FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

- Stew Johnson now has the ultimate road trip vehicle... a retired ambulance from the city of Chicago is Stews new ride....complete with lights, Sirens, and a PA...they would not let him have the stretcher. Look for Stew to hit the road for the summer across North America after his 6 week European vacation in May. The ambulance will also be the new Road Fools chase vehicle starting with #13 in June. - Tom Ritzenthaler and Mark Hildebrand from the USA are hired by the UCI to build BMX tracks. Mark and Tom have tons of experience building tracks such as the one at the UCI offices in Switzerland but also the X-Games down-hill track and BMX world's circuits. Now that BMX racing is an Olympic sport, many countries are looking for help. Before they are going to re-do the UCI track, UCI BMX Co-ordinator Johan Lindstrom is going to ride his YZ on the current track. Sounds like fun. - We're stoked to have an interview up with Cory Coffey. Check the Profiler section. - Mat Hoffman has found another safe hobby: Mat recently left for Florida for a week to take a class to learn how to operate his new Para motor. What's a Para motor you ask? Good Question. Para motors are strap-on backpack motors fitted with large fans that hang onto special parachutes. To operate one, you start the motor and take off running. As your parachute fills, you are lifted into the air. They can reach altitudes of 5,000 to 6,000 feet. Mat has been flying into work with the shute avoiding traffic. - wethepeople has a new rider in Spain, Carlos Muñoz from Madrid [he also already rides for 20inchers.com and Revolt] - 6o9 is putting on the Crank BMX jam in Zumiez, Belgium on 25 April. More info on the FATBMX event schedule. - Long time AA Pro Darrin "The black snake" Mitchell is out of retirement. After being retired for a month he decided to get back into BMX. He is racing as a Vet Pro know and he is riding for Redman. He still wants to race, but not on a high level. Darrin is a personal trainer at 24 hour fitness now and he is loving it. He is quite the ladies man and the gym is a very good place to meet girls. - Props Mega Tour 3 went off with out a hitch...except for the rain and the lost spleen.... All the teams including Hoffman Bikes, Blacken, Profile, UGP, Mutiny, and Empire BMX came back with incredible footage. Including Skydiving, trips to Mexico, Blacken at Spring Break, Matt Hoffman flying his" backpack flying machine" over his new vert ramp, some guy in a chicken suit, the Shitluck team crashing the tour and getting some incredible footage...and oh yeah the 50 odd riders managed to ride some BMX and get some incredible riding on tape as well.... Mega Tour 3 will be released in July. - As some of you may have already heard, Jeff Long, eldest son of Richard & Wanda Long, died earlier this month. At this time, the cause of death is still unknown. Our condolences go to his family and friends. May he RIP. - This coming spring 2-HIp will be releasing a DVD re-issue copy of it's original videos: RIDE LIKE A MAN- edited by Eddie Roman, LIFE ON THE EDGE- edited by Dave Parrick, and the very FIRST 2-HIp video, the 2-HIp HOME VIDEO- Eddie Roman's first Get ready for the classics. ALSO ALSO ALSO ALSO some never-before-seen footage of the very FIRST 2-HIp MEET THE STREET JAM!!!! - The official homepage of the Suzuki BMXWorlds 2004 has gone online under www.bmxworlds2004.de. Here riders and fans of the bmx freestyle sport will find all important information about the BMX Freestyle World Championship in Cologne from the 24. -27. of June 2004. FATBMX will be a media partner for the world's so look for the FATBMX logo on all posters, flyers and advertisements. - Best get well-wishes to Neighbour Tim who got rammed from the back in his 1966 Kahrman gia and broke his L2 in his back. - The Bike Devil's vert ramp is nearing completion. - Al DiMino has started up BMX Invasion doing T-shirts and all that good stuff. He's actually looking to sponsor some good European riders. Go to the bmxinvasion.com website for contact info. - With the BMX calendar almost full for the summer, we've got a new series that announced its dates: The European Championship Series of BMX street will take place at the following dates: 1-2 May; Heerlen, The Netherlands 22-23 May; Oldenburg, Germany 19-20 June; Darmstadt, Germany - Our condolences go out to the family and friends of James Hadfield (15) who died after he crashed to the ground after hitting a ramp at the Piccadilly Park in the UK. The rider, who was not wearing a helmet, hit his head which lead to his fatality. May he RIP. - Becky over at Hotwheels UK is taking the team to Scandinavia for 10 days at the end of May! The riders on the tour will be: Ashley Charles, Will Jackson, Joe Cox, Northern John, Paul Russell, Shaun Eglington, Vinny Hunter, Chris Pink and probably James Newrick. Becky: " Real excited about visiting, it sounds an amazing place and the people I have been in touch with are all real friendly!". DUTCHNEWS by Paul de Jong: - MINI FAT JAM this weekend 27&28th March in Aarle-Rixtel, second outdoor event of the year and like always we ordered a couple of kilo's of Sunshine so don't worry about the weather this time. Saturday is the MINI MINI FAT JAM at the Mini Ramp at the Dreef (Bosscheweg Aarle-Rixtel) for everyone with a BMX bike. At 16:00h we will have the EASTPAK HIGH AIR CONTEST, entry fee is of course FREE and who gets the more air from the coping will win a nice EASTPAK package. Saturday night is partynight at OJA with our house DJ's and cheap soda's... Sunday is DIRTDAY, the newly shaped SUGARHILLS are ready to go at the Valkendijk, also the EASTPAK BIG AIR at 16:00h. Both days start whenever they start, no rules just BMX! - FLATtv 3 is almost ready! Ninja inc. is finishing their latest 100% Flatland on DVD-R format which will play in 85% of all dvd-players including X-box and PS2 consoles and 99% of the flatlanders need to buy this DVD, the other 1% will try to copy it but the build in virus will kill your computer so good luck. The cover of FLATtv 3 will feature a pic from the Braun Flatground made by our FAT Webmaster Jos Wissink. FLATtv3 will be in better shops from March 30th (Bart's Birthday) and we might have a preview at the Mini FAT JAM... (check www.FLATtv.tk). - Iwan from RDLF'S build the first bike with a S&M Blackframe in the Netherlands and is stoked! Its lighter than Barry's bike so that war is won, allthough Iwan got some big Flatland inspiration at the Flatground contest he will not entering the Circle of Balance, well not this year.... - Dennis Keunen got 4 broken bones in his foot but the doctor said nothing was wrong, 4 days later he was in a cast for 5 weeks and will be ready to ride at next Mini Fat Jam. Sponsor PROPER BIKES will make him happy with new Cassette hubs, Forks and Handlebars. - MAC De Helm is the Motocross club where we ride MX every now and then but in the near future we can bring our BMX bikes too! We will built BMX Trails next to the track with help from the city of Helmond and MAC De Helm and will be open on Tuesday and Sunday, more details later. - NBR New Breed Riders were ripping it up at the streetjam in Eindhoven, First place Mark Vos and Second place by Vladdie de Koning. The NBR will be supported by EASTPAK again in 2004 so they can travel in style to the Worlds and other events this year these guys rules! - Pieter Does will be riding his 25th BMX race season this year! - Before calling names I like to say to everyone that refuses to pay their bills at BMX-shops on time that its time to consider that what you do is killing the BMX scene. BMX-shops try to stock the latest stuff in BMX for YOU, organising contests and jams for YOU, keeping the scene alive for YOU and YOU think that they don't need their money on time cause YOU are the most important person in the BMX world? Be fair and pay fast for the stuff you got at your home fast and keep the BMX scene running. - The city of Laarbeek (Aarle-Rixtel / B&D / Lieshout / Mariahout) promised to put some lights above the Miniramp but now they come back from that promise and the lights are not coming. The Locals are not satisfied with this answer and will make plans to get those lights! A petition is going to the City Hall soon. - Darko our favourite Tatoo artist is designing a new FAT shirt for SPASMO, when ready we will let you know how to order the shirt. - Fat Bald Man Dave from Zutpen is opening his BMX spot with spine and Wall on April 25th. Check it out, he wants everyone to come over even me but I'm at the C.O.B. and GPMX so I sent my team from Burnside. Email for more details This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - If you're over in Germany and absolutely don't want to join the Mini-FAT-JAM, maybe you can check out the Janosh/Woozy jam with skid and wrestling contest. Find the skatehall in Wermelskirchen, that's where the action will take place. 27 March next. - Eastern Bikes news: * Storms swept through North Carolina last night, bringing with them large gusts of winds. The winds were strong enough to tear off part of the roof at the Eastern warehouse. The loading dock door was also blown off its tracks and into our warehouse. Luckily, there was no product damage. * Brad Gethard suffered a broken leg about 4 months ago in France and the problems still haven’t ended. Last week his doctor removed the rod put in by French doctors because the rod turned out to be too long, in turn causing problems with the healing and potential damage to his ankle. It now looks like he may finally be back on his bike in another 6 weeks. * Leigh Ramsdell came to town last week to look for a new place to call home. He plans on moving back to his home state of North Carolina in April or May. * Mike Andrews has been asked to participate in a new potential reality show. The owners of the Sleep Chamber, a hostel in Louisville, KY, are behind this. Here is a quick synopsis of the show: BMX and skateboard riders would live at the hostel and would help build a kitchen/dining area. In turn, they get a free place to live which is conveniently located across from the skatepark. It’s supposed to be similar to MTV’s Real World. Mike isn’t sure if he’s doing yet or not but they’re supposed to start filming later this month so he’ll be making a final decision soon. - Ryan Nyquist and Split team-mate Josh Harrington are heading down to Puerto Rico for a couple of weeks. As a special thank you, Split sends all their athletes on a vacation together every year. - The ABA has signed on as a sponsor for the Roots jam. It's getting bigger and bigger. The following riders have already signed up so if you want to search for your Easter eggs with a bunch of BMX-ers, go to the Roots jam: MORGAN WADE, TEXAS RYAN NYQUIST, NORTH CAROLINA ALLAN COOKE, NORTH CAROLINA COLIN WINKELMAN, NORTH CAROLINA SCOTTY CRANMER, NEW JERSEY JOSH HARRINGTON, CALIFORNIA Paul de Jong will be present to cover the event for FATBMX. With the Backyard jam on the first weekend of April, Roots on 10-11, Bike 2004 on 16-18 and the Circle of Balance on the 24th, expect a lot of freestyle contest articles here on FATBMX.com. - KGB's Jorge "Viki" Gomez has finished his solo flatland project. The DVD is called: Madrid Session and will be available in the better bike shops soon. KGB partner Martti Kuoppa is still working on his solo DVD and next to Viki's, it will be one to look out for. - The Core Tour series this year will take place at Venice Beach, California (June 11-13), South Street Seaport, New York (July 16-18) and Huntington Beach, California (September 10-12). Each venue hosts more than 100,000 attendees during its respective weekend. In its 4th year, The Core Tour is televised on the FOX Sports Network’s award winning Core Culture action sports television show. - 23 year old Ellen Bollansee is the first professional BMX rider from Belgium. The former European BMX champion signed a contract with Vlaanderen T interim Univega Ladies Team, a road cycling team. Main goal for Ellen this year are the UCI BMX Race world's in Holland and the BMX Olympics in 2008. - Downhill BMX racing and Flatland have been dropped from the X-Games program. The P-7 crew have put a lot of effort into showing the world that BMX racing can be fun, spectacular and exciting to watch and now they get the boot. Flatland is on their own too but with so many flatland only contests going on nowadays it seems that the riders themselves are in control. We received a bunch of reactions on the X-games drop-out from the pros. You can check those in FATBMX's freestyle section. - 411Video Magazine has been acquired by Wasserman Media Group. This means the quality of the BMX video magazine will only go up according to Brian Garofalow. Here's a quote from the press release: "Through the partnership with WMG, 411 Productions will have more support to service retailers and advertisers, all while leveraging WMG’s general and administrative resources. The core 411 staff will focus on producing, marketing, and distributing top-level action sports content. " Does this mean Robo will be presenting in a suit next time? - We only received one story on Markus Arnoldi's Ford Transit. We expect to receive your story in the next week or two so we can give a true tribute to the Transit in April. Send a few words and some pics and show your appreciation to trucker Kalle. - Being a foreign pro in the USA ain't easy. The green card stress that comes with it is almost unbearable. It makes travelling back home a disaster so most likely you're stuck in the USA for a while. But if you want to live your dream, you got to be where the paid races are. Robert de Wilde made his move from Holland a few years ago when he was racing for GT. After GT came the Giant project and after that he was sponsor less. Well, no more. Robert has picked up sponsorships from TroyLee Designs and Maxxis with a bike sponsor in the works. He'll be racing in the States for at least another year. - Austrian HARO rider Senad Grosic has pulled the first bike-flip jump over a funbox (resi) at a show for a church in the USA. The long awaited bike flip is now reality. It's time to pull one in a contest to make it official. 2004 is the year. - Props Employee Bob Scerbo managed to get run over in Toronto by more than one rider on the course, taking out his brand new camera in the process. Bob has informed us he will not be filming any more contests this year and will be concentrating on his professional poker career until the next Mega Tour or Road Fools duty calls.... - It's always the best if you can get a job in something you like to do. BMX jobs are pretty scarce but former BMX race pro David (Geth) Shooter recently got hired by Diamond Back to head the BMX product development project with a little BMX marketing here and there. He's stoked. - The Metro BMX jam in Toronto, Canada is going down in history as one of the biggest street contests. With loads of spectators in the stands the 80 pros (street) battled it out to get a place in the final. The top 16 riders then were cut into 4 groups of 4 to have jam sessions of 8 minutes. After everything was said and done it was Chris Doyle in 5th, Ryan Nyquist in 4th, Dustin Gunther got 3rd, Corey Martinez got 2nd, and DirtBrother Gary Young won. The best trick contests on the Orchid wall (Rueben wallride to barspin) and the rail (no-handed gap across the driveway to icepick down the rail) were won by Corey Martinez. - Some WeThePeople news: * pizza and mozzarella - Wethepeople’s annual day out is scheduled this time for the land of all things stereotypically Italian. Italy. This year there will be some new faces on board to complement the regulars. Our rider list thus far is looking a bit like this: Mr. Jackson (UK), Mr. Charles (UK), Mr. Wicke (DE), Mr. Mrkwia (DE), Mr. Cools (BE), Mr. Gaertig (DE), Mr. Croce (FR) and guest appearances from riders across the pond. We’re gonna be hitting up mainly North Italy and will hopefully make it to at least Milan, Turin, Brescia and Bologna. *Max Gaertig: - Max is now riding for Zoo York as well as wethepeople. *Mike Rotondo: - Made a trip out to Austin recently and....got rained on. He said that the cloud followed him from home. It didn’t seem to dilute the beer there though. * We hooked up a couple of riders in the North of England who are really putting back into riding. Richard ‘cleggy’ Rowlands, Ricky Feather and Ian Openshaw. - We weren’t in a position to take on more flow riders but really wanted to help them with what they’re doing over there in the UK. - UCI BMX Supercross info: The 1st round of the UCI BMX Supercross will be held May 1st – 2nd 2004 at Woodward West, Stallion Springs California (USA). Located 2 ½ hours north of Los Angeles, Woodward West is a newly developed action-sports facility that opened in May 2003. The camp features state-of-the-art ramps and skateparks as well as a huge downhill BMX track previously used at the 2003 X-Games BMX Downhill event. Note that all riders must pre-register through their national federation (US riders shall contact National Bicycle League). Please visit the UCI website for additional information about lodging, travel and race information, got to; www.uci.ch. The BMX Supercross will be held in conjunction with a major BMX freestyle event, promising an action packed weekend. The CFB X-Games Qualifier presented by Target will feature Amateur/Pro Vert and Street event. For more information, please visit www.hsacentral.com. - VANS news: GARY YOUNG earned 1st place at Metro Jam in Toronto, congrats to him. Gary killed it and was seen charging the course hitting everything in sight. Gary is back in San Diego resting and getting ready for the Backyard Jam and UGP Roots in April. Also ALISTAIR WHITTON finished a strong 7th at the Metro Jam and word has it he may have came close to winning if he had pulled his last trick (7 foot tall quarter to a 8 foot tall fence, ice pick up and over) GNARLY. Ali is on vacation at the moment in California resting and enjoying the sun. Mr. Whitton also had seven stiches removed from his left hand due to jumping a fence. Ali will also be at the Backyard Jam and UGP Roots in April. RYAN GUETTLER is coming to America March 25th to compete in the U.S. the whole summer. First comp for Ryan is the UGP Roots in Orlando. SHAWN "Elf" WALTERS has moved to Salt Lake City just a few blocks away from his old place. Shawn, Mike Aitken, and Tim "Fuzzy" Hall are all stoked because the first stop of theVans Triple Crown of BMX is in their backyard in two months (Salt Lake City, May 14-16). Fuzzy and Mike are currently busy shooting a Vans Ad. JOEY "Whitesnake" MARKS is back in Indiana. Joey came out to Cali for a little while and got some riding and shooting done. HEATH PINTER is back from his trips. Heath and Ali are in Tahoe at the moment getting some snowboarding in. Heath has been busy at the crome shop when not riding his bike or fixin his cars. DENNIS "DMC" MCCOY is staying warm in Kansas City and has been seen pulling new tricks. Look for Dennis to be a strong force on the Vert ramp and also the Street course. RICK "Biker in Black" THORNE has sold his castle is Santa Ana and has moved to LA to be closer to Hollywood. Does anyone know what happened to Rick in his new Free Agent ad? Check Rick out on the Warped Tour coming to a city close to you. ROBBIE MORALES has been spotted around So Cal with Fit Team Rider Edwin Delarosa. Robbie comes by Vans every once in a while to say hi and walk his dog, Fatty. SCOTTY CRANMER and his health are all back together and ready to flipwhip to victory. Scotty was sick as a dawg in Toronto so he was missing in action. Expect to see Scotty killing it at the UGP Roots contest next month. Last but not least the twins: CORY NASTAZIO and his shoulder are coming around, he has been seen riding his bike lately. His injury is healing and nothing can keep Nasty from being with his lady (his BMX bike). STEPHEN MURRAY just got back from the UK. Congrats go out to Stepehen getting a four year visa. Stephen was spotted building dirt jumps in the 909. Later Mr. Murray was seen jumping around crying because he stepped on a piece of wood that had a nail in it. The nail went all the way through Stephens foot and he needed a tetnis shot, OUCH! - 7 time Supercross Champion Jeremy McGrath has always supported the sport of BMX in his interviews and speeches. BMX was his school to become smooth on the motorcycle. The California native has just hooked up a deal with HARO bikes to keep his roots alive. - Props Best Of Road Fools Volume 3/ Road Fools #3 DVD will ship on April 19th. All the best riding from Road Fools #9, #10, #11, #12 will be edited down to 35 minutes of the best riding from the past two years of Road Fools Trips. Road Fools #3 will be featured as the bonus on this Release in its entirety. Road Fools #3 hit the east coast in the fall of 1998 and includes many classic moments in Road Fools history. That's over 2 hours and two complete releases on this single DVD. - The old age. Cotton from Denver/USA, is gathering footage for a BMX video that will only feature riders that are 30 years and older. The video will be called "Never Quit" and will be an eye opener for those people who think BMX is for little kids. Contact Thomas Stellwag at SOUL for more info. - John Parker announced that the MSS will now all have VERT and STREET. Sorry for the confusion. Stop 1: Cincinnati, OH May 31 Stop 2: Washington, DC July 3 Stop 3: Buffalo, NY July 31 Stop 4: Sacramento, CA August 21 - Cory Jarman is 2HIp's newest addition to its expanding street force. Representing Denver CO, Cory drops bombs on a daily basis; Bunnyhop360crankflips, wallrides to whips, bunnyhop whips to pedals everytime, barspin flyout to manual to tailwhip-in on ramp, bunnyhop whip to fakie on flatbanks, 540's in fullpipes... the list is endless. Fully brakeless and pegless; look for Cory rocking the new 2HIp Death frame in the not so distant future. Cory will be going to BRAZIL IN 2 WEEKS to film for the new 2-HIp video. - FBM have made a flatland frame with the help of Leif Valin. Who would have ever thought that the hardcore street/dirt company would walk this way? Maybe now that the X-Games dropped flatland it's hardcore enough for them to weld up some flatland frames. - MotoMag's current HESS CUP standings are as follows: 1. Randy Stumpfhauser-GT 2. Warwick Stevenson-Haro 3. Kyle Bennett-Free Agent 4. Jason Richardson-Crupi 5. Dale Holmes-Free Agent 6. Greg Romero-Revtec 7. John Purse-Mongoose 8. Cristian Becerine-Crupi 9. Bubba Harris-Redline 10. Nate Berkheimer-Schwinn - With the NBL only having 8 races count for the title this year, more pros can find a way to go to those. The season opener took place in Boulder City, Nevada last weekend. With no racer dominating both days, the 2004 NBL series is going to be an exciting one. Results: Day 1 - AA 1 Jason Richardson 2 Kyle Bennett 3 Cristian Becerine 4 Brandon Meadows 5 Dale Holmes 6 Matt Pohlkamp 7 Robert de Wilde 8 Jarrett Kolich Day 1 - Open 1 Warwick Stevenson 2 Dale Holmes 3 Matt Pohlkamp Day 2 - AA 1 Warwick Stevenson 2 Dale Holmes 3 Brandon Meadows 4 Randy Stumpfhauser 5 Jason Richardson 6 Matt Pohlkamp 7 Kyle Bennett 8 Nate Berkheimer Day 2 - Open 1 Warwick Stevenson 2 Nate Berkheimer 3 Paul Lange