For the past 3 weekends I’ve been surfing Jeff Dempler’s couch while we catch clips and pictures with the rest of the guys in San Jose. It’s not the most comfy couch on the planet, but it’s a hell of a lot better than sleeping on the floor. Here’s a photo of him hitting an icepick stall on a ledge at San Jose State. Keep your eyes peeled for more media from my stay in the upcoming weeks.
Here’s a couple photos that I took of Mike Schmitt while I was in SJ last weekend. He’s been riding with a thumb swollen to the size of a miniature blimp for a minute now. Despite all that, he still managed to hit this double peg stall at SJ State.
The Fixed Gear scene in San Jose has hands down the largest community of freestyle riders I’ve ever seen. It’s the kind of place where people don’t just ride bikes, they ride fixed gear. Every time I go down there to ride it seems like there are more and more kids popping out of the woodwork. At this rate, it looks like Fixed Freestyle will be around for a long time to come.
Last weekend I took the train down to San Jose to do some riding and filming with everyone out there. Christian Hamrick just moved out to the West Coast and got a place in DTSJ w/ Mike Schmitt. It seems like everyone from the East Coast is making their way West. The top photo is a group shot of Hambone’s Bike, and the bottom is a shot of just about everyone. (Ed, Mike, Scott, Devon, Hamrick, Montoya, & Jeff)
Here’s a screen shot I pulled last weekend of Ed giving 14 year old Gabe Alcantar some last minute advice before riding down this beast of a drop. He drew up quite the crowd during the time he spent on top the building, sizing up the drop. Cars, bikers, pedestrians all stopped and pulled out their iPhones, iPads, and cameras to record Gabe ride off this shit. We began to draw a pretty substantial crowd of on lookers until the inevitable Police Car rolled up on the spot. It was now or never, so Gabe gave it one final crank and hurled himself off the bank to drop.
Matt Montoya recently put together this piece for iMiNUSD using the shop’s camera. There’s some clean lines in here, not to mention quite a few night shots. The video features IMD Riders Ed Wonka, Anthony Combs, Matt Montoya, Devon Lawson, Alex Blanco, & Gabe Alcantara. Can’t wait to see more from these guys holding it down for their hometown of San Jose.
SADIO BIKES welcomes Scott Horton to the Team, as their newest addition to the International lineup. He’s been putting in work on his PFIX w/ Sadio Components ever since we got them in the mail a few months back. Scott pedals hard into everything he ride, and has some interesting tricks up his sleeve, the hop through the bars to peg ride being one of them. Check out his page on the Sadio site HERE.
Christian Hamrick put this together while he was back out here in the Bay a couple weeks ago. There are some great clips in here both b-roll and riding. Cunningham Skatepark is so big you could ride it every day and never get tired of it. You’re always finding something new, especially if you’re around the right kind of people. And right now, San Jose is the place to be for Fixed Freestyle. There is such a strong FGFS presence, and the scene is so huge that there are new kids popping up ever day.