FATBMX KIDS Goes USA part 20. DHR BMX clinic in San Diego. By Philip de Jong

Aug 15, 2014

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 5273 times

Today was a special day for me and my sister. We got off the air mattrass early to go to San Diego for the Dale Holmes Racing BMX clinic. We could join in for the day with the YMCA group. The kids all signed up for a week of learning all about BMX and this was the first day for them. Some had ridden bikes before, but some of them looked pretty sketchy even riding around the cones on the parking lot. But this was day one, and with the help of Dale Holmes, Anthony Dean and Cristian Becerine they'll look much better at the end of the week.

Day one was reserved for the very basics in BMX. What you should do, and what you should not do, like putting your fingers in the spokes, or spin the cranks when your bike is upside down and check if the chain is tight while spinning. The sport of BMX was explained well by Dale Holmes and Cristian Becerine, both have been on top of the elite ranks and use the BMX camps to pass on their knowledge to the newcomers.

Anthony Dean is currently the third ranked BMX rider in the Elite Men class so it doesn't get more legit than having the Australian show the skills on the BMX bike.

The Dale Holmes Racing team has a lot of support from their sponsors. Every day at camp they're giving out some goodies, from posters, to toys to gloves, helmets, racing jerseys, T-shirts, hats, BMX books, entire uniforms and even bikes sometimes. It's important to pay attention and make sure you know the answers to the questions that Dale asks after he has explained things about the track, the racing, the bikes, the safety etc.

We all talk about the sport of BMX, that it needs to grow, that the industry needs to sell more bikes. Well, getting new boys interested in BMX is a good way to sell more products. The YMCA camps that Dale is plugging into will for sure get more kids into the BMX stores out there and to the track.

The day for me started with getting a helmet. I could pick one from the table and I chose the green Answer Skull Candy helmet. It fit tight but it felt good. All helmets were DOT approved motocross helmets. Safety first. Veerle picked a Chase bike of her size but I wanted to ride my own Haro, which technically is a race bike also. We did a couple of laps around the cones, and then Anthony and Cristian did a few demonstration laps on the track. After the lunch break we did some braking on the road next to the parking lot and then Monte, Veerle and myself could do a few laps on the Kearny Mesa BMX track.

I liked the track a lot. It was smooth and had a lot of rollers in it that you could pump really well. It was super hot, especially since I was wearing a full sleeved shirt, long pants, gloves, safety pads and a full face motocross helmet. I wish I could stay for the rest of the week because this group is also going to ride different tracks. Thanks to DHR for the BMX tips and goodies. It was awesome to be part of the DHR clinic.

-Philip