BMX riders are no stranger to injury. Just watch the documentary “Birth of Big Air” on Mat Hoffman to see the tests rider’s bodies are put to on a daily basis. In 2007, Stephen Murray became the first high-profile Professional to be paralyzed during competition. When Stephen crashed a double backflip at a Dew Tour in Baltimore, MD, his life changed forever.

Stephen wasn’t the first to sustain this sort of injury, many years back an influential New Jersey rider named Jeff Crawn crashed during a magazine shoot in Chicago, resulting in the loss of movement in his legs. At the time, BMX was in its lean years, and hadn’t yet gained the public attention of televised events like the Extreme Games. In comparison to Stephen’s injury, the incident remained under the radar.

Despite the television coverage and corporate sponsorships behind BMX in the last few years, until recently there was no sort of support system in place for this type of long term injury. As a result, the Athlete Recovery Fund was set up to provide help to some of these injured riders and families. USA Today posted a story online today about Stephen and the Athlete recovery fund, which you should check out here. I donated some photos of Stephen to ARF, one of which is featured in the story. It was shot a few months prior to his injury at his old house in California. Check out the feature here, and more photos of Stephen after the jump.

One of those big contests is in town this week. It’s not that I’m not a fan of big contests… I’m just not a fan of the Dew Tour, and how they’ve gone about things the last few years. Behind the scenes bullshit really. Their sales pitch to get riders on board in the beginning was that it was going to be “different” from all the irritations riders and people in the “industry” had gotten used to with other TV events. That lasted two stops. The first two events a few years back were actually looking like they might hold true to that original pitch. But then it all went out the window. To each his own, and while it’s nice to see some of my good friends getting paid somewhat decent money (I use the term decent loosely in a televised professional sports sense) I’m not in a agreement with the borderline exploitation of some really great lifestyles. An office full of people who either have never touched a skateboard or bike (yes, I know Miller is involved, he and DMC are clear exceptions), or haven’t in many years,  dictating where things should be headed. There’s no regard for what’s really happening with the participants on a daily basis beyond the TV show they’re making. That’s horrible. While there’s a level of professionalism that has to be maintained to create a televised sporting event, things like skateboarding and BMX were founded as the antithesis to those very “things.”

So, while I’m just going to pretend that’s not even really happening a few blocks away from our office, it’s nice to see a lot of friends while they’re in town. Fortunately, a lot of them are down to go and ride what Portland has to offer, away from all the corn syrup. I’ve gotten some good shots in the last two days of some of the Dewds dudes at the local parks. You can check them out after the jump. Above is Ronnie Napolitan. Click to expand the view.

Instead of dewing the Dew, I’m headed to the Haro 25th Reunion Tour in Ashland, OR this weekend. Brian Blyther, Dave Nourie, Mike Dominguez, Ron Wilkerson, Bob Haro, and Kevin Martin. It’s going to be epic. A five hour drive, but no bullshit press credential required. Just like old times. Fun. Let’s Dew Do This.

Brian Hunt, Lookback, Oregon City.

Kevin Porter, can-can, Glenhaven.

Kyle Harris, Turndown, Burnside.

Ronnie Napolitan, Turndown, Tigard. Click to Expand.

Brian Hunt, nothing, Oregon City.

Roman Tencza, lookback, Tigard. Click to Expand.

Seth Klinger, turndown, Tigard.

Kyle Harris, Euro Table, Oregon City.

Codie Larsen, Invert, Glenhaven.

Roman Tencza, No-hander over Codie Larsen, Tigard. Click to Expand.

Brian Hunt, No-footed Can-can, Oregon City.

Kevin Porter, Table, Glenhaven.

Roman Tencza, Huge whip transfer, Tigard. Click to expand.

Kevin Porter is another one of those guys who, like Ryan Barrett a couple weeks back, deserves his own post. I’ve known KP a long time. I once drove 10 hours to go to his birthday party for a few hours, then turned around and drove back 10 hours the other way. Another time I went on a photo trip around the Chicago area with him, and I got two speeding tickets in the same day.

While he hasn’t been a contest-type guy in recent years, he did come up riding some of the early DK Dirt Circuit events, and years back he even rode X Games. This year he rode the Dew Tour event in his home city of Chicago, and found himself placing well enough to qualify for the rest of the tour, so he made the trip out here to Portland. I’ve shot a ton of photos with Kevin over the years, but at the same time it’s been a long time since I’ve shot photos of him… at least five years. So it was good to get some stuff shot while he was here in town. In usual KP form he didn’t disappoint, and pulled out some different looking tricks, like this nac-nac. A lot of people do nac-nac’s, but this one just has that Kevin Porter flare to it. And there’s that whole sunset thing too.

Portland Oregon is seeing some action the last couple weeks. First it was Trifecta, and now the Dew Tour has rolled into Rip City. Part of the reason I moved up here is that it has some of the best BMX and Skateboarding in the world and this week is a good one.

The folks at Dew changed up the schedule a bit from what the riders are used to, leaving guys in town a day or two early thinking they would have practice. But with the course not yet complete, a slew of BMX riders took to the city by train, hitting up some of the areas incredible skateparks. Fortunately I have a car, but it’s a small car. So the shredders were stuck on the train, while I drove a car full of camera gear around.

After a train ride to Beaverton, followed by a six-mile bike ride, a group which included Brian Hunt, Anthony and Ronnie Napolitan, Andy Buckworth, Morgan Wade, Cory Nastazio, Luke Parslow, Roman Tencza, Zack Earely, Seth Klinger, and more made it to Tigard Skatepark, also known as “that park with the dinosaur.”

I shot a bunch of photos and got a bunch of good stuff, some of which is here, mere hours later. Ronnie Napolitan, for the record, is killing it. That kid was good before, but holy shit. Big Brother Anthony isn’t too shabby either. I think he actually “won” the session. And a good session it was.

Fortunately for those guys there is a train directly from Tigard to Portland later in the day (it only runs during rush hour) so they didn’t have to ride another six miles after the session.

Drew Bezanson

Roman Tencza

Morgan Wade

Ronnie Napolitan

Roman Tencza

Zack Earely

Casey Badger

Seth Klinger, Flexing?

Roman Tencza

Shooting “Action Sports” contests can be a total mess. When I say action sports contests, I mean the contests put on by the TV networks or the larger outside corporations — they are the ones calling this shit “Action Sports” in the first place. True “inside” BMX and Skate contests are still fun to shoot, and far less of a hassle. The bigger contests require credentials, and even when you have said credentials you can’t get anywhere you need to be. X Games, Dew Tour… it’s a total fucking disaster no matter what pass you have (media, team manager, friends and family, etc., I’ve tried them all). Last year at X Games I actually had to borrow Mat Hoffman’s pass so I could where I needed to get a couple shots before I changed my ticket and went home early. Pathetic really. So this year I didn’t even bother to go, despite being in Southern California anyway.

I’ve been shooting the ASA Action Sports World Tour for the last couple years, primarily because I shoot it for the event organizer (ASA) and have a proper credential. Even without that “special” pass the events are a bit less restricted, and at least a bit closer to a true BMX contest. So a BMX publication could, in theory, go and shoot photos without the “We don’t give a fuck about you or your stupid magazine” attitude of X and Dew. During X Games this year they had a contest called the BMX Triples running in Costa Mesa, about 40 minutes South of LA and X Games. So Costa Mesa it was, and I avoided X at all costs.

This gallery is a selection of the photos I shot for the event and BFD.com (where you can find a replay of the live webcast from the contest’s final round and more photos/results). My friend Aaron Nardi also posted a gallery, and a cool video from the contest on his site. Check that out after the gallery below.

Note: Shot above is of Josh Hult doing a superman tailwhip.

Chad Kagy, Anthony Napolitan and I (along with some video guys from Fuel TV), have been hitting some of the Portland area skateparks for Amp Energy Drink. Amp is producing some web segments for ampenergy.com, and I’ve been shooting some photos of the trip for the site/advertising, etc. Even after a long weekend at Dew Tour, the guys have been producing some pretty good stuff. Above is a shot of Anthony at the West Linn Skatepark. He’s doing a pocket-air, transferring from the transition on the right, over the gap, and into the transition on the left. A little tuck/nose-dive style thrown in for good measure. One or two hits before this I almost died, as he got pitched funny off the lip, hung up on the other side, and was headed straight for me. Anthony was nice enough not to hit me, though. The storm clouds rolling in eventually resulted in some serious rain, but it was cool looking while it lasted.