Signal BMX

As I sit down here to get my ramble on again and finally report on some very exciting news, I’m reminded of a line from one of my favorite movies, Dumb and Dumber. Lloyd sees an old newspaper article that has been framed and exclaims, “We’ve landed on the moon!” He celebrates as if it had just happened (because he thought it had). Although I believe it is almost as exciting, the news I have for you here isn’t quite that old, but it is on something that happened a little over a week ago.

If you’re a fan of Diogo Canina’s, you know that the man is an amazingly talented rider. He’s humble, but the dude flat out rips. He’s got the big moves, the tech moves, and style too. He’s had a rough year or so with setbacks like this one and this one, but despite the bumps in the road, he’s always made it clear that he was going to do something big. That something came the weekend before last when he got the green light to compete in the X Games and rode off with a Silver medal in the SuperPark event.

Diogo’s big week started 41 miles south of the X Games venue in Los Angeles at the ASA Big-Air BMX Triples Contest at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. I’ll let Diogo tell you how the finals went in his own words.

Thursday was the finals for Big Air BMX triples contest in Orange County!  I first rode against Josh from Australia, and I won, making myself moving on! It was hard riding against someone with so much style, I care about it, so he definitely put pressure on me. 

The second round was against Koji Kraft, and he was on fire. Man he sends it!  He did well on his first run with a Flip no hander to no footer, to double whip on the second box jump to a double whip on the quarter pipe. I had to do a Flip whip on the first to an opposite 360 lookback on the second to a double whip on the third to move on, and worked just as I wished. Lucky for me!
Third and last round was a triple battle!  Myself, Austin Coleman and T.J. Ellis. They are both from California and the crowd knew it too! They were going off for both of them, and you should know it is a big factor! Oh well, I was doing my runs over and over. It was the only way to get to the finals , so once I got there I knew I had to Flip whip on the first pretty solid, which would help me to step up on the second jump, and that’s what i did! I kept the flip whip on the first and sent a 720 on the second into a double whip on the quarter pipe! Austin and T.J. rode amazing with combos like Front flip no-hander followed by double whip to a double whip air for TJ but for my happiness; the judging was on my side!!!  And I ended that Thursday going back to the 1st place! 

Diogo had a blast at the event, loved the way it was put on, and ended up winning the whole thing. Other coverage of the prelims can be seen here, and the finals can be seen here. Instead of leaving the fairgrounds like many people do, with a stomach ache and a lot less money in their pockets, Diogo left with a huge smile on his face and a $5000 check. Not a bad way to spend a Thursday evening, but the best part of the week was still to come.

 Diogo hadn’t actually qualified to compete at the X Games, but was an alternate to be on stand by, should anyone get hurt. He wouldn’t have even gone to the event had it not been for the invite he received to compete at the ASA contest right down the road, in his own words, because he “didn’t want to be there waiting for one of his friends to get hurt.” While riding at the ASA event on Wednesday, Diogo was passed a note that said that because Mike Aitken would be sitting the event out due to a shoulder injury, Diogo was officially in.  

This is the part of the story that gets especially cool for me. You see, there are a lot of guys out there riding local parks and doing whatever it takes to convince their bros that they’re the coolest guy around and often times, part of being that coolest guy is telling others that they could care less about the X Games and that they wouldn’t go even if they were invited. Not Diogo. Diogo is just a cool, down to earth guy who will openly and honestly admit to anyone that it was always his dream to compete at the X Games. He grew up in Brazil and dreamed about being able to go to the US and to ride professionally and compete at the X Games and he has worked hard and made those dreams come true. Being able to have any part in helping make dreams a reality is what makes my job the second best job there is (second only to Diogo’s). Whoa! Sorry about that…

Since I keep rambling, and taking sappy detours along the way, I’m going to let Diogo describe his experience at the X Games.

Friday I was back on X Games and it was the Prelims Day!  I was having such a great week, for the reason that I had won a contest a day earlier and I got to ride X games. That was enough for me, and I’m sure I could express it on my riding, and when things are fun, things are easier! The result?  I made into the final in 3rd place! Daniel (Dhers) got first, Young (Gary) second, and I got Third! 
 
Saturday was the big day, Finals!  We were divided in two groups of  5 each to ride 10 minute jams, and the top 2 of each one, and the higher 3rd score would move on to the SUPER-FINAL!! Yeah! Things were not as simple as I thought!  I rode in the second group with Gary, Bohan, Chase and Denis Enerson!  Everyone had 4 30 second runs of and the best 3 counts, so you could waste one, and I did it on my first one of course! IDIOT! Well things were going under control. I got 2 pretty nice runs and my scores were up there, but on my last trick of my third run I got a flat tire. It didn’t mess up my score for that run, but I still would have to pull another clean run to make the cut into the SUPER-FINAL. There would be no time to fix my bike, so I tried Guettler’s bike, but he has smaller handlebars and pegs on the other side, I didn’t feel good at all! I asked for Bohan’s bike, and once I jumped on, I felt right at home! I never rode his bike before and the first thing I did was a down side whip transfer into the roller. I had no problem at all! I got my third run done and moved on in first place of my group!
 
Just 10 minutes after Super-Prelims was over, we had to drop in again and do the same thing and most likely step up on the riding!  Thanks to Jerry Badders, Ryan Nyquist, and Jim Bauer for fixing my bike during those 10 minutes!    

 Diogo and his BMX on the way to winning their first X Games medal together.

Well my bike was fixed, I was in the Super-Final, and I couldn’t be happier!  I thought about how lucky I was on that weekend, and everything came together!  I had the best time! NO worries, just ride, have fun and do things that I would be proud of when I watch it later!  

Ride a Diamondback, dream big, and drink lots of water kids. You’ll go places… 

Well you guys probably know how it finished and how happy I was! It is one of the reasons that we never stop riding! 

Wow! Congratulations Diogo and thanks for having us along!

If you didn’t catch the X Games on ESPN, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to see it throughout the year as it is replayed on Fuel TV, ESPN, MTV, and other networks as well. You can also see some footage from the SuperPark event right here on Ridebmx.com. If you’d like to get in line for one of the new BMX frames like the one Diogo rides, swing on in to your local Authorized Diamondback dealer. The frames are not available yet, but will be within a couple of months. Be sure to speak up now if you’d like one (by ordering one) because only a limited number of them will be brought in and the first ones we get will be sent to Diogo and his teammates so they can do more things like you just read about.

Thanks for stopping by everybody! Have a great week, Trevor

Today I come to you again like AM/PM, with too much good stuff. Two magazines to look over and to show you some great shots from (including a two-page spread), a brief follow up to a previous report from Dew Tour stop number (you got it) two, but we’ll kick things off with an update from a guy who is in a plane right now en route to Red Bull’s attempt number two at hosting their Empire of Dirt in the UK.That guy in the plane on his way to the UK I mentioned is Darin Read. In all fairness, Darin sent me the update below back on the 10^th and it’s been simmering in my inbox ever since. I’ll fill you in on a couple other things in a minute, but first let’s get to Darin’s own words on what he had on his mind on the 10^th.

Hello again, DR here. Well summer is good as always in the Northwest. Right now I’m in Oregon hanging with some of my best friends. It’s a good life down here; trails, best parks, and good people. I’m filming for Shola and the new NWC video. It’s all good check out Sholabmx.com for the new video trailer. On the 21st I’m off to England for the Empire of Dirt.com and after the contest I’m on a one week trip with Segmentclothing.com. It’s going to be sick. After that I will join the Diamondback team for Megatour.com; so good. Well that’s a lot of .COMS so enjoy everyone. Boosting out…..DR

This photo was obtained by Jeff Zielinski, Darin, and the “smaller crew” mentioned in the ramble I posted on our photo shoot trip to Phoenix a while back. After we cordially allowed a hot-tempered dad in a Buick to run us out of his neighborhood and away from this ditch, Jeff and Darin went back while the van sat hidden in another nearby neighborhood to get a couple more shots. This one was so good Ride Magazine used it for their table of contents spread in the August issue.

This shot of Diogo and harsh caption can also be found in the August issue of Ride next to their Disabled List. Diogo has definitely taken his share of falls.

Before I was even through enjoying the August issue of Ride, their September issue showed up, and it was even better than the one before it! There’s a great article within cleverly titled Raiding Arizona about the teams that have visited some of the many great riding spots in Arizona in the last 4 or 5 months (ours included). The article is a good read that is made even better with great shots like the two below. Ride’s new larger format is great for many reasons including the fact that each picture is now worth 1200 words instead of 1000, but the downside is that I can’t fit those big pages on my scanner. For that reason, my scans don’t give justice to the bigger format and great layouts they’re cranking out these days. You should definitely subscribe and get your own copy each month in order to see the whole pages and to take it more places than you can this computer.

Notice how subtle that wedge up to that bridge is? Darin hit that thing countless times for Jeff’s camera and his new BMX frame and Alienation wheels had no complaints.

This was another great shot Jeff took during our stay in Arizona. He wanted to hang on to it to use in the magazine and I’m glad he did. Sure, we ended up with two shots of Robbie doing foot-jams in our catalog, but that’s alright. This shot looks great in Ride too. This one was taken at the home of one of the nicest guys in the whole Southwest, Ray Tellez.

Speaking of Ride; be sure to check out their new website right here. It is very cool.

Last but not least, to update you on Nate’s performance in the Dirt Finals at the Cleveland Dew Tour I told you about last week, Nate had a great time, but ended up boggling up a bit and with his name beside the 11 when all was said and done. Congratulations though just the same to Nate as even making the final at an event like that is a huge accomplishment. I will look forward to seeing Nate compete in the next stop of the tour at the Wendy’s Invitational in Portland late next month and I will plan to raise a vanilla frosty to Nate for another great performance.

Thanks for stopping by everyone. I’ll keep you posted.

Trevor

Hang on to your keyboards kids, because I’ve got some news for you today. I’ll get things going with a report from the Cleveland Dew Tour stop I received last night, we’ll then move into some more good stuff I found in BMX Plus! magazine by going through their August issue, then we’ll wrap it up with some more good stuff I saw in BMX Plus! within the pages of the September issue that awaited me when I came in today.  

Nate Berkheimer Rocks Cleveland

So I was down the street from my house in flip-flops last night waiting for a couple of orders of chicken yakisoba carryout (because that’s what parents of young children who occasionally require 2 hours to get a meal in them do sometimes) when I got a call from Nate Berkheimer. Nate was calling to let me know how he did in the dirt prelims at the Right Guard Open in Cleveland last night. Nate is good that way. He always keeps me posted as to how he’s doing at events. Whether the news is great or otherwise, he’s still good for a call. Nate is obviously an extremely talented and versatile rider, but since he is primarily a BMX racer and was calling me to report how he had done at a pro dirt comp like the Dew Tour, I quickly prepared myself to be encouraging and supportive and to make sure he knew that we appreciate his efforts and hope he’s having fun, even if he didn’t make the finals at such an event.  

I didn’t end up needing to use any of the words I quickly prepared for Nate when I saw his name light up my phone. He jokingly told me that he went very fast and finished in 2^nd place. Even though I knew Nate had been riding at TJ Lavin’s place a lot and also listening to more hip-hop, I was so blown away by that report since his main focus (no pun intended) is the racetrack that I had to apologize for being so shocked that he had qualified 2^nd behind Corey Bohan and had scored higher than many of the best pros in the business (see picture below). Nate and the rest of the finalists will be competing coincidentally in the finals tonight in Cleveland at 7:30. If you’re any where near the area, I highly recommend you make your way down to the North Coast Harbor near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to take in the action first hand. If you won’t be able to see it live, check local TV listings. NBC will be televising coverage of the finals tomorrow and Sunday too and the USA network will do the same, but very early in the morning (which is more commonly known as late at night).

That two-headed dog on that banner is definitely a bit strange, but still isn’t as unexpected as Nate’s name next to the #2 up there. Sorry Nate and congratulations! Strange site for sure, but I could get used to it…

One of the names listed below Nate’s was that of teammate Diogo Canina. If you’ve seen Diogo ride, you know that he too is an amazingly talented rider. He does amazingly huge tricks, huge tech tricks, and he does many of them in both directions and all with amazing style. On top of all of that amazingness, he is a great guy - humble, grateful, interesting, friendly, and he possesses many other very favorable attributes too. Of all of the things I’ve learned about Diogo, there are really only 2 that can’t be listed with the favorable ones. It could just be a given for any Brazilian trying to drive a car in Greenville North Carolina, but I’ve heard Diogo could use some brushing up on his abilities behind the wheel. That will improve in time. The other is the fact that he sometimes crashes and crashes very hard. When you go as big as Diogo and you crash, bad things happen. Crashing was unfortunately part of one of Diogo’s runs in the prelims last night. He had an opposite double tailwhip go bad on him and that was that. An unfortunate landing in his second run lead to a low-speed ‘straight air’ which lead to his name beside that big 11 on the leader board when all was said and done.

I spoke with Diogo later in the night during a ride I took around town to have some fun, get some exercise, and to put some of that yakisoba to good use and he was in good spirits. He went down, but he wasn’t hurt and he said he had fun. That’s as good as a first place finish if you ask me. Sure; is doesn’t sell as many bikes, but it’s still a win. Evel Knievel said one time that you haven’t failed until you refuse to get back up and try again. Diogo fell, but he got back up and will be competing in the Park prelims this afternoon and I won’t be at all surprised to see him in the finals and on my TV this weekend. Have fun Diogo!

Good Stuff in August Issue of BMX Plus!

Okay - I’ll try to keep the rambling to a minimum here, but I know better than to make promises in that department. My first favorite page in the August issue of BMX Plus is the FSA ad of Robbie doing a big 180 gap high above his daughter and fiancé on the sidewalk below. I won’t get sappy, but that ad just warms my heart for many reasons.

My next favorite page is one that features Nate’s 2009 Reactor Pro in an “Inside the Pro’s Bikes Special”. You can see it here and read more about its bottom bracket here, but unfortunately; that bike is so new that we don’t even have it on this site yet. Hang in there though. It will be on the site by early next month and better yet, it’ll be available for sale by early September.

Reuel invented this wild move quite a while back and no one has done them like he does ever since. Reuel was (and apperently still is) always good for some zaniness at the trails.

The opening spread of the coverage of The Extreme Thing in Vegas, you’ll find the shot above of former DB Pro and dirt jumping legend Reuel Erickson still aboard his ‘07 Diamondback Accomplice. It’s been way too long since I’ve spoken with that guy or witnessed one of his superman decades, so it was great to see this. I hope you’re doing well and enjoying life Reuel.

Click on the image above to be taken to a zoomable pdf.

Now here’s where things start to get really fun. On page 56/57, you’ll find a shot of Darin Read’s old bike, a great sequence of him riding it, and also a chance to win it. That’s right, simply fill out the ballot (from an actual copy of the magazine that you bought) and get it to BMX Plus! by the 30^th and be entered to win Darin’s old Accomplice complete with Seahawk-inspired paintjob. Sure, you’ve probably seen video footage and pictures of Darin beating the crap out of that bike, but its still got a lot of life in it and would be a cool thing to have. Just don’t expect to get that old S&M Challenger stem or GT drop nose seat you see in the sequence. Darin was not about to part with those two discontinued classics.

Within the T shirt buyer’s guide, you’ll find a couple DB logo T’s, but unfortunately you won’t find them any where else. We will be making those kinds of things available in the future, but for now the only people who have them are our team riders so the only way you’d be able to get your hands on one is to talk one of our riders out of theirs. I would ask any of them except Nate since he’d be the one most likely to rip it off Hulkamania style by grabbing the neck and tearing in two.

Speaking of Nate’s hulk-like build and aggression; this shot can be found on page 78. The blue jeans don’t exactly scream ‘I mean business at the racetrack’, but the roost of dirt behind his back tire more than make up for it.

The last of my favorite pages in this issue is the same ad of Robbie and the new Sound Mag pedals I told you about being in the previous issue yesterday. Give it another look if you’d like right here. You might see something you didn’t notice before…

Good Stuff in September Issue of BMX Plus!

Let’s face it; BMX Plus! is just a great magazine. One of the criteria I use to determine how great a magazine is is to see how many of its pages have Diamondback bikes or riders on them, so their September issue is one of the best magazines I’ve ever seen. It’s got smaller random photos of Nate and his bike, but its also got some nice big stuff too. The first thing you’ll come to is our ‘09 catalog, filled with (you guessed it) our ‘09 bikes and products, and shots of our riders using them. This is another great example of why you need a subscription to BMX Plus if you don’t already have one. This is the only place you can find shots of and info on our ‘09 bikes at the moment. Those guys are so fast to get this info out to you that we don’t even have it up on our own site yet!

I can’t show you what’s inside it yet, but this is what the cover of our new catalog looks like.  

The next big thing you come to in the issue is this Tech Tip spread in which they show you how to catch and eliminate creaks in your bike by doing some much-needed work to Darin’s old bike that you could win if you fill that ballot I told you about out and send it to them by the 30^th. You’ve got to love the guys at BMX Plus! they’ve not only provided you a way to win Darin’s old bike, but they also tuned it up for you.

Later in the issue, you’ll find a “Road to Sponsorship” article that I contributed to. If you haven’t read enough of my rambling yet today, click here to be taken to a piece of that article.

But wait; there’s more! This issue also has a test of our ‘08 Joker, which is pretty much the best entry-level freestyle bike available and especially considering the fact that it costs a mere 200ish dollars. See what they thought about it here and find one at your local dealer by looking right here.

Last, but certainly not least is the new ad for our new simple and basic frame with an equally simple and basic name. We simply call it the “BMX” because that’s what it’s all about. Five pounds of no nonsense double-butted heat-treated chromoly BMX goodness with an internal headset, mid BB, and removable detangler tabs. Now you see why Darin was willing to hand over his old bike. That’s Darin laying over his new bike in the ad. Hey look, there’s that old Challenger stem and drop-nose seat I told you he’d never get rid of…

If you’re still reading this, thank you very much for stopping by and for looking at magazines with me today.  Whoa, this just in. I just called Diogo to see if I could add an update to this as to how he did in the Park prelims today. This is how he summed it up, “I crashed”. He then explained that he tried an opposite 720 that “didn’t work”. He was not hurt, was very hot, and was about to watch Nate in the dirt finals. I’ll let you know how he did early next week if you don’t catch it on TV. In the meantime, support those who support the sport and drink lots of Mountain Dew and use lots of Right Guard deodorant. You’ll be jittery as all get out, but at least you’ll smell good.

Thanks again for stopping by, Trevor

Unless you’ve been locked up or you’ve had your head stuck in a staircase like this kid since early June, you’ve probably seen the July issue of BMX Plus! by now. Whether you have or have not, I’d like to show you some of my favorite pages from that issue.

Pages 36 and 37 are a Tech Tip feature in which the “poor mechanic” shows you how to put our Accomplice on a diet without spending much money. They are able to shed over 3 pounds off of the bike for a mere $50 and best of all; they kept it off! It’s a good read with great tips for people with any bike they’d like to take some weight off of. Click on the image above to be taken to a pdf of the spread.

Page 54 (see ↑?) has this shot of Darin Read on his new BMX laying it down at Heath Pinter’s Saint Patrick’s Day Jam.

Our Varsity Team gloves are featured in their “Trick Stuff” department. Not only does the feature list the many great features (that’ll be the last mention of the word “feature” in this post - I promise), but it also offers you with an opportunity to win yourself 5 American dollars. Hey; don’t scoff. That’s enough to buy a gallon of gas!

My last favorite page in the issue is the DB ad on the back inside cover. The ad is for our new Sound Mag pedals and for further inspiration, also has a shot of Robbie Wright doing a foot jam for the camera of Jeff Zielinski during our catalog photo shoot in Phoenix earlier this year. If you haven’t yet seen the new Sound Mag pedals, track some down at your local Diamondback dealer. You will find that they are not only very nice and light, but also very affordable.

I hope you enjoyed the July issue of BMX Plus! as much as I did. If you feel like you may not have; stay tuned. The August issue is even better…

Thanks for stopping by, Trevor

Hey Everybody,

Trevor here with a couple of aging updates from Mr. Canina. After some sporadic updates from Diogo and the rest of the team, I blasted them with a pretty serious e-mail written in my best boss voice stressing the importance of sending in updates on a regular basis so this site can be updated on a regular basis and by people with more going on of interest than a desk jockey like myself. Well, as with most other times when I point one finger at others, I had 3 more pointing back at me and that happens to be the approximate number of riders who have sent in updates that I have yet to get around to posting. My fault completely.  Hence the foreshadowing you’ll see below. Anyway. Sorry for the delay.

Despite the fact that the 1st update below is more than 2 months old now, it’s still good stuff. Diogo discusses everything from his anticipation for the current contest season to his newly found love for economics. Aside from a little bit of spell/grammar-checking, I have left his words in the ‘Portugenglish’ that he sent me to pass them along in their purest form. I even left the much-deserved jab he took at me for nagging for updates, but not being able to post them in a timely manner. Point taken Diogo.

Enjoy and thanks for stopping by, Trevor

From May 11
Hey guys!!!
 
Well, just got back from Brazil last Wednesday, and got pretty excited with the weather over here, summer is officially down the corner and I can’t wait for it! In Brazil I had a blast. I had for the last 2 weeks two guests staying with me at my place in Brazil, Walter Pieringer and Brad Simms! It was pretty cool. We got to go to awesome places that it’s always so close to me but I guess for that reason I never really get to go, like Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro and others places. Plus I got the chance to use Walter Pieringer skills to shoot some actions in my local spots. The shots ended up being great, and you guys will be able to see all of those on my news adds and on a little Bio that I’m going to have on Ride UK anytime soon. Now that everything is back to the “normal” I will make sure to keep myself as busy as I can, ride my bike and get ready for the summer. Couples trips schedule to Europe and plus all the dew tour series! I guess you should go get ready as well!  

This 360 lookback is one of the many great shots that Walter took of Diogo during their time together in Brazil.

From June 8
Here goes Trevor!! 
 
Hey I was just checking the web site and the last update that I sent to you you never posted! Hahahahha! I even told you once and that but and you wrote to me that you had two other ones and you were going to spread out a little bit between the posts…  I don’t mind, just saying because i noticed… Was about the trip in Brazil!
 
 
Summer guys!! 
 
I don’t think summer is officially on, but definitively the heat is here!  But come on…  lets just not complain right now, because during the whole winter its all we can ask for, some heat!!!
 
It was pretty mellow the last couple weeks, pretty much just riding a bunch and saving energy for the up and coming events! Of course you can’t ride your bike the whole day and how I don’t have a real job I gotta manage things to do during the day to make it more interesting…  Waking up at noon its old school for me, it’s not really cool and fun anymore. For the last months I have been reading a lot about economics and I got super into it. Not as much as on my bike but its definitely something that I can see myself doing down the road, and I have a project going on on learning Germany which takes a lot of my free time as well, plus in 15 days I’m heading to Germany for Master BMX Games! I cant even tell you how excited I am, being in German for the first time, get to ride my Bike with all my friends and maybe (probably) get to realize that I don’t know nothing in Deutsch yet! But before all that I’m still going to head to Baltimore for the First Dew Tour stop, which I’m already pre-qualified and I have a seat to see riders fighting for a spot on the tour! It will be hard and interesting and I’m sure you guys will be following it! So i hope you guys are ready because the summer is on!

Diogo

Hey y’all,

I have been riding a lot lately! I house sitted my friend Bubba’s house all last week. He has a mini ramp in his backyard. 6′3″ quarters with a 6′ spine, absolutely love it! Riding East Hill a lot and Fenwick as well and going bigger everyday. One of my friends got his bike stolen from Lake Meridian the other day. If you see a silver 2006 Diamondback Accomplice around the Kent area with a dent in the down tube and one in the chainstay from the crank arm nailing it, write me on my myspace page as soon as possible. Oh and 2008 FENWICK JAM is on august 10th at noon til you leave! Be there or be square!

Robbie Wright

If you’re in Western Washington and you ever need someone to keep an eye on your ramps, Robbie’s your man. He’ll either be riding them or sleeping on one of them.

Hey everybody and Happy Thursday to you,

I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying life. I’m taking another shot at the buzzer here before I scramble back out the door today, but I wanted to share a quick little report on how Diogo and Nate did at the 1^st stop of the AST Dew Tour last weekend in Baltimore before this news gets any older. They both rode away with wins (in my opinion) since they had a great time and neither of them got hurt too bad.

Nate took some envy-provoked flack from a few other competitors for being a “racer”, but proceeded to put on quite a show and missed the top 10 cut into the finals by only 3 places after a run-ending whip to crash on the first set. Nate had a great time and was the only rider flipping down the step-down gapper into the course, (during qualifying at least). Because the multi-talented Nate is also talented with the multi media, he had one of his fans film his runs and he put together a short video of both of his qualifying runs. Nate took what I call ‘indecent creative liberties’ with our “Diamond” logo, but aside from that, the video looks great and the riding is very impressive (especially for a “racer”). To see it, click on the picture of Nate’s actual driver’s license below, or the embedded video below that.

Nate Berkheimer - Panasonic Open 08 from nate berkheimer on Vimeo.

Diogo also rode very well in his first major contest since being injured, well, throughout much of the last year or so (read more on that topic if you’d like here or here). He had a great time throwing flips and whips and all kinds of opposite zaniness and ended up not only in the finals, but one step away from the podium in 4^th place. I know you swing for the fences and want to win Diogo, but congrats on that finish! Much better coverage of the whole event and footage of Diogo’s finals performance and that of the others who qualified can be found right here on Ridebmx.com.   

That’s all I’ve got for now. Have fun everybody and be sure to support those who support the sport by drinking a lot of Mountain Dew this week!

Thanks for stopping by, Trevor 

Hi everybody,

Sorry for the delay here. I have been far busier than I ever should be, but there really isn’t a good excuse to leave all of you hanging for as long as I have (hence the apology).

For the sake of my time and your enjoyment, I’m going to break tradition with this post and make an effort not to ramble on. There are just two things I’d like to bring to your attention today.

One is a tribute to Stephen Murray that is taking place in Baltimore MD this evening in the very arena and at the same event that Stephen went down at last year that resulted in very serious injuries. Stephen has always been one to “Stay Strong”, and he remains doing so today and is at that event right now staying strong in support of his fellow riders. He was always a rider with abilities and tricks that left many people scratching their heads. Since the incident that took place last year, many have been bowing their heads for Stephen and tonight the action sports community is also tipping it’s hat to Stephen in Baltimore with the showing of a video to a song that TJ Lavin and Simon Tabron’s wife (Pippa) wrote for Stephen. Click here to view the video yourself. You can see by the names in the credits that the BMX community still stands united for Stephen. That said; support is still needed and can be provided via the myspace site right here.

                                                                 Soldier

Written By: TJ Lavin & Pippa Tabron
Vocals by: TJ Lavin
Chorus: Written & Recorded By: Pippa Tabron
Featuring Cory “Nasty” Nastazio
Guitar Written & Played By: Simon Tabron
*Rodeostar Records

Presale CD on: http://www.bestbuy.com/
http://www.lavslab.com/
www.myspace.com/murraystrong

In other news. DB pros Nate Berkheimer and Diogo Canina are both at the 1^st stop of the (Dew) Action Sports Tour tonight in Baltimore. Nate missed qualifying for tonight’s main event, but not by much. He did take some undeserved flack from other competitors who told him “he’s pretty far from the race track”, but that didn’t stop him from putting on quite a show and being the only rider there to flip down the step-down style roll-in. Nate is in good spirits and is filming Diogo tonight who did make the finals and is guaranteed to give the fans a great show. I should have that footage soon and will post it when I see it (honest).

Diogo can also be seen in an interview within the pages of the latest (July) issue of Ride UK. A crappy scan of the opening page of the interview can be seen right here. You’ll want to see the amazing photography by Walter Pieringer and read the rest of the interview so be sure to track down a copy.

That’s all for now. Have a great night and weekend everybody. I guess I’ll have to try harder not to ramble next time…

Thanks for stopping by, Trevor

Mike “Hurricane” Hammond that is…

Welcome race fans!

Mike is so fast that he’s already been home for almost a week, but here is an update and recap on his racing experience last week at the UCI Worlds in China.  

Hi all, I am back from the UCI World Championships in Taiyuan, China.
 
The trip was awesome! The track was long and very challenging.
 
Race re-cap: We had 21 riders in the 30+ Men’s group. My moto shaped up nicely with 2 other Americans that had made the main last year and a super fast Frenchy. I was very nervous before the first moto but transferred out to the semi with out a problem.
 
The Semi was by far my best race! Check the video (I have the blue rims). I was leading into the first turn but big Tony Flemming from the UK passed me in the inside and I just followed him from there on. I got 2nd but you only need to get top 4 to make the final.
 
The main was next and I was feeling real good after the semi but when I left the stands to get ready for the main my bike had a rear flat. WHAT?! I rushed to change it with a new tube from Pete D (thanks again Pete), but whatever gave me the flat was still in the tire because it flatted again. Before you say anything I checked the tire to make sure it was clean and the object was in the sidewall where I could not feel it. I then borrowed a wheel from some one (thanks to whoever you were!). I got into staging just before they called us to the top of the hill. I was really trying to bring back a podium finish and all looked good going into the first turn as I was in 3rd. But a few mistakes made by me and few made by some other racers left me with a 7th.
 
I would like to thank FSA and Alienation for supplying me with the best parts available!
 
See you next year in Australia!
 
Hammond

Video provided by DB’s multi-talented multimedia wizard Gene James.

Gene is going to put together a video of Mike’s main here in the very near future and it will be displayed below.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend, Trevor 

UCI BMX World Championships 30+ Men Semi from Mike Hammond on Vimeo.

Hey everybody. Robbie here reporting about the last month. A bit of riding going on. I’ve been spending a lot of time up at the East Hill park in Kent, finding new lines and always trying to go bigger! I don’t know if you guys have, but I made a stop at the new Greenlake skatepark in Seattle, and basically; it is dialed. I strongly recommend the trip there if you haven’t yet!! The two bowls are amazing. One with pool coping, the other with normal coping and hips galore. Also a pretty chill clam shell capsule bowl thing a ling thing. Go there and ride your bikes!
 
Robbie Wright

Diamondback product manager Mike Hammond is in Taiyuan China to compete in the 2008 UCI BMX World Championships. Mike and former DB product manager and friend Scott Matual are over there representing the US and the NW by competing in the 30 and over men’s class.

Below are some first impressions Mike sent us a yesterday (in China time).
Recent reports back via text messages state that Mike got a 7th in the main out of 22 guys (which is worth writing home about) on the first day of racing and that he’ll be sending more reports soon and perhaps even some video. No word yet on what order “The Natural” crossed the line. Stay tuned and enjoy Mike’s initial report for now…

Thanks, Trevor 

Today was the second day for amateur practice. The track is AWESOME! It begins out with a big starting hill to a set of 20ft plus doubles to a step up-step down then a real big set of doubles that end in the first turn. The second straight has the pro section on the left which is a double - roller - big double - low long double to step double into the second turn. The am side of the second straight is a table - double -bigger double - even bigger double to the same step double into the second turn. The pros were jumping the whole thing into the second turn which was rad to watch. The 3rd straight is where it gets real interesting. It is a rhythm that has a few different ways to take it… Layout is 3 rollers to step up - double - double - 6 more rollers into the last turn. Last straight has a roller to table to double -double - roller then the finish line. Yes, this track has a lot of jumps.

The dirt in the air was real bad on day one of practice but nice today. The wind is a factor as most people were jumping the first double yesterday but today many people switched to pulling up before it. The doubles into the first turn saw very few people jumping as the head wind was pretty bad. I cased it pretty good but at least I went for it.

Here is a shot Mike sent of the big sign next to the track and the flags of all of the countries represented at the event. The US flag wasn’t up there while this shot was taken because Mike wanted to take a few laps with it to advise his competition to ‘recinize’. Well, maybe…

This is a shot of the starting hill that helps the riders get going toward what you see below…

Being from the NW, the faux grass looks a bit silly and out of place to me, but what a beautiful site! Well done guys! That track looks amazing! Smooth, fast, and fun…

This is a shot of Jason Silva (Masters Class Racer for Action Sports Depot), Dollar (yes; his name is Dollar and despite that his value is holding strong and he’s a super nice guy from one of our crank suppliers), and Mike.

Here’s a shot Mike took of the Great Wall of China. You can read more about that if you’d like to right here.

Stay tuned everybody and thanks for stopping by, Trevor