(Photo: Aaron Zwaal)

I have been getting a ton of questions in the old inbox lately. Some aren’t worthy of a full post. Here are 4 that people want answered but that didn’t deserve their own posts.

How do you pronounce “Stijn Staal?”

It rhymes with Pine Sol. That’s all you need to know.

These days it looks like the top pros run pegs and mainly do peg tricks, do you think pegless riders fear this and feel the need to throw on some pegs to stay on top in the bmx game. example: would AK be where he is without throwing on some pegs?

I’ve definitely seen dudes who seem to have started riding pegs even though I suspect they don’t really want to, since that’s pretty much where people are at in terms of what’s popular right now. But I don’t really think it’s that big a deal. A lot of dudes are into grinding right now but there are plenty of pros who don’t ride pegs and even more who have pegs but use them sparingly. Plus it seems like a giant percentage of the popular skatepark riders are pegless. I’d say there is a pretty healthy mix of different styles, pegs or no pegs.

Would AK be where he is without pegs? I don’t know. I don’t think pegs are what makes Alex such an awesome rider. Sure, almost everything he does is peg based. But if he were, for some reason, forced to do jumping tricks, manuals, nose manuals and various pegless grinds I’m sure he’s still be an equally interesting rider, although obviously he’s a dude whose style matches up well with pegs.

Yo, who would win in a fight between Gabe Brooks and Brad Simms? Whats your opinion?

Gabe. Gabe’s got the Muay Thai background, the height/size advantage and probably the experience. Brad is a hardass but I’m putting my money on Mr. Brooks.

this video went HAM! it was clear and had alot of bangers…. most of my videos do… so y dont u guys ever drop’em in the Top Posts this Week section… sometimes theres alot of junk likeday in the lifes or whatever… just sayin. That Dave Mohoney and Matt Leviege edit was hammer

Matt, I’m not sure if you know this, but writing in to a website asking why your video wasn’t given the credit it deserved is WEIRD. Like, really weird. I haven’t watched your edit but I’m going to right now, give me a second.

Okay, so I admit, there was some really good riding in that edit. But was it top 10 for the week? Maybe not. Maybe it is. I don’t know. I don’t make those top 10 lists. The dude who filmed the edit in question, Brett, who also works for The Come Up, does. So maybe you should hit him up directly about this kind of thing. Instead of emailing me repeatedly about it. However there are a few obvious things you could fix, if you really want to get your edit on those top 10 lists. Does anyone seriously think that being on those lists is a big deal?

First, your video was on the Ride player. People hate the Ride player. They are statistically much, much less likely to watch a video if it’s on the Ride player. I don’t really hate the player that much, but from looking at TCU’s statistics it’s obvious that a ton of people skip over videos just because they aren’t on Vimeo or Youtube. And even if they do click the play button, there’s a pre-roll ad, which also causes a fair number of people to turn the video off. So you’re already starting off with a bunch of cards against you here.

Second, most boring song ever. I know the songs have to be cleared. But still.

Third, there were a couple of crazy enders in this video but for the most part, the riding wasn’t exactly spectacular throughout. There’s no doubt in my mind that a lot of this stuff is hard. But it’s pretty far off from what kids are actually into these days. Some of the stationary peg stall stuff reminds me of Hans “No Way” Rhey. Which could be seen as either a good thing or a bad thing, but in this case I’m going to go with the latter.

Fourth, Dave Mahoney filming in light blue mesh shorts with knee pads is probably going to cause most people to turn your video off and possibly throw their computer out the window, so keep that in mind.

I’m a fan of your riding. I remember seeing you ride the first Bone Deth jam back in 2005 or so. I’ve always posted your edits and enjoyed them. But you may be suffering from an inflated sense of self worth and that’s not a good look.

Finally, your video came out Monday. It is currently Saturday. Those top 10 lists are made every Sunday. I’m sure you can see how this is an important fact to take note of here.