FATBMX KIDS Goes USA part 7. TJ Lavin's place in Las Vegas! By Philip de Jong

Jul 26, 2014

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 10925 times

We have always woken up early for some reason. It's probably the jet lag that is still following us. But getting up early means we have full days to explore. After some cereal breakfast at Tracer Finn's place he had a plan to go visit multiple Gravity and X-Games champion TJ Lavin's place. Tracer used to be his Team Manager when he worked for Specialized bikes and remained good friends with him. TJ said no problem so at 9am we were on our way to see TJ's place. I rode in Tracer's Pick Up truck. It's one of the big American cars and felt

pretty special. The family was following behind in the rental.

We arrived at TJ's and we were welcomed by his two dogs. We shook hands and then he showed us his place with all his toys. TJ was very friendly. He showed us his cars, his upstairs hang out spot with all his BMX souvenirs and also his backyard. It was very impressive. TJ is now trying to become a fire fighter but the X-Games and Gravity Games medals and all his magazine covers showed what the has meant to the BMX world. For him to show us around was amazing, something I will never forget. I even got to sit in his rad car together with him. I liked that car a lot.

The jumps in his backyard are big. Way too big for me to grab my bike and ride them. I climbed on top of the roll-in and got a good overview of all the jumps. It's amazing. It was getting hot already and Tracer took us to the Bellazio hotel to show the garden there. He then took off to work and we went to the SkyZone. They had an amazing trampoline set-up there. Lunch at iHop was cool but I could not finish my 5 American pancakes. We shopped some more at the South Premium outlets and bought some FOX and Volcom stuff. We also cruised the Strip at night. I liked all the lights.

-Philip