So, I'm back home in Wales and I'm thinking, let's open things up a little with some random blogging! I just thought I'd post a couple of photo's, which might give an insight into a part of what has shaped me and Marky into the people that we are... Deep.....

So we've moved around a fair bit, but Llandrindod Wells is where we call home at the moment. Llandrindod (or Llandod as it's more commonly called) is a pretty small town of about 5000 people right in the middle of Wales. It's probably the biggest town within about a 30-mile radius, but that's not saying much in mid Wales... Llandod boomed when the Victorians discovered the healing (read- sulphurous and rancid) spring waters in the area that is now known at "Rock Park" and poeple flocked to the town in order to 'heal' themselves and do other Victorian based activities. Now, Llandod is dominated by old people, possibly Victorian in origin. There are plenty of tearooms, lawn bowling greens and Zimmer frames, but very little for normal young people to do. There is no cinema, no fast food eateries, no video arcade, nothing... I don't really know what young people are supposed to do, but I'm pretty sure lawn bowls doesn't really come into it... Llandod's one saving grace is it's mini ramp.

And this wasn't even here when I lived here...

Going back now I can kind of appreciate what Llandod gave me and what mid-Wales in general has to offer. We grew up riding with the skaters and bladers and snake-boarders and there was definitely a pretty tight knit community of us. We rode and skated together and drank and barbequed together and campaigned for a new ramp together. You kind of have to stick together, because despite the picturesque nature of the place there are a lot of pretty ugly feelings and attitudes around. In the city you ride around and I think the public are a bit more switched on about BMX and skating, but in Wales people kind of look at you as if you're insane or dangerous of something.

There's still a pretty small, but strong scene here (see myspace.com/llandodcrew if you're interested) and I think that feeling of unity and identity is a pretty positive thing.

So, today I decided to take advantage of the amazing countryside that we have around here and rode to the top of a pretty big hill a couple of miles from my Mum's place, called the Rogo.

The scenery around here is top-notch, the air feels good and the best thing is there is no one around. You can ride about on the hills and fields and you won't see anyone. The Rogo is rad, we used to fly kites up here, as it's always windy. It's also steep as hell and today the wind was with me as I blitzed back down. Nothing better to blow the cob-webs away, though I don't think my shoes were so happy about it- burning rubber mmm...

Anyways, I've rambled on, the pictures are pretty crap and it doesn't have a hell of a lot to do with Southampton or street, but this is a part of what BMX means to me- getting away, exploring and seeing new and interesting stuff under your own steam, relying on your legs and your arms and hoping you don't get a flat.

just in addition to an earlier blog i wana say that i dont meen offense either to the dude Mike Netley or any1 else really i just thought it aint to good ripin what respectively is your own scene.

 i have only been livin here for a year now and have seen such good shit come out of this town that i think calling it weak is a bit of a cop out seeing as everyday i see proggression pushed, maybe not to the limits but still in a forward moving direction, yeh some people are a bit lame at times (myself included) with the i gota see my girlfriend/its to cooled outside/i cant be bovered (vicky pollard if u like)/ and my mum wont let me out, reasons but if the scene is so weak how come over 100 people turned up to the street vs tweak jam when it was forcast to rain and really looked like it was going to on the day? if this doesnt show strength in a "weak" scene i dont know what does.

dunno about the trails thing not to bothered about that anymore, so ill stick with your judgement there (unless any trails riders got anything to say?)

and i also agree that most of the parks in southampton are shit and slippery but when your from somewhere with no parks you make the most with what you got.

this bitch has gone on to long now! i just wanted to get things off my chest because when your from a place with nothing to ride, and hardly anyone to ride with it annoys me that when theres so many things to do and ride here in southampton and so many people to ride with it can be classed as weak!

apologies to netley if he thinks im ripin into him or anything like that i just find it annoying that coming from no scene to a huge scene it can be classed as weak.

end of story(rant)...

and yet again s3's are bad muthafukin ass! another brilliant day!!!

not 1 for interweb beef myself (who am i joking i used to go on streetphire just to right "cunt" then log out) but word on the wire (a.k.a the pijin blog) has sparked a bit of controversy over the last few days in the soton stuntin scene...

Mike Netley i think ur a nice dude and thank u for takin the article photos and doin the whole thing for ride i am much appreciative of this but u have no right to say that the soton scene is weak when i have NEVER seen u ridin in town with the stunters down here, myself (Joel),  dan (dissrm) westlake, farmer d, MARK WESTLAKE (who comes all the way from LONDON to ride soton street), sam the man, paul, carlos, bonedave, and many others come out ridin on a regular basis especially dan westy, the farmer, and me (yeh i have been workin all summer but im a student needin cash so i got good excuse), and we ride all day and all night when we can, so all i can say is the soton scene is strong as fuck, where you at?

now with that all done and out the way onto better subjects,

firstly!

my new shiny s3 turned up yesterday and it was built up till it looked P-I-MUTHERFUKIN-M-P, after disputes with carlos about cranks and a drinkin seshion l8r i was persuded onto a set of raw colored profile cranks by fuck was that a bad choice... after riding for 5, yes, literally under 5 minutes i was back in pijin with a severally twistedly bent crankarm posing the question to carlos "so light AND strong you say???" but with a quick whipit from another box i had a new crank arm and a set of two tone cranks 1 black, and 1 raw pimp+ my jigga.

Dan picked me up a bit l8r in the evening and we went over to chandlers ford for a fresh sesh and a bit of a jive about, framer d, and paul turned up so we had a few heads rollin and the seshion kicked off, what i gotta say is this, farmer dan is a park machine he has been training so hard and now has the skills to back it all up, park riders of soton be warned farmer d is out to get you, with some huge volcano biz i saw, a huge 3, quick fliked bazzers, and some smooth dialled 180's, what i can back this up with is the fact that im sure soon enough these twists will have bazzers in and we will be seein sum 180 bazzers and trucks over stuff soon! getty onit farmer boy!!!

me and dan had a go at twisting the volcano which dan bust out pretty freshly and got it done, then it was my turn?, i dont like parks i was raised riding bikes on the streets but with all the heads bustin i switched off my brain and took it like it should and just span! 180's where fine (the first one nearly went to flat though) then it was time to put the extra twist in so off it went and straight to flat l8r there was a 3! done! spent a little while gettin them into the tranny and after a few go's got it and stopped before it went all wrong (again s3's are lush)

we rode some street after this in eastleigh at these tight flatbanks, farmer and me both got the bebs on it, dan launched the stair well gap and a few twists where sent over the hip, we went round the corner and rode the bank to rail aswell which me and dan took some spins to and got hops over the rail, over the rail into the bank, and 180 over the rail, then after a bit of bullying we got farmer boy to jump the rail too (excelent, i still got the talk).

thats about it really i dont know much of whats been goin on down here cuz i been back in the trowbo workin, all i got is s3's are lush, more people need to come ridin where the ridins at (get my number and come ride the centre), and lots more is comin soon cuz im gettin some filmin on the go so get in touch and lets get this thing rollin again!!!!

i meen this is the - Direct Involvement Southampton Street Riders' Movement, so get yourself directly involved in the streets of southampton and lets get these riders moving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

also get well soon to marky westlake who bust his foot the other day, and also to young alex (i think) who broke his leg gettin run over (has know1 seen the hedgehogs highway code?) hope you kidders are out stuntin soon, get the numbers back up.

im off to glasgow on saturday with zardis and co (if i find out wots goin on) but will be back around mid next week to get my stunt on,

more blogs comin soon with photos, videos, and of course words!!!

KEEP IT STREET, Joel (mutherfukin) Nicholls, braaaaaaaappppppppppp!!!

(p.s. s3's are the best frame in the world!)

Yeah, I said news on a Monday.  Big whoop, wanna fight about it?

So yeah.  It's been a while.  No doubt you've all been keeping tabs on what's going oooooooon using either the spectacularly updated Pijin Blog or various other means, but here's a wee round up of more recent-ish stuff.

First key thing to mention is the incoming Street Vs. Tweak jam going on in Southampton, THIS WEEKEND!.  It's hard to put into words how little I want to be in work, and how much I want to go to the jam, but that's life I guess.  Regardless, here's the World's Biggest Flier:

4down have gotten involved, as have a bunch of other big name sponsors, so kudos to them for stepping it up and helping out what could well be a freakin' sweet 'grass roots BMX jam' (remember:  Backyard started out small...), and kudos to Dave for stepping up and getting the ball rolling.

If you can do anything to help out, do it.  It's a properly worthy cause, and big rides/jams are always amazing, so as we say:  You get out what you put in.

I expect either Street Dan or Street Joel will throw down the gauntlet at the High Hop Comp, so you Soton Locals had better start getting your pop on.  The real question though is will Dan be able to unleash his secret weapon by having them allow you to 180 over the bar?  How Ruben...

I can't even remember what happened in the last DISSRM News, so if this is going over old ground, I apologise/deal with it (delete where applicable).

Those fantastic people over at 4Down have been running some sweet little give-aways on their site, so if - like me - you're one of the people running a new A. Bike Co seatclamp, or if - like me - you're one of the 10 (well, 11...) people who won a Bicycle Union backpack, you'll know how good the deals are.  If not, get involved!  The busiest man in BMX (according to Mike Ardelean) Dean Hearne has helped ensure that the 4down page gets updated on the regs, as Roots Manuva would say, so keep your eyes on their site for details of when the next online product toss is gonna go down.

Speaking of regular updates on the 4down site, I was able to bear witness to the 4down Summer of Madness Part 1 roadtrip, going from London to Paris.  Every single part of the various days spent in London and Paris were fastidiously documented by the video cameras of Dean and Ben and the Nikon of Mr. Ricky Adam (who lost his passport in Paris at the end of the trip, giving me the opportunity to get a paid ticket to go to from Paris to Berlin, which I had to turn down...*).  Dean got himself some 6 million pixel (you had to be there...) point 'n' shoot digital camera though, and put a load of footage up from every day of the trip on the site.  Seeing Ben Lewis and Scott Ditchburn ride was a fundamentally Earth-shattering experience - just ask Joel - so get on the 4down site and check out the updates page.  Ben Lewis Curb Sesh.mov is ridiculous.  His riding is the most progressive stuff I've pretty much ever seen.  Too good.  His section in The Make's new video What's What is going to be nuts.  Speaking of, here's a trailer (best link ever!):

It's a tenner.  Go get it!

Some of you may have heard of another little jam going on this last weekend, Summer X-Games.  Jamie "I'm quitting the X-Games" Bestwick came out of his semi-retirement to get about a million feet out of the vert ramp at "Summer X" and pick up gold in the process.  When you watch his run, you'll see why.  Check the height of the first air...  Oh, and that opposite double whip?  The second run was arguably way better though, simply because it's amazing getting to see someone riding when they're that happy.  Barspin ninja drop-in, yes please...

Coverage.

In Park News, I don't care... For those of you that do though, Daniel Dhers managed to spend 0.2 seconds more of his run upside down than Scotty Cranmer did, and did 9.3 more tailwhips per minute than Dave Mirra, so it went 1st Dhers, 2nd Cranmer and 3rd Mirra.  If you want to see Dhers' winning flip-tap-whip-tap-whip-tap-flair combo, click on that Bestwick link and click right at the bottom of the page or something...

Just found this VitalBMX video too, check it out!

See More BMX Videos at VitalBMX.com

Also at The Games, Jake Brown took a massive hit from karma and atoned for the sins commited by skateboarders world-wide, bruising his lung and breaking his wrist by doing this:

Running ain't gonna help you there, lad.

I just realised that I got this far and hadn't mentioned the fact that Mosh have Part 1 of 5 of their new vid up, feat. Mike Ardelean, Jackson Ratima and Ian "Inspiring Dan and Mark since 2004" Schwartz.  Clickity!

Little Devil has a sweet JJ Palmere vid up too.

S&M turned 20 recently, and in true style held a massive party.  Click here to go to Defgrip's party pics page.  Sweet alliteration.

Colony have shown off their new 2008 colourways and products, feat. the pale blue colour on their stem, lever and hubs.  The rear hub uses the WTP-style QLite technology, whilst the front looks like a Profile Mini I might actually buy. 

Fit have a new splash page feat. a sweet video of Dakota Roche.  Toothpick down a rail to opposite 180 out?  Ice down a rail to opposite 180 out?

Sweet.  Talking of Fit, Mike Aitken.  Top left picture.  WTF?

From the Mutiny site, from Morgan Wade's wedding:

I kinda wanna give it a try?

Oooh, oooh, forgot to say earlier:  VClub Webvid online!  Go get it, then go to Pijin and get one of the VClub T's or hoodies for £10/£25 respectively.  That's right, the £10 T-shirt and £25 Hoodie/Jacket sale is still on.  Keeping me fresh, no joke.  They've also got the new Purple Profiles in, hot:

That's about it for now, anyway.  DISSRM Updates are going to be going up on the regular again now, but they may be in a slightly different format to this.  I have plans, let's say.  It'll be fun.  You'll see!

But yeah, street jam this weekend.  Get involved.

* - Gutted.

Did you even see #20?  If not, "surprise"...

I'm writing this, lying on my bed.  Laptops:  thank god.

In other inconsequential news:  we've had almost 5,000 views of the DISSRMBlog.  That's pretty ridiculous seeing as I thought this was basically only ever being read by Dan so he could see the cool new videos without having to look for them himself...

Did someone say cool new videos?  Even if they did, here are some shady old ones.  Ian Schwartz and Steven Hamilton's "A Day Late and a Dollar Short" sections:

What the kid says at the start kind of applies to me and (according to his home page on here) Dan?

And on the subject of old school, Steven Hamilton's first ever video part (maybe?):

At least now when faux "old school" riders whine on about Steven Hamilton's best video part and most influential video part being in "DLDS", you can go "No, not really, have you seen Can I Eat?"

Bringing it back to the modern times (I do have a link to an old Luc-E video here, but to be honest:  meh.), here are two modern day trick machines, Dakota Roche and Scotty Cranmer.

P3 for the Dakota vid

Re:  Scotty Cranmer's first line:

<3

BlackBMX have a summer edit:

 
As do Mirraco?   Go here for that.

Levis have a BMX team with a cool promo video?

In real news, Empire of Dirt got cancelled.  Weak.  Pesky rain!  It's summertime, dammit.

I've never been in the Demolition office, but I'd imagine just before this line of parts was made, the phrase "Have you seen what Odyssey have just done?" was dropped:

Over The Pond should be hitting shops in the now-ish period.  I don't know the score with Pijin, but H-man appears to have some in today or something like that, so yeah, awesome video out soon.  DISSRM's Joel Nicholls holds down a line in the trailer, and may have more stuff in the main thing (you'd hope so), so that'll be worth it itself.

Talking of worth it - Chill Bro.  Too.  Good.

Defgrip have a Brian Foster interview up.  That was pretty much exclusively for Sam's benefit, but he won't even read this...

Ride 105 and Dig 59 are out now.

Last call for the Attila Leeds video premiere/jam shenanigans.  Wish I could go, but I can't.  C'est la vie.  Even with Ride dedicating an entire page to how bad Grounded is (compared to what it "should've been"...), it'd still be worth a trip...

That's pretty much it, really.  No companies have really done much apart from Mutiny making a limited edition gold/black T-shirt you (collective plural) won't want, and Duo collaborated with both Macneil/Pivotal and some US clothing company to do an SL seat with guns on it.

No joke.  Available in black on black or white on black.

Once my PC is up and running, expect that "Photos from ages ago" blog I told you about.  Oh, and I will hopefully make it to Southampton next week, if I get time off work.  If I don't get time off work, it'll mean 19 days straight of 9-5:30 shifts.  No weekends, no off days, no nothing.

*sigh*

Enjoy the sun for me, eh...