Still Day 6, 3 posts later!! Ha

After the Davenport ditch, we headed down the coast a few minutes to Panther beach. We hiked out way out to this super crazy walkway over a natural arch. Took some pics and then hiked down to the beach to go under it. What can I say besides it was beautiful.

Dan stayed up top while we hiked down, we were always waiting for him while he talked/txted away to his GF... Hahahahahaaaa!!!

This walkway over the arch was actually scary to walk on. Call me Joe Lussier but momma whipped up some pussy pot pie on that walk.

Sam was looking super american in this pic. The ocean is just few steps through that arch, simply amazing.

We saw these and quickly pulled a classic U-turn, one of a few thousand on this trip.  Dan was psyched on the leather shop full of Nazi and other racist messed up stuff.  "Please do not sit on art"  "Long hair don't care!" We did it live.  Stops like this were just about every half hour on this trip!!

We ended the day with a Sunset on the Pacific in San Simeon (JG where were you?) Got some sweeet mexican food and then it was all hot tub and pool and hotel living. In the hotel pool Joe tried to body surf using a slippery when wet sign by running and jumping into the pool, well, without the sign there to warn him, he slipped and fell into the water pretty hard, it was awesomely funny.  Piso Mijado.

Davenport again, why not?

This place was so much fun I had to post a few more and tell the story. Henny sent me an email with some coordinates to the spot. You can't see the Davenport ditch from the road but it is easily 100 feet off the road up a small path. Our bikes are in bike bags all apart in the Van so once we parked across the street in a small pull off spot, the guys were like "Should we pro-walk it or just build em and go?" I was already half done building my bike in the excitement of riding here for the first time! So they all followed and built bikes, grabbed the camera stuff and made way to the spot. At first sight it was dissapointment from the guys. The ditch was completely full of water, prolly 2 feet deep. I got the brunt of the jokes, "Good thing we built our bikes... Way to go, glad we didn't walk it first..." and so on. I started riding around the very wet and slippery out side edges. Then Dan was hitting the small spine on the back side and everyone settled on staying for a bit. Once a Dan and I rode around, Sam and Joe started trying it out. We had such a blast laughing about how slippery it was and just trying to ride along the edges and not slide out and fall in... It was so fun watching each other just ride such a simple thing. I am so happy that i was hell bent on riding this place cause had we walked it first, we would turned back towards the road and missed out on a few amazing hours...

Sometimes the most epic spots are on the outer edges of the most epic spots.

Joe landed this one, the downside pic is so good but I can show it cause Joe asked me not to and Dan will never let me forget it even if I made it clear that a foot never made it to the pedal, so thanks for that guys, one of the best pics I have ever taken I will just throw away.... Or maybe make a huge poster of it later!!

Dan did this gap, hop on to the ledge and then hop off to the quarter. It was seriously so crazy because of what you had to do to get to that ledge. Awesomeness.

DG style old man tabley top. Classic me, love it!!

Day 6, SANTA CRUZ!

Santa Cruz, one of the places I was looking forward to most. We checked out a few parks and then decided to head back up the coast about 20 minutes to to Davenport to ride. The Davenport ditch is just off PCH kinda in the middle of nowhere. It was early morning and the spot was full of water.. We rode the outer edge which was still so fun to ride.... It was wet, spray painted, concrete surrounded by beach sand. Lets just say it was slippery. Also one of the most fun spots to ride ever, if I had two days there I surely would have spent a day draining it and an entire day riding.

Dan smithed this ledge, the smith was easy, not sliding out while riding the sidewalls up to it was the hard part. I was scared just riding along it, too much pressure on one pedal and the bike flys out from underneath you and you slide into the water....

Sam smithed it from the other side, little easier run up, but then a scary run out trying to not end up on your ass in 2 feet of water.

Joe barred this thing, also hop-whipped and almost downside whipped it, I have a sweet downside whip pic but he never got his one foot back on the pedal so I don't want to pull a Chuck via Sam Jones and post a not landed trick pic.

Amazing place to ride, just looking out while your hanging out there is awesome. You can see how wet the place is in this pic.

I like this pic too from Joes camera. Pretty sweet. We spent about 3 hours here just riding and hanging out, then it was back towards Santa Cruz for some sweeet coastal spots coming up in the next post.

San Fran, Day 5

After an epic day in the Redwood forest, it was a few hours down the coast line to San Francisco. I was excited to see this city, I have been to California prolly 20 times and never been to San Fran. We drove around the city for a few hours, Seeing all the sites, roads are so crazy I can't imagine living in the city with a car and having to park on those sideways streets.

I Made everyone take group photos in every place went, no one looks like they want to do this shit and that makes it way more fun for me, hahahaha.

The Golden gate bridge, prolly the most famous bridge in the world, maybe second to the Brooklyn bridge? Any way you wanna see it,it is sweet. We spend a good amount of time walking around the different places to view the bridge and the city.

After the bridge, we drove through the city up and down the roads and onto Lombard St. The famous crooked street, crazy to see so many people walking around and driving down this one street. We drove through China town and saw one million asian people and store after store of full cooked ducks hanging in the windows, went to the Full House house, and then off to the skatepark in Oakland just over the Bay bridge from San Fran.

This park was fun, mostly cause of the views....

Dan gapped from the curved quarter over where he is sitting to the downside, it was pretty sweet!!

Dan, mid gap.

Joe had some dialed tricks out of this bowl. We packed up the bikes after riding here for about 2 hours and got back on PCH to go look at more amazing coastline until it was too dark to see, hotel, mexican food, hot tub, repeat on Day 6!!

Chandelier Tree, Day 4

What is a trip to the Redwood forest without driving through a tree. The Joke of the day was telling people back home,"Dude, we drove into a tree. AND SURVIVED!" Joe's lack of humor had him belting that out every few seconds in between apologies... We drove through this thing like 3 times cause why not? Shit is fun, plus we made Joe get out to take pics so we had to go through again so Joe could drive through a tree.

The Redwood Forest, Day 4

The Avenue of the giants.
One of best friends I have ever had is Eric Hennessey, before he traveled all over the country, I had been to quite a few places. I would come home and tell him how cool it was to see the painted desert, or Joshua tree, or the Grand Canyon, ect. Then he went on a trip to the west coast and saw the Redwood forest. From then on everything he saw was trumped by the redwoods, nothing compares, so I was set on seeing them for myself. Well, it did not disappoint. The Avenue of the Giants is a 31 mile stretch of old Rt 101 that winds in and out of the biggest trees on our planet. How long does it take to drive a van 31 miles you ask? It took us 7 1/2 hours. I got us up at 7am once again and we were half hour away from the park entrance, it was dark when we were leaving the park.

Joe looking up and realizing you can't really see the tops of the trees cause they blend together like staring down a straight road that disappears into the horizon.

Dan venturing across a totally safe walking tree... it'll hold!!!

Joe got right to the edge of this, I was yelling at him total old man status, "Hey, get down from there sonny, your goona git yourself kilt." I always feel like such an asshole after yelling at my friends when I think they might soon die because they make the stupid decision to get a closer look. Why isn't one foot from the edge of the unstable rotted wooden plank good enough?

Originally we were gonna film an edit of the trip, I'll tell you why we aren't later in another post, but at this point, we talked Dan into doing this gap for a Redwood forest clip!! Ever seen one of those? Well, we had to build his bike and get the camera stuff out, so I started building the bike, then it started raining, so Joe took over, I got the camera stuff ready. Dan was pacing back and forth looking at the now wet road and where he wanted to slide across it once he landed. Joe never really finished what I started so Dan did the gap with his pedals on by 1 thread. Dan also picked the right spot, cause as soon as he hit the pavement, he blew off his bike and slid across it. All in all, the first clip of the trip was done and done!!

This was a downed tree just off the side of the road, we all took the same pic in it.

This is us all running towards the camera and tripod that I placed in the middle of the road so we could get a group pic, we had to be like 100 feet away to get us and the trees in it. The camera took pics every few seconds and then a car came so we took off running to save the cam. Clearly Joe would win any foot race if his camera is on the line.

Here I am after venturing down this stream for a few... At one point we had to cross it and I took a different route. It looked good, much like one of those traps in the Predator movie where you dig a hole, cover it with sticks and leaves and then when you walk on it, you fall to your death. Well, I didn't die, but I did fall through and go knee deep in some cold spring water. I swear it looked like it was nice strong ground. We all got a good laugh out of it.

Oregon Coast, driving down PCH, day 3

We took the 101 from Portland into Cali, it took 8 1/2 hours to do a 5 hour drive but we stopped to see anything and everything we thought was interesting. Honestly the most amazing coast line I have ever seen in my life and I have been a place or 3. Here's some of the 2001 pics we took on Day 3.

Day 2, Portland OR

On any trip, someone has to be the guy who is the motivator to get the rest of crew up and out the door, that guy was me. I told them I didn't care what we did all day, how many places they wanted to stop, or how much time was spent at each place as long as we rushed out the hotels in the morning and didn't waste time getting going. So 7am Day 1 I was on top of it, getting them up and out the door by 8.

Burnside at 8am in Portland in January. Little cold, but it wasn't raining so thats a major plus!! We rode Burnside for about 2 hours, you def have to be a shredder to hit that place, lots of speed needed and prolly an extra set of balls helps. Still so cool to see one of the most famous do it yourself parks in the world.

After Burnside it was up the road ten minutes to Pier Park. This place was sweet!! It had a huge bowl, smaller bowl and a decent street section that Joe and Sam Killed. Dan played with a dog most of the time here but it was a super cool dog so thats whats up. We also sat and watched two bald eagles sore overhead for a few. It was awesome to see that.

From Pier Park it was another ten minutes down the highway to Tigard park. This park was pretty nuts. If any of you remember the Ride cover with Nutter doing a handplant over the dinosaur, actually going to this park makes that so much crazier. We rode here for a bit and headed back over to Goods to say thanks to Shad and then it was time to drive into the night to the Oregon coast.

Danielson to Boston to Portland. Day 1

The usual pre-trip rush, Day 1, for me that means making sure everything in the shop is ready to go for a smooth running couple weeks without me. Everything in its place, everything clean and organized, and notes posted everywhere for justin, a little trick I inherited from my mom. All packed up and it was off to Boston, we barely fit 4 bike bags and our personal bags into the car but we managed. 6am flight meant a 2am departure from Danielson to Boston. Met up with Mike Hucker Clark and kelly Bolton at the airport, the argument they had with United to get their bikes on the plane made it easy for us to get ours on without being charged. Super cool dudes, they gave us some sweet spots to check out later on our trip.

Off the plane in Portland, got into the van, and headed over to Goods BMX shop, Shad Johnson gave us the scoop on where to go, We met Caleb at Goods and he told us about the Lumberyard and what to see in the time we had there, so we took their advice and hit up a Burger place right down the street, then booked our hotel and ralaxed a bit before headin out to The Lumber Yard. An indoor Mnt. bike park with a full bar and BBQ restaurant. We rode there for about 4 hours and then it was back to the Hot tub!!! Thanks to Shad for being so awesome giving us places to go while in the area for such a short time.

The Lumber yard.


Caleb at the Lumberyard

The TRIP

Every year, for the past ten years, I have done a road trip with the shop guys. It was my way of saying thank you to the guys who are here helping me do shop shit all year long. The trips have evolved from a 4 day weekend trip in two cars, to a ten day trip in an RV with all the shop guys and a few friends, and the last 4 years have been the 8 shop guys and a Suburban on a week long trip to Louisville or Florida. This past year was a year of change, the shop guys shifted around, a few went away, a few new faces came in, I was busy with the shop at the normal time to go on our annual trip around Halloween, so I decided to plan something a little different.
I take a great deal of joy in bringing the guys to places they have never been, halfway across the country, riding places they only have seen in videos and magazines, meeting people they have only seen in videos and magazines, seeing that BMX is so amazing and universal in that friends are easily made just by having a kids bike under you.
This time I got a bit selfish and wanted to do BMX only trip and fly to a destination and then drive around and fly home. I could never have done it without Justin, My one shop skateboarder, he hung back and ran the shop making it possible for me to leave. I had room for 3 other passengers on the trip so the hardest part of the plan was to pick who i was not bringing. After looking at jobs, school, girlfriends, and wives, and who has been coming around to ride and hang out, it was clear. Also I wanted to bring a few guys who have never experienced the BMX roadtrip, and then there is Dan, I dont ever want to go on a trip without Dan, so he was an obv. choice. I asked Dan, and my two newest shop guys, Joe lussier and Sam Jones. I called them all and asked them if they would want to fly into Portland Or, drive down the entire west coast, then over to Vegas, to Pheonix and finally end in Austin. 3 weeks, 4 guys, 1 rented van, and they all said YES! The trip I have always wanted was a go.

These next posts are a day by day of the trip, more for me than anyone else, but if you choose to check em out, I hope it makes you want to get out, and go explore, and take some people with you that wouldn't go on their own...

I was this happy the entire three weeks!!!

Justin's post

UPDATE: THIS IS THE UPDATE. Justin is running the shop, thats me. You want deals, you got 'em. I'll hook a brother up. Come on in stunters!!!!

West coastin

We out here!!!! We have so many photos, I'm gonna try and get me up ASAP. Shop has new beanies in stock, only 12 bucks!!! Please go see Justin Koziol at the shop and get some sweeeeeet DG gear!!! New Animal pedals are in stock, go check those things out!!