San Jose Day 1
I wake up at 4am to start my long drive to San Jose, and being this was not only my first long drive but I was alone as well. Needless to say, with Starbucks in hand I hit the freeway at around 5am and got up to San Jose in a pretty good amount of time arriving at my hotel at 10:45am (that includes a 15minute lapse of me getting lost in San Jose, I can never have a trip where I don't get lost, it's a given) so I check in and find out my hotel has a hot tub, stove, couch and desk all in my room.score!! So at around 11:30am I make my way to the HP Pavillion to find the Media Center and get checked in. I found the Media Center fairly quickly, checked in and said HI to everyone I remembered from Portland, one thing I do have to say about the Dew Tour is 99% of the workers are super sweet!! After that I met an interesting photographer who was pretty cool to talk too, its interesting to just get the stories of all the people that travel "with" the tour, and that made me feel a lot better since I already had met someone who worked in Media so I wasn't alone. We headed down to the Press Conference and the turn out for this conference was better than Portland, OR but still there was not a lot there, which for me is a good thing haha. Athletes attending were Kevin Robinson, Ryan Nyquist, Ryan Guettler and Bob Burnquist.
Questions asked to the BMXers were how they felt about BMX Supercross being at this event to which all said it was awesome and they all planned on checking out the action which lead into the athletes being questioned about BMX in the Olympics. Guettler said he would be all for representing his country in the Olympics and if they could get an official training center down in Australia it would be the best thing
for the sport. A specific question directed at Ryan Nyquist, as he grew up in Los Gatos which is super close to San Jose, was how it feels to see all these Skate parks allowing BMXers in and BMX only skate parks popping up, as Toyota donated a good amount of money to help repair the BMX park where Nyquist rode growing up. Nyquist responded with the fact that it was cool to see so many children getting into the sport and the more people that come into it the bigger it gets which is good for all. Another question thrown at the athletes was about sponsorships and how some consider being sponsored by big name companies a sell out to what the sport really stands for. All three BMXers agreed that in order for the sport of BMX to grow as a whole, sponsorships are needed because they bring the attention to the sport, and although some athletes do "sell out" that this change and growth will not only mean more accessibility to BMX but just bringing more respect and durability to the sport. As one put it, you can still have the best of both worlds since there are so many underground competitions going on, that that keeps the rawness and realness of the sport intact as well. Robinson was asked about his double flair attempt and basically called himself out that it would happen either at this stop of in Orlando, FL.
The rest of the day was spent chilling in the stands watching the riders practicing BMX Park and Vert as the Dirt course and BMX Supercross course were outside and the wind just was not co-operating with the riders. One highlight was Corey Bohan who I guess was really slacking in the sleep department and found the audience seats the perfect place to take a nap, and many photographers jumped at the chance to get a picture of this. While watching the guys ride Park, many of the tour staff came up to me just to say hi and introduce themselves, since they all remembered me from Portland, which I have to say totally made my day that so many of them were really nice and just helpful in general with any questions I had. As for practice, not much really being thrown down, Mirra, Nyquist, and Guettler all hit the course to get some initial practice in but it was a pretty slow day to say the least. Many of the athletes were planning on having an "X Games Champion" poker game as they called it cuz they tried to get as many X Games champions to participate but as Dennis McCoy said, he had Vert the next day so he had to get to bed and rest, I think that was the smartest thing I heard out of any BMXers mouth all day. I took DMC's advice and headed back to relax in the nice hot tub in my room..
Cathy
Pics: Cathy Bluem
September 2005: Cathy Bluem reports from the Dew Tour in San Jose.
Sep 19, 2005
Read 3483 times
Cathy Bluem has been doing reports for us from the Dew tour. Cathy drove up to San Jose and fired back this first report that's about the press conference and first practice session. It might be a week late but Cathy has a good reason for it. And then again, we're beating the BMX mags on this one anyway. Get ready for the Cathy reports.
HEy Bart, I hope u got my email about this week its been HELL i had
spanish test on MOnday, a History test on WEd (that I didnt know about
until Monday) and a Communication quiz on Friay...so I didnt have time
to do the reports but im getting em done now...heres the first day... San Jose Day 1
I wake up at 4am to start my long drive to San Jose, and being this was not only my first long drive but I was alone as well. Needless to say, with Starbucks in hand I hit the freeway at around 5am and got up to San Jose in a pretty good amount of time arriving at my hotel at 10:45am (that includes a 15minute lapse of me getting lost in San Jose, I can never have a trip where I don't get lost, it's a given) so I check in and find out my hotel has a hot tub, stove, couch and desk all in my room.score!! So at around 11:30am I make my way to the HP Pavillion to find the Media Center and get checked in. I found the Media Center fairly quickly, checked in and said HI to everyone I remembered from Portland, one thing I do have to say about the Dew Tour is 99% of the workers are super sweet!! After that I met an interesting photographer who was pretty cool to talk too, its interesting to just get the stories of all the people that travel "with" the tour, and that made me feel a lot better since I already had met someone who worked in Media so I wasn't alone. We headed down to the Press Conference and the turn out for this conference was better than Portland, OR but still there was not a lot there, which for me is a good thing haha. Athletes attending were Kevin Robinson, Ryan Nyquist, Ryan Guettler and Bob Burnquist.
Questions asked to the BMXers were how they felt about BMX Supercross being at this event to which all said it was awesome and they all planned on checking out the action which lead into the athletes being questioned about BMX in the Olympics. Guettler said he would be all for representing his country in the Olympics and if they could get an official training center down in Australia it would be the best thing
for the sport. A specific question directed at Ryan Nyquist, as he grew up in Los Gatos which is super close to San Jose, was how it feels to see all these Skate parks allowing BMXers in and BMX only skate parks popping up, as Toyota donated a good amount of money to help repair the BMX park where Nyquist rode growing up. Nyquist responded with the fact that it was cool to see so many children getting into the sport and the more people that come into it the bigger it gets which is good for all. Another question thrown at the athletes was about sponsorships and how some consider being sponsored by big name companies a sell out to what the sport really stands for. All three BMXers agreed that in order for the sport of BMX to grow as a whole, sponsorships are needed because they bring the attention to the sport, and although some athletes do "sell out" that this change and growth will not only mean more accessibility to BMX but just bringing more respect and durability to the sport. As one put it, you can still have the best of both worlds since there are so many underground competitions going on, that that keeps the rawness and realness of the sport intact as well. Robinson was asked about his double flair attempt and basically called himself out that it would happen either at this stop of in Orlando, FL.
The rest of the day was spent chilling in the stands watching the riders practicing BMX Park and Vert as the Dirt course and BMX Supercross course were outside and the wind just was not co-operating with the riders. One highlight was Corey Bohan who I guess was really slacking in the sleep department and found the audience seats the perfect place to take a nap, and many photographers jumped at the chance to get a picture of this. While watching the guys ride Park, many of the tour staff came up to me just to say hi and introduce themselves, since they all remembered me from Portland, which I have to say totally made my day that so many of them were really nice and just helpful in general with any questions I had. As for practice, not much really being thrown down, Mirra, Nyquist, and Guettler all hit the course to get some initial practice in but it was a pretty slow day to say the least. Many of the athletes were planning on having an "X Games Champion" poker game as they called it cuz they tried to get as many X Games champions to participate but as Dennis McCoy said, he had Vert the next day so he had to get to bed and rest, I think that was the smartest thing I heard out of any BMXers mouth all day. I took DMC's advice and headed back to relax in the nice hot tub in my room..
Cathy
Pics: Cathy Bluem
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.