Lou was invited to the luncheon because of his involvement with the nonprofit organization "Un Mundo Sin Guerras" (World without Wars) and, also to discuss such initiatives as government investment in the building of public Skate/BMX parks and in the sponsorship of action sports athletes!

A few photos...

of Lou (rocking etnies) with President Arias and his with brother Rodrigo Arias (Minister of Presidency) during yesterday's lunch at Casa Presidencial
(Costa Rica's White House) in Zapote.

Thanks Lou for all the support and for being part of the ST family.

Get better, Anthony!

etnies Burnside BMX Bok, Deventer NL, 20-09-08 from Bakkejan on Vimeo.

The contest and the practice sessions were a lot of fun. Everybody was having a great time riding with each other and some riders really stood out... like Ronaldo from Hengelo, who isn’t a familiar face for most riders but I’ve seen him ride before. He threw in some big suicide no handers over the volcano and qualified with a couple of flair attempts. In his semi final run he went for a big wall tap to barspin in but didn’t pull it.

Local hero Franky Elshof went loose caboose. He pretty much sleeps at this park. He did some crazy ass tricks, like superman seat grab air, 3Whip to fakie and truck driver over the spine. But it wasn’t enough to finish in the top 3.

Style king Virgil was dialed as a madman. With nice looking 540s, turndowns to fakie and 360 inverts he came out 3rd.

There he was again... Channon ‘el toro’. He is on fire lately, winning every event he enters. He kept his head calm and did what he had to do to win with all kinds of 360 combos... 360 back paddle and 3whips and, to top it off, spine flip and a huge flair. He won his first BOK.

Results:
1 Channon Balorian
2 Mark Vos (etnies)
3 Virgil
4 Franky Elshof
5 Barry Köhne (etnies)
6 Roy van Kempen
7 Tim Frijters (etnies)

Saturday the 20th of September the BMX BOK contest (Burnside Open Championship) will take place for the 10th year in a row! This is one of the biggest BMX park events in the Netherlands. Burnside shop and indoor skatepark is one of the few indoor parks that opens its doors, at any time, to BMXers and has thus long been a haven in Netherlands! So it’s time to celebrate Burnside’s support of the BMX scene!

Check back after the contest for a full report on the etnies BMX BOK. Until then, here's a taste of the etnies Dutch BMX scene featuring Tim Frijters:

Tim Frijters web video from Stijn on Vimeo.

The top 5 for Am was probably the hardest to judge due to the number of entries and the sheer magnitude of talent, but the judges did their jobs well (the judges included Pro riders Sam Lowe and James Steele) and narrowed it down to the top 5:

5th dustin dobson
4th kyle spence
3rd dillon king
2nd dave struthers (ride on!)
1st carl arnett

The 13 and under class was amazing with Anthony Messere riding as good as any of the top 5 Ams, and at only 12 years old! Way to go anthony!

The Pro class was stacked and was the hardest Pro class to judge yet. 8 foot high 540's (shirtless!), huge flairs and tailwhips, over the fence to pallet action, and brakeless-chainless 720 over the spine attempts, had the spectators and riders alike going nuts watching the shredding. we were blessed to have Jason Enns on hand to be a judge for this class, and the standings went down like this for the money at Kirkstone:

3rd was 3 way tie between:
anthony alex
james steele
andy roode

2nd travis sexsmith

1st wade lajlar (etnies)

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we couldn't run the over 30 masters class at Kirkstone... we apologize to the guys who entered, and thank them for coming out and riding their asses off regardless.

mel gooder
ron mercer
simon barry

Thanks to everyone who came out to enter, ride, spectate, or just hang out. See you at Richmond july 20th! Check out:

kill em all
CDN concrete BMX jams

Ride UK FISE

FAT BMX video...

And here's another...

It's just been a regular 'ol lovefest lately over at FatBMX! They just did a shoe review of our Angle and Bike Checks with Ruben Alcantara, Taj Mihelich, Michael Beran and Anthony "Mousey" Watkinson, not to mention an interview with Dutch etnies rider Barry Kohne!

If Joe's bio doesn't make you want to buy a BMX and go ride then pretty much nothing will.

Yeah, Morgan's got bike flips...

He's got inverts too...

Aaron Ross riding the nose.

Aaron Ross lurking the scene.