Photo: Matt Goerke rode amazingly in his first race back after injury, to score a 3rd overall in the Opens class. All photos by SImon Makker for Unit. For a full race report and news from the event, visit Racer X.

We were lucky enough to attend the weekends MX racing in Southwick, all of the Unit team rode solid for some great results. Unfortunately though, young Unit Motoconcepts team rider Travis Baker was hit by another rider, coming off the track with a broken foot. He will miss the last 2 rounds, but will back with plenty of time for the Supercross season.

Fellow Unit team rider, Aussie Dan Reardon has been gaining momentum after a very rocky path since A1 and a horrible crash. He managed a great 10th place overall, after 2 solid motos saw him ride more like his former self.

Another rider coming back to strength was #20 Broc Tickle. Broc crashed out and broke his collarbone a little over 3 weeks ago, and thanks to surgery, Broc was able to hit the track again for the first time in Southwick. You wouldn't know he missed a beat though, as Broc battled his way through the toughest track of the year, to post a really solid 10th overall. There is no doubt Broc will improve on this each week in the last few rounds.

Another great success for Team Motoconcepts was #55 Kyle Chisholm, who started the day as 2nd fastest qualifier and caried his momentum through to the end to walk away with a 4th overall. That gave Motoconcepts Racing the best team results in their short history. Fellow MCR rider Ryan Sipes also fought hard in the final Opens moto, to take home the Muscle Milk award, which rewards the rider with the best recovery throughout the races.

In the end the Unit MX team saw 4 top 10 overalls, and plenty of potential for future success. We would also like to wish Travis Baker the best in his recovery.

• By Allan H

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So you thought you knew everything about Dan Reardon? Think again... We hit Dan with the hard questions during a recent trip to his home in California.

Find out more about all your favourite Unit team riders in our new 'First & Last' video series. Wheelz and Nate Berkheimer episodes are already online.

• By Allan H

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Unit recently headed to Switzerland to watch team riders Mat Rebeaud and Levi Sherwood practice together in the lead up to X-Games. This is the result. These 2 riders are killing it right now.

Courtesy: Unit Clothing

Editor: Allan Hardy

Music: 'Hifi Show' by Karton www.karton.com.au

• By Allan H

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Hey all,

Well busy couple of month for me, to start it off i had my good mate Brad (Darbo) and John Buultjens come and stay at my house and help me get my roll in that i have been working on forever, all together and finished.

Got alot done and i think we will only have a few more days and it'll all be finished so i'm pumped for that.
so thanks to you guys and all the others that came out and helped.

A couple of weekends ago i was up visiting friends in Sydney and i ended up talking to Dane Searls about his big jumps he is building in QLD and somehow ended up driving my car up to QLD with Dane, Junior and Dane's GF Skye to do the winter catalogue photo shoot and help Dane Build/ride these massive jumps of his.

The photo shoot was awesome fun got to play in a old abandoned house, push Dane down some hills in a trolley, smash a fluro tube aver Nick Cooper's back and do feeble grinds on a old fridge. All the pictures turned out really dope and the new gear that just dropped from Unit is some of the best yet so check it out

The jumps look totally do able even the 50ft and 60ft and I have no doubt that they will be done in the near future, It was possibly one of the funniest/scariest weekends of my life though.

Dane took a big crash on the 50ft and somehow managed to walk away from it. Crazy! Chinga for PM for sure.

Weekend just gone little Hendo and I headed to Melbourne to the Aus bike trade show, which was a bit of a let down. But we did meet up with my mate Jordan Kolb and had a good ride around the city, Kensington, Flem banks and Rampfest. Got to mess around with my hang 5s all day too, which was sweet as I have been flying over the bars way to much on them recently.

By the way the Scooter population has gone through the roof in Melbourne and someone really needs to cull them. So people either run them off the parks or if they are your brothers go buy them BMX's haha. Do it!!

Anyways that’s all from me.
Go ride.

Cam P
 

• By Allan H

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Wheelz just sent us the news that he landed the first ever double back flip on a wheelchair!! Massive congrats buddy.

• By Allan H

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Photo: Aussie Dan Reardon whips it over the Pala Raceway hills. (Simon Makker for Unit)

For our final California shoot, we headed to the brand new Pala Raceway track to watch Australian Dan Reardon prepare for the up coming outdoors. The track was amazing, and has been freshly rebuilt as the host for the final outdoors round in 3 weeks time.

Dan has had alot of ups and downs over the last few years, but has really started to get back on his game, and is turning heads again. Stay tuned for a full video profile on Dan, along with an indepth interview that helps uncover the details of his rocky road while here in the USA.

From here, we are packing our bags and heading to the other side of America for the Southwick round of the Nationals this weekend. It is shaping up to be big, so good luck to all the Unit team riders who will be battling it out on the day. After that it is back to BMX, with Jaie Toohey and David Girsch in Greenville.

• By Allan H

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Photo: Vince Friese scrapes his bars mid-rut at the Star West MX Park. All photos by Simon Makker for Unit.

So here we are, chilling in our resort after another massive day hanging out with and filming the Unit team over here in the USA. It is amazing how much effort all of these guys put in every single day training for their sports, the weather in Cali right now has been well above 35 degrees every day, and just filming and taking photos is a tough enough job, let alone punching out 20 minute motos and full FMX sessions.

First off the rank was Team Motoconcepts riders Vince Friese and Travis Baker, who we caught up with at Star West MX park. These 2 guys shred, and have been scored top 10 finished in the nationals this year. We will be following them, and the rest of Team MCR including Kyle Chisholm, Ryan Sipes and Matt Goerke this weekend at Southwick, so stay tuned for videos and full profile on the team...

Photo: Levi Sherwood has so much style, and is the man to beat right now in the world of FMX.

We have been looking forward to spending some time with our good pal Levi 'Shezza' Sherwood ever since we last filmed at the Farm Jam, and to say his riding has progressed in leaps and bounds is an understatement. Levi has completely stepped up the game of FMX this year, and every single time he comes out and rides, he brings something new to the table. Heading into the final round of the Red Bull X-Fighters series, Levi has caught up in the points, and now sits just 20 points behind series leader Andre Villa. Basically it is anyones series this year, and it will all come down to the Italy round. Levi is definitely the hot favourite to win, and if he rides like his usual self, the title will be his.

We were lucky enough to film Levi tearing apart the former Red Bull Compound in California, and despite the heat and wind, he threw down all his trademark tricks, complete with hyper extension and style like no other. We also grabbed an interview with Levi and his mechanic, the world famous Monty, so stay tuned for that...

Photo: Broc Tickle races through a Perris Raceway turn for the camera.

Next on our list was Pro Lites racer Broc Tickle. Broc has had a series of ups and downs this year, starting with a win in Seattle, and ending with a broken collarbone. Fortunately for Broc, the Outdoors season has had a week break, and with his surgery going really well for the broken collarbone, he will be returning to racing this weekend at Southwick, only missing 2 rounds.

Today in the 37 degree heat though, you wouldn't of noticed a difference in Broc's speed, as he tore apart the famous Perris Raceway for the Unit camera.

Photo: Aussie Dan Reardon scrubs it out, during a chance meeting at Perris Raceway today.

Up next on the trip, we will be catching up with Aussie MX prodigy and Unit racer Dan Reardon. Dan has had a bit of bad luck this year starting with Anaheim 1, but has really picked up his game the last few rounds, so can't wait to see him in action.

We will be filming a heap of new stuff with him before and at the Southwick MX this weekend, so watch out for that...

• By Allan H

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Nate Berkheimer is the newest of member of the Unit BMX Team, and while in Las Vegas we got to spend some time with the BMX shredder while he was out injured.

In the latest installment of the Unit 'First & Last' series, we hit Nate with the tough questions on life in Vegas. Make sure you stick around 'til the end, to learn about chat roulette! hahaha

Stay tuned for more videos and updates at www.unitriders.com

• By Allan H

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The first round of the RFD MX Underground Tour kicks off this weekend in Corryong, VIC. Unit rider Joe Sheppard won the series in 2009, so watch out for him. This is always an awesome Aussie event and gives the less known riders a chance to get some good exposure, and win some cash. The riders at the first round include...

Rhys Hillier -  Suzuki - VIC
Luke Saunders - Yamaha - QLD
Adam Gropes -  Yamaha - SA
Ben Heidrich - Kawasaki - SA
Lance Russell - Honda - NSW
Sam Balnaves - Yamaha -  SA
Joe Sheppard -  Kawasaki - NT
Brad Hage - Kawasaki - SA
Todd Back - Yamaha - QLD
Dave Churches - Yamaha - VIC
Brock Jones - Yamaha - NSW
Liam Goesch - Yamaha - NSW
Ryan Apps - Yamaha - QLD
Stephen Murphy - KTM - SA
Tom Robinson -  Yamaha -  NSW
Joel Brown -  Yamaha NSW

• By Allan H

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We recently hung out with Wheelz while in Vegas, and hit him up with a bunch of questions about his life for the first part of the new Unit 'First & Last' video series. You might know Wheelz as the first person to ever backflip a wheelchair, or from his recent crazy wheelchair antics on the megaramp at the Nitro Circus Live tours.

Stay tuned for more in the series, including Cam White and Nate Berkheimer from Las Vegas as well.

• By Allan H

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Because all the riders in Vegas are injured right now, we have been hanging out doing all the cool local things that these guys get to do. As you know, guns are pretty much banned in Australia, but over here, basically every American has an arsenal of guns big enough to take down an army. So today Bobby Hill (Jordan Yost) the race car driver took us all out in the desert to try out his guns. On the menu were 2 handguns, and a gnarly assault rifle!

We were joined by Cam W and Nate B, who are pretty unfamiliar with weapons, so it was a good laugh to watch everyone try and shoot the targets (watermelons & soda cans).

After that wrapped up, we said goodbye and thanks to all the Vegas locals who had shown us such a great time. It was time to head back to LA, as we have a heap of shoots lined up with the likes of Levi Sherwood, Broc Tickle, Team Motoconcepts and of course Dan Reardon. The 3 hours drive did not go to plan, and it was late Sunday afternoon, the traffic was grid-lock! I think every single person on the west coast of America went to Vegas for the weekend, so we were stuck with them on the drive. Finally we arrived at our hotel at 1am, with only a few hours to sleep and get ready before it all starts again.

Stay tuned for more updates, videos and news at www.unitriders.com

• By Allan H

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Today we had the pleasure of heading out to the house of wheelchair maniac 'Wheelz'. Well known for his crazy antics and double flips on the megaramp at Nitro Circus Live. Wheelz is an inspiration, and at such a young age, has so much ahead of himself.

He took us and our cameras on a tour of his local parks around Las Vegas, and even though we have seen footage and photos of him in action, it is truly breathtaking watching him shred the parks in real life. Everything from massive inverted handplants on 12 foot high quarters, through to silky smooth backflips and 360, he can do it all.

Above is a quick shot of Wheelz blasting a hip for the locals, stay tuned for the rest of the best pictures and video soon at www.unitriders.com.

• By Allan H

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Unit is doing a USA tour this month, stopping in and visiting all of the athletes all around the country. On the first day, a recovering Cam White welcomed us to his Las Vegas pad, and even though all the locals are out right now with injury, they have a bunch of awesome Vegas things for us to do in the coming days.

For this update, we went to the doctor with Cam to get the latest on his horrible knee injury, that he has been forced to get surgery on. By the way, his doctor is awesome! Stay tuned for more updates and full videos from the trip at www.unitriders.com

Courtesy: Unit Clothing

Producer: Allan Hardy

• By Allan H

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What up guys? I just got back to Greenville, been in Portland for the last week for the 2nd stop of the Dew Tour. Portland is always my faviourite stop because the Dirt contest is indoors, so there is no wind.

This year in Portland was sweet, big jumps, indoors, no wind and people just sending themselves. Definitely was a good contest, I ended up getting 11th, they take 9 to the final with the top 3, so unfortunately I had to sit back and whach the finals this stop. I was pretty bummed but oh well, just means i've got to try harder next time. But then again I was also pretty happy sitting on the side line whaching the final, because it was pretty intense. Maddog is just amazing, the kid is 15 years old, he won the first stop in Chicago and then whent on to win the 2nd stop in Portland. The kid is amazing and I have no dout that he is gonna come out on top with his first Dew Cup at the end of the year.

Now back in Greenville, just going to put my head down and learn lots of new tricks. With 2 more stops of the Dew Tour left I'm going to try and make the next 2 stops good ones, but other than that just going to be getting tattooed, getting another sleeve, so it's going to be sweet. Then the guys from Unit are heading over next week to do a bunch of filming and hang out, it's going to be sweet. I've been saveing alot of stuff, so be ready for some good footage, well hopfully, i'm going to try.

• By Allan H

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We haven't brought you to much lately on Chris Kovarik and Claire Buchar, but they have been up to a hell of a lot over the past few weeks, and are just finishing up in Whistler now after a series of Crankworx events. Here is a little rundown of their travels and results...

Crankworx Garbanzo DH

Day 2 of Kokanee Crankworx was the Garbanzo DH, there were 320 athletes in the pro and amateur categories taking to the 12km long course, In the men’s pro category, Chris took first place with a time of 13:22. Congrats!

Crankworx AIR DH

"The Air DH is an unusual race that involves an excavated hard-packed track full of jumps(48 to be exact)and berms. The goal is to stay low on the jumps, stay off the brakes in the berms and sprint your butt off"

Claire had a great race, and despite the wear and tear on the body, came out with a 6th place which she is really happy with. All of the worlds best women DH riders were competing, so congrats Claire!

Chris didn't have quite as much luck, and ended up crashing out. You can check out cool videos from the event HERE and HERE, as well read up on Claire's full blog and results from the event HERE.

Candaian DH Open

It was a hot and slightly humid day at Whistler, 33 degrees to be exact, and dusty, really dusty. Claire put in an awesome effort and came out with a stunning 2nd place. You can read Claire's blog from the Canadian DH Open HERE.

• By Allan H

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Hey bros ,

On the weekend was the Crankworx Whistler Slopestyle final, it is the biggest and baddest event on the slopestyle calendar so I was stoked to get a spot in the final. The course was pretty GNARSTY! Big jumps, big drops and the unforgiving rocky hard whistler dirt.

I headed up for practice at 1pm ready for a 5.30pm start, at 4.30 the crowd really started rolling in. I was blown away wih the amount of people who showed up to watch! Seeing the crowd and also thinking that the event was live on the web had me feeling a bit nervous and pumped at the same time!

5.30 came around and it was time to send it! My first run was money. I landed all my tricks clean and smooth, I took an alternative line on the Kona feature with a wallride to table out thing and came out with an 83.00 score and had me sitting in 4th after everyone did their 1st runs. There was so much carnage in the comp! i wrecked my second run along with alot of other people! After run number two I was in 5th and through to the "Super Final". I was so pumped! I was considering getting rowdy off the 30ft X 25ft drop mid course but decided against it as the consequences were so high and I didn't feel confident enough about spinning it. My 1st run score carried me through to 5th place overall which I am really pumped on! I picked up a well needed cheque and headed out to celebrate! Thanks to everone for the comments and messages, my FB page caught on fire! Haha cheers guys! And thanks to all my great sponsors for making it possible for me to ride my bike.

Cheers. Kelly

• By Allan H

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Hey guys, well my knee is jacked up pretty good, well worse than the already torn ACL. We went down to Cali last weekend to ride Woodward and get ready for the Portland Dew Tour stop. We had a big day in foam on Sunday,
getting all our tricks dialed. Everyone was riding awesome and pulling all their tricks perfect. I was feeling so good going into the contest. I was real stoked on how I felt on my bike as well as the tricks I was doing. On Monday morning we woke up and decided to go to Nasty's to get a quick morning session in before we headed back to Vegas and before the wind came up in Tehachapi. I’m not a huge fan of morning sessions so as we got to Nasty's I decided I was going to ride the 2 dirt spines he has for a warm up. I was pretty stoked on that idea so i didnt have to roll in cold turkey all stiff and sore.

Well on my second warm up lap on the spine, I boosted the 2nd spine, but messed up and was over shooting it a little bit and landing flat and sideways. The spine in only 5 feet tall so its not even a big deal. Well as I landed sideways and flat, that locked my leg straight and twisted it. As it went out of place I heard a crazy sounding series of crunches. Almost like grabbing a handful of potato chips and crunching them. I was in so much pain instantly, but my knee was stuck outta place. Not sure if the knee brace was preventing it from coming back into place or what. I rolled a few meters on my bike before crashing into the grass, as I crashed over I heard another series of crunches as my knee went back into place. Gee wizz I was in some pain. Doing the ligament was pretty gnarly, but I could still walk. I couldn’t even move I was in that much pain. I instantly knew that my BMX season was over. Everything was so wrong, the crunching noise, the movement, the pain, I just knew I had done a lot more damage to my knee. So after some ice, the boys helping me back to the truck and a 4 hour drive back to Vegas, I went straight in to see doc to get an MRI that same day, before even going home. He even drained 2 massive syringes of blood out of my knee. The following day, I was on crutches, couldn’t sleep, still in crazy pain, leg blown up like a balloon, and just over the whole thing so I decide I’m going to get surgery as soon as possible and get this thing fixed. Doc called me and we scheduled surgery for 6am Monday morning (August 15)... He told me that as my knee moved, I tore off all my meniscus, flipped it over and jammed it in between the two bones like a wedge in a door and that’s why I cant move my knee.

Well, as of tomorrow I’m going to have zero knee problems and then the 6 month rehab begins. Not to worry, I have so much stuff on my plate with organizing the next jam. I’m excited and ready to move on from this crappy injury that I have been putting up with since April... Stay tuned for my next update on how surgery goes!

Cheers!
Cam.
 

• By Allan H

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Even if the main event was called off, and the winners were decided via qualifying results, Levi still deserved the win, and we think this was just karma for Levi's bad luck thanks to the same system back at the first round, where his poor qualifying result left him in 7th after that round was cancelled as well.

All in all, Red Bull did an amazing job in London, the course was cool, the location was spectacular and the massive London crowd still got a good show in the end.

Congratulations to Levi, and these results will no doubt shake up the leaderboard for the series heading into the final round, with Levi sitting just 20 points behind series leader Andre Villa, putting him within reach of the series win. Check out a few of the media stories and updates from London below...

FREERIDER MX - Levi Sherwood Tops London

RED BULL X-FIGHTERS - High Voltage FMX As Sherwood Wins In London

RED BULL X-FIGHTERS - Best Action Video

ESPN.COM/ACTION - Levi Sherwood Wins X-Fighters

• By Allan H

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For years now, Dane Searls has been regarded as one of the best big dirt jump riders in the world. Fresh off wins at both Cam White's Hillside Dirtjam, and the Big In Bavaria contest, Dane teamed up with Unit Clothing, to build what is the worlds biggest set of BMX dirt jumps, in an effort to see what is possible and how far he can take BMX dirt jumping.

Part 1 features Dane taking you through the concept of the project, and why it is so special. Follow as Dane works along side Matt Schubring, to build from scratch, one of the largest BMX dirt courses ever constructed, and finally watch as Dane has the first ride. This really isn't your ordinary video or BMX project.

Courtesy:
-Unit Clothing

Producer:
-Allan Hardy

Special Thanks:
-Matt Schubring
-Junior

Music:
-Intro courtesy Lavs Lab www.lavslab.com
-'Addicted' courtesy Bliss N Eso www.blissneso.com

• By Allan H

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Hey guys, how are ya?

I have been in the USA for nearly two months now and i have been loving every moment of it so far. So many highlights, but one that sticks out is getting to ride Dave Mirras warehouse and getting to meet Dave. Such an sureal experience to meet someone that I have looked up to ever since i was a kid.

The first Dew Tour stop was in Chicago a couple of weekes ago, and I was in Open Qualifying for Dirt, where the top 13 made it through to the Prelims and the rest of the tour. The set had a weird jump up and jump down off a trailer mid set which made things weird but it was kinda fun. One thing that sucked was that it was real windy. Either way it was real fun and sitting up on the roll in with all the riders I look up to beside me is crazy.

So I ended up getting 8th in Open Qualifying so I made it through to Prelims but unfortunatley I crashed both runs. But i'm eagar to make up for it this weekend for the Portland Dew Tour stop.

Last weekend a bunch of Aussies who are in Greenville road tripped it to Charlote for the Transam comp. After being on the road for 6hrs then staying in a motel 6 for the night we were at the comp next day. First place was a 1988 Transam. So i dunno wether everyone was eagar to win the car or just wanted to throw down because there was some real crazy riding going on. The Aussies killed it, i think there was like 7 Aussies in the top 10 for Pro. I ended up getting 6th so I'm stoked.

So now i'm just chillin' about to go for a ride at The Unit to try dial in everything before I leave for Portland tomorow. Will keep you posted!

Unitl then, David

• By Allan H

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My trip to Paraguay went a little like this = Over 40 hours of flying and being in Airports, the most amount of beer i have ever drank in my life, wanting to bring every chick i met back to Australia to be my new girl haha and having a whole lot of fun ?

So it was back to Asuncion in Paraguay again to do another show at their annual expo. This time it was huge. 3 hours before the show i realized the air screw was hanging out of my carby so it was rush rush trying to get this bike going as it didn’t run very well. The show ended up being that big they had to get the riot police in with the shields and batons, the kind of stuff you see on movies. Over 20 thousand people going crazy. The show was a lot of fun as Josh Sheehan, Chino from chilli and myself really turned it on for the crowd. The expo loved the show so much that they put on another one a couple of days later. This time they we’re prepared. As we were gearing up, in came over 100 police, including the riot police to keep this crowd under control. My aim was to try and get a riot started but i think the police had more power over them then i did as i failed with that.

It was so much fun getting to hang out with all the guys and girls from Asuncion again as they would have to be the nicest people on the planet and will do anything for you. It kinda makes you feel like your royalty. They were kind enough to give me the nick name of kangaroo gay (real nice of them)

For some reason i have a bad case of memory loss when i go out drinking but luckily all the guys are kind enough to tell me all the funny things that i was carrying on with haha which i can’t really say on here sorry :p

Paraguay would have to have the hottest chicks in the world living there. Unlucky for me i don’t speak Spanish so i didn’t do very well in that side of things, I’m definitely learning Spanish now. I ended up staying for an extra week cause i wanted to have a little bit of a holiday cause i need it haha and also was hoping to find myself a new chicky which i found but she kept telling me she didn’t speak any English when i swear she was talking English to some other guys....... Weird hahaha.

Over all i had the best time as i always do when i go to Asuncion and can’t wait to go back next year or hopefully earlier.

I also want to give a huge congrats to Sincs, Levi and Maddo. Those boys killed it at X Games this year
Which brings me to right now, I’m sitting at Buenos Aires airport waiting for my flight to head back to Australia. Then it’s back into a lot of practicing getting ready for the all new and improved Crusty capital city tour which starts in October. These shows are going to be crazy. So stayed tuned until my next story.

• By Allan H

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Jed gets introduced to one of the locals.

I flew into LAX airport on 10th July with no plan but to ride sick jumps. I found myself a little lost, but contacted two Kiwi boys - Mark Russell from Taupo and Kane O'Hagen from Waikanai – who were staying on Hollywood Boulevard. It took ages to find them, but after a walk down the infamous boulevard I returned to the Banana Bungalow to find the guys here with another Kiwi, Ken, drinking Bud Light.


High-rollin' son!

The next morning we hired a brand new 2009 Chev Landcruiser then drove out to Riverside to meet up with Parslow and TJ who were both at Stephen Murray's house having a BBQ with all the Riverside crew. It was nice to turn up there in that sort of situation and catch up with all my old friends again. After the session ended Luke invited us three out to his house for a Jam. We rode until it was dark, then Luke was kind enough to let us stay for the week. In that week we had a few crazy sessions go down with Parslow double flipping every other day. NUTS.

10 days later I jumped on a plane to Chicago, had a two-hour stopover in Vegas and lost $20 on the damn pokies thinking I was going to hit the $3,000,000 jackpot.


Jed reckons Chicago is the best city he's ever been to for quality street riding.

I landed in Chicago at 5am in the morning with f-all sleep, then spent the next four hours trying to find my hotel (and stumbled across the filming of Transformers 3!) at the Hyatt, then met up with Kiw Paul Langlands and we went on a full-day big mission around Chicago, hitting parts and street spots. I still hadn’t had any sleep but the riding was amazing and kept me amped.


Jed, right, hangin' with fellow Unit rider Nate Berkheimer and nutcase Dennis Enarson post Dew Tour.

The Dew Tour Open qualifier was the next day, but unfortunately none of us did too well and I finished 17th. The Pilgrim and Unit boys all rode well thoughout the whole weekend and done us all proud. After those personal results and the teams results it only seemed right to drink the next three nights away and have a ball. During the week in Chicago we watched as much as we could handle of the Dew Tour and continued the filming quest in one of the best street-riding cities I have ever come across in my life.


Drunk hobos are great entertainment.

I flew back into LAX, and after spending the night crashed in the airport I trained out to Riverside to Luke's house where I spent the remainder of my trip. In that time I did a non-stop 27-hour truck drive with my mate Moses to San Fransisco and back....what a mission! Luke and I watched the X Games on his TV and rode his jumps well into the evenings for the last 3 days of the trip. Huge congratulations to the Pilgrim and Unit guys who rode X Games and were successful – Stevie McCann, you’re the man!

I'm back home in Tauppo now and am a man on a mission. I'd like to say a huge thank you to Unit, Grab A Seat, Rollercoaster, Finn McCuhals Irish Pub, Pilgrim, BMX.CO.NZ, Kicker, Vans, my awesome family and girlfriend for helping make my American trip possible. These last three weeks couldn’t have happened without your ongoing support!

• By Simon M

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Just a quick update on Dane Searls massive new jumps! The crew are all chilling right now in Surfers Paradise, after a long day at the jumps, things went awesome and both Dane Searls and fellow Unit BMX team rider Cam Pianta made it through the first 2 jumps, so we will be back out tomorrow, and if the wind holds off we should alot more crazy stuff.

We aren't gonna share of the action shots with you just yet, but check back to the Unit site over the next few days for the first pics of the historical event.

Photo: The jumps ready to go, courtesy Cam Pianta

• By Allan H

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Hey everyone,

Just back from my trip to Inner Mongolia, where I was doing another demo at the Chinese MX Championship. It was a bit of a surprise to find my bike completely dissasembled and in a big wooden box, but I'm learning to expect anything in that part of the world. The set-up we rode ended up being perfect, with a concrete run up and a massive downy, although the ramp took a bit of adjusting before it was right. I really should know better by now, but I only had a quick look at the ramp then hit it up... big mistake! She pretty much sent me to the moon front wheel first, and for once it wasn't the Chinese food which that had me shitting myself!

We layed the ramp over and drew a 9.1 radius (aussie comp spec) in the dirt next to it... the difference was huge. We figured out they'd somehow got specs of an old US rev 1 ramp and built that instead of the aussie comp... no problem though they just cut the top off the old ramp and welded the new radius on top!

After we got the ramp sorted the shows went off without a hitch, and Vincent, the racer on the team we were riding for won the overall in the racing so it was a successfull weekend.

We headed to Beijing after the event and got to check out the Great Wall and the Olympic Park... the Great Wall is crazy - photos don't do justice how steep it is!

So it's back to work for a few weeks now untill the comp scene here starts to kick off, between the Underground Tour, FMX Pro Open and a few other events it's gonna be a busy couple of months. I gotta get my but into gear and get my riding dialed!

Cheers

Joe

• By Allan H

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Unit sponsored BMX team Team 5050 have been on the road through the great Pacific Northwest and hucking, spinning and flipping their way from Montana to Seattle, WA with Andy Bell and some of the Nitro Circus stars.

Check out this banger shot of Dave Thompson spinning through a 360 on Butte, Montana's main street during the Evel Knievel Days festival on July 22-24. Looking smooth, Dave!

• By Simon M

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Photo: Cam White hanging with the crew from Bliss N Eso a few months back. Cam recently featured in the new BnE filmclip for 'Down By The River'

This past couple of weeks have been real busy. It started by Lavs and I taking a trip out to Woodward East and staying with Anthony Napolitan. It was aweosome to get out there and experience that place. Ever since I was a kid I've wanted to go out there and ride. The trails are a lot of fun and we had heaps of fun sessions. After woodward it was time for the Dew Tour and we headed out to chicago. This was the first stop of the tour, so I was excited to get out there and ride. The course set up was pretty fun, drop in and 2 good size booters followed by a step up, step down, last set and then a wall ride. The only thing that sucks about Chicago is the weather. I'm not a big fan of humidity, plus it was crazy windy. That windy that the tornado sirens were going off throughout the city.. Unfortunately the wind didn't stop, and we had to ride prelims in the craziest gusty weather. It sucked.

For my first run I just wanted to send it, i don't mess up flipwhips too often, but i did that run. I blasted the first set and sent a flipwhip. It was heaps windy but thats not why i stuffed up, i just wasn't mentally focused on exactly what i was doing and crashed. Luckily i didn't get hurt at all. Come time for my second run, I was gonna send it again, but Lavs told me it's not worth it in the conditions, so i toned down my run and did a flip turndown on the first set, as i landed i got smacked in the side of the face with the gnarliest gust of wind, I managed to wheel it through the course and complete my run.

Unfortunately it wasn't enough to make the finals. I'm definately disappointed, but there is always next stop. I'm now back in Vegas, we have a session tonight, so i'm excited to go and knock out about a hundred flipwhips to make sure i dont stuff em up again haha!

2 weeks until Portland stop, so we're in stunt mode. Cheers Cam.

• By Allan H

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Levi Sherwood ripping to his X Games silver medal. PIC: CHRISTIAN PONDELLA/RED BULL PHOTOFILES

Well, the Summer X Games has been run and won for another year, and our riders certainly didn't do themselves a disservice on the world's biggest action-sports stage.

The biggest props go to the super-flexible Levi Sherwood, who nabbed his (and Unit's for that matter!) first X Games medal - a silver in the FMX comp. The Kiwi teenager rode with a maturity beyond his years on a technical course that had a lot of riders struggling, and put together perfect runs every time he hit the arena.

His efforts saw him finish just a point behind the greatest X Games athlete of all time, Travis Pastrana, who landed his first competition Double Backflip since 2006 at the end of his final run, even though the judges had already (and somewhat controversially) decided he'd won the gold medal before he'd even stepped onto the compound for his third run.

Fellow Unit rider Mat Rebeaud also qualified for the final four in the FMX contest, but crashed after he under-rotated an Underflip and was forced to retire. From all accounts he's OK, and will be raring to go for the London round of the Red Bull X-Fighters next weekend.

As it turned out, Unit had athletes competing in every moto discipline at X Games 16.
Newly-signed rider and US FMX legend Beau Bamburg had initially been left off the X Games love-list, but ended up competing in three events - the Best Whip popularity contest (4th), Speed & Style, and Step-Up. Not bad for a bloke who only received his initial Best Whip invite a week before the festival started, then got asked to fill in the gaps in the program once he rocked up.

"Maybe next year ESPN can give me at least two days notice for all the events I do," Bam said on his Twitter afterward.

Speaking of filling gaps, Levi also got asked to take a spot in the Best Trick program after three-peat hero Kyle Loza pulled out at the 11th hour with a wrist injury. Levi busted his trademark Ruler Flip and Dead Body Flip and finished fifth. Aussie Cam Sinclair won the comp with a Double Backflip,and fellow Aussie Robbie Maddison placed second with an amazing Volt to Sidesaddle Lander.

Over on the Super X course, MotoConcepts Yamaha rider Dan Reardon rode to a solid fifth place on a slick, dusty track. Josh Grant won the race, ending Josh Hansen's two-win streak at the event.

Finally, Jimboomba BMX vert stalwart Tim Wood flew the Unit flag in the BMX Vert contest. Wood missed out on qualifying for the final by a hair's breadth, but impressed everyone with his super-clean, technical tricks on the imposing halfpipe.

All up, Summer X Games 16 was Australasia's best-ever showing at the action-sports festival, with the ANZACs coming away with a whopping eight medals (two gold, five silvers and one bronze). Congratulations, everyone!

• By Simon M

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Check out this cool video of Matt Schubring that just popped up over at MX Daily. Schuie has signed on for the up coming Crusty Demons capital city tour and he is riding better than ever, so make sure you get along and watch him throw down!

• By Allan H

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