July/November 2009 - Update

Not a great deal of riding has been going on in the last 3 or 4 months. I've had a bad run of injuries which hasn't been fun at all, but its my first major injury since 2005 and riding in such a dangerous sport you're bound to cop a few breaks. Since i last wrote....

The beginning of the year is always flat out with tours etc and from June onwards the shows thin out a bit and there aren't as many long trips away. Its more just the one off shows to keep you busy.

I've ridden demmos in Dalby, Sunshine Coast and Brisbane in the last couple of months, all of which were a lot of fun. I'd been working really hard on my riding so the shows were getting easier and even more enjoyable. I've been taking my BMX to shows as well and finding skate parks and dirt jumps to play around on while we're away. The BMX was getting really fun as I was getting used to jumping without an engine and getting more adventurous with it. Unfortunately though, I had a good old fashioned crash while riding on some dirt jumps. I sprained my shoulder pretty seriously, leaving me in a lot of pain and unable to move my arm at all. I had 4 weeks of physio as I needed to get back on my moto for some more shows coming up in Brisbane and Sydney. It's annoying to hurt yourself on a bicycle after riding motos for so long, but that's what happens when you lead an active lifestyle.

I'd been riding again for a couple of days, practicing and getting used to my injured shoulder which was improving and having fun. In Brisbane, I probably shouldn't have been back on the bike so soon and I think this contributed to me crashing again. This time I fractured both of my ankles. I didn't require surgery, but the bones I broke take a long time to heal. It's been 10 weeks off the bike now with hopefully only another 2 weeks to go. I'm itching to get back on the bike and get right back into it, but also nervous that I still won't be at 100% and may have to take an even longer rest.

A massive thanks to my family, and friends who looked after me during my lay off. Hilly, Shell, Lee, Josh, Brooke, Jim, Andy and every other person who has copped me being injured and looked after me. And especially Laura, you're a diamond. Hopefully my next update will be full of stories of me riding and back at 100% and better than before!

Until next time. Take care.

May/June 2009 - Update

Its been another super busy time for me I've had a bunch of shows, another Qld tour, moved house and the usual battling the weather so I can ride and practice.

Easterfest in Toowoomba didn't quite go as planned. We set up in our designated area as per normal with a lot of granstand area set up nice and close which was going to create an awesome atmosphere as well as having 8 of the best BMX riders in the country riding in the same arena we were all very excited to do some big shows! Unfortunately though the weather had other ideas and it rained on and off the whole weekend making it too slippery and unsafe for us to jump. The bmx boys did a scaled down show and rode in some unfavourable conditions and still managed to put on some great shows.
 
Not much practice got done in the next few weeks as the weather was terrible and my trusty old van blew up when I was coming back from practice one afternoon. Its a real pain but luckily I went on tour the next week and its being fixed as we speak so hopefully everything is back to normal soon.
 
The May tour of Qld with JC epidemic went really well this year. I'd been battling the flu before we left but I managed to get well enough to ride all of our shows which was a really busy schedule this time around, being 14 shows in 17 days covering around 5000 k's at the same time! Fortunately though the team who go away with us have all been on a few tours before and everyone worked well together and got the job done safely.
 
When I got back I'd just over a week to pack up my belongings and move house. I have returned to Qld again as a lot of my time lately had been spent driving somewhere in Qld to train or hang out with my friends, so it made sense to be a little closer. I'm at Mt Tamborine for now, right next to a practice set up I ride at here and it's been really fun. I ride fmx every day through the week when the weather is good and I do some BMX for fun and fitness. I also get down to Reedy creek MX track to keep on top of bike skills and try to be fast on the track. haha.
 
The other day I got a package turn up from DC shoes. Jim from JC Epidemic has been talking to DC since we met them when we were on our NSW/ Vic tour in Feb this year and although its nothing official I'm stoked to say a few pairs of new DC's are now in my wardrobe and hopefully its the start of a good relationship with the company so thanks to the guys there. I'm stoked with my new shoes!
 
A massive thanks to my dad Phil, Jim and Andy for helping me move and giving me and my bike a lift while I've been without a car. If anyone wants to catch up or hang out with me I'm at Reedy Creek MX track most Tuesday nights, so if you are around come say hi. Until next time ride hard, stay safe. Cheers.

April 2009 - Update

Another busy month for me which I'm really happy about. Its great to have lots of shows on as you get to travel around and see lots of stuff and it helps keep the bills paid! The weekend after I returned from the southern tour with JC epidemic, I was off to Coonabarrabran for their annual show. Some quetionable weather seemed to follow us everywhere we went for the weekend with lots of wind and storms around. But thankfully it all seemed to miss the showgrounds and we got to ride all of our shows for the day and they all came off without a hitch. It was my last show on the 08 model yz 250 as my new 09 from Yamaha has arrived and I've had it all set up now which I'm really stoked about! Its a great bike and its awesome to be on a freshie and its looking extra bling with a full team gaffics kit thanks to Ringmaster images. I got to ride at a new bike park while in Coona called Goanna tracks. The park is still under construction but what they have made so far is unbelievable. Theres a MX track which is 40ft wide all the way around and is 2.9km long! it goes over a bit of a mountain and its just like an american nationals track. The guys there have big plans and if whats already out there is anything to go by the place is going to be an icon.
 
I've just returned from Dalby and another show with JC epidemic. It was my first time jumping ramps on the new bike and I'm happy to say it all went well for me. It was a pretty full on day with more bad weather hanging around rain, wind, thunder and lightening, but by the end of the night it had all blown over and we got to ride a normal show. This thursday 9th Feb, I leave to do Easterfest at Toowoomba. It should be a lot of fun, fingers crossed we have good weather for it! Be sure to check back in to find out what I'm up to. Cheers.

MArch 2009 - Update

I have just returned from a 3 week tour of shows with JC Epidemic. We did 9 shows all over NSW and Victoria heading down the coast and coming back up inland. Despite windy conditions at nearly every event, we pushed on and still managed to put on some good riding and the crowds were always pumped. One of the best shows was in Broken Hill where about 3,500 people turned out, which was huge for a small town and especially for a monday night!

This weekend, 14-15 March, I'm riding at the Coonabarrabran show. So it's another trip south for me. In coming weeks I'm doing a show at Dalby and a 3 day event called Easterfest in Toowoomba, which sees about 15,000 people come through the gates daily for the 3 days.

Hopefully I'll soon have some on board video from some of my recent demmo's! Keep an eye out for me in the next issue of freeriderMX magazine it should be out this month! 

 

February 2009 NSW - Victoria Tour
 
In just under 3 weeks I leave for our next tour with JC Epidemic! We are going south this time all the way down the east coast to Melbourne and then returning north via inland doing shows all along the way. I'm really looking forward to this tour as Jim is now flipping really well and we've both been practicing a lot so hopefully our shows are stepped up a notch from last year. We have a lot planned for this year with JC Epidemic and we want to do as many shows as possible. If anyone is interested in having JC Epidemic come to your town to do a show go to www.jcepidemic.com and contact Jim or contact myself through this website! Thanks for reading guys, keep checking for more updates I'll be posting new pics and stories monthly. Cheers.
 

January 2009 Magazines!
 
With all of the extra support comes the added duty of getting yourself published in magazines. And lately we've stepped it up a bit and have been getting coverage on front page of newspapers and also a couple of stories in Freerider MX. I'm happy to say I scored a full page photo running my new AXO gear in issue 53 of Freerider MX which has just hit the stores. And also have myself in two photo shoots/stories coming up in issue 54. Theres a DVD that comes with the mag too so keep an eye out for some of the footage! I also was lucky enough to be a part of a bike test of the new KTM 150SX. It's a fun bike, a lot like a worked 125 but stock standard and it seemed to handle me being on the back of it even though I'm on the heavier side of things, now being 89kgs.
 
 

2008 Wrap up!
 
Well it's been more than a long time since I've updated this page and a lot has happened as you can imagine, both on & off the bike. Since I last wrote I've moved house, got a puppy, started learning to surf, and done a lot of shows! I moved to a little beach town situated inbetween Byron Bay and Tweed Heads just over 6 months ago. It's a great spot, nice and close to the beach and plenty of riding around the place. My practice set up is a 10 minute drive away with a ramp and a track set up. Also Reedy Creek MX track, which I spent many weekends at with my dad as a junior racer, is a 20 minute drive as well so I get up there whenever I can to do a bit of moto and fitness. Plenty of practice hours have been clocked up and as 2008 unfolded so did quite a few shows.
 
Qld tour - May
 
I finished off the last update as I was getting ready to do a tour of Queensland with JC Epidemic and their new portable set up. It turns out we went all the way up to Weipa which is on the far north eastern side of the cape which was much further than I'd ever been in Qld. All our shows ran pretty smoothly I was riding confidently on my new Yamaha and the portable landing ramp which the guys had built is a bit of a masterpiece! Gone are the days of bringing in and shaping tonns of dirt. Now its a truck that drives around and doesn't leave a mark when its gone. Its enormous easily the biggest portable landing I've ever jumped on with all the angles of safety covered. It is really tall, wide and has a big air bag at the front in case of bike failure which makes it all very good to use. It feels like you are jumping onto a kids jumping castle and it can be set up/packed up within 20 minutes which is really fast and really practical! We did a lot of K's on that tour and went to lots of cool little towns, got to go pig chasing thanks to Jim being a bit of a bushy and also bull wrangling which was pretty scary trying to chase a wild bull through the bush. Nobody was hurt though and everyone had at least one scary encountering a wild animal.
 
Qld Youth Alive tour - August
 
Just when the dust had finally cleared out of the trucks air conditioning I got the call up to do another tour with JC Epidemic as part of the Youth Alive tour which runs every year with bands and some seakers from the USA touring all major cities in Qld as an outreach to youths who could use some support. Our part was to perform a demmo at every stop just before the main show with the bands kicked off. It was a lot of fun being a small part of a bigger event as our bit was finished early and we got to relax and soak up the rest of the show. But for me there wasn't much hanging around after shows as I'd managed to get the flu, which from not looking after myself enough turned into the worst flu I've ever had! We went all the way up to Cairns and again Jim lined it up with a local to go pig chasing and also get in a boat and hoon up and down the Daintree looking for crocks! I must say when you see a big salty in person in the wild for the first time it definately gets your blood pressure up! Those things are big, mean and can move really fast if they want to. We all made it out of there in one piece though and were more than happy to be back in the cars heading home. The last stop of the tour was in Brisbane at the riverstage. Id been to some music festivals there before and it was really fun to ride right in front of the main stage! It was a great demo with heaps of spectators and an awesome way to finish off the tour.
 
Major flu August - September
 
As I just mentioned, I  got a flu on the Youth Alive tour, and with me not looking after myself it got worse and worse as time went on and I ended up being really sick for the best part of a month. It was a nasty one it was a viral flu infection meaning anti biotics wouldn't work and that I got all these crazy symptoms including headaches, fever, hallucinations, sweating heaps but feeling cold then burning up, and a stomach bug which mean't I couldnt eat. I had a chest infection that made it really painfull and hard to breathe and I was that sore and out of energy I couldnt sit up, all I could do was lay face down in bed and crawl to the bathroom for a shower to lower my fever from time to time. I missed a few shows from it and didnt feel 100% for a couple of months afterwards. It was a nasty nasty experience and something I never want to go through again, I'll definately be taking more care of myself from now on!
 
In that time I got a puppy too, for my birthday, his name is Tyson and he's a Miniature Sausage dog! He's a spoilt little terra but good to have around when I was sick and he just loves walkies on the beach. After being sick I  got stuck into fitness training more as I wanted to get healthy again and being fit helps loads when you are riding all the time so that has been keeping me busy as coming into the end of the year there wasn't too many shows going on just a couple of one offs here and there.
 
October to Chrissy!
 
To round the year off a lot of time was spend by Jim and myself organising sponsors and support for the team for 2009. Its something that takes a lot of time and effort to get happening even when you have a set up and lots of shows on the calendar. But we've recieved a lot of interest and have now started getting support from:
 
Yamaha Australia
AXO sports riding gear and boots
Shark helmets
Bell Ray oils
Unifilter
Ringmaster Images has hooked the team up with trick graffics kits
And I've continued on with my personal sponsors being Afends Clothing and Dragon Optical
 
Its great to be getting support from big companies and I look forward to building the relationship with them as time goes on. We are still in the process of organising bikes and a few things but the riding gear and some other stuff has come through and I'm really excited to be running it in 2009 as it looks and feels awesome so a huge thanks to everyone whos come on board!

 2008. The year so far...

2008 got off to a quiet start. With constant rain & storms all over the east coast washing out most weekends, it was virtually impossible to get any practice in at all. I travelled south to Newcastle in February to practice the backflip into a foam pit. But once again the heavens opened and the foam pit run up was under water. So this ended up just having a regular practice session.

A month later and the weather was still terrible for riding on the North Coast, so I ventured back to sunny Newcastle for what turned out to be perfect riding weather. I spent the weekend riding the ramps and had a couple of foam pit sessions too. I managed to get a few flips around but unfortunately I landed a little awkward on one attempt and twisted my knee badly. This put me out of action for 4 weeks, but I was really happy with the progress I made with the backflip and I'm looking forward to taking it further next time.
 
After spending some time on the couch waiting for my knee to settle down, I got a call to fill in on one of the Yamaha Showtime FMX freestyle shows in Mudgee NSW. A mixture of nerves and excitement rushed over me when I heard the news. These shows went really well, and it was a great experience to get to ride with a factory backed team and see how "the big boys" do things.
 
The next two weeks flew by, working full time and then madly trying to my set up my bike so I could ride again. Then a last minute call again from the Yamaha Showtime FMX team had me packing my bags and driving to Sydney to take part in the Royal Easter Show the next day.

 
The Sydney Show is the second biggest event of the year on the FMX calendar. Second only to the Crusty tour with crowds of up to 25,000 per show and two shows per day for 14 days. Thankfully we were put up in a really nice apartment for our stay which had a gym, pool and sauna to unwind after the long days. Riding at an event of this size though was something on another level. There were two portable set ups, with some of the countrys most talented riders all choreographed to music, fireworks, lazers, stunt cars and having to, for the first time perform syncronized tricks with the other riders. Factor this in with 3 days of rehearsalls then straight into 14 days really takes its toll on you physically and mentally. Just to maintain that high level of performance day in, day out and all the riding makes your body sore so it was a great feeling of relief and accomplishment to touch down safely on the last jump of the last show. All in all it was an awesome experience. I was warmly welcomed into the team as the now back up rider for Yamaha Showtime FMX, received great support with my bike through to new helmets and gear and a new goggle sponsor in Dragon optical. www.dragonalliance.com
 
After the long drive home I left the next day for another show with JC Epidemic in Qld at dalby. It was a relaxed, one day event and being fresh from riding every day for the past what felt like eternity, I had an awesome time. The confidence and time on the bike from Sydney made this show just an absolute blast to ride. I rode harder than I ever had before and you couldn't wipe the smile off my face.
 
Its been a couple of weeks now and I've finally got my new bike with a huge thanks to Marty at Team Moto Yamaha in Blacktown. They really looked after me to get me onto my new bike. Since then I've set it up and been riding it flat out. Its great to be on a new bike and it runs to perfection.
 
Coming up I have a tour of Queensland starting on the 14th of May until the 4th of June with JC Epidemic heading from Longreach all the way up to Cook Town, to check dates and towns go to www.jcepidemic.com and come see me ride in your local town! Until next time, Cheers.
 

Event Diary 2007

May 5 - 10 JC Epidemic demo's - Gold Coast - Longreach

After returning home from China and letting out a sigh of relief to be back in my own comfy bed and not having to think about anything but rest, the phone rings. In two days time i had another show to do at the Gold Coast with JC Epidemic at Exo day, The JC guys are a great bunch of people who put on shows and youth events for kids who have had less than perfect up bringing's to show them that clean living influenced by God is another option that they may not have been offered before, its a good cause and the team do a lot of thankless work so my hat goes off to them. You can check out who they are and what they are about here www.jcepidemic.com The Gold Coast show went really well, it was awesome to be right back on my bike in front of aussie fans and doing what i love, the end of the night was cut short due to rain but we packed up quick and early the next morning was another long drive out to Longreach, birthplace of Quantas Airways and home for me and the place i was riding at for the next few days.

The shows went really well out at longreach with another safe set up put on by the JC guys and riding with Aussie FMX pioneer Matt Cole i had a great time. The crowed were really pumped by the riding and made a lot of noise and with the last of the rum in longreach drank and the last cowboy to get into his swag, there was nothing left to do but say goodbye and start the long haul home. I've never seen so many Kangaroos but thankfully we were blessed with a safe trip all the way and i got home safe and slept for days. Well that's all from me lately, check out some pics from my travels, I'm off to put in some more time on the bike and get myself ready for whatever comes next. Cheers.

April 28 - May 2 Suzhou Amusement Land demo's - China

I never thought the day would come when I was being paid to pack my gear bag up, fly for ten hours to another country to ride a bike for a week and show off in a Dreamworld type amusement park. I'm feel very blessed to have these opportunities to have my riding take me places and going to a place like China really opens your eyes to how other people in the world live. We definitely are in one of the luckiest countries in the world and although i had a great time i missed Australia quite a bit while i was away. The shows were great with big crowds and lots of response as most of them had never even seen a dirt bike let alone one being jumped into the air and being thrown all over the place so we were treated like rock stars for the week and were looked after quite well by our chinese hosts. I'm definitely hungry for more overseas trips riding as it is an experience you never forget.

April 20 - 22 Fmx Nationals Rd2 - Gold Coast

A one hour trip this time felt like a holiday after driving so much lately, and another chance to prove myself among my peers and put what id been training so hard for to use. With barely any practice for any of the pro riders the qualifying runs were a bit below par and with a lot of the bigger names down the field, but come sunday for the finals most people put in that extra effort and a lot of good riding was put on display, I was really happy with my run as most things went to plan apart from a punctured rear tyre mid way through my run which made things a little interesting but i managed to
pick up a 5th place and even better knowing that having ridden safe i was now set to fly to china for a 10 day riding trip in a theme park!

April 6 - 7 Fmx Nationals Rd1 - Bathurst

After another long drive inland and into the south where it gets really cold we arrived at Mt Panorama, home of the Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercars and where for our Easter weekend a group of Freestyle riders would compete in the first leg of the Fmx nationals two part series. With most of the bigger names out for Crusty tours and other commitments but still a strong showing of around 20 pro riders the competition was fierce and as the conditions were less than great it came down to a battle of attrition as there were a few crashes and the wind also played its toll on everyone, I rode my best
and placed a respectable 7th ahead of many other seasoned riders and took with me a lot of determination to improve on my placing at round 2 on the gold coast in 2 weeks time.