Say cheese. All photos: Max Duff

Wow. What a crazy, crazy month that's just gone! I found out in July that I received an invite to ride in the open qualifier at the Dew Tour in Portland, Oregon. So with a few weeks to spare, I rushed and booked a ticket over to the states with no real plan except to get to the Dew Tour and ride as much as possible!

I landed in LA just as the X Games were finishing up and met up with some mates from back home in Aus and we all decided to hire a family van and punch it out to Vegas so the guys could spend at least one night there!

After a night in Vegas the guys punched it back to LA and left me to get some riding done! I was lucky enough to have good mate Brakeless Billy let me stay at his place for the week that I was there. Most days we hit up Lav's yard and had some pretty heavy hitting sessions trying to get ourselves ready for the Dew Tour.

Cam W is on his first season back after his knee injury and to be riding in the yard again was dope. He was throwing down like nothing was a problem to him.

After all the gnarly crashes last year TJ has implemented a full face helmet rule in his yard. At first, I thought I would struggle a little bit with it, but after the first session I found it was easier. I actually felt a lot more confident on my bike as I wasn't worried about smashing my head.

Cam laying a one-handed 360 Table over the resy jump at TJ Lavin's yard.

I ended up using the full face on dirt the whole time while I was over there. It only seems to make sense if we are jumping big stuff like we are now, it only takes one fall to ruin your brain! Another thing I learned from Vegas is not to hire a car! Even the smallest one might seem cheap but once you return it, they hit you up with all sorts of crap fees and taxes!

Portland Dew Tour was the next week and after a week of riding with Cam, Billy and the rest of the crew, I felt like I was in good shape to be heading over to the contest. I got in a few days early to help TJ, Aloise, Nate and the rest of the crew build the course.

Once I got there, the guys had already got the first half of the course going and it looked sick! I can't get over how dialled the set up looks after just two days! Amazing!

By the time the contest had come around, I had already smashed myself up really good a few times on the set, so I wasn't too worried to try and send a bit of stuff. I had my run worked out and had done all my tricks that I wanted in practice. I was hoping to front flip no hander the first, then 3 whip the second and then 720 the last.

But come crunch time I screwed up my first run, and on the second run I didn't get my hands off on the first set, then I completely cheesed on the second, but still pulled a 720 on the last. Unfortunately, I didn't make it through and i'm not really sure where I came but I was still stoked with how I rode!


Roadtripping with Kiwi bro Paul Langlands.

After Portland is where the real fun started! I never bothered to book travel back anywhere as I was hoping to run into some mates and see what everyone was doing, then just book a flight to wherever. Turns out some mates of mine from NZ (George, Paul, Fraser and Luke) had bought a van from Canada and were travelling down the entire west coast of the country.

They asked if I would like to join in on the trip as I was kinda planning on getting down to Cali too, so I could catch up with Jed, Nick and Mini. I'm pretty sure they only wanted me to come along because I had an iPhone with Google maps on it, hahah jokes.

Cam shows off his skills on his new fixie.

Anyways, we spent the next week or so travelling down the coast, checking out all the sites and trying to find skateparks to ride - which actually becomes a bit of a problem once you hit Cali because parks out there ban bikes, which is a horrible idea. I don't think I know of one park in Aus that bans bikes so we definitely have it a lot better!

Knowing that finding spots to ride was going to be a bit of a hassle, I called up Nasty to see if we could ride at his yard. Sure enough, Nasty was stoked on the idea so we headed out there and ended up staying a few days there with him so we could get some riding done! He even managed to take all the guys out to Woodward East to check it out, so that was a bit of a surprise too!

After a few days out at Nasty's yard, we headed in to Riverside to hit up "Da Compound" (old Real Ride skatepark). They have recently undergone a bit of a facelift with their trails out back so we spent a good eight hours that day just shredding and having a blast out there.

It was such a fun spot to ride with mates because there are so many lines and transfers and it's not super hard! We ended up chilling around that area for the next day or two before we had to drop most of the guys off at the airport. We did get to spend some time down at Huntington beach and do all the tourist-like things down there though.

Once we dropped the guys off, myself and Paul headed out to Luke Parslow's house to stay out there with Jed, Nick and Mini. So my last week was spent having the time of my life in Luke's backyard riding with everyone and just pulling back everywhere!

Besides getting stranded at the airport for one day on the way home, my trip turned out amazing. Of course there are more stories but I could fill 100 pages.

Thanks to everyone that helped out, rode with us, gave us directions, or just in general are rad - I appreciate it!

Cheers

Cam Pianta

• By Simon M

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Check out the brand new music video from Bliss N Eso, for their track 'Coastal Kids'. Featuring some of the biggest names in the Action Sports Industry, all coming together for this first of a kind music video. Stars include Robbie Maddision, Blake "Bilko" Williams, Cam White, Anthony Napolitan, Daniel Watkins, Mark Mathews & Many More!

• By Allan H

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Australian shredder Andrew "Mini" Ahumada recently spent some time in Greenville, North Carolina and Unit caught up with him to capture some of the madness. Like amazing park riding? Watch this.

Music: 'Sleep With The Fishes' by Velociraptor

• By Allan H

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Over the weekend Unit's #1 FMX rider Tom Pagès posted a fairly understated post on his official Facebook fanpage.

It read: "I just tried my new quarterpipe. Need some more practice I guess".

After watching the clip we were astounded to see the crazy Frenchman landing two Flairs on a FMX bike! Just to put things in perspective the last - and only - time someone landed a Flair on a moto was back in 2008 when Fredrick Johannsen busted one out at the Madrid X-Fighters.

Pagès has one of the craziest trick arsenals in FMX, with the Volt, huge Whip combos and now the Flair in his bag of tricks.  If we know Tom as well as we think we do we haven't seen the end of his progression; we can't wait to see how far he pushes this new move.

• By Simon M

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Unit's Junior MX Academy riders Dylan Wilson, Mason Rowe, Haki Waller, Jay Wilson, Sam Martin, Kurt Waterman and Richie Evans chillin' like villians at the go-karts after an intense two days of riding and physical punishment. Photos: Simon Makker

Some of Australia's and New Zealand's best young riders converged on the Gold Coast over the past two days to get their mettle tested at the hands of some of the best names in the motocross business.

The Unit Junior MX Academy riders were part of the first-ever Academy Bootcamp, and were subjected to all sorts of physical and mental challenges at the hands of MotoDevelopment coaches Chris Urquhart and Shane Booth.


NZ's Haki Waller receives orders from Monster Kawasaki's #1 racer Dean Ferris at the beginning of the bootcamp.

There was no mucking about, with Day 1's first session of the two-day camp involving a VO2 Max beep test, and push-up, sit-up, standing jump, 20m sprint and "iron chair" tests to find out exactly who has been training hard and who's been taking things a little easier.

As a true litmus test Monster Energy Kawasaki racer Dean Ferris also took part to showthe boys the level they need to be at if they're to become the best in the sport. For some it was a bit of a wake-up call while others thrived and found themselves barking hard on Ferris's heels in several of the tests.


Jay Wilson leads Sam Martin through the intensive lap session.

After a beach recovery session and a feed at Wahoo's in Burleigh it was time to hit the track with some intense, short, sharp races to get the boys really blowing hard. To cap it off Urky and Boothy lined them up for a 25-lap head-to-head relay that brought out some amazing passes and some reat rivalry between the boys.

It wasn't all fitness and testing though - to keep things mixed up the boys returned from the track to the Unit HQ for a lecture on sponsorships and dealing with the media, with some great advice passed down from both the Unit and MotoDevelopment guys.

After dinner and a quick bash at night golf the lads were pretty wrecked and went back to their hotels for the night for some much-needed shut-eye. They were going to need it.


Gold Coast grom Mason Rowe wasn't exempt from the hard work. Here he gives the paddleboarding a good crack at Currumbin river.

Day 2 started at 5.30am with a gruelling paddleboard session and extreme workout session with legendary Ironman racer Guy Andrews and MX legend Stephen Gall. If the boys thought they were going to cruise into Day 2 they were very, very wrong. After two hours of some hard graft in the hands of one of the Coast's toughest athletes they had a welcome breakfast break before packing their gear into their vehicles and boosting to Urquhart's private track in the mountains behind Nerang.


Aboard a borrowed CRF450 Kurt Waterman impressed with his smooth, super-quick riding style.

With Dean Ferris also there to show the boys what a quick lap-time looks like, the JRMX groms put down their fastest lap around the rolling, jump-littered track, then had to push as hard as they could through a handicapped 20-minute moto.

Even after this the guys were still managing a smile, so they packed up again and drove to Reedy Creek for a three-hour coaching session on line choices, bike skills and a final bike test that guaranteed the boys smiles had transformed into grimaces and they were wel and truly broken.


Cairns junior Richie Evans proved to be the star of the weekend, and picked himself up a custom-painted Tagger Designs helmet for his efforts. This kid is a workhorse!

With the hard work behind them it was time to relax with an evening of tearing up the indoor go-kart circuit in Nerang, then a morning of wakeboarding with Unit founder Paul Everest on the spectacular Gold Coast waterways. After two days of beating up the body it was a welcome reprieve and a chance to relax and let the muscles relax.

All up the first JRMX Academy Bootcamp was a raging success. With the Australian Junior Nationals and Super X just around the corner the boys picked up some valuable skills and now know their strengths and weaknesses, and can plan accordingly.

This is going to be the first of what we hope will be a yearly event, and is definitely going to help further junior careers and help breed the next generation of champions.

• By Simon M

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Check out this cracker video of all the crazy tricks that were thrown at the Red Bull District Ride at Nuremburg, Germany last weekend. Unit's Andreu Lacondeguy walked away with the trophy and cash with an astounding Superflip he seemed to hold for decades. Check it for yourself!

• By Simon M

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Unit FMX bad dude Kain Saul has just told us he will be off the bike for between six and nine months after crashing hard and doing serious damage to his shoulder at the Ken Block Gymkhana 10 days ago.

During practice for the main event, a gust of wind hit Sauly from the side and he landed sideways, careening into the concrete barrier alongside the Showtime FMX set-up.

“We were trying to get the timing right for a section in the show where Ken drifted between the ramp and the downramp while we jumped over him,” the Gold Coaster explained. “We had six or seven practice jumps, then a gust of wind came out of nowhere and hit me. We were set-up on the dragstrip with a concrete barrier down the side, so when I landed sideways I smashed straight into it.

“I didn’t scratch my Unit helmet, which was a plus, but I hit the fence with my hand above my head and it screwed my shoulder.”

With his injured limb giving him all sorts of trouble Kain went for an MRI on Friday and received the bad news on Monday that he is out for between six and nine months with a full shoulder reconstruction.

“I can raise my arms above my head no problem, but if I move it fast I can feel bone crunching around,” he explains. “My shoulder has been screwed for a fair while and I’ve been getting physio for a year. It’d come good but then I’d crash and it’d degrade back to 50 per cent. This last crash, which is similar to what my mate Steve Mini did to his shoulder in the Nitro Circus Show at the beginning of the year, just set it off.”

Sauly had shows lined up with Showtime for the rest of the year, and a good portion of 2012, but now he’s going to be stuck on the couch.

“I’ll probably get a painkiller addiction,” he laughs. “No doubt I’ll be hitting the PS3 hard and hanging out in the clubhouse my mate Top Dog is building out the back. I’m going to have a bit of time on my hands.”

All the best for a speedy recovery, buddy!

• By Simon M

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One of the images of Lacondeguy that has dropped jaws around the globe. PHOTO: www.flohagena.com/Red Bull Content Pool

Oh.My.God.
Just when we thought we had seen everything Unit MTB nutcase Andreu Lacondeguy is capable of, Barcelona's bike-master hits a whole new level of crazy.

At the hugely popular Red Bull District Ride in Nuremburg, Germany over the weekend, Lako had the crowd bellowing in disbelief at his huge tricks over the 50ft Best Trick set-up on his way to winning the contest.

Andreu won the Best Trick comp with arguably the biggest Superflip ever thrown on a MTB, but it was photos of his hyper-extended right-way-up Supermans that have flooded news articles, forums and message boards across the action-sports world, and overshadowed the freeride contest winner Sam Pilgrim's impressve performance.

We've added a few of our favourite photos here for your viewing pleasure.


The move that won Andreu the Best Trick award at the Red Bull District Ride - picture-perfect Superflip above the masses. PHOTO: Energiemg/Pinkbike.com


Another angle of Lako's huge Superflip. PHOTO: stupendousman/Pinkbike.com


Andreu soars through the beautiful Nuremburg town centre. PHOTO: stupendousman/Pinkbike.com


Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Andreu celebrates his Red Bull District Ride Best Trick victory. PHOTO: www.flohagena.com/Red Bull Content Pool

For full highlights from this awesome event check the clip below:

• By Simon M

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The third stop of the 2011 Dew Tour went down this weekend, and saw Unit BMX riders Kyle Baldock, Cam White, Jaie Toohey and Nate Berkheimer all make it through to the BMX Dirt finals. For this event there was no BMX Park contest, but this will be returning at the fourth and final round of the Dew Tour in Vegas next month.

This dirt course was definitely the biggest and technically hardest of the series so far. To wrap it up, Brett Banasiewicz took the win, Dennis Enarson 2nd, Brandon Dosch 3rd and Unit rider Jaie Toohey 4th (as well as scoring the highest single run of the night!). Jaie Toohey has been riding so well in the last few months, and it is really starting to pay off! Cam White and Kyle Baldock rode great, throwing down some massive tricks, but were plagued with a little bit of bad luck and didn't end up as high as they would have liked.

Cam White is riding incredibly well right now, and proving that he is back in a big way after nearly a year off the bike from an ACL / knee reconstruction. We can't wait to catch up with Cam once he is back at his home trails at the end of the year; expect to see an amazing video edit!

Kyle Baldock will be feeling the pressure now heading into the final round in Las Vegas next month, after slipping down the championship standings this week. However, he more than made up for it in the Dew Tour Best Trick contest, which he won with ease.

The 30-minute jam format Best Trick contest was held straight after the regular contest, and basically just gave all the riders the perfect jump / setup to try all their new crazy tricks. With $5000 up for grabs there were some massive crashes, and it was Unit riders Jaie Toohey and Kyle Baldock who stood out above the rest. Jaie Toohey stomped a perfect Backflip Triple Tailwhip, but it wasn't enough to top Baldock, who landed a world first 360 Downside Whip to Double Whip back! Check out all of the best trick video above - there were a heap more tricks that Baldock attempted and landed.

• By Allan H

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The Trace Sports/ IMG Media crew from the UK have just released this great in-depth TV documentary into the life and times of Unit's two-time 4X World Champion and BMX Olympic hopeful Caroline Buchanan. It was aired on national TV in throughout England.

It digs right into her psyche and finds out what makes her tick, where she's come from and what she does to let her hair down between gym and track sessions, while also showing just how much grit, determination and discipline is needed to reach the pinnacle of the sport.

Make sure you check this out!

• By Simon M

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Unit presents Bliss N Eso TV: Behind The Scenes Of The Coastal Kids Video.

After months in the making, Bliss n Eso return with their latest video project, COASTAL KIDS! Sit back as we take you behind the scenes, featuring some of the biggest names in the action sports industry, including Robbie Maddison, Bilko, Daniel Watkins and Unit athletes Matt Schubring, Dane Searls & more!

STAY TUNED: The Coastal Kids music video drops Tuesday September 20 exclusively at Blissneso.tv!

• By Allan H

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Unit BMX flow team rider Nate Berkheimer recently made the move from Las Vegas to Seattle, so we took a trip up to hang out and film Nate at some of his new local spots. A big thanks must go out to all the locals who let us ride, film and hang out at the trails that they put so much effort into over the years.

Executive Producer: Unit Clothing

Filming & Editing: Allan Hardy

Music: Sweet Summer Rain by The Main Street Gospel http://www.myspace.com/themainstreetgospel

• By Allan H

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Josh was stoked on picking up second place in the Finist'Air Best Trick contest in France.

Hey guys, I thought I'd give you an update of what I've been up to in Europe.

First up I rode the Lords Of Dirt  contest in Tosse, France. It was an awesome event: the fun jumps were a pretty decent size and the level of riding was up there too.

Unfortunately I couldn't put the solid two runs in because the jam format changed and we only got a total of three runs. However I did stick was was said to be the best run of the dayand finished seventh. That top run consisted of a one-foot X-Up Flip, Frontflip Table, 360 One-Footed Table and ended with a Double Flip. It was over a rather small set of doubles, but I just sent it!

After Lords Of Dirt was The Finist'Air Show, which was really fun. The course featured a nice, big six-pack with a big drop-off and a really chill vibe (that's been the best part of Europe -  everything's really laid back and well organised). I put some good runs in for the crowd with some Flip One-Foot X-Up to Turndowns, Frontflip Tables and 360 variations in both directions. I got second in the Best Trick comp behind Jaie Toohey's Triple Flip Whip.


Josh hanging with TJ Ellis and Cory Nastazio at the Vans Kill THe Line contest on the weekend.

We then moved on to Peynier for the Vans Kill The Line contest. First impressions were really good - the line looked DELICIOUS and rode as good as it looked! We had three days to ride them, so I was really relaxed by the time the contest came.

I qualified in sixth or seventh, which saw me progress to the 20-man finals on Sunday. The weather really packed it in on Sunday morning, and the rain poured until lunchtime. I had a light breakfast of a couple rock melons, but for some strange reason I got really sick, throwing my guts up and shitting my brains out. I was stuck in the foetal position for an hour while everyone warmed up and I couldn't think of anything else except how messed up the situation was.

I finally felt just good enough to get up, so raced over to get two warm-up runs in before the finals. Surprisingly I felt pretty good straight up, so I put in a solid first run. I went to out-do it in my second, but crashed pretty hard on an Oppo 3 Whip, which left me mad as hell.

The last set was pretty small and had a steep lip, but wanted to Double Flip anyways. I put a good run in up to it, then went for a One-Foot Table over the second to last and didn't feel the pump, so was left with a fast single Flip instead.

I rounded out the contest with a fourth place finish, which I felt could've easily been first if I'd played my cards a little better. All in all the day was great and I was able to walk away with only a few bumps and bruises.

That's all for now - I'm about to head into a 16-hour roadtrip to Prague for a comp this weekend - I'll let you know how I go!

- Josh
 

• By Simon M

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Our good buddy Nick "Richo" Richardson is back riding after a lengthy layoff with a broken arm, and has teamed up with the crew at Helensvale BMX to do a quick bike check of his new ride. Afterwards Richo took his new rig to the local park for a bit of a 'crete n' coping crushin' session. Enjoy.

Richo is wearing the Skippy singlet, available from our online store.

• By Simon M

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Aaron "Wheelz" Fotheringham spent the day with young Dustin from Germany as part of a Make A Wish Foundation initiative.

Unit wheelchair freestyler Aaron "Wheelz" Fotheringham spent a day late last week making someone's lifelong dream come true.

Young Dustin (pictured right) and his family were flown from Germany to Wheelz's home town of Las Vegas to spend a day hanging out with Wheelz as part of a Make A Wish Foundation intiative.

As well as taking a tour of Vegas Dustin hit the local skateparks with the Nitro circus star and tore up the concrete bowls and coping.

"It was a great day hanging out with him," Wheelz said afterward. "Dustin took some gnarly falls, but he did awesome. It was really humbling that one of his dreams in life was to come and hang out with me for a day, and I'm stoked to be able to have made his wish come true."

The Make A Wish Foundation is a non-profit organisation that grants wishes to children (2.5 years to 18 years old) who have life-threatening medical conditions.

• By Simon M

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