Run it!

This picture pretty much sums up why I took over mayor duties last year. This was taken the night before my girl got home from London. I was up at Josh's with him and Jen and we were drinking beers and cutting firewood with that sawsall. Ghetto!

P.S. If anyone wants a pair of Sevens, size 31 waist, hit me up.

Change

I was at Borders the other day reading different bmx magazines and I was struck by how many interviews pose the question "what would you change about bmx?" At first it seems stupid to ask such a thing because really what is wrong with bmx anyway? Well, I got to thinking and I thought of a few things I would change or cut out of bmx because it gets redundant or annoying. So without further adieu, I put in my two cents:

1. Skatepark fees. Don't get me wrong, a private park has to make money, and I support it, but $8 to ride Bath seems like a ripoff. $5 at the most is all that joint is worth, especially if there are skaters there because a lot of those kids are douchebags. Then there's Rye Airfield which is $15 a session.....and that brings me to number 2.

2. Rye Airfield. Dialed park, good riders, smooth transitions.....but wait, the fucking floor is made of ice! Seriously, I don't get how the locals there aren't dead yet from that abomination. You can have new tires, old tires or you can ever jerk off on your fucking tires and you'll still slip. Fuck that noise! If I really wanna ride on ice, I'll just go outside and ride on ice then buy some Stella with the $15 I saved.

3. Shit talking. Shit talk is fun when it isn't serious. I like to shit on my best friends about their riding to psych them up and they do the same to me. I sure as hell can't stand listening to people talk shit on other people and complain about everything from the way people do turndowns to what videos they dislike. If you really don't give a fuck then shut up! If something so menial as someone else's bike or someone else's riding bothers you that much then I feel sorry for you.

4. Mind your own business. This kind of goes hand in hand with shit talking. Quit acting like a little bitch about other people and their riding habits. Stop sweating people so much and copying tricks. Bmx is no fun when everyone is trying to do the same trick at the same time. It isn't supposed to be a competitive sport. Nobody wants to be fucked with so stop being a dramatic pussy.

5. Everyone should buy an iPod. If everyone just listened to some jams they would be better off. It helps you focus and it helps me personally not get so pissed off at myself when I can't do a trick or I get hurt. That and music drowns out the shit talk and dramatics.

That's all I got. Remember, it's just bmx and these are just my gripes. I have fun when I ride and I ignore the haters. Just ride and have fun and only blame yourself if you aren't having fun. Do what you like and it'll be fun. Here for a good time not a long time.

Tim ice

Tim's got some nice pictures up from recent times and back in the day. This one is pretty new and I think Steve took the photo.

Another bike night

Ten riders. That's all there were last night at bike night so it was pretty dialed. My body feels so sore after all that riding, not to mention the bench presses I did in the morning haha. A good workout makes you less tired though so that's a plus. Rabbit showed up with Rodge last night and went fast as fuck and did boned out tire taps on the sub. Toboggan tailtaps? Bike night is just a good time to go and get loose and chill with your boys. My knees don't like it, I need to go to GNC and get some joint supplements or some shit. Seriously, pedal grind 180, put a foot down and it fuckin hurts! Not right! Had fun anyway and hopefully I'll be getting a new headset from Zack next time I ride. No more freakin creakin in that headset, son! I fell asleep watching Donnie Darko last night. "That's some good shit, huh?" "It's a fuckin cigarette."

Shit on tha road

I saw this plate on the road in Brunswick a while back. Actually it was a long ass time ago because you can see the hood of my VW in the foreground. Milf of 2.....hmmmm. Gotta love milfs!

I liked this van because it had a little graphic of a guy holding a giant syringe. It's like "go shoot up on that Concrete Rx!"

Memoirs of a Geisha

Now that's not very polite!

Donde?

My lil sister is going to Mexico this Thursday. She's pretty lucky to get away to nice warm weather and see some nice sights, but don't drink the water! Stick to Tecate haha! I just watched Red Bull 'No Problemo' the other day and I remember them saying people get kidnapped very five minutes down there so WATCH OUT! JK.

Stevenowitz bike check

Regular lace front, cross lace rear detail. Thanks Dave and Tyler!

Frame-Fly Pantera 2 21" tt
Fork-Fly Pantera

Bars-S&M Slam XLT

Stem-Solid

Grips-Fly Ruben

Bar ends-Fly Nylon

Headset-Fly

Brake Lever-Odyssey Medium

Brake Cable-Nokon

Brake-Fly

Botom Bracket-Fly

Cranks-Profile 175mm

Sprocket-Fly 28t

Pedals-Odyssey Jim C.

Chain-KMC

Seat post-Fly

Seat-Fly

Rims-Fly

Tires-Fly Ruben 20x2.25 front, 20x2.20 rear

Pegs-Never!

Front hub-Profile mini

Rear hub-Odyssey cassette (run for 3 1/2 years)

Driver-Odyssey 10t

Spokes-KHE Flexie

Mods-Rear axle cut down

Weight-25 lbs.

The Solid stem and the rear hub have held up forever!

EDIT: The only reason I'm rollin on blacked out dubs is thanks to Kathryn. Love!

James Meliota bike check one two one two

James Meliota was nice enough to take some bike check photos of Tim, Zach, and Illes' bikes, but I guess they are too large to post so get back to me on that one. Anyway, here is James' Eastern in it's latest colorway complete with tattoos. It's funny, as I'm typing this I'm listening to Sigur Ros. What appropriate James Meliota tunes!

Brown paper bag!

Tim Packard showed up at Mike Keith's birthday party last night and got real shitty, but this is def not a shitty rail hop.

Did you forget?

You had this HUGE fro!

Different skateparks, different times

Jason Mansfield, Rye.

Dave Twiss, Oxford Hills.

Stevenowitz, Bath.

Tyler Way, Portland (R.I.P.)

It's Friday, bitch!

Tyler Way is texting me right now to come and drink Robitussin-I mean beers with him. Dave Twiss can't stop staring at that hair helmet.

...and on a diferent note

How do you not know who Andy BMX is? Everyone who rides bikes in Maine must know this guy! Seriously, Andy is an ape and this photo is from like two years ago. Anyone who wants to talk shit on his bike can shut up. I'd like to see you do the shit this dude does.

Myspace geeks/Jessica Alba

Just wantesd to put something out there that I thought was weird. When I was younger I was a really quiet kid. I pretty much met all of my best friends through riding street with them and eventually kickin it all the time. Even older dudes, I just kind of ended up riding with them and partying with them, etc. Well, times have changed. Today a kid who's just starting out riding can pretty much stalk you and know everything about you thanks to Myspace and Youtube. This past summer I showed up to ride the shitty little Westbrook park with Jason and some other dudes and this little kid rode over to me and asked me if I was in The Company Video. I guess that was kinda cool because it meant that the kid got to see our video and that he was pretty psyched on it. No big deal. Oh, but there's more! Recently I've been to jams and sessions and I've met kids who know my name and I've never met them before in my life. It's weird and I blame Myspace for this. That's why Ya See is important to me and not Myspace. If I've met a kid before I have no problem with them messaging me about riding n' shit, but if you've never met me before and you already know everything about me, that's weird. So, even if you're a shy and quiet kid, just be real and talk to people at the skatepark, don't be a Myspace geek. Plus there are way better things on the internet, like hott ass Jessica Alba pics!

We got that drink!

Coming soon in 40 0z.

Lunar Eclipse

Jason Mansfield sneaking into another post.

Watched the lunar eclipse with everyone over at Seth's Wednesday night. It was cool to see the different stages of the eclipse throughout the course of the night, especially when the moon was turned orange-ish. Nobody had a telescope or a poweful camera, but we did have some binoculars that helped us see this thing. The picture above is when the moon was just starting to go out of sight.

Happy birthday Jared!

Jared celebrated his birthday the other night by rocking out to David Bowie's 'Fame' and railing an American Spirit. How sophisticated does this look?

James Meliota!

Two things. One, this is from a while back. Two, James Meliota don't give a fuck about ANYTHING! This is small for him hahahahaha!

Never met a chick that was too thick for me!

My boo got fat but fuck it she's drinkin Stella! What I like to see.....

Bike night!

So many people came out to bike night last night. It was friggin cool. Private Stock is tasty.

Timeless Adams School

Seth Miller at Adams School. This has to be from a while ago and I don't know who took these photos, but I wanna say it was Mike Breece. Adams is an OG Portland skate spot and is one of the best all-weather spots around here. I guess that they wanna turn Adams into a housing project or something, but it should just be a skate spot forever. 43 O'Brion is just around the corner so on this particular day Seth probably skated this set up then immediately headed home for a Heineken.

Peep the strategy

Hey ladies! Wanna get high? Jason Mansfield is on break from school right now. What this means is that he'll probably be playing a lot of Skate on X-Box 360 and indulging in scorpion bowls. Nice shirt, dude.

Takin' all types of medicine!

Seth the Jeep creep. Menthol 100's all day!

It's true....Jason Mansfield plays Smolly Ball!

Cause it's Friday!

Well, it's Friday night and it sounds like tonight is the night to get down. I was looking through some old party pics to find a good one to use and I was gonna go with a picture of Tyler creeping up on Jason with a "stick bug", but it's real small as you can see below. Well anyway, I went with a pic of Jared and I throwing money and chugging Tanqueray. Try n' get loooooooose tonight!

Happy Valentines Day!

To all those who aren't going spend V-Day with their significant other, or the singles without a date, blaze an L and watch this movie tonight. AXE MURDA!

Where the party at?

Here is Ben Behrendt at one of Mike Keith's parties. He is definitely lying down on a dog. I guess I was riding Mike's bike through his house yelling "this is not my bike!" all night.

Throw Back

Meliota lipsliding around the curved ledge at the courthouse back in the days when he still ran brakes.

One of my favorite photos part 2

Stevenowitz. Ledge manual, summer 2006. Photo by James Meliota. It wasn't so much the trick that I liked about this photo, but the background. These cruise ships come to Portland all summer and sometimes we would be sessioning the pier at dusk and watch them pull out of the harbor. In my opinion, the only thing more beautiful than riding while the sun is setting over the bay is waking up to the sunrise off the back shore of Peaks with my lady.

Me, Zach and James at Bath

Hip table launch.

Unaccep-table.

Take it it's off of a grind box, ok.

T-boat turndown launch.

Headless tweaker.

James Meliota under pressure like Bowie.

Pressure pick to disaster revert.

Not a nose bonk. Tiny one actually holds the nosepick, pivots to disaster then 180's out. Hi tech.

Your 21st birthday

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh shit I made this as a screen saver for Seth's computer back in the 43 O'Brion days and it's still saved on his computer labeled 'Tyler on the jon.'

Game Vanilla and Milla'!

Seth "ya see" Miller. Perfect roach form.

(He went to) Jared hard at work.

Ya see it's Miller Time!

Ballard trying his luck at Smolly Ball.

Layin some bricks all day!

Stewart Smolly Ball is the shit!

Saturday night blizzard. Know what that means? Stewart Smolly Ball, beers, and a blunt. I lobster Maine.