I’m back on the east coast for Kevin Robinson’s surprise 40th birthday party his wife Robin put together for him in Rhode Island. Somehow it stayed a secret, and Kevin had no idea that a heap of BMX friends were in town from all over the country. Mat Hoffman, Dennis McCoy, Mike Dominguez, Xavier Mendez, Brian Blyther, Ron Wilkerson, Joe Johnson, Brian Curran, Warren Marchese, Brett Downs, Kevin Martin, Mike Rotondo, Josh Heino… in addition to tons of local friends and family, all packed into an American Legion hall with a country theme and mechanical bull. This morning we all headed up to Rye Airfield, a skatepark in NH. Kevin cut the vert session short by falling asleep on the flat bottom of the ramp, but fortunately he was (relatively) okay. I did manage to snap off a few photos of the Condor (above), and one of Josh Heino at the park, as well as a few from the party.

(Clockwise from K-rob. Photo by Brooke Geery. Click photo to blow up): Kevin Robinson, Kevin Martin, Dennis McCoy, Mat Hoffman, Ron Wilkerson, Brian Blyther, Me, Xavier Mendez, Warren Marchese, Mike Dominguez.

Mat Hoffman, Josh Heino, Mike Rotondo.

Joe Johnson.

Robin and Kevin Robinson.

Mat Hoffman, Howie Robinson.

Kevin Martin (paramedic), Brian Blyther (police officer).

Brian Curran, Joe Johnson.

Mat Hoffman

Josh Heino.

Mat Hoffman.

This was the first time I met Anthony Napolitan, who I’ve shot an awful lot since then. At the time, Anthony was a flow rider for the distributor System Cycle, and lived right down the road from the skatepark pictured above, Section 8 in Columbus, Ohio. Section 8 was a bad-ass bike oriented skatepark, producing some amazing riders over the years. I had recently moved to Pennsylvania, and took trip out there with Kevin Robinson, Alistair Whitton, and a few other guys. Anthony was killing the mini ramp, and the pink bike was a nice spark of color in a dark indoor park, so we shot for while that night. This photo was used in BMX Plus Magazine a few months later. Seven years later, Anthony’s still killing it. He’s all grown up now, and went on to win X Games medals, and a Dew Cup in Dirt.

I posted a teaser shot from this shoot a week or two ago, but recently I shot a bike check feature with Ryan Barrett for ESPN BMX that went up today. In addition to some photos of his set up and the customization process, we shot a couple photos at Nemo Design where he works, and took a trip down south to Myrtle Creek, OR for some action. Check out the whole thing here. The action shot above is a fastplant over a railing that sits atop a pipe at the Myrtle Creek park. It’s nuts in itself, but it was nearly dark when we got to the park. Neither of us had been there, but as soon as we pulled up he said “you can go over that rail.” Ryan got out of the car, and immediately figured out the speed line so we could shoot it. No warm up, he just got it done.

A couple weeks back I took a trip down I-5 to Southern Oregon with Ryan Barrett and Codie Larsen to hit up some skateparks we’d never been to before. There are simply too many to hit in one day… small towns all over Oregon have amazing skateparks. This shot is from Aumsville, Oregon which apparently doesn’t actually allow bikes, but it was empty, so oops. I am putting together a bike check for ESPN BMX on Ryan’s bike, and we got a couple shots on this trip for that feature. Trails style merging with concrete is always a good thing.

This week I got to check out a preview of the Mongoose bikes documentary Know Your Roots that Plywood Hood Legend Mark Eaton directed along with mountain bike film maker Don Hampton. Mark also directed the awesome BMX documentary Joe Kid on a StingRay as well as a great film on BMX racing icon Stu Thomson. This piece was produced by Mongoose, but I goes beyond a typical promo piece. This thing really delves into the history of the Mongoose brand. When I was getting into BMX in the early ’80s, Mongoose was toward the top of the list of bikes every kid wanted. I even rode a Mongoose Decade for a bit in the 1990s. The film goes way back — 40 years to the roots of the brand — and touches on the development of the infamous MotoMag. The directors got some great interview with Mongoose Pros past and present, and it’s a must-see for anyone with an interest in BMX racing or freestyle. Mark tells me it will be released for free online this week, so I’d keep your eyes peeled on the Mongoose site.

Last week I drove from Portland back down to Woodward West in Stallion Springs, CA (outside of Bakersfield) to shoot some photos for their catalog, web, ads, etc. I shot a little of everything… BMX, Skate, MTB, and even some cheerleading. Woodward West is roughly a fifteen hour drive from Portland, but it goes by fast as you cruise through Mt. Shasta and California’s desert. Driving also allows me to bring all the photo gear I like, as well as my bike without having to pay astronomical baggage fees. That, and you don’t want to be in Stallion Springs without a car. This post includes some outtakes from the trip, and features Codie Larsen, Josh Clemens, Mike Saavedra, and a ridiculously large ollie from Jaws. Keep your eyes peeled for next years Woodward West catalog, to see some of this stuff and more bangers.

One thing I noticed on this trip, is that every kid at Woodward who approached me while I was taking pictures asked “what site are these going to be on.” Years back the kids would ask “are these going to be in a magazine.”

I’ve been down at Woodward West in California all week (I’ll post photos soon), but made a point to be back for the annual “Enjoy the Trick” Portland summer flatland jam that went down today. Last year’s summer jam was actually what got me psyched on riding flatland again, so it was fun to get back and actually get to ride a bunch this year. I didn’t shoot many photos, but I did make a point to get some shots of OG Plywood Hood / Aggro Rag ‘Zine maker Mike Daily (left), and Bill Freeman (right), who made the trip up from Los Angeles. There’s a lot of flatland BMX history in these shots. To be honest, I had a couple shots of both of them that I liked, and I couldn’t decide on my favorites, so I posted a couple more after the jump. The above shots can be blown up by clicking the image. I love the contrast here. Both guys have been riding bikes forever. Mike’s riding a CW California Freestyler from the 80s, while Bill is riding a much more modern, brakeless flatland setup. There’s also a clip of me from the jam that Mike filmed at the bottom.

When it comes to BMX bikes, it doesn’t get any better than the stuff from the early days — the late 70s and early 80s. In many respects, the late 70s Patterson Racing bike shown above (and in some of the other photos, it was definitely my favorite of the show) was ahead of its time. BMX frames have come full circle to a similar design and aesthetic, yet the Patterson was built over 30 years ago and stands the test of time. Amazing.

The NW Vintage BMX show happens annually in Vancouver, WA. This is the first year I’ve been able to make it out and check out some of the bike builds, and the stuff was amazing. Freestyle, racing, cruisers… there was a little of everything. Check out some more photos after the jump, and if you’re in the area, be sure to make it out next year. Photos can be expanded to a larger view by clicking.

Jay Eggleston has been blasting to the sky as long as I can remember, as part of the Denver area “Lip Lords” crew. You’ve probably seen him if you’ve watched a vert contest… he’d be the skinny guy going two feet higher than everyone else on the ramp. Just a real nice, mellow, down to earth guy, who was once sponsored by a porn shop. He’s one of my favorites to watch, and his straight up and down style makes a photographers job very easy. I always end up with good photos of Jay when he’s on the ramp. Jay had a bad crash at a contest in Maryland this weekend, and remains unconscious. We’re all pulling for him to come out of it okay. I’m just staying informed via text messages through the grapevine. Sounds like the Athlete Recovery Fund got involved and got his wife out to MD. Those guys are on it. If you have some free cash, donate to them for sure. They’re doing good things for good people. Get well soon, Jay. Hope to see you blasting soon. I’ll try and update this post when I hear any developments in Jay’s condition. The photos above are from the old school BMX reunion in April.

The ARF has posted a press release about Jay here.

Update: Mike Mancuso added a link to the comments with a page the family set up for regular updates.

Update 2: ESPN have put up a news post about Jay here.

Jay’s family is updating the carepage site above pretty regularly. Keep up with him there… the latest news tonight was that he opened his eyes, and was responsive to a few commands, which would seem to be a good sign.

I met Matt back in the mid to late 90s, before I moved from Massachusetts to California. When I moved in 1999, Matt was starting to get better at flatland, and over the next few years I started seeing him at some contests around the country. In 2000 I shot a photo of him at a contest in Florida that ended up in Ride Magazine, where I was working at the time, but I’m not sure I’ve shot photos of him since. Matt ended up going to school for Graphic Design at the same school I went to (The Art Institute of Boston), and recently moved to Portland to work at a small time advertising agency called Wieden+Kennedy. They do work for some upstart brands like Nike and Old Spice. He now lives a few blocks from the flatland spot downtown, so we’ve been riding quite a bit. I saw him doing the above seatgrab plastic man variation the other night, and thought it would make a cool photo, so tonight, despite heavy parking lot traffic from a Major League Soccer Game, we shot it. There’s another shot after the jump as well. Check it out.

It’s possible I posted this years ago on here. But either way I’m bringing it back out because I like it. It’s a turndown flair, over a channel on the B3 BMX Ramp at Woodward Camp in 2003. I was laying on the roll in that runs through the channel, and getting attacked by birds which were nesting in the side of the ramp. It was off-season for camp, so birds had taken up residence in the ramp, and they were dive bombing me between Jamie’s runs.