etnies

Updated X Games BMX Invitees

Morgan Wade and Mike Escamilla have been added to the list of etnies pros invited to the X Games.

Morgan will be doing his thing in the BMX Park event, while Mike is rumored to be toying with the idea of breaking the record for longest distance backflip with the aid of Danny Way's Mega Ramp. Ummmm, gnarly.

Caption This

- If your family pool is the back uncle Chuck's Ranchero, you might be a redneck.

Dog Doodie!

Exhibit B

Very frequently, I walk from one building to another here at the etnies compound for meetings and such. This week, for some odd reason, I've had to evade multiple piles of dog feces while walking around because, contrary to popular belief, I don't like smelling like poop or having any sort of butt mud on my shoes.

After careful investigation and interrogation of many fellow etnies employees, I discovered one mound of poop belongs to Booger, a female mutt owned by ex moto pro-turned X Games announcer, Cameron Steele.

Booger

Exhibit A shows the debris left behind by Booger, while the origin of Exhibit B has yet to be identified, however, a ruler has been included in the photo for scaling purposes.

What's the significance of all this? nothing really, poop is just funny and its been a slow news day.

Exhibit A

Bikini Girl

Get Bikini girl to the bottom of bubble world and win big. Is it a cute kitty? Maybe a dancing pink elephant? Who knows, it could be a free pair of etnies. There is only one way to find out, and that's to get to the bottom first!

Team Report: BMX!

Ruben

Mike Escamilla spent the week up at Woodward West with etnies teammate Taj Mihelich and the Canadian Beast Jay Miron shredding and sweating his nuts off. He got hurt a little bit riding while riding the cement at camp but he’s ok for the most part; he also went to his daughter’s gymnastics camp with her. From there Mike drove to San Francisco to hang with his brother and he came back to the LA area Monday.

Rooftop 3's are online.

Taj Mihelich spent the beginning of the week at home in Austin and went to one of his girlfriend's mountain bike races, he actually played around on the downhill course himself before jetting out to LA to go ride Woodward West with the campers at the request of Ron Kimler. Taj’s thumb is still a little sore so he’s been taking it mellow. Taj flew home Tuesday.

Roscoe’s are in stores.

Jamie Bestwick has been getting his back in great shape and is working hard on riding at Camp Woodward in preparation for the X Games coming up August 4-7 where he will be going for Gold on vert. He’s also looking forward to the etnies BMX Tour coming up next month that he will be on a portion of the stops. He’s also getting ready for stop three of the Dew Tour series in Portland. This week he has been painting some of his bikes to try and complete his retro looking signature GT Bike that he will be riding at the above mentioned events. Jamie just rapped up his bio for the Sobe web site and besides that he’s been changing poopy diapers more often than any man ever should.

Morgan Wade has been home in Tyler, Texas since returning from Gravity Games where he placed fourth in the park contest at FDR. He’s pretty much been chillin’…. Well, as chillin’ as anyone could in a 100+ degrees weather. At the tail end of last week he headed down to Austin to hang with Mutiny Bikes owner Joe Simon, from there Morgan flew out to Woodward Camp in State College, PA to get some top-secret training missions done to whoop everyone’s ass at the X Games in August…. Oh Yeah! It’s hot at Woodward too!

Ruben demonstrating Fly Bikes new Cobra Tube (you don't have to take off the wheel to change it)

Ruben Alcantara is home in Spain where he visited Vigo, Spain to hang out with Fly Bikes owner David Quesada and he also got to see a back specialist while there that gave him some great insight into good exercises for his back. Ruben has been visiting many doctors while home to get as many opinions as possible in hopes that he can get his back up to full speed. While in Vigo he also got to go surf a few times with David and got to ride a couple of real cool parks too. One night he and some friends went to see a band play called Stepbrothers that they know from Austin, T1’s Jeff (Taj’s cousin) plays in the band.

The Terranea is in stores.

Sergio Layos headed out to Barcelona to ride in an event there with his mom, he had fun up there and had a great time all week hanging with his friends riding street. They found a few untapped spots that turned out to be real good that they were very excited about. The tail end of the week Sergio attended a party at City hall with his girlfriend Claudia.

Joe Rich has been doing the usual working and riding at T1, he is expecting samples of the new T1 frames and other products any day now. He’s also been importing all the footage from the trip that he and etnies/T1 teammate Ruben Alcantara went on while in Europe in order to start editing. Joe spent Saturday hanging out with his dad and also did a little handy work on the T1 ramp, fixing some loose ends…the hinges to the door on the back of the 8 foot quarter, which is being used a shed, was kinda sagging. He also hung out with man of mystique, Paul Buchannon. They rode some jumps with some locals as well as a pool at a hotel that was being demolished, and on the way home the whole crew got caught in a heavy downpour. Joe has been rapping up some other stuff before heading out to attend the Soul Bowl contest in Huntington Beach, CA coming up this weekend with etnies/T1 teammates Ruben Alcantara and Garrett Byrnes. He will also be going to Woodward West around the same time while in Cali.

Josh Stricker has become nocturnal due to the draining heat in Austin, it’s making getting anything productive done very tough. He and his roommates have to move out of the house they are currently in so Josh will be heading out to Cali for the remainder of the summer to stay with his parents who just recently bought a new house in the Anaheim area.

John Heaton is MIA after starting his drive from the Toronto area out to Vancouver BC. Haven’t heard from him this week.

Dave Freimuth rapped up some stuff at Area 51; they are getting everything ready for when the etnies tour comes to town in August. Kevin Porter was in town this week as well as Andy Kent, this crew of guys actually managed to hit three parks in one day and still had time to go out and party with time to spare. Saturday, Dave and wife Patie went to a friend’s house warming BBQ and in the evening Dave snuck away for a quiet sesh at Area 51. Sunday was spent just chilling, hanging out on some car inner tubes at Red Granite Lake, WI swimming a diving. That evening Dave played a little Volleyball, his team finally lost a game after a string of wins.

Garrett Byrnes has been working all week, he’s also been doing plenty of surfing as well as getting some evening riding sessions in at the trails as well as some cement parks. Garrett has been getting ready to head out to Cali to compete at the Soul Bowl contest in Huntington Beach July 29-31…he’s looking forward to getting away.

Sandy Carson just started riding again this past week after taking it hard to his ribs while riding in Germany. He and a group of guys, bikers and skaters, got to ride a pool in a hotel that was being demolished. Sandy went to South Padre Island for the weekend with his girl Jen to get away from the rat race that is Austin, and especially since he has been gone for the last month and owed it to her to treat her to a little quality time. While down there the two of them did plenty of chilling as well as swimming and dodging the hurricane that came very close….Can you say “Sunburn”.

Sandy has been working on the Germany Federal DVD that should be out pretty soon, and as usual, has been working on DIG. Sandy did an interview/photo exhibit thing for RIDE US. He has also been building a new bike for the upcoming etnies tour in August. Insurance money helped Sandy buy a new camera after getting a bunch of his equipment stolen while in Europe. Stoked !!

BURN IT!

Congrats, Winners!

Congrats to Francisco from Portugal for being the first place winner of the Crazy Photo Contest and Ruben from Florida for landing in the top five. so far, these are the only two guys who claimed their prize. The rest of you were announced and notified by the email address you submitted to us and didn't write back yet. But if you don't want your shoes, that's cool. I'll keep em. I blow through my Artos like crazy. Best shoe everrrrrrr.

Why the Hell Not?

News is slow today. This is just a random photo of a Rachel Perry's back, ass and tattoos. Why the hell not post it?

Blog Craze!

etnies.com has switched up the site a bit. The News section has now morphed into the Blog section and you can read all the latest shizzzzle there--just like always. but now you can get interactive and comment your little life away. Why would you want too do that? Well because we like to hear what you have to say, we want you to be as much of a part of etnies as we are and most of all, its just plain fun! Be on the lookout for a Best Comment In The Blog contest, where you'll be able to win free etnies monthly!

Jamie Bestwick’s Camp Woodward Contest Winners!

US winner - Dustin 16 years old

After all the hype and a month of angry phone calls from parents demanding to know if their little Johnny won a trip to Camp Woodward with Jamie Bestwick, the results are in! Drum roll please! Jamie Bestwick chose these two winners, so here they are… Dustin from Lake Havasu City, AZ takes the US win for his very artistic photographic compilation entitled “Different Perspective”. Next, hailing from the UK, 16 year old Mike! By far the best entry from the UK, his unique Photoshop creation earned him a trip to Woodward this summer to ride with Jamie. Nice job!

We received a lot of great entries, so thanks to those who sent in their art – maybe next time. For now watch out for a new contest featuring Ruben Alcantara coming to etnies.com in the next couple weeks. You will dig it.

UK winner - Mike 16 years old

BMX Team Report...

Joe Rich

Mike Escamilla was in Denver for the Dew action sports series stop there last week where he rode amazing! Much to the pleasure of the crowd and his peers, Mike managed to pull a bunch of stuff out of his ass to qualify third place to make it into the semi round. With a few too many falls Mike didn’t manage to make it into the finals, although he did ride pretty damn well. After Denver Mike and Brian Kachinsky drove back to California, stopping to session many great cement parks as well as stopping off in Salt Lake to visit Matt Beringer and his compound. They got to shoot some natural waterslide on some inner tubes. Once back in Cali the guys hit up a ghost town in Sallon where they panned for gold and got spooked out. Brian flew out this past week and Mike spent the weekend up in San Francisco with his brother before heading to Woodward West where he is currently. Rooftop 3 is in stores and online now.

Taj Mihelich has been watching lots and lots of movies and has been riding his road bike quite a bit as his thumb is still bugging from the alley-oop lucky grind gone sour at the Soul Bowl a month ago. He actually raced something called a “Crit” race (kind of a timed road bike race on a track), completely ghetto and illegal. He did so-so but thought he was going to puke after the second half. Taj played a rock show right after the race much to his discomfort. Taj has also been pumping around the local BMX track, not catching air, just trying to stay limber and on his bike… once a BMX racer, always a racer I say! He also went to check out his girl Ammie (who also rides BMX) racing mountain bikes.

Check out the latest issue of Thrasher skateboard magazine for a fullpage shot of the T1 ramp getting sessioned by a skater and a caption that voids the BMX Jihad stigma. Again! Roscoe gets some coverage, this time it’s subliminally in Thrasher. Taj’s third shoe the Roscoe is in stores now.

Jamie Bestwick has been having quite a good time as of late, with a hick-up in the middle. After doing some demos for the guys at the UCI in Switzerland, Jamie returned to get back to his wife and baby in State College. Jamie got back into his usual riding routine at camp, getting ready for Gravity Games and the Denver Dew Tour stop. Jamie’s birthday was on July 8, the same time as the Denver Dew stop. He got first place at Gravity and in Denver Jamie qualified first and finished first, beating out arch nemesis Mirra fair and square. But it wasn’t without drama… Jamie decided it might be a good idea to go for a 900 after the buzzer (he didn’t know it was after the buzzer) and hung coping at around the 720 mark facing backwards and got launched straight to his back, catching not one inch of transition (that’s a good 14 feet) Unbelievably, after a short panic, Jamie got up and walked away and all he had to show for it was a sore back and a cracked helmet… it could have been way worse. After his first place finish in Denver, Jamie flew to California to shoot a commercial for the X Games with the likes of Jeremy McGrath, Bucky Lasek, and Bob Burnquist to name a few. Just today Jamie played a round or two of golf with Dave Mirra, so you know things must be good between the two, just a warm up of sorts for the X games in August. Jamie is getting ready to move house and Samuel is growing fast!

Ruben Alcantara although riding, has been battling a bad back for at least 18 months and finally got to get it checked out for real last week. After a very comprehensive MRI it was determined that he had compressed his lower vertebrae at some point. Ruben traces it back to a gap gone bad at the Worlds a couple of years ago. The doctors said it is not too bad and with the right exercise and massage it should be good which is a huge relief to Ruben… now he can go about things as usual. Up to this point he had been getting massages that he hoped were helping, but in all actuality and without knowing what was really up, could have been doing more damage than good. Ruben has been riding again now that he has some piece of mind, and filming a little more for the Fly Bikes video as well as helping his friend Gonzalo who is editing the video up in Madrid. Rubens first shoe the Terranea is in stores now.

Joe Rich has surprisingly been in Austin since returning from the UK where he competed at the Soul Bowl comp and rode the etnies/T1 UK tour. Usually he would have been out of town for the majority of the year globe trotting, but now has been getting his hands deeper into T1 and updating all of their frames and pulling double shifts at the office. Joe has been riding in the cooler parts of the day on the ramp and in the streets, as well as going swimming a bunch to keep cool. On quieter times Joe has been scanning photos. Check out the new issue of Thrasher skateboard magazine and you’ll see a full page photo of the T1 ramp being shredded by some skater.

Sergio Layos returned from the Rebel Jam in Berlin a couple of weeks ago where he placed well in a few different categories including first for Best Style. Following Berlin Sergio went to get his motorcycle license and failed, although he did say that the people giving him the test were having a bad day and pretty much sucked, which didn’t help his score. Sergio has been home for the last few weeks and has been enjoying time with his family, brother, and his girl. Sergio’s getting ready to head out to the US for the etnies Midwest Tour coming up in August and following that he will be heading to Woodward East to hang for a week and get some serious riding in. Sergio is an alternate in Park for the X games. Sergio’s birthday was on July 13.

Morgan Wade has had a packed few weeks. He almost went to the Rebel Jam in Berlin but luckily he screwed up the flight schedule somehow, which was a blessing in disguise due to the fact that only days prior Morgan had hit his head and split the living crap out of his lip. A hospital visit and 20 stitches later he was heading home. Next on Morgan’s plate was the Denver Dew Tour stop a couple of weeks ago where he competed in Park and Dirt. In Park he didn’t place as well as he had hoped but still did well enough to make it into the next three Dew stops. In dirt Morgan placed 8th which he was pretty stoked about. From Denver Morgan flew to Philly to compete in the Gravity Games at FDR much to the dismay of some local skaters. During a practice session there was some dumb ass skater trying to get bikers to run duct tape on their pegs, so the skater threw the tape at Morgan to put on his bike, Morgan threw it back to the guy and then the same guy decided it would be a good idea to throw a bottle at Morgan, the skater got ejected. Morgan is now home in Texas enjoying sweating a lot.

John Heaton is getting ready for his move West, West to Vancouver and nicer weather, nicer settings, and plenty of cement parks. John took his Fiancé Andrea to some shows he did in Ottawa a couple of weeks back, bad traffic is no fun. The guys he does shows with put on a party for the 10 year anniversary of the show team, so that was a lot of fun sharing stupid and hilarious stories of the past years. The party included a video of the past 10 years which cracked everyone up. John attended the “Fise” contest in France and placed first in park and sixth on vert…..Yeah Vert! Congrats John! Right now John is just chilling until the move this week.

Josh Stricker is sweating his nuts off in Austin after returning from the Red Bull mean streets contest. He rode a pool with the legendary “Gute” last week as well as got some tubing in on the river which definitely makes the hot days that much better. Josh just had his birthday on July 18 and had a HUGE no-holds-barred party at his house; there was plenty of carnage and casualties. Josh is getting ready to head back out to California to visit family and enjoy some cooler temperatures.

Sandy rockin' a prototype primo wheel.

Sandy Carson just got back on his bike for the first time in a couple of weeks since hurting his ribs in Europe on that handrail. This last week Sandy helped out doing some digging at I guess a secret bowl, but it doesn’t matter anymore as the city came by and buried it, after all that hard work, what a shame! Sandy has been working on updating his site and scanning photos. He has also been working on the Federal Bikes Germany trip DVD, there is going to be a slide show on the DVD so Sandy is compiling that. He has also been checking out EBay to find a replacement for the camera equipment he had stolen in Europe a month or so ago. Sandy will be having a feature of his work coming up in an issue of RIDE BMX here in the US as well as having one of his photos featured on a Jones Soda bottle, it’s a photo of a tattoo on Isaac Hoeflings inner arm. Sandy’s getting ready to head out on the etnies Tour of the Midwest. Sandy's web site.

Dave Freimuth is a wanted man! He got a ticket for riding his bike with no head lights on the sidewalk at night in Appleton. On Thursday Dave and his wife Patie went to a private screening of the movie Wedding Crashers which they both loved, thought it was the funniest thing ever. Friday Patie and Dave went down to Milwaukee to check out a Brewers baseball game. Saturday was spent swimming in Red granite quarry in Wisconsin, and Saturday consisted of a pool party at Dave’s house in his paddling pool. Sunday Dave dry walled the baby’s room and BBQ’d for the wife and the renters upstairs.

Garrett Byrnes has been home in New Jersey working hard and sweating like no man should sweat while pulling long hours driving back hoes and cranes. Garrett has been riding after work at the trails and some parks, and he has also been doing a lot of surfing and getting ready to head out to California for the Soul Bowl in Huntington Beach coming up July 29-31. Following that Garrett will be on the whole etnies Midwest Tour.

Help get BMX bikes into skateparks. Sign this petition and support the cause.

2005 etnies BMX Tour!!!

It’s about freekin’ time! Why didn’t we do this before? Who cares, we’re doin’ it this August with all the etnies BMX heavy hitters!

Go Riding!

Although it’s kinda funny in a pathetic sorta way, this should be a lesson to everyone. This guy rode BMX back in the day but had to quit because he dropped out of school to get a job because he impregnated his junior high school science lab partner. Now he’s 33 years old working at Dairy Queen and living with his mom, five children, three-legged blind dog named Skippy, and overweight wife. Now when he sees a bike painted on the ground he pretends like he’s riding trails. Don’t let this happen to you…go ride BMX!

Jamie Bestwick Wins The Dew In Denver

In dramatic and almost paralyzing fashion Jamie Bestwick wins the second stop of the Dew Action Sports Tour in Denver Colorado, beating out some stiff competition. After an almost flawless first run which included a tailwhip flair and a footplant flair, Jamie wasn’t finished. After the buzzer sounded Jamie went for a 900 but hung up at about 720 and got ejected straight to the back of his head on the flat bottom. After close examination and some tense moments, Jamie walked away surprisingly unscathed (other than a sore back). His first round score held up through the second round and Jamie took the win.

Congrats Jamie!

Check out all the video on the Dew Tour site, click "Action Viewer".

Dew Action Sports Tour on TV

The second round of the five stop Dew Action Sports Tour started yesterday and the TV starts today with coverage on NBC Sports and the USA network. Check it.

Schedule:
All times are Eastern Standard Time.
As always, check your local listings.

• July 8 – 12:00-1:00AM USA network
• July 9 – 4:30-6:00 PM NBC Sports
• July 9 – 12:00-1:00AM USA network
• July 10– 1:00-3:00PM NBC Sports

Taj Mihelich Bike Check

Check out Taj’s bike check on BMX Online.

Raisin' Hell At The G8!

Good thing our soles are grippy!

This is a protester who is most likely about to get beat down for pulling down the fence at the G8 Summit in Scotland. Notice the kicks...guess the etnies model shoe he's wearing and you win a free pat on the back.

Sergio Layos Has Got S.T.Y.L.E

Sergio took first place for the Style Award in every pro event at the Rebel Jam last weekend. Other awards were also being handed out for Creativity and Hard Trick. In Street Sergio got third place for creativity, fourth for hardest trick and of course first for style.

It's all about style...right? What about creative lines or goin' big? Check out the poll on the etnies BMX home page and let everyone know what you look for most in your riding; style, creativity, goin' fast, or goin' BIG.

Check the full Rebel Jam results:

Street Results
Dirt Results
Mini Results

Worse Than Trekkies?

2003 AIR GUITAR WORLD CHAMPION - David “C-Diddy” Jung

The U.S. Air Guitar championships are coming. This is an annual event where these grown men put away their Spock uniforms, Star Wars toys and Dungeons and Dragons dice to make complete fools of themselves yet again.

Here's an excerpt from the "official rules:"

Contestants perform for one minute to a song of their choice and are judged on a combination of technical prowess, stage presence and “airness.” “What we mean by that is really that elusive quality of transcending the imitation of an art form-ie: playing guitar-and creating a new art form-air guitar.”

Yes, she's a loser.

Morgan Wade Interview

Morgan Wade is the newest heavy hitter on the etnies team. Just a couple weeks ago he took second in mini ramp and first place in park at the Worlds! Get to know this badass a little better in this interview from FAT BMX, and coming soon, a full bio and interview with Morgan on etniesbmx.com.