Click The Above Image to Watch the Trailer.

Don’t let Rich intimidate you with his magic.

The starter hip. 5 feet tall, 15 feet wide landing. Beauty.

The line. Tommy is standing on the first jump.

Big news on the Casselman front. Newly indoctrinated resident Rich Redmond has been hard at work the past couple of days digging some gnarly trails in his field. Ignore the bobcat in the photo, the trails were actually hand dug entirely by Rich, using only one hand.
The trails consist of a hip to the right/roll in, a roughly 5 foot tall six pack and a quarter to bank setup (pictured above) where you can turn around and hit a 5 foot tall tabletop. It looks like it is going to be a lot of fun, but there is still much work to be done. I know Rich wants to hold a contest sometime this fall, but we need to get everything done first. On that note, if you plan to ride these warlocks, you probably want to get ahold of Rich and put in a day of digging, otherwise you may be denied access to the trails the same way girls deny Jorden access to their vajayjays.

Yesterday while riding CP, I lost one of my bar ends and before I had a chance to notice I almost lost the tip of my finger. One of the most gruesome cuts I have ever endured, that jagged metal bar opening tore me a new one. Sure, it wasn’t my nutsack… but it still sucks. 5 stitches later I’m sitting around waiting for it to heal so I can ride in Van next month. Stupid Universe, always working against me…

Because of the time of year, we will be competing with school playground construction so it might not happen until after labour day, but either way we should have a jump to ride this season! So hopefully Jorden wont have to do this trick over an awkward hip much longer and can take it properly to a big box jump.

On Saturday afternoon my old friend from PEI, Doug, came up to visit me with his girlfriend. They are working near Mt. Tremblant for the summer and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to catch up on lost time. The night rolls around and a 26er of Grant’s is half drunk and half packed into flasks for the ride downtown. We hit the usual spots: The Brig, The Dom and finally try to wrap it all up with a some wild dance floor action at Zaphods. By this time, the scotch was long gone, as were numerous pitchers of whoknowswhat. Unfortunately Zaphods was a no go, as Dougie was apparently on the drunk radar from the bouncers – so we headed home.

There, we made a huge meal of spaghetti: excessively spicy, yet the perfect end-of-the-night solution, fulfilling our desires for quantity of food and intensity of flavour, with the added bonus of veggies for nutritional value. After having our fill, it became apparent that the sun would be rising within the hour and that we should find a suitable place from which to view it. I naturally suggested Carlington hill which offers a wonderful, unobstructed view at a relatively short distance: economical! So we pedal over there, I on my BMX, they on some hybrids from around my place. And the sun rise was beautiful! I woke them up just in time, as both Doug and his lady fell asleep once we laid on the grass waiting for the moment. And after appreciating the eternally beautiful spectacle – which, for city-dwellers like myself, is a rare experience – we decided it was time for some sleep.

I’m not sure how drunk I was at this point. I certainly didn’t feel very drunk, and did not so much as close my eyes while lying on the grass. In any case, it came up that we’d have to descend the short, but super steep, rocky and skinny hill-path that had led us up to the plateau. I looked down it, and thought: “hmm… that’s pretty steep, and rocky, and skinny. plus it turns at the bottom. buuuut on the other hand, I think I can do it.” So I roll in.

The rest was recounted to me by Doug. I picked up speed extremely fast and at the very bottom i hit a soft patch of dirt and perhaps a rock at the point where I began to take the corner. my bike flew forwards, and I was whipped face first into the dirt – no hands and hardly a shoulder to pad my fall. I laid there motionless on my face, until Doug ran down the hill to roll over and wake me up. I was out for about 10 seconds and when I came too, I couldn’t remember what happened. Somehow I was able to ride my broken ass back home on my BMX and thinking it wasn’t too bad, I hopped in the shower to wash up before bed. When I came out, my mom was already up and ready to take me to the hospital.

The outcome: 7 fractures in my face – around my sinuses, my eye socket and cheekbone; the inevitable facial lacerations on one side of my face; and a broken ego. Yesterday I went to a specialist for facial reconstruction and I was told that I had no bone displacement, which means no surgery – so I’d consider myself very lucky and will certainly learn from the experience.

I’m not going to get all moral on you readers of capitalbmx, so take what you will out of this story. But just don’t be an idiot. The truth is that this kind of thing – or much, much worse – can happen to anyone and when you’re least expecting it. I’m reasonably certain that if I had not been drinking earlier in the night, that I wouldn’t have rolled in on that hill: drinking does impair judgment and can give you undue confidence. So please everyone, just be safe and stay within your limits: whether that means wearing your helmet, not drinking and riding or just taking calculated risks. Keep it real and don’t kill yourself out there guys!

A while ago I posted about Jeff Bedard leaving town (which has finally occured after a long stay in Europe), but along with his departure also comes the departure of Marc Boudreau. He is saying goodbye to Ottawa after six years of calling it home and setting a course for Vancouver. Marc is always known for his outspoken attitude, and his willingness to lend a hand and his skills to the scene wherever needed, and he will be missed. Best of luck out west Marc.

* UPDATE: contest is closed – Philip O. is the winner *

Last month a number of members of the Animal team were in town on the Ten Pack Tour. While here they made a quick visit to Joe Mamma’s, rode a few spots in town, and had a BBQ before having to head back out to Quebec. They were also generous enough to send some goods through to us, and here’s your chance to win a free copy of the the new Animal Cuts DVD by answering a few Animal related questions that any die hard fan might know (or spend a little time on Youtube and Google to find the answers). Click below to read the full details.

To win a copy of the video you have to correctly answer the following 4 questions:
What song does Butcher ride to in Can I Eat?
Name the line that Bob Scerbo does as his third last trick in All Day.
Who had the last part in Don’t Quit Your Day Job 2?
How many times does Steven Hamilton do a curved wallride in his Can I Eat part?

Email answers to prashantgopal@gmail.com
Contest is open until the first correct set of answers comes in
Unlimited entries per person allowed
Open to Canadian residents with a 613 area code only

After running out of the previous Capital BMX stickers for a while now, I finally got around to getting some more made. No new design this time, just a re-print of our most popular, and my favourite, design: GREAZY. I also have some Yo Sick Zine stickers printed up too. Both stickers are free and available from me directly, or you can grab them at Joe Mamma while they last.

Here are a couple of production photos.

The footage turned out incredibly, and I can’t wait to get this short finished so I can premiere it. Until then, you guys can keep up to date with production by checking out www.skywardkick.com.