What Can I say about last weekend.
It was nothing short of F*cking great. Everybody was so friendly. It really was something very special
Well I didn’t get there until 4pm on the Saturday, so missed the Friday session and party. Still there was plenty time. I had to drop the wife and daughter off at San Francisco airport on the Saturday morning, and try to look like I wasn’t just dumping them and their bags as quick as I could before driving 5 hours south down to Woodward.
Made it to Woodward. Got my bike out of the car and headed for the indoor hangar. First person I met was Andy Shohara finally I get to meet the Flying Hawaiian.
Here's a quick tour of woodward
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I rode for a few hours until I couldn't ride any longer.
Everyone was telling me about Lee Reynolds' wicked step thu airs the day before, but I didn’t see them until I saw the photos tonight. It was great to meet Lee. Had a great chat He’s a right good laugh and an absolutely wicked rider. Much respect. I want to be him when I grow up
I got to talk to so many of the legends. I talked with DMC about his trips to England and how he blew everyone away with his flatland in 1985 or whenever. He even brought up the fakie to knockout at the world in Manchester.
Tried out my best Dutch on Bart De Jong, rode (tried) the box jump with Kevin Robinson, rode (tried) the skatepark with DMC and Blyther. I am so shite on a bike its almost embarrassing, but it didn’t stop me. Bob Haro turned up just after I arrived. There was a queue of people waiting to shake his hand. It was like meeting Santa at the shopping centre. He spend a few minutes talking to everyone. I didn't sit on his knee though, but super nice guy. I told him he still had loads of fans back in the UK and he signed a T shirt for me.
The party didn’t really start until about 10pm-ish. Everyone was in the bar watching old school movies. Nice big cheer when Craig Campbell did his 540 wallride at an early Ron’s 2 hip event. Once I was nicely oiled up with pale ale, I went off to talk to some legends…
Went over to speak to Eddie Fiola. Several weeks ago I ordered a couple of old school reunion T shirts, and thought I’d get one signed by Eddie for Pete.
Spoke to Rich Sigur and talked about BMX Beat. Interesting fact- Did you know he never even saw it until last year or so, when he had to buy his own copy? I thought someone would have sent it to him before now…. Felt I should apologize for the Carlisle locals behaviour when he beat Pepi, but I thought better of bringing it up. Didn’t get a chance to talk to Zak Shaw unfortunately , but had a blether with Simon Tabron, Lee and a few of the other Brits.
The party was going strong when Dave Nourie pushes through the bar with his bike and into a really small lounge bar area. It must have been about 30ft by 10ft and people all around, he still managed to do enough flatland to entertain for about an hour. Incredible. God only knows when we got booted out of the bar, but it must have been sometime after 2am.
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Then of course it didn’t stop. Back to the rooms, and the party continued. Faintly remember swigging rum or whisky with Blyther and/or Gonzalez but that’s about it. Woke up with a roaring hangover at 11am to find snow outside. Tried to drive home, but the freeways were closed. Daren’t ask a cop if there was any other roads out of that place in case they could smell the whiskey on my breath.. so sat it out waiting for the freeway to open. Got home 6 hours later knackered..
Brilliant weekend. So who’s up for it next year …old fools?
