etnies

April Fools BMX Comp

This ain't no joke. For real, yo.
* "The only fools will be the ones who stay home!"

Merritt Island Contest

A Message From Stacey

Stacey Mulligan, etnies Girl BMX Team rider, well, she sends her best. haha!

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The Full Rundown

Ruben shootin' the moon.

Straight from Mike Escamilla.... Monday and Tuesday I was doing stunts on the show e-ring, I was a Mexican cop that needed to get shot a few different ways, once by a sniper and once by a handgun, had to grow a beard for the job. Tuesday night after the show rapped I drove with heath Pinter to mammoth mtn., met up with Ali and Baz and snowboarded for the next couple days then headed home, I ended the week out in corona filming heath film for the new upcoming mosh video. From there I headed to Vegas to watch his friend Jeremy Wray enter a pool tournament and also get tattooed at Hart and Huntington tattoo shop. I spent the weekend logging footage.

Mike’s going to be heading to New York early next week to attend etnies 20 year anniversary celebration at etnies’ new showroom. Be sure to check out the latest issue of No Cover Magazine for an interview with Mike.

Taj Mihelich has been home in Austin for a while following his wurl-wind rock tour and South By Southwest. He’s been filming a bunch with Stew Johnson and riding a little with Adam Baker who has been in town. He is really looking forward to getting out on the road and doing some trips to film for the video. Taj took himself out of Terrible One, just the business end of things was taking its toll on him and his friendship with Joe…he is still currently riding for them. Taj also quit Coalition but is still on great terms with Coalition owner Greg Walsh. He took his dog swimming and went on a last ride on his motor scooter because he is being forced to sell it due to the owners of the building he lives in won’t let him park it in or near the building. The weekend was spent riding as well as working on some new songs with the Snake Trap. Taj is getting an interview in Cream magazine from France coming up very soon.

Go buy Taj’s shoe, the Roscoe

Ruben Alcantara spent four days at La Palma in the Canary Islands hanging out, riding and getting some surfing done as well as some camping on the beach. Ruben took his super magnifying telescope to check out the stars and he took some pictures through it which came out amazing. This past week Ruben has had teammate Garrett Byrnes in town to film, hangout and surf, which they did plenty of and according to Ruben…Garrett got plenty of great clips.

Check out your local etnies dealer for Rubens shoe the Terranea

Jamie Bestwick has been home in State College for a while now shredding Woodward camp and learning all kinds of cool new stuff to blow his competition away for this coming contest season. Jamie will be heading to New York early next week to attend etnies 20 year anniversary celebration going down in etnies’ new show room.

Morgan Wade WAS filming for the etnies video and everything has been going amazingly—he’s been busting his ass nonstop, so much so that at some point his number had to come up, and it did this past week when he broke his collar bone trying to 720 a transfer at the Allen Texas Park near Dallas. He over rotated slightly and hung back wheel sending him to his head, shoulder and hip, bruised the living crap out of his hip and he rung his bell pretty good, too. As a result he took a trip to the ER and an X ray later confirmed what he already knew…Down Time. Morgan is currently slacking at home. etnies is hoping to get Morgan to a doctor to get him healed up double time.

Sergio Layos has been cruising around Northern Spain, Burgos, Santander, Bilbao and finally Barcelona shooting photos with photographer extraordinaire Manu Sanz for an upcoming RIDE UK interview that Sergio is getting. They also did some riding around Sergio’s home town of Madrid.

Joe Rich has been enjoying SXSW, which is going on right now in Austin with lots of great music and having an enjoyable time pedaling from one show to the next, hitting a variety of different routes that he’d never taken before. It’s also a good excuse to skip work, too. Joe has even been doing a little flatland freestyle with his resident squatter Amos Burke, who’s in Austin from England for a few months. Back to work for Joe tomorrow though.

Josh Stricker is home in Austin riding a bunch and hanging with his girl who’s going to be in town for the next month or so. Josh has been filming with good friend and fellow shredder Brian Wizmerski.

Garrett ^

Garrett Byrnes headed over to Spain to hang out with etnies teammate Ruben Alcantara and take some time off of work to get some filming done for the new and improved etnies video which is due out by the end of the year. According to Ruben, Garrett got a good amount of footage that he was really stoked on.

John Heaton spent a lot of time enjoying the fine weather they have been having in Vancouver, BC, working at 3Ride. John headed down to So Cal early last week and headed out on the road with the Volume Bikes team to go film for their upcoming video project. The crew went to Phoenix, Arizona where a lot of good shit went down, but I guess you’ll just have to buy the finished product to find out. Thanks go out to Smoker Dave for being an amazing tour guide. John hung out the final night in So Cal with good friends Rob Morgan and former etnies rider Jason Enns. John is now back home enjoying time with his Fiancé Andrea and dog Frank.

Dave Freimuth…I’ll let him tell you!
Let’s see. Chad Degroot flew in on Thursday for ratty fest. I picked him up at 11:30PM and had a bucket of PBR's waiting for him in the van. I got the flu sometime Thursday and ended up spending the rest of the night puking in the bathroom. Friday we headed down to Milwaukee for ratty. We got a dialed ass hotel room thanks to priceline and spent the day bumming around downtown and headed over to the park in the evening. The Friday night session was fairly chill, everyone was saving their big moves for Saturday’s comp I guess. We went out with the boys for the night, but I was still feeling a bit under the weather. I had to get up Saturday and head back to Appleton because my parents were getting remarried that afternoon. We went to the church for the service and then headed over to a sweet restaurant for dinner. Patie and I just happened to see a big house on the way back home and decided to check it out for the hell of it... to make a long story short, we're trying to get approved for a loan to buy it as soon as possible, it's freakin' amazing. I’ll tell you more if it happens. I’m so excited, the place is nuts. I babysat Saturday night so that Patie could go out with her friends for her 30th birthday. Sunday was pretty tame. We chilled at home and watched movies in between playing with the baby. I’ve been going to the YMCA everyday for the last two weeks. I’m really starting to get into it. Minus the naked dudes in the locker room blow drying their hair and shit like that. Next week is Chad’s wedding so I’ll be shopping for a sweet suit and getting my speech ready for the reception... after all I am best man!

Sandy Carson spent the beginning of last week at home in Austin working on the next issue of DIG BMX. Issue 52 comes complete with a free etnies Tour DVD. etnies would like to state that we WANT YOU TO duplicate the Tour DVD at your own free will, make as many copies as you feel you need to and give them to everyone you know! Sandy has also been working on an etnies book that is going to be coming with the new full length team video that will be released at the end of 2006, somehow he got roped into being the art director and go-to guy for this project and has been bugging all the riders to submit all kinds of art, from photos to paintings to collages and more. Sandy is currently out in LA filming for the video with Videographer extraordinaire Mike Manzoori and will be heading home this coming Thursday. Sandy announced the winners of the photography contest he did with etnies and DIG BMX. Thanks to everyone who sent in their photos and you can check out all the photos that everyone else sent in the photo gallery.

Kickstarting The Weekend With Whitmore!

More Whitmore please!

Ok, so maybe this isn't skate, surf, BMX or snow related, but it is of high importance and no human being should go through the weekend without seeing it!

Sarah Whitmore is a Moto X rider for etnies Girl. From the looks of this photo from her interview in TransWorld MX last month, seems to be a pretty 'lil lady too. Like those star tattoos? So do we, but challenge her on a bike and stars are precisely what you'll end up seeing when she whoops your ass on the track.

Photography Contest Winners

First Place Photo: Andy Rogers
Caption: The photo was taken at a ramp jam at the Texas Underground bike shop in Dallas Texas. The guy in the picture was a homeless man that came in because he wanted people to listen to him play his harmonica. He wasnt asking for money or anything, he just wanted to hang out and jam. So while everybody was riding during he was playing some music. He played a really cool version of ZZ top's "Tush", He was pretty good,.I talked to him for a while and he let me take his picture. Um, the shot was just 35mm, 200 ISO, between f2.8 and f5.6 and i dont remember what the shutter speed was. The picture was taken on like April 30th, 2005, so like a year ago.

Wow! Thanks to everyone who sent in photos and entered the Sandy Carson Photography Contest! We received a ton of entries and are really happy with the big turnout and high quality of all the images. But this is a contest, and Sandy had to pick just one winner.

Sandy chose the photo above, shot by Andy Rogers, as the winning photo which will be printed in an upcoming issue of DIG BMX. Andy also has a big box of etnies gear and a one-of-a-kind print from Sandy on the way!

As far as the critique goes, well, this is what Sandy had to say about the winning photo:

"I am always fascinated by wierdos and creepers that show up at a spot while you are riding. This is the sort photo that I would totally look to capture, myself. I love the composition and the contrast of the content with a perfect exposure to boot. A weathered old dude playing harmonica next to a bunch of Bmx kids. Kick ass!"
-sandy

Second Place Photo: Bryan Heiser
Caption: Cody LeFevre, tree ride-to-tailwhip during sunset, Hanover, Pennsylvania

Third Place Photo: Nitai Whitehurst
Caption: The photo is of Rob Darden, Riding trails in Greenville NC, doing a lookback over the hip last year, I was staying in Greenville for a month, and was shooting a bit with Rob, The trees had been cut down around the trails but the jump survied after Colin Mackay and Rob fixed them up, I thought this was a good looking shot, with all the branches in the foreground and the overcast sky, the photo just has a nice mood to it.

Check out the Photo Gallery with over 100 of the top photos from the contest.

Guess Who Got Broke?

Just got this email from Morgan Wade....

I was filming with Stew for the Etnies video at the infamous Allen Park, when I tried a 720 and managed to land square on my shoulder/Head/Hip and knocked myself silly, broke my collarbone, and brused my hip somethin' fierce! It was no good, anyway, I'll be off my bike for about 5 or 6 weeks, in wich time I will slack...

Morgan

Get well soon!

For some reason it seems like things like this have happened before, weird huh?
Must be deja vu.

¿Mystery BMX Contest?

Incase you're wondering what the hell this contest is about, well, I really have no idea. Go and enter for your big chance to win, umm...something? Seriously though, you won't be disappointed, at least I don't think. Just go enter and see what happens!

Super Duper ME (my etnies) Giveaway!

We just launched a brand new exclusive etnies.com contest where you can design and win your own custom-made etnies Callicuts with the ME (my etnies) shoe builder! Try your hand at shoe design and a chance to win! Good Luck!

Some Metro Jam Footage

Morgan Wade is a nut. Check him out in this footage from the Metro Jam finals courtesy of Ride BMX.

Last Chance To Submit Photos

Monday, March 20 is the last day that you can submit photos to the Sandy Carson photo contest and have a chance to get your photo published in DIG and win some other cool stuff.

You only have this weekend left to go out and get the shot, so get to it!

Povah Interview

Look who's famous now! It's our very own BMX team manager John Povah! He's got a bitchin' interview over at FAT BMX right now...go check it out yo.

Don't Mess With Riot Police!

etnies does not suggest nor condone that you go spray stuff at riot police during some mayhem like this. However, when a photo comes our way and a dude is rocking our shoes, we gotta show ya!

Ratty Fest

The annual Ratty Fest contest is this weekend at the 4Seasons Skatepark in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Try to make it there.

Caption This

We found this guy being “escorted” out the San Diego Supercross while rockin' etnies.

Top 3 funny captions win a pair of etnies!

From The Camera Phone Archives

"Addicted" ...to what?

While looking through some old camera phone pics I found this babe with an etnies sticker applied above the crack of her ass. Don't worry, I'm sure she got a free beer, and that's not a bad deal if you ask me.

The Team Report

Mike Escamilla has been around town for the last couple of weeks and as usual Mike has kept himself super busy; whether it is riding or snowboarding, Mike’s always got something going on. Mike’s upcoming etnies ad is bad-ass and shot by none other than RIDE Magazines JZ, so you know it’s good. Check out Mike’s article “Ten-to-One” in issue 120 of Ride BMX, an alternative perspective to traveling the world.

Ruben Alcantara has been home in Malaga for a while now hanging with his friends and family, riding a bunch and filming heavily for the upcoming etnies video. After some real weird weather in Malaga this past weekend, Ruben went to Tarifa in Spain to hang out with his friend who works for Red Bull at a surf contest. The following day Ruben headed to the city of Granada where he rode some trails with friends and also had fun screwing around on a couple BMX race tracks. The scenery was amazing around the trails and Ruben had an amazing time. Right now Ruben is down in the Canary Islands where he’s going to be riding with friends and etnies teammate Garrett Byrnes who will be meeting him to hang there and Malaga for 10 days. Ruben's shoe the Terranea is available

Jamie Bestwick has been home in State College working on all kinds of cool shit for the upcoming contest season which he should be unveiling soon. Jamie’s been doing some renovations around the house and just enjoying quality time with his wife and son. Late last week Jamie headed down to Greenville, NC with some friends to get some riding and hopefully some filming in at Dave Mirra’s private ramp park and Ryan Nyquist’s “Unit”…should be some good stuff.

Taj Mihelich has been a busy cat as of late with all the music going on in his life. Following going on tour with the Redneck Manifesto and covering a good chunk of the country in a 10 day period, Taj’s band headed to Odessa, TX to do a show last week. Following the show Taj and Co. headed back home to Austin where Taj got some riding in at the T1 ramp and some street around town. Taj did some riding at the 9th Street trails and proceeded to catch his yearly dose of poison ivy, a quick visit to the Doc. and one steroid shot later Taj was feeling worse than ever as it affected him quite badly. He’s almost done with all the medication and should be back to full speed in a couple of days. He’s been working on his fourth shoe while sick at home, and we should be seeing samples very soon. Check out Taj’s new etnies ad in issue 120 of Ride BMX.

Taj’s shoe the Roscoe is out, go get some!

Morgan Wade has been on the road for a while. First he was on a week long road trip with a crew of friends heading toward the Toronto Metro Jam, making sure he was filming along the way for the etnies vid. At the Metro Jam Morgan destroyed everything in his path and looked like the man to beat. He pulled all kinds of stuff like whip to ice on a back rail, bike flips and even a 450 backflip over a hip, much to the crowd’s pleasure. Morgan ended up fourth which seemed a little weird, but oh well. After missing his flight home Morgan finally got out of Toronto 6 hours later and has been enjoying some time at home in Tyler, TX.

Sergio Layos has been home in Madrid for the last couple of weeks after being in the US for the previous month or so. He’s been helping out a bunch at his mom’s restaurant that, according to Sergio, has been doing amazingly. As far as riding goes, he’s been riding all the local parks and street around Madrid and he and some friends found some new spots and are planning to go film there. Sergio and friends went to some concerts last week, a couple of them were real early and started for some reason at 5am in the morning…needless to say he didn’t attend those ones, but he did go to some really weird heavy metal shows. A new indoor park just opened locally and Sergio’s been hitting it up regularly.

Dave Freimuth is still recovering from his knee surgery, but enjoyed a trip up to Toronto last week for the Metro Jam; he was up there shooting photos for BMX Plus magazine, so look out for the full report of the Metro Jam from Dave in an upcoming issue. Also, check out Dave’s feature length interview in RIDE UK, it’s one of the best interview in years.

Joe Rich worked for the last couple of weeks extra hard so he could go on vacation with his dad; Joe lined up a secret trip and surprised his dad with a surf trip to Hawaii…. Now it’s back to reality and back to a crapload of catch up work at T1. Hopefully he’ll get some riding in sometime this week. Joe also took his bike apart and donated the frame to Kevin Porters “Ratty Fest” coming up this weekend in Milwaukee.

Josh Stricker has been down in Austin for the last couple of weeks and has been enjoying his very own apartment…no more roommates! Josh has been riding and filming in between the weird weather occurrences. Josh’s girl is in town from England this week so he’s been enjoying time with her.

Garrett Byrnes was down in Austin for a few days to hang at the Empire BMX comp at the Ramp Ranch a couple of weeks ago. He headed back home to New Jersey where he worked his union job like the good worker he is. This week Garrett heads to the Canary Islands to meet up with etnies teammate Ruben Alcantara to get some riding and filming in, and from there they head to Malaga for another week where they will resume riding/filming and surfing probably, also…hahaha.

John Heaton is now Volume-mounted and enjoying life. John was up in Toronto hanging with family for a few days, then he headed back downtown and competed at the Toronto Metro Jam. He didn’t place that well or make the finals as he has previously done, and we all blame that on the fact that he no longer rides for the company that runs the event……Just kidding! ha ha ha. John rode like crap actually, and deserved the placing he got. No! ha ha ha. John is busy working on two video parts this year: for etnies and his new bike sponsor Volume, so needless to say he’s a busy cat. Right now he’s back home in Vancouver riding his ass off, working at 3 Ride and enjoying time with his fiancé Andrea and favorite dog Frank.

Sandy Carson has been home in Austin for the last few weeks keeping himself busy with riding and putting art shows together. He’s been out shooting for the etnies video with Stew Johnson and also working on a book that is to come with the etnies video. Issue 52 is in the works and Sandy shot the cover photo…can’t tell you what it is—it would spoil the surprise—but it’s pretty dope if I do say so myself. WEB SITE! This past weekend Sandy hung out with his girl all weekend as it was her spring break from school and she’s been super busy.

Go enter Sandy's Photography contest...you only have until next Monday (six days) to enter.

Who Knew This Guy Had Digestive Issues?

For like 20 years now, late at night flipping channels, I've seen this dude telling me to send him money and talking about God and stuff. It was always pretty boring. I guess I missed this episode though. Seriously folks, farting is never not funny.

New ME (my etnies) Skullors!

etnies has just added two new colors (pink and gunmetal) and a skull 'n crossbones pattern to the ME (my etnies) custom shoe builder! Stoked? You should be. Skulls and pink are all the rage.

Skateboarding, Motivation & Cute Chicks!

Amber loves etnies.com!!!!!!

Skateboards, etnies and smiles...

As an editor of etnies.com, I have one of the raddest jobs ever. I get to write about skateboarding and all types of other fun, silly, and ridiculous stuff for a living.

But even the most perfect job isn't without criticism. Sometimes I get it without asking! Doesn't that suck? You all know how it is, right? You're just doing your own thing, trying to have fun, be creative and make people smile or laugh and someone comes along and just rains on your parade. Blah!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Make more lemonade...

But what's that saying...when life gives you lemons, make lemonade? Ya that's it! Turn the negative into something positive! Take the criticism in stride and do something constructive with it!

So in the wake of the aforementioned unsolicited criticism, I was reminded that the super awesome etnies fans from all over the globe really love hot chicks! That's in addition to skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding, BMX and Moto, of course. So let's constructively put more chicks on the site!

Are you down? All in favor, shout it out with a comment!

Furthermore, etnies encourages you to always be yourself. Don't let those who criticize you keep you down or discourage you from doing what you want to do. What do they know anyway? Keep skating, surfing, pedaling, throttling, grinding, sliding, braaaping, pumping, pushing, carving and chasing the ladies. Have fun, stay young, question authority, laugh a lot and enjoi the ride...

Pimp'd Web Site

DIG BMX just got a little makeover on their site...lookin' good! Notice the Sandy Carson Photography Contest banner on there, too. Sweet! Get the shot and send it in! Even if you are not one of the winners, you still have a good chance to get noticed. We will be posting a lot of the entries to the photo gallery after the winners are picked in a couple weeks.

And if you aren't the best photographer, well, you are more than welcome to just upload us pics of your hot sister/mom/girlfriend...it will be much appreciated around the office.