Here’s the man again paying homage to front brakes with a hearty Nosepick.

This was wild. Ron would haul ass, boost up real hard out of the Jersey Barrier and buzz his helmet for a good while before tucking up and still hovering a good 3 or 4 feet in the air. He knows these ramps like the back of his hand.

Zach Rampen was around too and became Ron’s apprentice for the afternoon. Zach was a good sport and despite being threatened with blows to the back of the neck and other bodyparts he still wore a smile while tearing the place up. This was a pretty decent Nac air out of the Jersey Barrier after much ‘coaching’ from Radical Ron.

Same thing, different angle. Zach, Nac Air.

Another new notch on the belt for Zach and the best way I can think of to end a post. Freshly learned classic Tabletop, boom!

Same thing different angle.

Have a nice day and get back to work yee scurvy bastards!

This is something Slade is renown for. I’ve seen him do it off all sorts of things including rails, though, it’s nice to see him just float a casual one over a good ol’ street hip.

Sunday was the first day I got to meet Zach Rampen. He’s moved here from Kelowna to help grow the ever increasing pool of non-Vancouverites now living in Vancouver. The last sound you want to hear while doing one of the below is “RRRRIIIIPPP!”. Although, you might be stoked because your ankle would probably be over your shoulder making it the wildest Grizz ever! Zach is a shredder and seriously tests the structural integrity of his denim seams with this gnar Grizz Air .

Zach Again with a steezy, flowy Toboggan.

Cheers for the shred lads, hopefully many more to come!

One of the old faces who has returned after a string of injuries and a near full recovery from near surgery is one young John Knowlden. This is John ‘taking it easy’ a few weeks after surgery, if you’ve been here you know the quarter, you know that fence, you know this is hardly taking it easy. Whatever he has in his coffee I want some! Then again, knowing John there’s probably no mortal man who could stomach whatever he ingests, the man is half beast!

This is the view just a few inches off the ground when you’re staring at the biggest hip in the bowl. Yep, you guessed it, ‘just taking ‘er easy today’. John’s a tall guy, but even if he wasn’t he’d still have his nickname but we’d add GO to the front of it: Go-Big John Knowlden. (Yep, cheesy much?)

If you are keen to hit up one of the weekend early morning Hastings rides then like us on facebook so you can receive an update when we head out there.

Luis Almazan is no stranger to the Woodyard and can’t think of anything better than a big ol’ box jump so you can imagine his excitement when he turns up to Ron’s where he has 3 to play with. It’s like a mix of a kid in a candy store and a bull in a china shop, the results are nothing less than entertaining. Nothing ‘bull’ish about this tuck no hander though.

He loves nothing better than throwing his feet off his pedals in some weird no foot combo. On this no foot can he would run back up the ramp every time and say “Did that look like Nasty’s?”. It’s fun to F with him and say “It’s nowhere close!” cos it just makes him ever more eager and determined. I couldn’t even count how many he tried and they were all as good or better than this, hahaha sorry Luis!

Her’s another sexy mexi combo, No-foot Seatgrab.

Cheers to Ron Mercer and his lovely wife who cooks a mean chilli and an even better cheese burger. Always a good time at the ‘Yard!

Maori culture is huge in New Zealand and people flock from around the world to get a taste of it. I myself had not experience it till now and it’s amazing!

The boat these young lads are in is called a Waka. This one, I believe, is a war canoe. Filled in it are brave warriors who do a fierce song and ceremony while waving their oars in sync. Their oars are hand carved as well as the boat which is made from a single hollowed out tree trunk. This one is a small one with around 10 men, the large ones stretched out 40 metres (130 feet) and could accommodate 80 paddlers. The water they’re in is some of the purest in New Zealand driven from high pressure geothermal activity from deep in the earth. You can stick your hand in have a sip and the quality is higher than ANYTHING you can by in a bottle.

If you were seen as a potential threat the Maori warriors would gather and do the war Haka. It is one of the many types of Haka dances and was used to intimidate their potential aggressors. When they stick out their tongues they mean business, in fact they mean to eat you. Seriously! Maori history is well documented with tribes eating rival tribes and unwelcome visitors.

Don’t think for a second that the lady Maori’s need protecting by their men. They can hold their own like this lady is demonstrating. If the look doesn’t kill you her fists of female fury sure will. The ball she is swinging is called a ‘poi’ which was originally used by men to strengthen there wrists and practice co-ordiantion for using a short club. Later poi were adopted by women and used for entertainment and dance.

One of the last things I did on my trip was go on a booze cruise around Auckland city. This spot is undeniably spectacular as evening creeps in. It’s the Auckland Museum in the Auckland Domain. A great big space of lushes green to take in a delicious beverage while you see the old building glow on the backdrop of midnight blue steadily growing darker.

Same night, Player P getting his creep on. Lady’s beware, when you see this thousand yard stare you might be in for a pouncing like a lion taking down a gazelle. You’ve been warned!

Another New Zealand legend, Brian or preferably B-Man. He has a ridiculous base of knowledge for bikes and is in a league of his own on the tools. He also has a gift for anything electronic and will blow your mind into another dimension when he lectures you on time travel. Make sure you check out the B-man at T-White’s bikes or on any decent booze cruise if you’re in that neck of the world.

This is one of my favourite shots. It reminds of the Hobbit village in lord of the rings. Minus, of course, the fluorescent light trail which was made by some young barefoot hooligans who strapped LED lights to the spokes of their bikes. The town is in Tutukaka a few hours north of Auckland, a beautiful beach town on the east coast famous for it’s proximity to one of the most renown game fishing spots in the world. I once saw a Mako shark being hauled onto a boat there.

This spot was awesome. It’s in Thames and as you can plainly see it’s a workingmen’s club. I thought I might spend the rest of my time there ‘working’ on beer belly. Unfortunately it was closed that day but it’s nice to know there’s a place for hard working fells to retreat to after the long haul, the daily grind, the old earning a bit o’ bread n’ butter!

Well that’s it for my NZ adventure. From here on we will be focusing on some North American content unless of course immigration gets hold of me but for now I’m looking good! See you soon with a bmx filled post.

New Zealand has had some great new additions to it’s skatepark roster. One of the best is in the heart of heavily populated Auckland at Victoria Park right in the central business district and close to the water. It’s one of the finest bowls (and street courses) I sampled during my time so make sure you try it out if ever you visit.

Seeing as we’re talking spots, this one has to be the most heart breaking. I previously mentioned this on our facebook page. Located just South of Mangawai in the North Island this spot has been torturing skaters and BMXers for years. Barb wired fence over 8feet tall, 7feet of electric fencing behind that and more video cameras than the Kardashian’s have following them. On top of this there’s only one way in and out on this road and they have some serious security at the end of it but part of me hopes that some day someone has the balls to get in and the talent to shut that spot down for good, it has Brian Yeagle size wallrides and steez written all over it.

Speaking of legends. I was fortunate to catch up with long time friend and fellow cronie Simon Palmer. This guy is one of New Zealand’s greatest ever street riders. He was doing bunny hop tailwhips down drops before it was ever popular, before the internet, before the come up and before most of you could wipe your own arses. I’ve seen him barspin things that I doubt anyone will ever do again and somewhere there is photos and footage of very little of it, if only digital media was around earlier! Simon has ‘chilled’ to some extent and prefers throwing tables than barspins but always remains true to his street roots, you probably won’t see him in the bowl but here he floats some nice street tranny and clicks a flat one.

In the spirit of fabled legends of old, here is another and the polar opposite to the street legend above. Tim White was riding trails with the steez of Brian Foster shredding trails in New Zealand and Canada from way back when most of the kids who frequent his bike shop (T.Whites Bikes) were dribbling down their jammies. Ironically he spends more time dribbling Jack Daniels and beers down his front than he does at the trails but he still has the skills as seen on his skull skates cruiser on one of his legendary booze cruises.

Here’s Tim again getting rad at New Vic park, plenty of beers in, plenty of steez. Also, check out his pic of Tim spotted at Zombie from not too long ago : http://www.zombiebmx.com/blog/?p=5301

That’s it for this post and only one more NZ post to go. We have plenty of Canadian content to come so keep visiting and thanks for supporting us. You all F@#$’n Rule!

NZ is home to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. This one here is called Piha (pronounced ‘pee-ha’) a black sandy beach on the rugged west coast less than an hour out of Auckland city centre. It has one of the worlds deadliest rips and takes the lives of many tourists every year, all I can say is ‘swim betweeen the flags’!

Around the corner from Piha beach is a beautiful waterfall that takes about half an hour or so to walk to. The whole way is gorgeous, lush, thick green vegetation and at the end you’re greeted by this stunning sight.

The day that we were at Piha it started off as a cloudy drizzly day and in true New Zealand fashion by the middle of the day the Heavens cleared and the sun was out on the blue’ist  sky you can imagine. Paul Beadle had his motorbike there and we all took turns at thrashing her up and down a quiet backroad near the waterfall. Here’s Mike Zombie Davies just “give’n ‘er”, he looks like he was made to ride a motorbike, haircut and all!

Same day we ventured a little further and hit another rugged west coat beach called Karikari, it’s beautiful and quiet with big sand dunes and weird plants like the ones growing in the foreground here.

One of my favourite things to do when I’m in New Zealand is to take the old road bike to Waiheke Island with the old man. Waiheke is only a short ferry ride from Auckland and is populated by 8000 permanent residents so it’s fairly quiet and very picturesque. There are quite a few amazing beaches there but this is my favourite called Onetangi. Here me and the old Salty Sea dog take a breather at the top of a steep hill overlooking Onetangi, from here it’s only a 5 minute pedal to a beautiful sandy beach and cafe’s with tap beer!

The West Coast beaches are the most rugged, usually full of black sand and each has a unique characteristic. Muriwai vezch is no exception with it’s enormous Gannet colony. A word of warning, it smells like shit, literally, bird shit!

They all perch high on the cliffs taking care of there young, at this height a fall would either induce flying or death so it’s no wonder that they are pretty graceful in flight.

If you’re gonna check out North Island beaches you cannot miss Cathedral Cove on the East Coast Coromandel shoreline. This col rock formation is just one of the spectacular scenes to see there and the water was the perfect bath temperature the day we swam there.

I got quite fond of taking nature pictures while I was there and I was pretty stoked on this bird shot. I believe it’s an albatross but I could very well be wrong, either way I like this shot.

Coromandel coast with friends. Beers, boys and moonlightis a concoction for weird behaviour. Wazman with his pride, Mike double fisting and on the right is the fine dance stylings of Paul Beadle.

Hopefully your attention span has made it this far, next time we’ll post up the last of our NZ riding pictures to wrap up the NZ adventure and get back to topics of the Northern Hemisphere kind

Blair has no problem shredding his own trails and consider for a second that this was only his second day back at the trails after spending over a year away on the other side of the world. Nothing better to reacquaint yourself with your trails than throwing down a gnarly Seatgrab Nacnac .

Blair’s cousin, Henry Harrison,  also rides and digs there, from what I can tell he digs more than he rides and is none too bothered by it either. Nothing seems to bug him much, a real chill cat. He was kind enough to coach me through the lines and was patient as I hacked my way through their lovely dirt mounds. Here’s Henry patiently over cranking the bars on a nice chill X-up.

Blair’s nickname is Goldie. I asked Henry why they called him Goldie thinking that it would be to do with his wild golden locks that hang from his head. All Henry said was “Cos he’s such a golden c@#t!”. I’m not sure what that means but we had a good laugh anyway. Here Blair gets ‘golden’ rotating three hundred and sixty degrees through the last section of jumps on his favourite line.

Thanks to Henry and Blair over at Summer Hill. If you find yourself in Tauranga look up these shredders on facebook and see if you can organise a ride at Summer Hill, you won’t regret it. Also check out their trail blog (run by Carl Cavanagh) to see more of the jumps: www.justnotinside.blogspot.com

Mike ‘Zombie’ Davies

Blair ‘Goldie’ Mason

‘Steezy Deezy’ Dave Struthers

Richard ‘The Dagger’ Gregory

Paul ‘Cappy’ Moffat

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