No, no, no. I don't mean it like that! I mean he's been hot on his bike of course and has finished respectively in the top 3 spots in the past few X Games. It looks like he's heading full steam into X Games 14 and is ready for the first ever "Real Street" to take place in LA. My top pick for the Brazilian X Games was Garrett Reynolds (which he won), but when it comes to X Games 14, I'm think Aaron Ross might pull of the underdog and clinch gold. Either way, Aaron's rips and if you don't know much about him check out a feature from our main page by clicking on the image above and watch Aaron in action below.
If you scroll down you'll notice a previous update from the Local Exposure Tour, where I mentioned a rider named, Pat "Big Daddy" Laughlin. You may or may not know of him, but he rides for Little Devil, SE and Orchid. I was actually fortunate enough to meet Pat a few years ago, before he reached the "status" he's at now but I was stoked to see him again on the LET trip. I could go on and on about his antics but you can see for your self by checking out his "Daddy Vision" YouTube videos they're wild. In fact, he just posted Daddy Vision 9, which is footage from the day we saw him at the Haven Skatepark on the Local Exposure Tour. So funny, check it!
Robzilla attacks NYC on June 12, 2008. so be there in Central Park near the 72nd Street entrance on the East side to witness history.
Can I get a drumroll please? Red Bull's new project (Red Bull Experiment) seems to be kicking into high gear. So far the only athlete to complete his lab work is moto-x rider Robbie Madison, who jumped over an entire football field (news that EXPN moto-x blogger Ryan Leyba broke to the world about a month ago). But on June 12, BMX big dog Kevin Robinson is going to attempt to break Mat Hoffman's big air record in New York City's own Central Park. Um, yeah ... this has SportsCenter Top 10 written all over it.
The current record, held by Hoffman, is 26.5 feet above coping from a 24-foot ramp (which totals 50.5 feet above ground). Kevin is intent on building a monster 27-foot quarterpipe and soaring 27 feet above the coping, meaning he'll be a total of 54 feet above ground!!! The only difference between Mat's current record air and the one Kevin will be attempting is that Mat was towed in by a motorcycle and Kevin will roll in from a 60-foot ramp. Will he do it? I think so, and more than likely I'll be on hand shooting photos and getting the inside scoop. So keep coming back for a behind-the-scenes look at what goes down.
Red Bull
K-Rob Video
On another note, Allan Cooke's Local Exposure Tour just wrapped on Sunday. It was such a good time and I would like to give a big thanks to Allan Cooke (for inviting me on the trip) as well as everyone else who made it such a great experience. Be sure to check out a future issue of Ride UK for an article with my photos about the trip. Congrats to Drew Bezanson for becoming the LET 5 Champion—he certainly deserved it! With that said, I spent 12 straight hours driving back from Boston to Cleveland yesterday. Long-ass day but I'm well rested now and have lots of updates for you starting with (drumroll please) this insane breaking news.
Chris Mahaffey just put together this footage of Nathan Williams and Shane Weston. This stuff wasn't going to be used for any upcoming projects, but I think the clips are still super solid. Nathan and Shane are both from the Nashville area and have been friends for years. Unless you've been living in a cave, Nathan needs no introduction. But you probably don't know too much about Shane Weston. I'll clue you in—he's a ripper with his own unique style, and he was recently picked up by Hoffman Bikes. Weston literally just came back from ACL surgery a few weeks ago and as you can see, he's already killing it. Long story short? While this may be the first you've heard of him, it won't be the last.
Today was Day Six of the Local Exposure Tour, and as with every tour, it seems, Allan Cooke had a downtime surprise. For the first off-day, we went to the New England Patriots stadium for a sweet tour of the facility. On the second off-day, we played paintball at a huge indoor facility. Today, our final off-day, we went Rally Car Racing! The guys woke up bright and early around 5:30am, drove a few hours up to New Hampshire, and spent the day at Team O'Neil's Rally Racing School. Everybody impressed me with their driving skills and no one was scared to haul ass around the turns. Quinn Semling had the biggest balls of all, relentlessly iron-footing the gas. One brakeless attempt around a turn resulted in the car blowing-out and staling with lots of smoke and laughs. Check out some pics from our day below.
Cody York
Allan Cooke in the zone.
Cody York
Anthony Napolitan was stoked whether he was behind the wheel or chillin in the back.
Cody York
Ryan "Biz" Jordan behind the wheel and Micah Kranz showing nothing but style as they whip through a turn. Micah puts the style in Rally.
Cody York
Quinn Semling's car pouring out smoke after going way to fast around a turn and blowing up something on the car!
Cody York
Quinn's reaction after he realized what happened and saw all the smoke behind him.
