So, today took a turn for the shit. Early in the day, damian was in a hammock in the crow’s nest and the rope snapped, dropping him to his ass, and the wooden crossbar smacked him on the head. He was reading a book on karma.

After some delay, we loaded up the van with all our gear and headed to Jaco to get some lunch and then head north to a new spot. We went to Jaco Taco on the north side of town, parked the van in sight of us, but just a little bit out of sight. This was us being stupid.

While we were seated, a big dude named Tony came over and pitched some spiel about tours, boating, etc. This was probably about the same time someone was breaking the window latch of our rental van.

After lunch we got back to the van not more than 25 feet from where we were eating. We piled on, and jimmy was the forst to ask, “where’s my bag?” everyone started looking around, and sure enough, mat’s bag, trevor’s bag, and jimmy’s bag were gone. Out of sheer dumb luck i stowed my bag under the seat and that’s the only reason i still have my gear. We lost 3 HD cameras (one of which was a brand new waterproof HD bought just for this trip), a medium format, a 35mm film and a bunch of lenses. We figure it was about $5-6k of gear.

A bunch of the guys went searching while a few of us waited for the cops. The dude Tony comes back over and asks if we’d pay to get our stuff back. Sketch alert on high. I told him yes, and he gets on his cell to call the “columbians” to check to see if they have it yet. Yet.

The cops showed up, but didn’t speak english. Finally, the dudes come back with a crack head kid in tow. Crack kid goes to the cops, says something, and they break out without a word. SWEET!

The moral of the story is to keep your gear on you, don’t trust the sketchy-ass locals, and if these douch-canoes show up over the next few days, they are going to be hurtin’.

Give us a shout if you want to contribute to the “we need replacement gear” fund. You’ll be helping these guys.

Oh and trevor’s surfboard smashed me in the face on Sunday, which i think is the only reason my gear didn’t get yoinked.

Karma is a bitch.

Friday we met up in San Jose and ate at the awesome restaurant behind the airport while waiting for Josh and Mat.

Josh got stuck in miami, though, so the posse wasn’t complete til he got in. Peep the security at our hotel in SJ. The whole place was surrounded by this and electric fence.

Two hours later we got to jaco, got boards, and got a 2 hour session in at Jaco. Everyone got some nice runs the first day. Ming made a new friend already, the beard and jimmy have been our ambassadors of good will, and we housed 5 pizzas at Bocha pizza.

JAWS is on animal planet right now and jimmy is questioning the wisdom of watching this.

I’m too tired to be funny . . . The waves are fun as hell and life is good.

Hey jimmy and trevor, we’re going to Costa Rica. Why are you wearin’ beanies. Matt, no more mcdonalds where we’re going!!

So the whole crew is in Costa Rica surfing it up in paradise with senoritas and cervesas.

fuck them. Im going riding

Finally in orlando, leave for san jose friday morning. Jimmy is ready to fight the future.

A couple nights ago, we went to see Lucero at the Mohawk in Buffalo. such a great place to see a show. I think the first show I ever saw there was Avail back about 6 years ago. small room that gets packed and they usually have cheap beer. notice i didnt say good beer.
This time around the show was still going to be good because about 15 bmxers from Rochester alone were headed that way. That’s the thing about Buffalo, its a fun place at times to go to and visit, but it’s waaay more fun with a group of Rochester kids. The opening band reminded me of kind of like if your younger sister was really into Nintendo and Mike N’ Ikes candy and pretenious indie rock were the dudes sing with English accents but go to high school with you. combine all those into one band, and have them play way too long, then you’ll get an idea.

…we get drunk on a 2 for 1 thursday night at Abilene and while racing home on our first real bike excursion this spring, Trev shears the rear triangle of of his bike. we walk home and eat probably the worst pizza in existence on Monroe Ave.
… a giant vanilla candle has been purchased from walmart for $1.87 solely for the purpose of waxing the hell out of the flat ledges across from the Liberty Pole.
…everyone talks about ‘going to ride flatland tonight’..but never happens
…plans for the next Black 13 Alleycat Race/ Toga party are in motion, kind of.
…everyone is jogging in my neighborhood and i love it.
…bikes are everywhere. so good.

An AlleyCat was planned for next weekend (april So n So) but 3/4′s of us are going to Costa Rica in 11 days and don’t feel like planning anything besides drinking while surfing and obtaining a man-sized Godzilla suit. So, after May 4th we’ll have something for sure.

Also, Tim Barry (Lead Singer of Avail and bluegrass singer guy) is playing at the Loving Cup April 2oth. Its a free show and its a hippy fest. So come join us harsh some mellows of some Trustafarians by hootin’ and hollerin’ and eating a steak. Because, as the old fable goes, ‘Everytime you eat a steak, a hippies hacky sack falls down a sewer.

get ready for Rods new venture.
‘

Happy Zombie Jesus Day!

One of my favorite parts about living in a place where it doesn’t snow is that all my friends come to visit over  the winter. Nothing motivates you more to ride than a friend that has been trapped indoors for 3 months by an upstate NY winter . It was on from the moment Dave got off the plane in Phoenix on Saturday. Up till now most of my posts have been Mountain bike related but this was shaping up to be a strictly BMX mission.

Fueled by Tecate and perfect weather we set out to hit the Chandler BMX park and the brand new Tempe Bowl which is really small but one of the most fun things I have ridden in a while.

Dave got busy at Chandler with this:

Street sessions were had and we ran into another east coaster on the Arizona State campus who was escaping the New Hampshire winter(sorry i forgot your name, drop me a line in the comments and I will send you out all the pics from that night).  For years I have been staring at these brick transitions thinking they were not really ride-able and he proved me wrong by doing something like this:

 I really need to stop riding by myself so much.

We took a journey north to ride Adam Baker’s trails in Prescott and we got schooled. We didn’t do anything worth documenting so I will just let you watch The Man at work on his own trails. The quote of the day was “This guy must be out of his mind to 3-whip that thing” …the jumps were the biggest things I have ever seen. 

I will leave you with one last picture. The best way to finish a day of riding anywhere. Down in a ditch.

get out and enjoy the ride.