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Day 8. Past halfway. But going strong. As mentioned, the YT MTB session with Mapstone, Van Schie, Zeiss, Philip and Maddog was rained out unfortunately. Albert Hammond was so wrong when he wrote this song: 'It Never rains in Southern California'. But it was a nice day out today as we jumped aboard the Ford Escape. On this 'extra day' we had a few things on the agenda starting off with a surprise visit to Keith Mulligan's pet shop in Laguna. You should have seen his face...haha. Foreigners walking in the door on a Wednesday morning. On Keith's advice we stopped by the Troy Lee Designs store in Laguna Beach. Half museum, half shop. TLD is a staple in BMX/MX and everything that has an engine or people who want to stand out from the pack. Many TLD painted helmets, paintings, and race suits were on display. If you're ever in the area, give it a visit.

While at home we connected with some people to see if they would be around when we were in Cali. One of them was the Godfather of BMX Freestyle; Bob Haro. We sent a message in the morning, but sending a message isn't as simple as it used to be. A message on X? email? DM on Instagram? At what account? Through Facebook messenger? Text message? WhatsApp? It's easy to get lost. Simply put, Bob had not received the message and wasn't at the office in Cardiff by the Sea. We checked at his local Mexican lunch place but it looked like we had to make our own lunch plans.

8am breakfast meeting at Eat Chow with BMX Sales guru Pete Garski. We always try to get together for a coffee, lunch, dinner or a breakfast. Pete used to do International sales for GT Bicycles and then moved on to Haro Bikes where he recently lost his position and is now in the hunt for something new. Whoever scoops him up is lucky. The plan was for our posse to go ride YT mountain bikes in San Clemente on Wednesday but because of the recent rain these kinds of activities are put on hold for a week or so. One of the crew members would be Dutchman Fred van Schie who runs the etnies BMX program. Fred was in the office on Tuesday morning and showed the new BMX/MTB shoes that are about to hit the market including some DIG magazine shoes, T's and hats. Stay tuned for that drop.

Being in the heart of the (B)MX industry gives you plenty of opportunity to visit multiple places in one day. Monday morning we pointed the Ford Escape rental to 3-Brothers racing first, a dealership in Costa Mesa. Philip had managed to spend two weeks of his HGS internship in the USA to do market research and collect content for their social media. Visiting MX shops and the two AMA Monster Energy Supercross was part of the program. After checking the parts shop and complete bike section we were off to FOX Racing, just 10 minutes down the road, to see what's new there. When the employees start talking moto for 30 minutes, you know they're at the right place and not just selling whatever product. Fox had their speed suit on display also and we got the ins and outs on that project. 

We checked our Google Maps flags and drove to CultCrew right before lunch. We were welcomed by the one and only Rob-O (on his B-day) and sat down for some chatting. The current state of the BMX industry, SX season, Palace, and old BMX trips were brought up. The energy always flows with this man.

In 'n Out lunch? Why not?! It might feel weird to a few, but not to us, as we're on good grounds