kevin there and had a little ride there for a while. I've never ridden a box as good as the one they built there, not massive, but nicely transitioned no both sides and it has a quater to wegde with a Huge deck. When we left there Kevin showed us to a perfect little rail and Kung got some pics of Ted there (which got used for his wtf in the end). We then headed off to a fullpipe at an undisclosed location and with there being so many of us it was a bit of a military operation trying to get to it without being chased down and shot by security. It was so fun just running in, hiding behind any availble object like we were avoiding sniper fire and then all scrambling into the pipe itself. We all made it in wound free, but only just. Kevin had it all nicely swept clean, so we sat back in awe of the thing. This was a pretty decent size pipe (as you can see by the pics) not too big for our first bit not too tight that it would regect you if you got carried away. We watched Kevin get to 10, 10:30 on his first few carves and we were all itching for a go. All 6 of us got a good few runs and everyone was getting respectable height. At the time Stuart was the only one of us that was brakeless, lost it at one point and took quite a load slam which sent the pipe into some crazy resonant cycle. Kevin was stopping us all every time he spotted the security, we'd get low and deep in the pipe and emerge when the coast was clear and continue the session which carried on for quite a while. Untill onetime whenwe were hiding, Kevin crept forward to check where the secrity had gone and up pops a head right at the end of the pipe. Stu asks if he wants to pass his bike up to join us. The security dude looks bemused for a second and Kevin takes over and all go's smoothly from there on and we get escorted out. Cheers Kevin for babysitting us for the day and taking us to your spots. Next time you're around maybe we can show you round some stuff out this way eh?.
It sounds like Kevins always up to something when it comes to skatepark building, and he has plans for a much needed rider run indoor park in the southeast. So support the cause if you hav'nt already by visiting his site www.geocities.com/lifecycleskatepark.co.uk/ and take the time to fill in a questionaire. Laters

A big thanks to Adi for designing the new look site, cheers mate. There are still a few areas to tweak but it pretty much all done.

Had a bit of a mission on the weekend up to Burnley and Leeds. Managed to pull the camera out of the bag long enough to take 4 photos of Interact skatepark. You've probably seen photos of it before, but not on here.

Playing the Fleece in Bristol next Tuesday 21st Dec are Bristol / Worcester metalcore band Broken Promise. They’re playing with ‘One Over Many ‘and ‘The Fight’. Get yourself down there and show your support to new up and coming bands. Danny from Broken Promise has played in various bands at the TWOAND8 Jams. Print this flyer to save a quid off entry.

4130 xmas party, sunday 19th december @ consortium bar bournemouth, free entry, federal dvd, almost 3 skate dvd, 2 live bands, dj, everyone welcome. It was penciled in to hold a premier of the 5710 video at the party but it ain't done yet, so probably the federal one as it's still not out yet, maybe the Barend video too.

Steve from the buffhouse and a few other guys have started a new distribution company. It's low key at the moment but should be running full force around July, when they've either passed or failed Uni!

www.dftu.com

Once again the Epic Tag Team jam is taking effect. Date is set for Jan 8th. See flyer below for further details:


In some more Epic news I hear on the grapevine that they're due to be installing a climbing wall in the near future???

Sams left eye

Grave site

The Take It Easy Tiger

My cat Sam that i've had since the age of eight has Just had to be tipped off this mortal coil. I had him since he was a tiny kitten small enough to fit into the palm of my hand. His brother Tim was a little wilder than Sam and was killed as a kitten on the busy road outside our house. Not long afterwards Sam was also hit by a car as he used to go across the road from our house to look for his brother. He was badly injured and had to have his jaw wired up, and was never the same again, unable to purr or meiow. Anyone who has been to by house will have noticed the vacancy in Sams eyes and probebly stepped on him during one of his statuesque daydreams but he's always been a good natured lovable friend to have around. He has even kept his cool while other cats have come ( and gone) in his domain and tested his paitence but he never let it bother him too much.
Recently we noticed that he had been eating less, getting thinner and and being generally vaguer than ever. We took him to the vets and they said he had a lump in his throat that was steadily growing that was most probebly a tumor but htat unless it was really bothering him that it was ok to keep him going. So he was given appitite inducing injections to get him to eat more, but he was finding it harder daily and was'nt looking after himself in the way that cats usually like to do. Today was the day that we decided that he did'nt look happy living in this state, unable to breathe well etc, so we sat him next to a fire cleaned him up a bit , said our goodbye's and took him off to the vets to be put down. I was left at home to dig his grave next to his brothers at the end of our garden. We buried him at 6:30 this evening in my old video player box and placed a huge stone paving slab over the burial site so that fox's can't dig him up and leave his corpse on our lawn tommrow morning. You'll be missed old dude.

SAM 1988 - 2004

There is another huge Eastern Europe contest again next year on January the 8-9. It's their 5th birthday event, with around 10,000 expected to turn up, 12,000 euros up in prize money and riders from Europe and the USA.

The new website is at - http://www.session.ee, last year's site is located - http://session.ee/2004/

For the full run down of the event, see the press release - Session_05.pdf

Site Stuff
There are new photos in all the main galleries on the site and hopefully later this week, a much needed site re-design. Adi is on the case, so things will definately be looking better.

SHEFFIELD DIRT SOCIETY are proud to announce the opening of WHEELBASE - Britains first permanent indoor track and trails.
 
With help from British Cycling, UK Trackbuilders TGN Construction - plus an army of volunteers, the track is now nearing completion.

WHEELBASE - SHEFFIELD.
 
SHEFFIELD INDOOR DREAM.
The lowdown. - Things are nearing completion at Wheelbase. The scheduled opening will be SUNDAY 12TH DECEMBER at 11am.
 
Opening hours - Mon - Fri 4pm til 9pm - Sat 10.30am til 7pm - Sun 11am til 6pm

Contact www.dirtsociety.com for more info and confirmation of completion.





8 Tooth Rear Cog



The image is from BMX Business news and it's a prototype Primo cassette hub with one piece driver. How small is it going to get?!