We are also going to turn this trip into a two hour special that will air in April on ESPN2. We've got Stew Johnson, Bryan Baxter, Ryan Young and the producer of my game, Brian Bright, here shooting DV, 16mm and super8. This show is going to be produced CFB style where we (the bikers) produce, organize, film, host, star and edit the show, so it's a pure interpretation of our sport to you. It's all about doing it ourselves how we want to, so look for that 'cause it's going to be a good one. We also have Losey on the rip covering it for Ride, so you guys will see all kinds of angles of this tour. It's going to be a great tour, all on our terms and all about riding with some of the best riders representing it the way it should be.
The riders in the new game are me, Thorne, Kevin Robinson, Mike Escamilla (Rooftop), Butcher, Cory Nastazio, Seth Kimbrough, Rueben Alacantara, Nate Wessel, Simon Tabron and Kagy. Right now we've got the whole posse on the road with us except Simon and Kagy. They are nursing injuries so they are meeting up with us later in the trip.
This tour is ruling. The theme of the tour is "Where do you want to go today?". We started in Chicago, so we went to Challenge Park Extreme in the afternoon. We showed up unannounced, and got to hang out and have a mellow session with the locals. Later that evening we headed to SCRAP. Word must travel fast in Chicago. When we arrived the park was packed! The last time I'd been to SCRAP was something like 8 yrs ago. Everybody headed out to the park course and started ripping it up. When I wasn't riding I would just sit on the deck drooling on myself with my jaw on the ground. Butcher, Seth, Nate, Rueben were wrecking and redefining the park set up. Nasty was flowing the rhythm section and busting out 360 tailwhips and went huge with style to spare of the box. Kevin was doing no handed 360's and no handed flips over the box like he was just warming up. There was a nice launcer to a wall that I had to crank at a few times. It had been a while since I found a set-up to hit a wall ride like that. It made me smile for a few hours.
The street session continued, and Kevin and I rolled over to the vert ramp. The vert was a 10 foot tranny with a foot of vert. Most ramps lately are about 12 with 2, so it felt like a little toy ramp. It was super fun. I hadn't ridden a ramp like this for about 4 years. Kevin warmed up with a flair he threw down his first run. (Whatever…) He then went for a no handed flair and slid out and about took out ½ the crowd. He got back up and went for it again, this time pulling it perfect. Jimmy Walker rolled in and blasted. Every time I watch Jimmy ride he impresses the hell out of me. Back-to-back variations and just ruling the ramp with his super pump, lofting himself 12+ feet out of the ramp. I was getting pretty warmed up, so I did a flair, but for some reason tweaked my wrist on landing. I pulled it, but my wrist just went limp when I flew out. I waited to see it was going to be one of those "ten minute wrist tweaked", but it wouldn't let me hold onto my grips anymore, so I had to call it quits a little early.
Tomorrow we have a few ideas that we may do, so we'll get up tomorrow and figure it out.
Over and out.
-Mat
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