FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

Name: Brayden Mcpharlin
Age: 23
Hometown: Woodside South Australia, but born in Darwin 
Hook-ups/Sponsors: I ride for Tempered and T6 Distro Southcoast Cycles 

The FAT favorites list:

-Spot to ride: Anything tyres probably shouldn’t go on. Walls/rails 
-BMX video: Closing time
-Website: temperedgoods
-Food: Bacon and egg roll with cheese never fails me 
-Person on Instagram: Zack Gerber
-Travel destination: Adelaide 
-Riders to ride with: The 1836 crew and friends
-Car: Hyundai accent 

The coffee machine in the room didn't produce the best coffee ever, but the convenience and price (unlimited free supply) won it on Saturday morning as we set sail to San Diego again. We parked in the streets near the hotel to avoid the $22 per day parking that Solarena offered. We only had to take note of sweeping days, something that kicked our ass back in 2023. The vehicles in America are something else. Maybe 90% or more are owned by the bank still, but damn, the cars are nice. On so many occasions I would say, that's perfect, or give it a simple, wow, making the 90 minute drive to SD a breeze. I remember from years ago that traffic on the weekends to San Diego was really bad, but that might have been because it was summer time and a hot day or something. No problems this time.

Race results Thailand BMX Cup 1 Bangkok, Thailand. 04 February 2024
Elite Men:
1 Komet SUKPRASERT 24 THA     100.00 UCI Ranking points
2 Rio AKBAR 29 INA                         86.00
3 Firman ALIM 29 INA                      74.00
4 Nontakon INKHOKSONG 28 THA 64.00
5 Yussi Wakhidur RIZAL 25 INA      55.00
6 I Gusti Bagus SAPUTRA 31 INA   47.00

One of the reasons we do these Cali trips in early January is that we can fit in two Monster Energy Supercross races, the first one being held in San Diego. On Friday we drove down South on the 5. For those in the know, when the sign Leucadia comes up it's time to look for the place where the Enchanted ramp used to be. It's gone now, but Philip spotted a miniramp not far from the legendary place with the vert ramp. Even though the 2-HIP vert sessions are gone, the miniramp is a reminder in town for ramp action.

We arrived early for our appointment at 100% so we decided to pick up our media passes first and have a stroll through the pits already. We then used the trusty Apple CarPlay to direct us to the front door of

The Solarena hotel in Newport Beach was going to be our home base for the next 12 days. With a fridge, wifi, coffee machine, bed and shower, it had all we needed. After the long travel and LA shopping spree the light went out early the first day. As usual getting up the next day is easy as the time difference of 9 hours makes you wake up in the middle of the night a few times before you had enough of it and simply get out of bed. California doesn't always provide sunny days of 25 degrees but getting outside without a winter jacket in January still felt good. We had spotted a coffee shop around the corner of the hotel and decided to get breakfast there. It was right next door of the Deus shop. The capucino at Vacancy Coffee was amazing. Without giving my email address I received the receipt in my inbox a few seconds after paying with the Mastercard. That was a first for me. Mastercard apparently doesn't take privacy too seriously when they provide my email to coffee shops like that. Oh well.

10:30hr. That's the time we had set to meet Niek Kimmann over at Troy Lee Designs in Corona. Niek's mom had dropped off a camera for Niek at our place in The Netherlands and brought the camera for him as his old one had some focusing issues. We made good timing as the roads were rather empty (surprisingly) and stopped by Pro Circuit first to walk their shop with all the championship bikes on display. TLD was new to us at their current location.