etnies

Team Report! Ruben Special!

Ruben Alcantara took off to the North of Spain for a week with his family for a vacation and after that he will be going on a three-week tour with his friend to shoot pictures and film. Ruben is going to try to shoot for a possible interview, he’s hoping to find some good stuff and some nice material to work with.

Ruben’s back is doing a little better but he still has a pinched nerve in his leg that has been bugging him, he’s going to visit a very good doctor by David Quesada’s place in the North of Spain.

For the trip Ruben and his friend will be living in an RV the whole time and are finding really good spots to ride in many different towns that they’re visiting. The trips been fun because having the RV they have been able to bring all kinds of toys like surfboards, bikes, skateboards etc instead of being limited to a backpack, makes things a lot more fun. With no final destination or date who knows where they will end up?

September Team Report!

Mike Escamilla was on the Jay Leno show last month promoting X Games and also on LA Ink getting tatted up by Kat Von D. Last week Mike also moved to Encinitas to be nearer to good riding spots and out of LA traffic. Moving sucks. Mike did some Sirius radio stuff too, which can heard on Myspace. Mike’s still working with Tony Hawk on the Huck Jam bike line that will be revealed shortly. Expect good things.

Jamie Bestwick is home in State College enjoying time with his family after a few weeks of domination. First it was X Games in LA where he pulled one of the best runs of all time, then it was the Dew Tour in Portland. Jamie also hosts all the other BMX events at the Dew Tours for NBC so keep your eye out for his pretty face. Stop #4 of the AST Dew Tour is coming up in Salt Lake City, keep an eye out for Jamie and cheer him on.

Morgan Wade is “finally” home for a while to spend time with his new wife Natalie and enjoy his new apartment with a surround sound and plasma TV set up dubbed “Casa-La-Wade”. After qualifying first in Dirt at the Dew Tour in Portland, Morgan fell a little too much and ended up tenth but is looking forward to redeem himself in Salt Lake City in September.

Taj Mihelich’s band played at the SandM party in LA. After the SandM party Taj flew home for a few hours and then went to Berlin for the Rebel Jam, cut his leg and got bloody and sick. Pretty much the usual. Flew home for a few hours then went out to LA for the Daily Habit show on Fuel. After that, Taj flew home and was exhausted as he still hadn't recovered from Berlin’s jet lag. But on the plus side: Taj’s roommate was waiting at the airport with five girls in his van and they took me a to a gay bar where he laughed my ass off and almost fell asleep.

It’s rained a shitload in Austin lately but it did clear up long enough to get a session in on the ramp with Joe which was cool. Stew Johnson and Taj went to a Roller Girl underwear party, though neither of them got down to their underwear. Taj’s band, Snaketrap played a show on the 28th (with little to no practice as the band’s drummer is on Warped Tour) and been getting healed up and riding a bit. One thing Taj is worried about is that if he rides or jogs or does anything too strenuous his leg might start bleeding out of the stitches, he might have to go and get it re-cauterized or something, we’ll keep you posted.

Sergio Layos was in Berlin for the Rebel Jam and killed everything he rode. He didn’t place too well, but definitely put on a “style” demo for everyone. Right now he’s back home riding with friends and hanging with family. He’s off to Northern Spain for a trip this week and will be back in the States mid-to-late September to attend Interbike and visit Austin where he may or may not be living for a while seeing as how the riding and scene is so good there.

Check out Sergio’s Ad in Ride and keep an eye out for the Sergio colorway of the etnies shoe the “Variant.”

Joe Rich has been riding, skating, swimming and working! Really though, after being back home all is going well. Been riding the backyard a bunch as well as playing clean-up out by the ramp, he’s been trying to get it all straightened up so that the fall sessions will be even better trimming weeds and tree branches as well as sorting out the lights a bit.

While doing the clean up Joe discovered that there were 14 bees’ nests under the ramp as of last week! He’s been riding his early morning cruiser a ton. His legs and knees are feeling strong, and that’s always is a good feeling for someone that has had five knee surgeries. He’s also been going to the cement parks a lot, Round Rock and Mable Davis, while riding these parks he’s been brushing up on his skate skills so he can utilize his time better when he get’s kicked out of the park for riding his bike there. T1 is cruising along and Joe’s heading up to Colorado next week with some friends to go camping and take in some cement parks. Other than that, Joe’s been working on a secret weapon for Vegas that will make everyone love the T1 booth.

Josh Stricker has been putting his life back together after returning from Germany, moving into his apartment and shit like that and is real glad to finally sleep in his own bed. Stricker’s also been getting serious and working on Happy Hour stuff a lot. Besides that Josh has been riding around Austin, shredding some street and doing some swimming. Check the new Stricker ad coming out soon as well as the Stricker “Faction” colorway from etnies.

Stay tuned for part two of this report: Ruben Alcantara! Ruben had so many photos to share that we had to give him his own update!

Team Report 7-20-07!

Here’s the latest on the etnies BMX squad… some even from the riders themselves!

Jamie Bestwick, in his own words:

Well as you can gather I was not on the Props Rock and Road Fools, nothing is wrong with me, but I went down to Baltimore to see Stephen Murray in hospital. I was lucky enough to see him twice the day that I was there, He was very sedated and sleepy but seemed to be in good spirits. His family and friends are amazingly strong. They came over from England to see him and they were all very calm and on top of the situation. It was Stephen's Mums birthday so we took her out for a nighttime meal while Stephen was sleeping.

It was very hard for me to see Stephen like this. He was such a strong and active person, but I think that the same attributes that made him great will be the ones that bring him back to good health. Please donate to his charity if you can.

CharityFolks

eBay

Dew Tour in Baltimore went well for me a big win on Vert and a trophy that I did not have was something that I was proud of. I got to do my first announcing job up in the booth for NBC, which was pretty cool. I had a good laugh and it was great to talk about some of the most amazing riding. Cleveland is this weekend, looking forward to that, and then off the X Games. Wow great stuff!

Been riding a lot at camp… new kids every week, so its been a really fun time out here. Did some stuff for Levi’s, Vital BMX and also Sports Illustrated for Kids on the web… nice!

Ruben Alcantara has been in California driving around, surfing and riding his bike a bunch. He was up in Santa Barbara visiting friends last week and flew home to Malaga this past weekend to see family hit the chiropractor to get his back checked out as he’s been having issues with it.

Taj Mihelich, in his own words:

Not a whole lot goin’ on with me. Organizing a visit to California for the S&M party and for my band to play. Pretty excited about that. Got my ticket to Rebel Jam as well. My toe is just about healed and so I've been riding some. Mostly big bikes though, as BMX still makes me a bit sore. It’s getting better everyday though. Mat Hoffman and family came down to Austin for a friend’s wedding. We all went out to Chuys for some dinner and that was real fun. I love catching up with Mat and Jaci and the kids. Bought another moped on my last trip up to Michigan. It’s a 1979 Vespa Grande Super Deluxe. Only has 500 original miles on it, and I got it for $600. This thing is awesome! Been riding it around and laughing my head off.

Mike Escamilla, in his own words:

For the last month or so I’ve been up at Woodward West on and off. I headed up to Calgary to do some demos with Dave Osato, John Heaton, Dustin Guenther and Brett Walker. came home a bit early and headed up to Nor Cal and repelled in a cave for a day or so. Probably heading back to Woodward this week.

Morgan Wade had a whirlwind trip to California this past week. The first thing he had to do was a demo on a Mini Mega Ramp for the ESPY awards last Tuesday at Universal Studios. Wednesday he headed down to SD to practice on Bob Burnquist’s backyard Mega Ramp. Thursday Morgan flew home to continue preparation for his upcoming wedding on the 25th and also get ready for the 2nd Dew Tour in Cleveland.

Joe Rich, in his own words:

I won't bore you with any work bullshit. Been riding loads and just getting shit taken care of. Feeling' on top of the world! Killing mosquitoes too! I watched a kid get taken away from the ramp today with a dislocated foot! I think that's the first time I've been here when an ambulance had to come. It was a strange feeling. The summer heat in Austin is back in full effect. 102 yesterday! But Thursday I'll get some relief from my trip out to Woodward West. Gonna be there for five days, then head to Morgan's wedding, then up to the Soul Bowl for four days in Huntington Beach. After that I head back up to Woodward. I think Garrett might be coming on the first Woodward trip and to the Soul Bowl. Then I think Taj is going to be at Woodward the second time I'm there. So I'm stoked! Oh yeah, Chris Hallman will be at Woodward till the 26th so my riding partner will be blasting… you can bet on it. Well, that's all I can think of right now. CHEEEERS!

Sergio Layos is home in Spain following some demos and getting ready to come back to Austin. Check out Sergio’s new etnies ad in Ride BMX.

Josh Stricker has been in Germany for the last four months. He flew back to Pittsburgh this last week for a few days and will be heading to Austin this coming week.

That’s all for now, folks…

The bmx team report...

Rooftop or Mountaintop?

Mike Escamilla spent last week in Alaska with the Nixon crew for their sales meeting and got to go heli boarding. It was by far the gnarliest thing he’s done in a long time...50 degree slopes and avalanches everywhere. After getting home Mike, finished up his week riding with Nate Moroshan, Edwin Delarosa, Glenn Milligan, E’man and boy in East LA. Mike’s heading to New York this week to do some stuff with Tony Hawk then off to Mexico for John Heaton’s wedding.

Jamie Bestwick has no big news this week...just been hanging out at Woodward Camp with Alex B and all the other Italian riders, as well as Steve McCann, Mike Spinner and Zach Warden. The Wife went out of town so it was a dad and lad weekend, too...Young Sam shredding it up at camp and getting into all kinds of mischief. But, other than that, nothing crazy; just getting ready for the etnies Journey’s demo and the etnies Premiere in Salt Lake City mid May. Jamie’s also been filming for the Levi Strauss website with Will Stroud. That’s about it for James...he claims his life is boring, no hanging out with cool bands or rock stars, no wild parties, just changing shitty diapers!

Ruben Alcantara had a wonderful month in fantastic Austin and then went back to little but pretty Malaga. The day he got back they had some awesome surf, so Ruben had to session that hard as it’s a rarity in Malaga to have good surf. There’s been some rain also so the trails have been kept in good shape and are as smooth as silk right now which is a welcome sight. Ruben has only been home for 4 day days and he is stoked! Ruben comes back to California mid May for the GROUNDED video premiere at the etnies HQ in Lake Forest.

Morgan Wade spent the last two weeks in Singapore competing at the Metro Jam which he won and then also competing in BMX PIG which he and his teammate Gary Young also won. Congrats Morgan! Now, back in Tyler, Morgan and Fiancé Natalie are working on some wedding plans as their wedding is coming up rapidly. Congrats again to Morgan and Natalie. Morgan is also drooling over the new rims he got from Konig that will be outfitted with some Maxxis tires that he got for his car. He will be driving out to Arizona in about a week to get some more wedding plans taken care of then onto California for the etnies GROUNDED video premiere.

Taj Mihelich rode the T1 ramp a bunch this last week. Austin had some rain so trails were mostly wet, though they’re good now. Taj did some work organizing the etnies GROUNDED Video premiere in Austin and should have the official word shortly on dates and locations, etc. It will be on the 19th of May for sure, though. He had a bunch of fun on the T1 ramp...they had Joe Rich’s birthday there which at times got a little crazy. Taj also learned a few new lines and different things on the ramp...he’s been on a big fast plant kick lately, and so adapting those all over the ramp has opened his eyes to possibilities.

Taj played a rock show on Thursday and that was fun and a number of BMXer’s came out and that was real cool. They play again tomorrow, too. Went and saw the shins and the rapture last night, they were both real good. It was at some shitty MTV event though, so the other bands were NOT good at all. Still it was a good show. It was an outdoor event and it was lightly raining so it kept things cool...kind of like a mister.

Joe Rich has had a lot going on indeed. Adam Baker is back in Austin and riding sessions on the ramp are in full swing every time that happens. Adam’s here ‘til Tuesday and that's when the thunderstorms are supposed to kick back in. Joe had a birthday and, even though he didn't tell anyone, a bunch of friends showed up at the ramp and it was a good time for sure. All the skaters were riding BMX bikes and all the dudes that usually ride bikes were skating...Good times! Joe also figured out that his new 26” Volume Cruiser inverts the same as his 20” BMX bike! Well, after a few “beverages” it does! More b-day photos.

The end to the indoor renovations at T1 is near. He has about a weeks worth of work left so hopefully all goes well. Joe went to go see Lucero the other night and more good shows are on the way. Sandy and Joe are supposed to be lining up a road trip to shoot some photos sometime at the beginning of May as well. That’s the plan that kicked in once he figured that he couldn't go to Spain this week. Joe changed his gearing and put a 27/9 on his bike which he says feels nuts. Flying' round town is the only way to describe it...it feels good. Austin is weird right now, getting more rain than he’s ever seen. Instead of nice weather all the time, it seems that Joe has been waiting for the weather to break to be able to ride, kinda like the North West scene.

Josh Stricker flew from Austin to Germany last week where he will be spending his summer making sure that he rides as much as possible and get over the laziness that comes with living in Austin for him. Be sure to check out Josh’s etnies Faction colorway coming out this summer.

Sergio Layos headed back to Madrid last week from Austin…but only for a short time. He’s heading back there in a week or so. Be sure to check out Sergio’s Variant colorway coming out this summer.

the goods...

Photo: Ride BMX

Jamie Bestwick just came back from a great road trip with the Levi Strauss Signature team, along with etnies teammate Morgan Wade, as well as Cory Martinez and Anthony Napoliton. They hit some great spots on their way from the LSS HQ in San Francisco, Woodward West, Rick’s trails in Corona and The “Grind for life” charity event at the YMCA in Claremont. Jamie said it was great hanging out with those guys and spending some time riding places he’s never been to. The whole trip will be online pretty soon when the LSSBMX site is up, so look out. Jamie’s been busy designing some new colors for an etnies shoe.

Check out the video from the YMCA demo at BMX Online...

Ruben Alcantara in his words: Well...now we didn’t have much rain here in Malaga but I found a way to water the jumps very easily...and works great! My van has a big water tank for the shower that I can use to water the jumps and make it smooth and sticky...works awesome! Each day I love this van more and more...this was my last nice session at the trails for a while because I’m leaving tomorrow to Austin...

UPDATE: Check this video of Ruben at the trails...

Mike Escamilla is probably busy as usual but I haven’t heard from him in a week. I’ll keep you posted.

Joe Rich is working hard at T1, enjoying the new ramp set up and trying to get some sleep in there somewhere. South by Southwest is in town and isn’t too forgiving, if you know what I mean..?

Photo: Ride BMX

Morgan Wade spent a week in AZ with his girlfriend Natalie and her family and friends. It was rad! He had a great time hanging out and riding bikes. He got to ride the Goodyear Park near Phoenix! That place is nuts! Morgan filmed some clips with Kyle Carlson, who’s going to make a little web vid for VitalBMX with it, so look out for that one. Anyway, Morgan’s back in Tyler now, and on Wednesday he will be getting his dental implants where he had that tooth pulled on the etnies trip!

Morgan Saw “300”!!!!!! and says it might just be one of the best movies of all time!!!!!!!!!

Taj Mihelich. In Taj’s words:
Holy shit, what a lot happened this week. Rode a lot, and had a few heavy rain days. Jon Taylor and his girl Emma showed up from jolly old England, so hung out with them. There's about 1000 other riders in town now too, including Steven Hamilton, Sergio Layos, Shawn "Elf" Walters, Little Jeff from Portland, Tony Cardona, Oliver from Sweden, Tom and Mike from Chicago, Leland, John Paul, Adam Baker etc etc etc. It’s nuts these days. Good times on the ramp for sure. And, we had a big show on the ramp on Thursday. The Portals from Portland and Jape were the Enders for the night. Jape is Richie from The Redneck Manifesto and will be used for Adam Bakers part in the new video coming out.

Jape on the ramp

Good lord, I saw 100 bands during SXSW. I saw Blonde Redhead, 31 Knots, The River Boat Gamblers, Big Business, Turbo Negro, The Raunch Hands, Messiah J and The Expert, The Portals, Green Milk From The Planet Orange, The Kittens, Anti MC, Tia Carrera, Jape, Matt And Kim and about a million more I can't remember. I would ride a little bit in the morning and then rock out out all day. My band played one night, too, and that was super fun. Felt really inspired after all this other music.

Josh Stricker has the flu and he feels like death warmed over. Life kicks ass.

Sergio Layos flew from Madrid to Austin of Friday and is doing his best to get over some jetlag while also dealing with the house full of lazy-ass BMXers, including etnies riders Aaron Ross and Danny Hickerson.

Team Update...

Mike Escamilla was in Utah last week snowboarding with Todd Richards and he got home this week and put a new Volume Union together...so if anybody wants a Redline reeeeeal cheap call Mike…. He chilled mostly in LA this week, had lunch with Kat Von D where they got these drawings done...ha-ha. Wednesday Mike films an MTV show he is involved with. Mike’s pretty much home most of March trying film a bit on the bike.

Jamie Bestwick has been back in the State College, PA with his wife and son. They just bought a condo there and will be spending more time now in the States. Jamie is currently on a Levi’s tour with etnies teammate Morgan Wade cruising from San Francisco down to San Diego, culminating in a demo at the Claremont YMCA on Saturday March 10th where he will be doing a demo with the likes of Mat Hoffman and Tony Hawk.

Ruben Alcantara is checking on tickets to make his way back out to Austin. Tickets are pretty expensive right now, but he’s coming nonetheless. In other news, Ruben headed to Burgos, Spain where the new FLY Bikes video was premiered (the video is AWESOME!), and along the way he hit up some trails between Malaga and Madrid. He also got to ride some ramps at a warehouse in Burgos, as well as a real weird full pipe that he and his friends found in the middle of nowhere.

Taj Mihelich has been buried under hanging out with and trying to entertain his mom and step dad. He’s been doing a good job of sneaking for a quick session at 9th street once in a while and the T1 ramp when he can. Taj’s Mom leaves in a couple days. He’s also been doing a lot of computer work for RIDE BMX on the Ride Magazine buyer’s guide issue coming up. He played a show on Saturday; it actually ended up being this very interesting improv jam with two other bands at an art show that no one was at. Taj got sick, almost got better, and then got very sick again. Bad cough and feeling pretty low the last couple of days, so he’s been reading a lot and watching movies and TV as well as playing the Warcraft video game.

Check out Taj's etnies Blog for tons of cool shit...

Josh Stricker is in Austin doing his thing riding and working on Happy Hour. Keep an eye out for Josh’s interview coming up in RIDE UK, as well as a colorway of an etnies Faction shoe later this year.

Morgan Wade is in San Francisco right now for a Levi Strauss Signature tour. From there he’s going on a little road trip to get some footy together for a Levi’s team video that should be out by the end of the summer. Morgan should be at Woodward West on Wednesday with the team, including etnies teammate Jamie Bestwick. He’s going to be in Arizona for spring break hangin’ out with his girl Natalie’s family for a few days, then ride a bunch of parks and stuff…should be a good time. A “crack head” offered to suck Will Stroud's toes for money on the Levi Tour…so far it seems things are very interesting and probably going to get even stranger.

Check out Morgan's recent etnies Blog about his trip to Australia and NZ.

Joe Rich has been busy as fuck, but good. Lately his life has been all about T1, which is not really a big surprise to be honest. Working there, working on the ramp out back, working on the inside. Joe got a crash course in door hanging and dry walling from some friends as he has been doing some renovations to make the T1 warehouse a little more efficient and separate some offices. Joe has also been riding the cement park as well as the trails and the ramp. It’s the Austin triathlon--3 spots in a day, on a good day.

Joe’s heading out to California for a Fox photo shoot with Chase Hawk. Joe also got invited for that “Red Bull Empire of Dirt” comp and is soooooo excited about it. Aside of all this, Joe’s good friend Logan just moved to Austin from Hawaii and has been staying with Joe for a couple of days. Joe, Chris Hallman and Ryan Corrigan are all going to San Angelo cement tomorrow.

Sergio Layos was at the premiere for the new FLY Bikes video in Burgos, Spain, just an hour away from his home in Madrid. Sergio rode in a little contest and also did a little demo for the people there…that was really fun. One of Sergio’s friends invited him to try out driving his Porsche on a race track. Needless to say, it was Really Really fun! This is something that was definitely a once in a lifetime experience for Sergio, and he was so excited yet nervous at the same time in case he crashed such an expensive car. During the week he was doing the usual thing…just riding around by his house. Next week Sergio heads to Austin for a few months. Keep an eye out for a Sergio etnies colorway coming later this year.