This summer a group of riders from Holland were invited by Red Bull to go on a road, organized by a guy called Jeroen Burgstad. I met him maybe twice before, and I knew he didn’t ride a bmx, so I decided to wait and see. As it turned out,
Jeroen took ten guys he barely knew on a trip in his big Mercedes rig, to go to all the cool spots we have in Holland, just because he thought that would be a nice experience. To top it off, he did all the cooking, cleaning, and driving. Now that is my definition of a nice guy. The rig was sick, a little like a punk version of the roadfools bus: spraypainted flat black, with a 80 kmh speed limit. That didn’t bother us at all since weather that particular week was going to be tropical, so everyone shifted downgear anyway.
After our first stops in Zaandam skatepark and Beverwijk, we spent our first night at two hippie friends of Jeroen, who lived in nowhere ville. The bbq was fired up, and beverages were flowing. Those guys actually had an undergound concrete igloo in their backyard, weird? Nah,
Barry Kohne getting up before 11, that’s weird. We also went to the vertwalls in Alkmaar,
Mark Vos did a nifty transfer, you should have seen the smile on his face. Mark was bouncing off the walls all week, just so happy to be on a trip.
The next day we went to Groningen to ride street, it sucked balls, but
Barry Kohne did a tailwhip off this rocky thing in front of the hospital. That alone made it worth it to go there. Then, as we were driving, all of a sudden the rig called it quits. At first we thought it overheated, but then it turned out we killed the whole engine. Now in a normal situation I would probably explode, since I'm a short fuse kind of guy. But this was a different one; we had so much fun that night, it was ridiculous. We had to wait until 4 in the morning for transportation, and we are stuck in the middle of nowhere. So we lit the bbq once again, jumped some hedges, and had a wipkip race.
Next stop was
Daniel Wijsmuller's place, he used to live on this farm (he now moved to Utrecht) that was a down right kindergarden. After riding on the trampoline bike, I was making a call, when all of sudden I hear this big pop, and frickin potatoes are flying close over my head. As it turns out, the little bastard has this potato gun, that works on gas, we even fired cans of Red Bull miles into the sky.
The next night we spent at
Michael van der Lee's crib, where he rode his backyard trails in the complete dark, and those trails are tight. The following day, our beloved crew of fine sportsmen is awoken by Red Bull girls ringing a huge bell. You should check out the video for this, but Randys reaction to that bell as they ring it a foot from his head, fucking priceless!!! Like his hair is on fire while sugar lee hooper is chasing him.
Jeroen called his parents who just returned from a trip in their camper van, and they let us use it for the rest of the trip. So now you see where he ’s got it from. That day we hooked up with the Arnhem locals to ride street, and it ruled. Arnhem is now definitely on my street to do list, you can find everything you want to ride there,
Lance spat gravity in the face by maneuvering a fakie bunnyhop tailwhip, and fun was had by all.
We also went to Utrecht and Amsterdam before ending our journey in fine Rotterdam, the best city of Holland.
Randy almost killed himself riding the ghetto snakerun, trying to icepick this backrail, and then flipping over, falling in to this glass and needles infested pool of pisswater. It doesn’t matter because he pulled it anyway, hard as nails, thank you for flying randy airlines.
At this point in the trip, everyone was pretty exhausted by insomnia, and the damn heat every day. Weather in Holland seems to be pisspoor or it’s like hell’s kitchen. That night,
Jeroen and Erik Berkel, along with the help of friends (please smack my memory) threw a surprise party for us with a ghetto ramp set up and lager. That’s a party hey? When we arrived we all got this coupon, that guaranteed us a half hour massage each; needless to say by some eighties beltdrill machine purchased by those who are now in shame.
Even though we slept on fieldbeds each day, the trip felt like total luxury to me, we even got custom NorthFace sleeping bags, just in case you wanted complete meltdown. So hereby I want to thank Jeroen again for an on fire trip, Red Bull and all the guys that went along, it took me like a week to catch up on sleep. Bastards. I love you guys.
Rutger Pauw Ps Go to the premiere of the road movie in Bitterzoet, Amsterdam. Zaterdag 26 November. I saw a sneak peek at
Dwayne's and it rules! Just put that waking up Randy scene in it, Dwayne, we deserve it!
After our first stops in Zaandam skatepark and Beverwijk, we spent our first night at two hippie friends of Jeroen, who lived in nowhere ville. The bbq was fired up, and beverages were flowing. Those guys actually had an undergound concrete igloo in their backyard, weird? Nah, Barry Kohne getting up before 11, that’s weird. We also went to the vertwalls in Alkmaar, Mark Vos did a nifty transfer, you should have seen the smile on his face. Mark was bouncing off the walls all week, just so happy to be on a trip. 
The next day we went to Groningen to ride street, it sucked balls, but Barry Kohne did a tailwhip off this rocky thing in front of the hospital. That alone made it worth it to go there. Then, as we were driving, all of a sudden the rig called it quits. At first we thought it overheated, but then it turned out we killed the whole engine. Now in a normal situation I would probably explode, since I'm a short fuse kind of guy. But this was a different one; we had so much fun that night, it was ridiculous. We had to wait until 4 in the morning for transportation, and we are stuck in the middle of nowhere. So we lit the bbq once again, jumped some hedges, and had a wipkip race. 
Next stop was Daniel Wijsmuller's place, he used to live on this farm (he now moved to Utrecht) that was a down right kindergarden. After riding on the trampoline bike, I was making a call, when all of sudden I hear this big pop, and frickin potatoes are flying close over my head. As it turns out, the little bastard has this potato gun, that works on gas, we even fired cans of Red Bull miles into the sky. 
The next night we spent at Michael van der Lee's crib, where he rode his backyard trails in the complete dark, and those trails are tight. The following day, our beloved crew of fine sportsmen is awoken by Red Bull girls ringing a huge bell. You should check out the video for this, but Randys reaction to that bell as they ring it a foot from his head, fucking priceless!!! Like his hair is on fire while sugar lee hooper is chasing him. 
Jeroen called his parents who just returned from a trip in their camper van, and they let us use it for the rest of the trip. So now you see where he ’s got it from. That day we hooked up with the Arnhem locals to ride street, and it ruled. Arnhem is now definitely on my street to do list, you can find everything you want to ride there, Lance spat gravity in the face by maneuvering a fakie bunnyhop tailwhip, and fun was had by all. 
We also went to Utrecht and Amsterdam before ending our journey in fine Rotterdam, the best city of Holland. Randy almost killed himself riding the ghetto snakerun, trying to icepick this backrail, and then flipping over, falling in to this glass and needles infested pool of pisswater. It doesn’t matter because he pulled it anyway, hard as nails, thank you for flying randy airlines. 
At this point in the trip, everyone was pretty exhausted by insomnia, and the damn heat every day. Weather in Holland seems to be pisspoor or it’s like hell’s kitchen. That night, Jeroen and Erik Berkel, along with the help of friends (please smack my memory) threw a surprise party for us with a ghetto ramp set up and lager. That’s a party hey? When we arrived we all got this coupon, that guaranteed us a half hour massage each; needless to say by some eighties beltdrill machine purchased by those who are now in shame. 
Even though we slept on fieldbeds each day, the trip felt like total luxury to me, we even got custom NorthFace sleeping bags, just in case you wanted complete meltdown. So hereby I want to thank Jeroen again for an on fire trip, Red Bull and all the guys that went along, it took me like a week to catch up on sleep. Bastards. I love you guys. Rutger Pauw Ps Go to the premiere of the road movie in Bitterzoet, Amsterdam. Zaterdag 26 November. I saw a sneak peek at Dwayne's and it rules! Just put that waking up Randy scene in it, Dwayne, we deserve it!
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.