FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

More rain welcomed us on Sunday morning meaning the A4 trails, the Malieveld and Scheveningen bowl were out of the question. We decided to head back north in the direction of Amsterdam. The XL series hosted one of their rounds at the Insaen park so maybe that was an option. On our way there, we got the news that the park had closed so plans were changed to Amsterdam's latest park: Everland. It's actually a skatepark but with Carhartt and Eastpak being sponsors of the park we thought we might get to ride it anyway. On the way to the park we encountered something hi-tech and new. Instead of a road map, the information center had a touch screen to find the street or address you were looking for. We only had Everland's street address so we typed in the first three letters. Wow, the computer screen showed where to go, step by step. 

Round #6 of the 2006 NBL Pro Series was held this past weekend in Prunedale, CA and with just 2 more NBL Pro Series event left, the title chase is getting hot. Donny Robinson had a nice lead in the Elite men's point for most of the season, but after a great weekend of results for both Double A Marketing riders in attendance, Randy Stumpfhauser and Kyle Bennett have both chipped away at the points lead and put themselves in great positions to take home another NBL #1 Pro title. Here is how the weekend went for both riders:

Randy Stumpfhauser had a weekend to remember in Prunedale. 

Breakfast at the hotel was until 10:30am so at 10:25 we all met downstairs for some food. The plan was to ride the new concrete park at Het Malieveld and the Scheveningen pool after that. While we were in the The Hague area we also checked out the A4 trials and found out that they were wet. When we arrived at the new spot at Het Malieveld, it started pouring. Damn. With no other dry spots around, the trip continued to the North. The skatemaps that the TM's had printed out showed this concrete spot under a bridge that looked pretty amazing. When we arrived in Zaandam it wasn't a disappointment. 

For no particular reason I ended up in the Cools brother's white van. You can consider this their house when they're on the road. It's super roomy, has some sort of stereo and plenty of room for bikes. I've met Sig and Hannu before but never got to know them very well. This changed on the Eastpak/Carhartt trip. Their hospitality is endless and they even picked up a couple of hitchhikers from France on our way North to Holland for the next stop. 

FATBMX met up with the Eastpak/Carhartt tour in St. Niklaas, Belgium. The crew had done two stops that day, one in Kortrijk (outdoor concrete park) and the park in Sint-Niklaas. The barbeque that was planned for the night turned into an indoor grill party at the Cools brother's place in Reet (I'm not kidding, that's the name of the town they live in. It means ass in Dutch). The crew consisted of Markus Braumann, Ben Manuel, Benny Paulsen, Bruno Hoffman, Hannu and Sig Cools, Stefan Lantschner and TM's Andy Zeiss (Eastpak), Mike Emde (Carhartt), Kay Clauberg (FreedomBMX) and myself. The plan was to ride spots in both Belgium and The Netherlands for the weekend and make the best out of it. With rain showers forecasted, there was a plan A (outdoor spots) and a plan B (indoor spots). With all the good riders present and all the spots that were shredded, we're going to give you a couple of little reports this week on the riding spots we stopped at. Instead of one article with 10 photos, we'll give you a bunch more. 

We are a bunch of Bmx Riders from Oeiras/Lisboa-Portugal. We are trying to save one of our favourite, and oldest (+/- 15 years) places to ride in Portugal. The Pool is nearby some buildings and at night a bunch of drunk folks make a lot of noise and smash some bottles on the ground. The people who live by complained to the City Hall and they tell some lies...saying that no one rides the place anymore... and now they pretend to demolish the Pool and replace it with a garden... So we started a movement to show to them that the pool isn't the problem and the garden is not the sollution... but some better night lights, a timetable and a fence, maybe help to stop the "late night noises".

Normally it's fans asking an autograph of vert rider Tom Stober but while at a party in Brasil, the Woodward regular got to meet his lifetime idol Bono from the band U2. The drinks he had already in him, gave Tom the courage to walk up to Bono to have his arm signed and his picture taken with the Irish pop star.  In the next bar Tom wanted everyone to know that he had met Bono and showed his autograph to everyone. But was it really Bono?

Eastreet are organizing their first event which will take place in June, the 24th to be exact. The location will be at Basse Ham (57), near Thionville, near Luxembourg. The spirit is basic: Riding, riding and festivities or as their flyer says:

Beer, Barbeque and Riding.

Contact Eastreet's manager

THIERRY TILLOT
304 rue de l'hôtel de ville
54200 Ecrouves
France

Or go to the [url=http://www.eastreet.fr.st]Eastreet website[/url] for more information on the skatepark and flatland jam.

Austin Coleman from Los Angeles graduated a little over a week ago and can finally spend some time on his bike without worrying about school. Needless to say, he's pretty stoked on that. It will be the first time Austin hasn't been in school in almost 18 years! Coleman went to the University of Southern California (USC) and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Policy, Planning, Management, and Developement (emphasis Urban Planning) and a Minor in Business Administration. What does that mean? Austin: "I could technically become a scientist, and/or real estate developer but I'm pretty psyched right now on having the time I've always wanted to ride bikes."