FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

It's summer time and loads of events are happening all over the globe which means the HARO riders are staying busy representing the HARO brand. The 2006 models and catalogs are already being finalized and before we know it, the trade shows are around the corner. Read on for some news that happened this month. + Congratulations to Peter Geys for pulling his first 900 air. The HARO Benelux rider has haunted the trick for many years and puling one is very rewarding. Let's see if he can pull one at the Garden of Vert, a halfpipe contest that will happen from 12-14 August in his backyard. For more info on this HARO sponsored event, visit: www.gardenofvert.com + Over in Paris, France the 2005 UCI World Championships took place from 29-31 July. Warwick Stevenson was defending his 2004 Elite men world title but a missed gate in one of the qualifying rounds (1/8th final) had the Australian catch up with the other riders to finish out of the top 4 when the finish line neared.

Our buddy Michael de Wit is one of the artists to display work at the Dogtown invitational art show at the ASR trade show in San Diego. The exhibition will take place from 9-11 September next. Michael is in good company with art displayed from people like Andy Jenkins, Lance Mountain, Eric Dressen, Jim Muir, Natas Kaupas and C.R. Stecyk. Click on the picture for the booth number.

Lake Forest, CA - In front of a crowd of hundreds, Joe Rich earned a victory this weekend at the BMX Soul Bowl hosted at the US Open in Huntington Beach, CA. The skies were their usual Southern California blue, the beach was littered with thousands of onlookers for the US Open surf contest and the masonite was just right in the Soul Bowl. Etnies own Joe Rich qualified third for the event and went on to take 1st in Finals based largely on the fact that he used every inch of the bowl for his run. While most tend to treat a bowl as a half pipe, going from side to side, Joe didn't spare an inch of plywood from his wrath and destroyed every pocket and section of transition.

At FATBMX we ran a poll regarding the Kink Bike Co. organized Demolition Derby. The race happened last week. Check if your vote made it to the top three. Here are some words and photos from the Kink posse: Wednesday night was amazing. The Demoltion Derby was so much fun, it was total chaos on a mud track. I think the derby lasted about 20-25 min with everything from car on fire like Cory's to Ryan, Brian Tunney and George Desantos driving around with no tires. It was a total mess, just the way we like it. If you look at Odyssey's car with Atkin's face plaster on it, by the end another car had Atkin's face plastered on it!

Mikael Frisk is the owner and product designer of a new started bmx-company called ODENbikes. The Swede informed us a bit about his company: This week our frames will hit the market in Sweden, we are also working to get the frames to Canada through Seshin Bikes. We are working on distributors in the rest of the world (but you can order our products directly from us from anywhere).

Sitting in the stands watching BMX for 10 hours a day might get a little stale. In between some motos and during the opening ceremony, the organization of the UCI world's in Bercy had brought in some entertainment. The variety was big. Instead of an expected big laser and fireworks show in Bercy, the announcer got a Mexican wave going with the people in the stands and an ALOHA group showed up that had girls and guys dancing in a traditional way while the guru interacted with the crowd and the band that sat in the middle of the track. On Saturday the Theo Tahiti show turned it up a notch and brought in some fire. A circle of fire was made with the help of some flamable fluid and the Hawaiian dudes were juggling with some sort of stick with fire at both ends. Even this can get a bit boring but as soon as one of the guys' leg was on fire this lead to some panic in the group. You see, the dude was wearing leg covers and one of them caught fire when he stepped in the burning circle. At first you think it's part of the show but it wasn't. The Flyin' Hawaiin' made the hell out of the circle and looked for sand to put the fire down. People around the infield jumped in to help out. Being the true showman he continued the show and finished it without more drama.

2000 riders from 40 nations made it to Paris for the 2005 UCI BMX world's. Among them were 138 Elite men athletes, 37 Junior women, 99 Junior men and 51 Elite women. The Saturday night program had all these classes on the track deciding who would put on the rainbow jersey at the end of the day. I entered a bet and it went like this: Name 8 riders that would make the Elite Men main. 1 point per rider for every rider that actually made the main. You scored 2 points if you had the right rider on the right spot he finished in. My list looked like this:

The atmosphere was electric; as 15,000 enthused fans flocked to Old Market Square throughout the day, for the very first Red Bull Vertical Battle on Saturday, to witness ten of the best skateboarders and BMX’ers compete on Europe’s largest vert ramp to the backdrop of live music from Kerrang! However, the night belonged to legendary BMX’er Jay ‘The Beast’ Miron, who not only took first place, but also scooped the ‘best trick’ award for pulling a ‘540 whip’, commenting he said: “I always like to ‘give-er’ at the Red Bull contestsâ€? and the judges couldn’t agree more, BMX judge Will Smyth added:

The Pro Flatland final proved as exciting, with Justin Miller (USA) taking a second straight tour victory, producing a combination of characteristically difficult front wheel moves. The British boys pulled together some technical combo’s to take the final podium spots, with Sam Foakes (UK) in second and Effraim Catlow (UK) placing third. Effraim will be looking to take those vital tour points to the next stop of the Tour as it heads to

Finals day at NASS, with over 40,000 spectators descending on the fields of the Bath & West Showground over the weekend, the riders knew they had a crowd to impress and impress they did! Braun cruZer Tour Spine Contest: One of the clear event highlights drawing in the crowds, was the Braun cruZer Tour Spine contest, with the riders knowing they had everything to play for as they went into the 5th leg of the tour. The ever, impressive Mark Webb (UK) went all out for victory with multiple runs of technical and flare tricks. The battle for second place and