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Wednesday 5 of december, we arrived to Koweit city, where we visited the event place: Marina Mall. Marina is a beach close to a park and a big mall, there are lots of people on the street. Dirt jumps are on seaside built specially for FISE KUWAIT, it is near the flatland where Mathias Dandois, Alex Jumelin and Raphael Chiquet can’t wait till the showtime begins in front of the kuwaiti people.

On thursday 6 of December, the contest starts at 4 o’clock pm. We have time to walk the Kuwait city streets. There are lots of buildings, streets are wide and there is several luxurious and sportive cars (4x4, Porsche...). Even the road is a show. We are going to the half pipe for the first pro show with Tim Eichert and Benny Kopp (bmx), Terence Bougdour and Jocke Olson (skateboard) as well as Fabiola Da Silva and Takeshi Yasutoko (inline). Riders are noticeable with special tricks. It was ridiculous! Close of day, we are meeting together in the Koweiti “disco night fever bar club” that is to say an hookah bar. 

The BMX scene is strong like a Lion in South Africa. Every year a Pro and Am comp is held in the city of Umhlanga which is adjacent to Durban. The venue is the Wavehouse park situated in a huge mall. While the shopping zombies did their thing the comp kicked off before the rain came. I got to the comp early so gave the course a test run. The humidity was way up there and my brain was cooking under my black helmet. Guys who ride in that weather all the time must be made of steel. A new jump box/hip/wallride combo section was built just for the comp so I was sure to be the first one to hip it. After that I put my bike down and watched the guys with real skills do their thing.

Instead of Park, we can go back to a street discipline at the X-Games. At least it's looking that way. After testing the set-up in Mexico city and doing it again in Dubai, it looks like ESPN is going for the new set-up for the Los Angeles X-Games too. We'll see if it happens but the Street contest at the Dubai X-Games was a good one. Ryan Corrigan, Ron Kimler and Nate Wessell flew over to build the course. They were given crappy wood but they made the best out of it and since this was considered "real street" it can't be perfectly smooth I guess. Riders that were invited weren't your average superstar transition park riders either. To see riders like Nigel Sylvester, Ian Schwartz, Brad Simms, Van Homan, Aaron Ross, and Sean Sexton at the -Games is quite strange but hey, they kill it at "real street" so they were the ones riding in Dubai. Another interesting fact was that the riders did not have to wear helmets. With the Dubai heat that was a welcome move and most riders took the extra risk 

I started keeping a daily journal way back in 1987 when I was only 15 years old. Back then I was a just a freshman in high school. Since then, every single freakin' day of my life has been documented in these journals. If it happened in my life, then I wrote it down & documented it. And believe me; I've got some stories to tell! Looking back over the years, here is a journal entry that stands out and also my comments looking back now. 
Hoffman Contest- Daytona FL November 18th, 1995
Actual Journal Entry
We went to the skatepark & rode for a while. Then I did my two qualifying runs & qualified in 7th. I rode better in the finals & got 5th. That's cool. At night, Dave Mirra, Sean Hargraves & I ate & then Sean dropped us off at a club. A zillion BMXers were there. All of us were acting real silly on the dance floor. Then they were trying to kick a BMXer out & I punched the bouncer & he got me in a head lock on his third try. 

Twenty of the best pro riders in skateboard, roller, and bmx (dirt, flat and street) came from 4 corners of the world (Brazil, the USA, Europe and Japan) to make vibrate the Kuwaitien public. And it goes, already direct show on 3 TV Arab: Al Watan, Al Spoke and Kuwait TV, tens of articles in the press and thousands visitors for the first Thursday day. For the amateur contests, more than 150 riders from Kuwait but also from Bahrain, Arabia Saoudite and Dubai moved to take part in FISE KOWEIT.

The Dubai X-games are on its way. Vert prelims just took place and it was semi-local Simon Tabron who came out on top which will give him a place in the final straight away. The event has a different set-up. The 8 riders that are left will be split up in two groups with the winners of each group going to the finals. Place two and three in each group will go for the final battle for a spot in the final which will have a total of four riders. You're still with me?

It sounds more complicated than it actually is. Simon rode very well to nail the first position giving him possibility to sit down tomorow until the finals will start. Steve McCann was after the first position too to make it easier on himself but he got stuck on second place. Jay Eggleston aired high to finish up the top three. 4th went to Koji Kraft, 5th Zack Warden, 6th, Jean-Marie Baertsch, 7th Eduardo Terreros and Jan Valenta got 8th. Dave Brumlow finished on 9th. More tomorrow.

The turnout for the Dawg Aid Jam in San Jose, California was really good. Thanks to everyone who came out to support Nick "Dawg" Valencia. Nick is currently in physio to get his knee repaired and is hoping to be back riding sometime in 08. Thanks to the people who put in all the hard work to make the day happen: Chris McMahon - Organizer, Greg Houde - Chef and Scott Cramer - Treasurer. Also a huge thanks to all the people who donated products for the raffle.

This year was a real busy one at Paul's Boutique BMX shop so it was hard to plan a weekend to go on tour with the team. Very late in the year we can't ride outside so we did an " Indoor tour" in Holland and Germany. Our "FACTORY TEAM" has 4 people:

Pim van den Bos, Dennis Keunen, Riccardo Moes and Michael van der Lee and we had Vladdie de Koning from our "NBR TEAM" to go with us this time, and a mistery guest called BH. 

Last weekend was Andy Shohara's 40th birthday old school BMX reunion. This event was so fun we're going to make it a regular thing! In attendance, and riding: Andy Shohara, Tony Murray, Brian Blyther, Todd Anderson, Chris Potts, Dave Voelker, John Povah, Robert Castillo, Woody Itson, Steve Swope, Brad Blanchard, Junior Torres, Alvin Mullins and a few more I can't remember right now.

At the last two days of the VIBRATIONS URBAINES PESSAC – festival many people visited the brand new skatepark with wooden floor for THE French BMX contest. We counted nearly 200 participants including 55 pro riders. The judges had a tough time during eliminations. All agreed that the Dirt section shaped by Patrick "Patoche" Guimez was perfect. One meter gets added every year and the second set had a 7 meter gap. John Petit, the MC of the contest, summarizes the event by "a level of nutcase!”.