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.

I am one of the lucky ones. I’m certainly not one of the elusive 1%, and, unless there’s some sort of lottery winning in my future, I don’t stand a chance (nor does it seem at all appealing). Shit, I went to art school, so I can only hope I’ll be worth more after I die. But unlike most of the Americans (that are fortunate enough to even have jobs at this point), I have made my living doing stuff I’d do whether or not I got paid to do it. For the last ten years (somehow I made it that long) I’ve worked for myself, and, while I can pay my bills and live my life, I’m also well aware that America is fucked. But I’m lucky and I realize that. I switched to a much smaller local credit union this week… something I should have done a long time ago. Anyway, a few times in the last few weeks I’ve checked out the Occupy Portland protest camps, and, while I would have expected them to thin out over time, the two city blocks filled with tents have only gotten (seemingly) more crowded. While things were peaceful, a few police officers kept watch at a distance across the road. For now, all still seems well in regards to the city’s acceptance of peaceful protest. Check out a heap more photos after the jump. Photos can be viewed larger by clicking.

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.

Here’s the look book we started sending out last week to retailers for the fall 2011 / winter 2012 Yobeat line. This stuff should be available in select snowboard related shops around the country in the coming month or so, and it’s all available now on the Yobeat online store. In addition to the above Issue flipbook, it’s also downloadable as PDF here. All this stuff gets designed and printed in house. 25 different styles plus colorways… I didn’t realize it was that much stuff until we put it all together.

I’m a bit slow in posting this one… just pretend I had to get the film processed. Anyway, about a week ago, right before driving to California, I shot a Red Bull skate contest at Marginal Way skatepark in Seattle. It was an elimination, jam format contest, where teams from different Washington area codes competed against each other. At the end the winners got some cash, as well as a donation in their names to the skatepark. The final round was amazing. All three of the guys on the team had some insane lines through the park. Check out a few more after the jump. You can blow them up by clicking.

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.

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.

A little while back, FBM Bikes Team Legend Mike Tagliavento (or Mike Tag as we all know him) was diagnosed with cancer. Aside from being all together shitty, we all know that stuff like that is unbelievably expensive to treat. FBM immediately set up a fund for Tag, and riders all over the globe have been coming together to kick in money. Today’s gathering in Hillsboro, Oregon was organized by some locals including Pro rider Chester Blacksmith, in an effort to raise some money through prize raffles and a BBQ. From a turnout perspective, this was one of the larger Northwest jams I’ve been too, which hopefully resulted in some decent help for Tag. If you’d like to help out Mike, here’s a link to the FBM Bikes page where you can do so.

Above is Portland’s favorite former Huffy rider, Josh “Boyd” Cornell, who took some time off of the Party Planet and shredded some lookbacks. You can check out some more photos after the jump (the horizontal photos, including the one above can be blown up by clicking them). High turndown ration warning.

Evan Abernathy.

Pauly Cvikevich, turndown 180 over a hip.

Jake is a Glenhaven local with toboggans on lockdown.

Snotty regulating/selling raffle tickets.

Ben Hucke, 270 turndown over the hip.

Mike Lund, with a Shad Johnson approved turndown.

I hit up the Tigard skatepark for the second day in a row, since my friend Anthony Napolitan was in town on a trip with a fancy shoe company you’ve probably never heard of. A bunch of people were down there shredding including Anthony, the shoe crew, and the usual Portland suspects like Ben Hucke (above), Caleb Quanbeck, and Roman Tencza. Check out some more photos after the jump.

Anthony Napolitan, lookback.

Caleb Quanbeck, tailwhip over a hip.

Ben Hucke nac-nac-attack.

Roman Tencza, one-footed X-up.

Caleb Quanbeck, invert.

Roman Tencza, one-footed toboggan.

Caleb Quanbeck, with a Justin Inman approved invert.

Caleb Quanbeck, no-hander.

The sun is back in Portland, hopefully for a while now. I cut out of the office early, admittedly for the second day in a row, to go ride bikes. I met up with Roman Tencza, Mark Rainha, and a few others at the Tigard Skatepark, and fired off a few photos of Roman and some local skate rippers. You can view them bigger after the jump.