Yardbarker: Motocross

Vegas bound

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:27:40 -0500

Well it is officially one week until I will be in LA riding my first practice of X games 14. The reality that it is almost here sunk in yesterday when I drove out to my practice spot for the last time before X. I had a decent session with everyone and then had to load up and head to the airport to fly to LA. Fox had a grand opening to their new building in Irvine so they invited us out to check out the building and make small talk with all the big wigs. On the way to the building we were driving down the 405 and we saw the sign for the Home Depot center and it said X games was coming to town, me and Adam Jones got instant sweaty palms realizing in a week we will be in there battling for medals. After a fun night with the Fox crew it was a 6 am wakeup call to get back to LAX and head to Reno. Once I got home I did nothing but handle business and get in a bad mood haha. I am notorious for putting everything off until the day before I leave, so needless to say I spent all day playing catch up on everything. Tomorrow we hop in the RV and head down to Vegas to stay and practice with Carey Hart. Carey's tattoo shop (Hart and Huntington tattoo) has been a sponsor of mine for about three years now, and now Carey has a full practice course out by his place so it works out perfect!!. It's nice to get out of your comfort element and practice on a unfamiliar setup the week before a big contest. Anyways that is about all the news I have as of now. I will get a blog up in a couple days and keep you guys posted on how much fun I am having in Vegas in the 100+ degree heat!!!! Toodles!!!

Mind of a Demon

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:36:10 -0500

One of the foremost pioneers of freestyle motocross, who has slipped out of the scene due to politics and all the crap that accompanies them, is breaking back into the main stream. Larry Linkogle is One of the first, and maybe the one of the last TRUE freeriders. His life story has been captured on film and will be released soon. I for one am very exited and cannot wait. for mor info on this check out www.Larrylinkogle.com

Trick Tips part 2

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:00:21 -0500

This time we were lucky enough to have the man Taylor Walk thorugh one of his tricks with us. Taylor is gonna give us the goods on Strippers(No not those strippers, the moto trick). Hes one of the best in the world at this trick so youd better listen to him. Class prepare to strip. 1.First thing first, I would recomend learning cordovas before the stripper. That way you get the general idea and feeling of it. 2.When your first learning strippers what you want to do is hook one foot under than handlebars and have one through the handlebars, candy bar style.(Everyone has there own comfort with a certain foot going through the handlebars. I like to use my left foot. So figure out which one you feel better with.) Its awkward at first but like any trick it comes with practice. 3.When you've mastered just hooking your foot under the handlebars and one leg through the bars start looking up to get the feeling of a stipper. Try to get them a little bigger each time. 4.Now I will explain what I do when I pull a stripper. I bring my feet up going towards my chest. My left leg is higer than my right because its gotta go through the bars. My right foot hooks under the handlebars and my left goes through the bars. As soon as the left foot is through I start looking up. I make my left leg go up as straight as I can(some people just push there leg out forward. Depends on flexibility and preference)As my left leg is going straight up I point my crotch to the sky and continue to look back. When your coming back from the trick keep your one leg thats hook under the bars, hooked until the other leg is back in through the bars. Its easier to get back in. Note:When learning strippers take it slow. Dont just try to huck it first try. Also when doing them it feels like you going out through the bars with your one leg. Thats normal. Just stay calm. So.. To sum this long thing up (sorry by they way its long) 1.Hook one foot under the bars while the other goes through the bars 2.Start looking up as soon as your leg of choice is through the bars. 3.Point your crotch to the sky and arch your back to get a good extension. 4.When coming back in from a stripper you dont want to hang up. So keep your foot thats under the bars hooked until the other leg is back in from the bars. Its easier to get back in that way. Once its back in land it safely and listen to the ladies scream. haha 5. Be safe. Take it slow. You dont want to go to the hospital and expain you got hurt trying to strip You may learn this trick, You may get very good at it, but you have to give it up to 17 year old taylor woods for mastering it. For more info on taylor and his bag of tricks check out www.outcastfmx.com or visit his myspace www.myspace.com/fmxtaylor

Trick tips from the pros

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:51:17 -0500

today were gonna do something different. Were gonna let some top riders walk you through some of there very technical-mind blowing tricks. First up is Dustin miller. Dustin is gonna give you a rundown of a nofooted NAC NAC one hander. If you think it sounds hard wait till you see it. Take it away dustin. Ok, well I've crashed a few times on this trick, and it scares me, but... Step 1...approach the ramp at an angle like you would for a whip or a nac nac. You want to use the motion of the bike swinging out lightly to get your feet into double nac position. Since your hand will be coming off you cant push off the pegs like you would normally, for a double nac. Step 2...as you leave the top of the ramp swing into the double nac. Start to take your right hand off while keeping your left elbow bent and a firm grip on the bars. If you straighten your left arm your going to be hurting. Work to get the right arm off farther with practice. I generally try to put it parallel with my body, rather than up, because its easier to stay in control and do it bigger. Be careful because that also causes your legs to swing around the front of the bike. Step 3...grab onto the bars with your right hand. Careful not to snag your front brake with a wild swinging arm. I always try to catch my bars with my hand before doing anything with my feet. To stay more in control. Then swing you leg back over the seat. STep 4. Hopefully your not skidding on your side at this point. Land. Take your right hand off again, grab a beer and be glad you just pulled one of the hardest tricks in FMX. Well there you have it. If you wanna be an fmx bad boy you better learn this trick, and if you do your cooler then me because i dont have any intentions of trying it anytime soon....You can witness this trick about 45 seconds into the video below

viva la bamburg

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:01:27 -0500

you know him, i know him. hes that tough guy from oregon who rides hard,falls herder but gets back up,shakes it off and gets back to work. all without a jug of sugar infused energy drink to give hime artifical adrenaline. One of my personal favorite riders beau bamburg was cool enough to give us an indepth no holds barred look into that lil sikey of his, and man is it amusing. reading this makes me wanna load up my vespa, drive to oregon and shake this guys hand for keeping it real....... and away we go 1. So Beau,hows your season going so far? busy! i figured it out the other day and from year to date I've been home 30 days. 2. Whats your schedule like for the rest of the year? Busy. I have the dew tour and a bunch of shows in Europe and in between I do all the freestylemx.com shows that I can. 3. With you being pretty much the only prominent freestyle star in oregon, what do you do for riding? who do you get to ride with and where? I have a track that I incoporated a ramp and landing into but I have to ride by myself. I have a couple buddies that ride the track while I practice freestyle but it's hard to stay inspired when I'm the only one hitting the ramp. 4. What do you think about alot of action sports stars like pastrana, mirra and lasek crossing over to rally car racing? Well I think pastrana has it dialed. I mean all the moto he's raced has to help with line choice and ability to read upcoming terrain. As far as the other two I think they're just bored and too rich. I don't think they have anything for TP. 5. Do you have any other motorsports you would like to get into? Of course I would like to continue doing something fun that doesn't involve getting a real job but I'm too poor to buy a rally car or monster truck. Besides I could never drive a monstertruck anyway cause I couldn't grow a mullet even if I had too. 6. I didnt get to watch your last dew tour run, any body you want to kick in the nuts for that? Not really. I was actually pleased with my first run but that's how it goes at a judged contest. I saw allot of things differently than the judges but whats new? I think that contests hurt the sport in a way. I honestly don't know how someone could sit and watch 20 guys do the exact same run over and over. When I did the UK crusty tour I was blown away by how entertaining those shows were. Demos are always better to watch. They make contests look like watching paint dry. 7. What would you think about your kids becoming pro freestylers? Lets just say I went out a bought em some golf clubs. I mean they can do whatever they want but I would hate to see them get hurt or go through what I've been through. It's kind of weird cause when I was a kid I diddn't get to ride that much so thats all I wanted to do but they have dirtbikes and are around em so much that they think it's just part of everyday life and always want to do other things (which is fine with me). 8. i remember you saying you were pretty stoked on the last gravity course that had a gapped drop in and some technical jumps and whatnot. what do you think about ESPN filling an arena with 7 different events. I wouldn't know. I'm not on the cool kid invite only list. I think that being invite only also hurts the sport. I remember when I started this sport my goal was to get good enough to QUALIFY for the x games. If it stays invite only I think some kids who could be really good will loose interest because there is no goal to reach. New kids used to come out of the woodwork to try to qualify. Thats how I got in. If I wouldn't of had a chance to earn my way in I would probably still be a construction worker. (whoa! I derailed there for a second). But anyway, remember the 03 X course? That was the real deal. I remember when I walked into the place looking down on that course I was probably more nervous than I've ever been. Back on topic I thought X was an outlet for sports that didn't have a place to show their goods. Last time I checked supercross, rally and supermoto had their own deal. Not only that but I bet there's a ton of bungee jumpers and street lugers out of work right now. 9. Do you prefer huge dirt jumps or regular ramp jumps.I can only hit a ramp so many times in one day. I would much rather ride some fun dirt jumps. When I go down to fitzpatric's house I probably hit the ramp a total of 1% that I'm on my bike. 10. describe your perfect day? I can tell you it involves Jessica Alba, a bottle of astroglide, some Crown Royal and a seedy motel room. But in real life it would be waking up at the crack of noon and getting to ride my dirtbike somewhere really fun followed up by playing with my kids. 11. what are your thoughts on the newly rediscovered distance jumping reaching ridiculously huge lengths?? I think you better have some faith in your bike. I think that any of the top freestylers could pull a ramp back in increments and do it but not everybody has a mile long field and 40000 extra yards of dirt laying around. Don't get me wrong it's pretty gnarly cause if your bike took a poop on the run up your done. 12. any chance of you pulling a 300 ft KOD flip? Not to sound like a materialistic weasel or anything but not unless there's a big fat check involved. 13. Do you having any closing words for the fans, or the haters? To my fans, thanks for the love! and to the haters, you probably suck shit anyway so no one cares what you think. Besides what the hell did I do to you anyway? there you have it ladies and gentlemen.....Mullets, NO jessica alba,YES who can argue with a guy like that?

Friday night fun.....

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:10:56 -0500

Hey guys, it's Friday night, 9:58 P.M, and I am sitting on my couch getting ready for bed. I just kind of wanted to brag about my dedication here haha, everyone is out enjoying the start of their weekend and I am sitting here MySpacing, playing guitar, and watching TV. I really cannot wait until it is the Monday after X, not for the fact of getting to party or get into trouble, but I feel like I just need to breathe. Every year I really hate July because it's the most exhausting month of the year for me, not just physically but mentally as well. I have been having the most difficult time sleeping at night, I constantly wake up at 4-5 A.M. and once I wake up I start thinking about everything and it worries me and then I don't go back to sleep. Today was the first day I took off from riding in over a week and I was still up early as heck worrying. I know this all sounds like nonsense and trust me it feels like nonsense, but for some reason X games just puts that kind of pressure on us. I had a rough year last year and this year hasn't started off much better so I keep thinking in my head if I don't do something at X I could be on my way out in this sport and that's for sure not what I want. I want more than anything to be back at the front of the pack in FMX, but it's not going to come easy!! Tomorrow I am hitting the track again to get some more practice for Speed and Style and then I am going to take Sunday off, but Monday comes my last full week of practice so I'm hoping to make the most of it!! Hope all you guys enjoy your weekend, I look forward to hopefully having a good blog for you guys next week, maybe I can learn something for once!!!

The practice course

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:30:51 -0500

Hey guys, finally getting some videos rolling!! The one I have attached is a run down of our course. I know I talk a lot and I got pretty awesome bed head but I hope you guys find this somewhat interesting!! More vids to come soon.
Untitled from NV//HC Productions on Vimeo.

New Blood

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:42:29 -0500

These days it seems like freestyle riders are popping out of the wood work. Some of them head out to the hills and learn as they go, some of them have there own compound before there drivers license. either way you have to respect a kid who can pull A's in algebra by day and seatgrabs and shaolins by night. One of the great up and comers is my buddy Taylor Woods. Ive had the chance to ride with Taylor, see him perform in shows and get buried in his foam pit. He is a very skilled riders,one of the nicest guys I know and an all around good guy. Watch out for this kid in the future, theres no limits to his ability. taylor was nice enough to shed some light on himself and give the fans taste of what its like to be a teenage freestyle moto rider. alright taylor first tell us a little bit about yourself,favorite color, life ambition, you know all the good stuff like that.... Well...My name is Taylor Woods. I will be 17 years old in 3 days. I am from Prescott, AZ. My favorite color is blue forsho! My life ambition is to be happy and living life to the fullest. I've been doing fmx off and on for 2 years and am starting to get a lil more serious bout it. I jump probably 2 times a week unfortunately:( but as i said I'm getting more motivated to get better so I'm trying to ride more. ok now onto the questions. Did you start out racing at all or did you jump strait to freestyle? Before I ever got a dirtbike I raced bmx and it was fun and i did it alot. I started racing motocross as soon as I got a bike at age 6 and stopped after I was on 60's. I was over the all the sandbaggers, competitive kids and dads, all the political stuff. I'm not very competitive. I just like to have fun riding my bike and chilling with my loved ones. FMX was coming out when I was a little kid and I knew thats what I wanted to do. Watching riders jump there bikes and do little tricks fascinated me. I'd go to monster truck shows and I wouldnt be like most kids and say "I want to do that" I told everyone I was going to do FMX one day. So ever since was little I knew what I wanted to do.. and that was to do shows and do tricks on my bike and show off. I got my first ramp at 13 and finally found a place to hit it when i turned 14 and the rest is history. Whats your favorite trick? My favorite trick to do is a stripper :) Is freestyle something you wanna do for a career or is it just something your doing for the time being? I would love to make it out of a career! Thats been my dream forever, but I dont like to plan things and put pressure on myself. I just take it one day at a time and have fun. The main reason I ride is because I love what I do and I've been blessed to ride and have my own ramps and all the support in the world from my family. I have goals for it, but all in all I just want to have fun and try to become the best I can be and be a role model for kids. I was once a little kid asking riders for there autographs and I remember how much I looked up to everyone, so I want to be a good role model What riders do you look up to most for inspiration and motivation? My dad. He used to bust out and do tricks on his quad when I was little. This was before FMX was even a "sport". I also look up to all my riding friends. Jim Mcneil, Thomas Alves, Nate Adams, Robert Distler, Bud Myrugg, Paris Rosen, Vince Morgan, Destin Cantrell and Lance Coury. Basically I have a lot of riders I look up to! My inspiration is the lord jesus christ and my motivation is having fun! alright taylor,your a young good looking guy,so be honest....how much do the bikes help out with the ladies? hahaha... Well I dont know about that. I havent pulled any chicks at all. Girls are silly :D They are complicated. Ive seen you do large shows with large crowds along with well seasoned riders. how do you feel just getting into the demos yet riding with some seasoned pros?does it make you nervous or uncomfortable? It is a bit intimidating. Riding with the people you were asking for the autographs as a kid. I like riding in front of people. I still get a little nervous but I like to put on a show. But more than anything its an honor to ride with people you watched in movies or looked up to. I will never forget my first big show and it was with Dan Pastor and all my other favorite riders and Dan came up and patted me on the back and told me good job. what kind of sprinkles do you want on your donut? I like rainbow out of the wonderful freeride spots in the world,is there any certain one that you hope to visit someday? I want to go to ocotillo and cainville. Also theres a place in AZ that I want to go to, I just got to get ahold of my good friend Vince Morgan! give me a quick sentence about your thoughts on double backflips I have mad respect for anyone who is doing it or wants to but its probably something I'd never do!!!! and finaly is there anyone you want to thank? I want to thank the lord jesus christ for all he's blessed me with. I got it so good and will never take what I have for granted. My Parents and brother Trenton for all there support and sacrifices. They've done so much for me and I love them so much. My Grandma Pat Woods, all my friends and riding buddies. You know who you are. Outcast Fmx, Animosity FMX and the Boogeyman Brigade. And you Robert for interviewing me! It was quite an honor! Thanks there it is ladies and gents, straight from the phenoms mouth,er fingertips. Thanks alot Taylor. To check out more on taylor Be sure to visit WWW.OUTCASTFMX.COM and show him some support.

Help Wanted: Need energy!!

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:41:32 -0500

Hey fellow internet pals, I am sitting here still sweating from my last post and even more tired haha. I have been on the go pretty hard lately getting in any riding time I can and today was no different. I decided to take a couple days off from the ramps and let my back and movable body parts rest up from the constant twisting and stretching of FMX. Yesterday I did nothing, I woke up, wondered around my house and almost felt lost because I had nothing to do!! I then decided it was time to purchase something, so I went down to Best Buy and got the Aerosmith edition of Guitar Hero, I beat it in a couple hours and was then depressed that I wasted 70 bucks!! So today I decided to be more productive. I started my day off at Guitar Center where I plugged in a Guitar and tried out every effect pedal available with no intentions on buying one, I just wanted to pretend I was cool and try to shred!! From there I got back to being active, I had my bike loaded up that I ride at the tracks so I went out and cut some laps in the 100+ degree heat and smoke infested air. I don't know what is going on this summer, but we haven't had a clear day yet due to all the fires in Cal. I felt okay on the track, speed felt pretty good, but my stamina was not so hot!! It's funny me and my good friend Dustin Miller sat there and watched all these little kids ride the whole time without breaking a sweat and all we could do is talk about how that used to be us, but now we are old washed up beer drinkers. Well tomorrow it's back to the grind of ramps and trying to learn something special, hopefully I can start getting business handled out there!! I have filmed a bunch of stuff around our area and at my house, and now it is in the editing phase so hopefully soon I will have some useful little videos up for everyone!! That's all for now, byeeeeeeeee!

Staying power

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:25:00 -0500

If your a fan of FMX then you no doubt have heard the name Dustin Miller. Dustin has been in the show for quite some time now and shows no sings of letting up anytime soon. You can witness some of his madness in the On the pipe series of videos. If you pay close attentions you will see some of the longest technical combos on the market. Mr miller himself is one of the nicest guys ive ever had the opportunity to chat with, he was also kind enough to let me pick is brain for a lil while,for a lil insight on Dustin keep on reading. 1.hows the shoulder since the crash,are you back to full on riding again? Its doing pretty good. Still have some soreness on certain things with my arm over my head. At the same time I hurt that I found out I dont have an ACL in one knee too, but I'm pretty sure that happened like 2 years ago in the foam pit. The thing that sucked for me the most was 3 days after I started riding fmx again, I was doing some flips and brain faded and looped out. So my ass was hurting for 3 weeks and I couldnt ride. I'm actually just starting to feel confident on my bike again. 2. you have one of the best freestyle compounds in the world. Lots of ramps and dirt jumps,fun box and foam pit. how long has it taken you to get your course the way it is now,and are there any forseeable changes coming soon? Well it got a complete make over last year thanks to Ogio and Jason Fischer. I've lived here for 5 years and theres always work being done. Fixing runs, making berms better, fixing landings. 1 ramp and 1 landing would be way easier. Thats all you need for success in FMX anyway, but I get bored. 3.with all the super technical tricks that are coming out these days,do you still find time to head out to the hills and just playride? Oh ya. Thats what I like doing more than anything. Nobody really likes going with me, so I go by myself a lot out by my house. Theres some big hills out here that I play around on. I find little quarter pipe rythm sections in the washes. I found one that has 4 hip jumps back to back. But people would laugh at how small they are. But thats what I've done since I was 12. Some days I'll just go to some sage brush tracks I have and do laps on my 450. I like that a lot too. 4. some riders have trouble handeling some off the bigger natural stuff,you dont seem to have that problem. do you think theres anything that helps make someone a better terrain rider? Mainly just a desire to do it. I get scared all the time. Everyone from Nevada knows that we dont have like the Beaumonts and places like that with all these crazy jumps. Its like small little things you find. I think I just had a nac for finding jumps and hitting them. It surprises me that people think its as hard as it is. Thats how I feel about consistently backflipping a 75 footer. Its hard to get it right every time. 5.your well known for doing some killer combos. do you have any favorites that you like? Thanks. I like most of them. I try to do things appropriate for the times. Like for example, I did a lot of the seat grab combos, when no one did them. Some people caught on so I tried to incorporate other things like No footed cans or something to break that up. That was something that came natural to me so I tried to keep it interesting. During that time though I also had to spend a lot of time learning backflips, which are tough for me. But I'm still working on things. Sometimes it takes finding a bigger better jump so I have more time in the air. Id like to start doing some crazy stuff like Loza is doing. Its pretty awesome. But I'm getting old and things get scary. 6.what do you think is more important for people to learn at the beggining stages of there fmx carrer.Strong bike hanndleing skills or a lot of big tricks? I dont think it matters. When I first saw Nate he could barely ride and he does pretty good these days. The courses are easy anyway. I could probably teach my dad to ride them. So its more about the tricks. 7. As of late the Tv broadcasters have been cutting programing short.How do you feel about riders in events not all getting equal coverage on tv and in the press? Ya, because if you show one guys run, the next guy will probably do almost the same run. Especially if the guy is winning. So the TV peeps probably see it the same way. But I mean it's the same in all TV programming. Show a bit of what sells the show the easiest so you can show commercials. Could most people even focus long enough to watch every bit of us anyway? Attention Spans are running on empty these days. 8.with the fading of the two stroke machines comeing up faster and some people riding fourstrokes,what are you futre plans as far as bikes go? Well Suzuki makes a rad 450, so Ill ride that thing for sure. If I'm still riding FMX then. 9. Do you have a certain rider you like to watch,or a trick you love to see? I like to watch guys try things that are out of their norm. 10.give one sentence on what your carrer in freestyle means to you? I guess Careers are for money right? So I made some money, and bought some things, and I'm happy about it. Riding will always be my thing, long after the dollars are gone. well there you have it from the man himself. Inovative,laid back and stylish rider. Does you really need anything else?

Action packed summer.

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:34:31 -0500

With more and more events being held every year,the sport of freestyle motocross is gain more popularity every day. X games used to be the staple in american fmx.challenged a few years ago the mountain dew action sports tour popped into action, being a seasonal series as opposed to a single event. This year the infamous redbull x fighters finnaly brought there antics stateside holding thier first american event in texas jsut a few weeks ago. Then you have the lesser known contest like the LG action tour,IFMA series as well as many others. This year is proving to be a great start for the freestyle season with top podium position changing owners at every event. If you are as anxious as i am to soak in as much moto maddness as you can this year be sure to stay tuned to see when and where you can see these events. For X games details be sure to head on over to EXPN.com, on a side note you can find mr Ryan leyba's blog The Brap Haps. For more on the redbull events this year check out RedbullXfighters.com and for the dewtour surf to AST.com And everyone be sure to check out fellow yard barker and pro Freestyler Mike Mason's blog. Mike will be attending Most of these events and will be throwing down all year long providing the fans with his own personallized lunacy

5th gear PINNED

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:56:10 -0500

thats the plan for mr ryan capes tomorow. Ryan will attemp to pilot his monster energy kawasaki 450 off a really big ramp really really fast in hopes of crushing yet another world record. Ryan is in constant contention for the world distance record on a motorcycle with many others including Austrails Robbie maddison(current official record holder) and the Byrd. Byrd has recently come only a few feet of smashing the 400 mark. and when i say a few feet i mean that litterly. there is a lot of speculation of wether or not byrds jumps are legit because he uses more natural terrain for his feats whereas other use man made landings. Personally i dont care what these guys land on,they are all in need of a catscan and a medal because the stuff they do is insane. Capes is scheduled to take on the 400 foot mark tomorow at a media only event at his home track in Oregan. Be sure to check out www.monsterenergy.com for more details and broadcast. Thats it for now.stay tuned as i have more interviews lined up,more rants to type and maybe get some profesional predictions for the upcoming X Games

From one barker to another.

Mike Mason — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:44:33 -0500

As i sit here watching that 70's show i got to wondering whats going on with some of todays atheletes. After a few redbulls and a box of poptarts i went on a mission to get some news out of one of yardbarkers very own Bloggers. X games medalist, Dew tour regular and one heck of a freerider mike mason has his very own blog here on yardbarker but i thought i would spend some time this week harrasing mike. heres the results. Questions 1.its been a good while since you had a considerable amount of work done to your knees.lots of shows and contest since then and looking strong.how are they feeling? Knee's are about 80%, my left one that had the ACL done is fine, but my right leg is still a little sore at times. Anything is 100% better than last year though, I rode through so much pain that it made riding not fun, so now I am happy about riding again and walking like a normal human!! 2.speaking of lots of shows and contest,do you prefer to be busy riding week in and week out or would you rather have another type of schedule? I like being busy, but I think that's because it all relates around my dirt bike and my career haha. If I was busy in another type of industry I would probably be hating life. I like doing everything I can though which makes it a lot more busy for sure, wether it be media, or practice, or traveling, I always seem to keep my plate full! 3.what are your goals for the rest of the year(podiums,new songs to learn,any playmates you wanna get to know?) I would love to at least get back into contention for podiums. Right now I feel I am so far behind everyone, so I need to work really hard this summer and at least come to the contests knowing I have a chance to do good instead of excepting the fact that I'm going to be at the end of the pack. On another note, I want to master Stairway to Heaven and Sad but True on Guitar!! 4. its known that you are buddy's with mr carey hart. Is he a riding influence on you at all or just a dude you hang out with? Well I'd say for sure in his prime, he was a guy that influenced me. He always did his own thing, was cool with everyone, and made some awesome tricks up! He has helped me out a ton in my FMX career and we have become pretty good friends now. I'm actually buying a house in Vegas, I will have access to Carey's new FMX course so now I can ride Nov-March instead of sitting here in the snow. 5.who is your favorite rider to watch?anyone with a certain style you aprreciate? I love watching Bilko ride. He always scares us because he doesn't have much fear, so he's always doing gnarly stuff, even ramp to ramp on the Crusty tour, but at the same time he has fun. You can mess with him at a contest and he'll mess with you right back, he's not the guy that's in his RV rehearsing his run and ignoring everyone. I think all around he's just a kick ### kid!! 6.you have a real strong group of guys to ride with in nevada.miller, foster, burlew etc......do you think its important to have alot of people to ride with to get motivated and progress? For sure I think it is real important to have a solid group of guys to ride with. Look at the Mulisha, they have 5 solid contest guys now and they all feed off each other and keep riding better and better. It's the same with us up here. I ride with Adam Jones everyday and he is no slacker. We are out to the course and our bikes by 9 every morning pretty much Monday through Friday. It's fun though because we all have a different view and approach to the sport so I try and feed off everyone I ride with. 7. a trick your very well known for is the holygrab,mostly because you put so much style into it and throw it HUGE. is there any tricks that you dont do at all for any reason? Can flips, because I think they are ugly. There is no way to make a can flip look cool, even if you take a hand off. Also double nac's but that's my own fault. When I do a trick I like it to have some style and for some reason no matter how much I practice that trick I just cannot make it look cool, so I gave up! 8.whats the most played song on your (insert expensive media player here)lately? Fade to Black by Metallica, I'm pretty much a die hard Metallica fan so anything by them gets played over and over, but every morning when I get in my truck to go riding, Fade to Black starts my day! 9.what do you think about riders trying to make a living with filming and riding the hills for sponsor exposure and avoiding the contest all together? I love it!! I love riding contests, I'm not trying to be one of those anti-contest guys, but man with the way the judging and politics are getting it's just making it not fun for me. I love freeriding and filming and shooting photos and riding the Crusty tour, that stuff is what motivates me to get on my bike. I would love to quit contests and ride a tour and still learn all the tricks that come out just to show everyone it's not for lack of heart or skill, but just that I'm simply not having fun riding basic course and getting judged bad. 10.some up all the good things you could say about your carrer as a pro FMXer in one sentence. The best damn time of my life!! thanks mike for being so amusing. everyone be sure to check out mikes yard to see whats new with him and to compliment his writing skills

Keepin up with the JONES

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:37:24 -0500

Xgames gold medalist, Guitar hero extrordinare, on heck of a guy. Adam jones has so graciously agreed to give us a little insight as to what hes been up to stateside as well as down under. ME:youve been in the land down under for the crusty tour,im sure the traveling is getting to you by now,but what are some of the good sides to an extensive overseas tour? AJ: well to be quite honest besides the money there really is nothing good about an extensive overseas tour. we dont get any practice time, most of the tour its one day of riding a week, and its ramp to ramp every weekend. so basically i would rather be at home practicing. ME:last year at X the course was pretty much a lap of just a few ramps,with very little room for creativity,the mx world championships in san diego had 27 venues packed in one stadium making everything very cramped...what would you like to see for a competition course,if you could have it any way you want? AJ: basically i dont care what the courses consist of as long as they have a good flow to them and there a course where putting in a sick run with a bunch of sick tricks and no lame filler tricks is possible. theres plenty of different types of courses out there and theres always gonna be some person #####ing about it, and what it all comes down to is probably that their pissed cause the course wasnt to their advantage. ME:with the fading of two strokes and some riders moving to thumpers,and some buying the last of the two strokes in bulk,what are your plans for the next few years as far as bikes go? AJ: well right now i have 4 bikes in really good condition, so i plan to keep riding them and keep them in as best of shape as possible and riding them til they fall apart on me....then i guess ill either go to yamahas or quit, screw 4 strokes!! ME:whats on your riding schedule this year as far as contest go? AJ:basically only the dew tours and x games, other then that its just demos ME:The tricks in the sport are getting bigger,crazier and more dangerous,thanks partly to you and your friends,is there any trick or tricks that you have not intention or desire to try in the near future? AJ:i would like to do a rodeo heelclicker flip, but i havent had enough practice time lately to do any work on it, so well see if that one comes out in the near future ME:still on the tricks,what is something you would like to see happen in the near future,by you or someone else? AJ: nothing new if its by someone else, hahaha ME:ramps or hills? AJ:its different for everyone, i honestly dont care what im jumping as long as im having a good time riding with my buddies ME:whats the most annoying thing a fan has ever asked of you? AJ: do you know travis pastrana? can you get me travis pastranas autograph? wheres travis pastrana??? ME:lifestyle documentory films about riders seem to be all the rage these days with hood rich,full circle and disposable hero.....is there any Adam jones insight film coming any time soon? AJ: hahaha, nope apparantly im not interesting enough for one of those. ME:lastly,any advice for the kids(or childish grownups)who are trying to get into the sport and make a living? AJ:im not really sure what i would tell anyone looking to get into the sport, well anything other then good luck and dont beat me that is! well there you have if from the X games gold medalist fingertips.... more interviews to come,if that beau bamburg would ever check his messages

the goals

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:26:37 -0500

my goal for yardbarker is to bring you(the fans) more information about the wide world of freestyle motocross. I will be bringing rider interviews. Event updates, Industry news and random chatter. I hope to help everyone here understand what is happening in the scene of freestyle. As a spectator and avid fan of the sport im always curious to know what is going on myself so i thought it would be helpful to the rest of the world to share what i can.

Farmer's tan!!

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:55:29 -0500

Am I the only person that isn't built for Summer?? Everyone of my friends are soo excited that it's hot and they can walk around with no shirts on and act like they belong down on Venice beach, bench pressing, but me on the other hand I feel like I'm always going to die from the heat. I'm up every morning at 7 to get out to my practice spot which is 45 minutes away, get out there, do some watering and be on my bike around 9. I usually ride for two hours and by then I'm down to my little underwear and sprawled out in the shade somewhere trying to stop sweating!! Okay so I might be exaggerating a little bit, but damn I don't work well with being hot, plus I feel way more sexy in jeans, a hoody, and a beanie.....not shorts with my little pale legs stickin out the bottom and my little white beer belly hanging out with no shirt on!! Anyways riding has been going really good lately, I have been really motivated for X games, I got into three disciplines there (FMX, Speed and Style, and Step up) so I've been pretty much taking riding like a serious job. Out there Monday-Fri riding for a couple hours a day and then getting on my other bike and hitting the tracks right before dark to get into shape!! I even manage to squeak in a game or two of Golf a week with my buddy Scooter and make hit songs with my buddy Brian out in my jam room!! It's nice to be at home with all these options now instead of not seeing a bike until Saturday and then sitting around all week with no entertainment! I am working on some film clips for you guys, I think you might enjoy them. Me and my buddy thought it would be killer to show you guys our course where we spend all our time, show you guys us riding the course and what goes into the weeks before X, and we also thought it would be funny to do a little mini edition of Cribs around my pad, so keep an eye out in the next couple weeks for some footage!! Take care and don't miss me too much!!

Holy smokes!!

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:13:19 -0500

I love my life!! That's pretty much the only thing I can think about typing right now. I get to ride my dirt bike for a living and then to add to it I got to go to the Playboy mansion last night and check out half naked chicks and dudes boxing! I got the invite from the nice people here at YB, and like I told them, the second I read that email I was booking my flight haha. I've always wanted to go there and check out the scene and it for sure didn't let me down!! The second I stepped foot off that bus I was greeted by the YB filmers to do a little red carpet deal, and about two seconds later a fully naked chick painted up comes over to help out with the filming. How the hell am I supposed to answer normal questions with her next to me?? Luckily I had a couple drinks in me so I handled business well! Once we got in I noticed there was a lot of buff dudes with gel in their hair and kids extra small t-shirts on, so I ignored them and went back on the mission of staring at the chicks. I did catch a glimpse of Chuck Lidell and Shawn Merriman, two dudes that I think are pretty awesome so I got star struck for a minute. Chuck has that permanent look on his face like he's ready to pinch someones head off so I kind of kept my distance with him. Other than that it was just an old fashion good time, we had some drinks, made small talk with a lot of people and somehow I ended up in the game room talking with two playmates for an hour, typical Mase form though I came home empty handed haha. Well I can't thank everyone at Media Zone and Yard Barker enough for the good time. Next week I will get back to business and post blogs about motorcycles, I'm actually working on a small film clip for this site with my buddy, I'm going to break down our practice course and what goes into our normal week in video form so keep an eye out for it!! Till' then, bye!

AST Dew tour stop 1

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:17:43 -0500

Well round one of the Dew action sports tour is over and it didn't go half bad. Last year in Baltimore we dealt with nothing but wind and rain delays that postponed the event three days, this year we actually had pretty decent weather, just a little wind at times, but we are trained professionals so you can't scare us!! I was really nervous for this event for some reason, since coming back from my injury I have only ridden one major contest and I rode horrible, and after that I had just rode the Crusty shows which is fun, but doesn't really push you to your limits. I had two days of practice at home coming in to this event and was feeling really good. I also knew I didn't have any new flip tricks though so I couldn't come into this thing with high expectations, I just wanted to come out of the event safe and give it 100%. I went out for my first run nervous as hell but strangely confident if that makes any sense haha. I rolled in and got to business and at the end of 90 seconds I was really pleased with my run. When my score came in I was tenth......out of 10 haha. A lot of the guys messed up in their first runs or didn't use the whole course, but these days in FMX none of that matters, if you have 4-5 crazy flip tricks you are set. It frustrated me that they judge me off myself and the fact that I didn't come in with anything new, instead of judging me based on how everyone else rode, but I had to stick to my plan of just having fun and riding good and not caring where I finished. For my second run I knew I had nothing to lose, it's not like I could finish any worse. I went out, completely switched up my run and then also added two flip tricks that I have been working on but are far from perfected. As I figured I messed up one of the new flips and figured that was all she wrote. Somehow though I got a higher score for a half ass run?? That's FMX for you, the judging makes about as much sense as diving off a building head first. All in all I accomplished what I set out to do, I felt so good about my runs and came out healthy so that gives me some confidence rolling into summer X games in August, that's the only event that really matters to me and I really want to be top 3 there and get another medal!! I am at home now and finally have a couple weeks to myself, so this means lots of golf, guitar, and of course practice so I am excited!!

Bird attempts to break world record distance jump

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:33:10 -0500

Bird is attempting to break the world record in the next day or two. Here is a preview, and check out www.shredordie.com for exclusive coverage and Bird's blog http://www.shredordie.com/blog/posts/1274

On my couch!!

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:13:34 -0500

Well guys I hate to brag, but I am typing this from the comfort of my own house finally!! I survived the last show in Rockhampton, survived the 20 hour travel day, and survived getting swarmed at my house by friends and family!! The only downfall is the jetlag, I went to bed at about 12:30 am and woke up at 4 am, not good, but at least when I'm at home and this happens I can entertain myself a lot better than if I was stuck in a hotel somewhere sleepless. I really wish I could just sit on my couch and check out all the new stuff that's going on in the Carson City area but work never ends. I have 3 days before we fire up the Dew tour, so as I type this I am getting ready for some breakfast and then out the door to our practice area to get used to my bike, the ramps, and the craziness of the contest season. Luckily for me they enforced a new rule for Dew tours this year that the top 3 from last year go directly into the final, which means I get 2 extra days at home by skipping prelims and no matter what happens I get at least tenth haha. The plan is to basically ride good and survive this first round and go into July healthy so I can put the hammer down for X games in August!! Well that's about all I have for you guys right now, I will put up a post later in the week once I land in Baltimore, hopefully I'll get to sneak on the football field again and run some routes!!!

5 days and counting!!

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:29:53 -0500

Hey guys sorry for the delay on posts, I have been out on a Island with no internet service which turns into no YB posts, not good!! On a positive note everything is going wonderful here, we had another successful show in Townsville last weekend and now I am 4 days away from our last show in Rockhampton and 5 days away from boarding that long flight back to the states. It's weird how time goes by so fast even if you swear it has takin forever. It seems like just a couple days ago I was backing out of my driveway at my house, complaining to my roommate about how I was going to be gone for two months and now after what seemed like a flash I have only a couple days left! Being on this tour for so long has kind of turned us all into a family and as much as I want to go home I really am going to be sad to leave all these guys and the all the great memories behind. It's kind of like your last days at highschool only we don't get yearbooks, which makes it hard for me to find an excuse to talk to the hot babes on tour now, I can't go up to them and break the ice by asking them to sign my yearbook!! Anyways it has been a blast here, I can't thank everyone enough for the great times!! I am looking forward to more tours like this and more fun times!!!

Dirtbikes, Bus rides, and Guitars....

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:31:35 -0500

Hey barkers, you miss me?? Sorry I haven't posted in a couple days, we had a show in the Northern Territory Saturday night, then went straight to the after party where there was an awesome cover band and some decent chicks. In typical Mason form I got buzzed and zoned in on the guitar player and watched him shred and totally spaced out on the girls, my mom would be so proud!! From there we had a early lobby call to hop on a greyhound and take a 22 hour trip down to Mt. Isa, QLD for our next show which is actually on a Wednesday. Now one might ask what we do with 22 hrs on a bus....well it's simple, we had some adult beverages, wore cool outfits so we could laugh at each other, and told a bunch of cool stories, which might be too graphic for this site haha!! We rolled into Mt. Isa at 7 am this morning, with stiff backs from sleeping in the seats and somewhat of a headache from the beverages, so all day today has been pretty mellow. I have just been sitting here watching movies and playing guitar. I'm high centered on Stairway to Heaven at the moment, which I know is a no-no to play if you're watching Wayne's World, but I'm a fan of Zeppelin and really like the song so I'm trying my best to get it dialed!! That's really about all I have to talk about at the moment, we do our show Wed and then take another 10 hour bus ride over to Townsville so hopefully I can have a cool story for everyone!!! And have no fear I know I talk about drinking a lot in my blogs but when I don't party I usually am doing 10 pushups and 15 sit-ups a week in my room, so I'm staying fit!!

Gold Coast Show

Tue, 27 May 2008 07:27:36 -0500

Hey all, just got done with our best show yet this weekend on the Gold Coast. This place is my most favorite place away from home and to be able to do a show here was amazing!! The crowd was huge and full of energy, which is key when we are flipping our dirtbikes, we need to know that everyone is enjoying it or else we get all emotional and feel like we aren't as cool as we thought we were! Everyone rode really well too, it's pretty amazing to see where this sport has got to. 5 years ago there was maybe 3 guys flipping a dirtbike, now we are doing trains of 15 guys all flipping in a row! We even had two of the Aussie boys flip side by side and high five in the air! All in all it was a great weekend, I'm almost a little heart broken that it's over. Three more weeks here in Australia and then I got to get my little white butt home and hit the practice course hard for X games and the Dew tour. That's about all for now, there is a video on Crusty.com of the show this weekend, if you get a moment check it out, it showcases a lot of the cool stuff I just mentioned!! Take care!!

Fear of growing old....

Wed, 21 May 2008 06:37:06 -0500

Hey folks, I posted this blog up on my MySpace and figured I might as well share it here too. It's long and to some maybe boring, but I'm sure a lot of you experience a lot of the same feelings. Lately I have had a lot of time on my hands to sit around and think about everything, growing up, responsibility, riding, my future etc.... It's all kind of scary and overwhelming at times. I started thinking about all the bitchen times I've had in my life that I will never be able to duplicate. As a kid traveling on Friday's after school to the races with my parents and close friends, racing on the weekend and then sleeping in the truck all the way home just to be ready for school on Monday, where we would sit around and talk about the races, or on off weekends having buddies spend the night so we could wake up at 8 am and be ready to ride until dark. As I got older it turned into me and my mechanic and best friend Cliff leaving town for three months to race arenacross in a cargo van with a thousand bucks in my pocket and not knowing anyone or anything about life on our own away from everyone. In those times I met some of the most awesome people, people that even though I might not be in contact with now, will always remain close to me. The low times in my life where I was dead broke and off my bike from shoulder and knee surgeries, confused in life, not knowing if I wanted to continue riding or just move on and have a stable career and settle down. The day Dustin Miller loaned me one of his bikes to start trying out FMX and pretty much started what I've got going now or the day me and him saw that it was raining out so we went to the local bar had beers and then realized, the storm cleared, it was sunny and perfect for riding so we went home and moto'd buzzed as hell, I'm pretty sure Scoot blew out every berm on the track that day and probably crashed once or twice. The year where I was 3rd in points halfway through Dew tour and when the X games invites came out I wasn't invited I remember being so pissed off and frustrated, little did I know the next year I would get my chance and I was fortunate enough to get a medal, something I never ever thought I would do!! Partying until 5 am the morning of the finals in Orlando for the Dew tour, and then somehow winning the damn event ( I don't recommend trying that not for the danger factor but Orlando is the most humid hot place ever and to ride hungover sucks haha!!) Partying at the Hardock in Vegas for Halloween, 2 weeks after Orlando, I was a giant sperm, woke up at 11 am still in my costume on the floor of my hotel, had to ride a show ramp to ramp that night, ended up landing with my leg out and blowing out my knee. I went from the all time high's of my career to an ultimate low and feeling like an idiot. Riding the Cap City tour in Australia, the most fun I have ever had on a motorcycle, the show is amazing and riding with all my buddies in OZ is a blast every year. I think about walking into a hospital in October and coming out in a wheelchair, and just wondering what's going on and how am I supposed to come back and compete and be at a 100% after this. You get that unsettled feeling knowing everyone is practicing and you can't do anything on a bike, I couldn't even go to the garage and at least sit on my bike and make noises on the stand and do nac nacs like I always do when I'm bored. Coming back for my first ride and feeling like a kid getting his first motorcycle, having a blast riding, looking forward to getting up every morning to go ride, that's a good feeling to have again!! I think about all this stuff that has gone on in my life and it trips me out. I never thought I would be riding for a living, never thought I could be a performer on my bike, never thought I would still have the same group of friends after 15 years, never thought that I would have 4,000+ friends on MySpace that are pumped on what I do. I get really bummed out when I think about life when I was 13,14,15 years old, just riding for fun with my friends, I could ride anywhere, anytime and have a blast, chicks didn't matter, partying didn't matter, I just wanted to wake up and go riding. I realize I can never re live those times of my life, but what I can do is make the best of what I've got going on now and enjoy everything I do, whether it be a Crusty show or X games it doesn't matter. I can see my competitive riding coming to an end in the next 2-3 years so I want to go out in style! I know I have rambled on a lot here and I'm sure most of it doesn't make sense, but everything I just typed is basically what goes through my head every night before I go to bed, sometimes it scares me and sometimes it bums me out, but the truth of the matter is I've had a bad ass life and someday I'm gonna realize that and be grateful......

Who invited the wind??

Sun, 18 May 2008 06:59:36 -0500

Hey internet best friends, just checking in to make sure my fan base isn't getting smaller, which it isn't so that is a huge plus!! I'm sitting in my hotel on the Gold Coast in Australia, staring at the ocean from my balcony and also holding onto my hairpiece because it's about 70 mph winds here right now!! Is it me or is the world getting more windy?? With our sport I'm on constant wind searches to make sure it's going to be good for riding and lately it seems like no matter where I am at it is windy. I had two weeks at home in March and wanted to ride as much as possible, but it was windy almost everyday by 11. Now here in Australia a lot of our practice before the shows are windy and sometimes even into the show we are dealing with wind which makes doing your craziest tricks onto a metal and wood landing more scary!! Even spitting out of the rental car window is getting dangerous, you never know if it's going to come back into the car and take out you or a friend! Anyways I was just sitting here pondering the subject and figured I'm going to type about it and get this off my chest, kind of like counseling or something. I have a new video posted too, it's from our windy practice area in Reno. Special thanks to Jorge Alvarez for filming and editing this piece for us, check out his MySpace if you ever get bored on the net, myspace.com/nvhcproductions. That's all for now, I'll be back in a few days to maybe talk about girls, or paying taxes, or football, or maybe even dirtbikes!!!

Killing time

Tue, 13 May 2008 23:23:31 -0500

Well I am at the halfway point of my Australia trip now, 1 month down, 1 month to go. I'm starting to get a little homesick for sure but it has been good times none the less. I got to go skydiving a couple weeks ago which was a blast!!! It was the first time I had went skydiving solo, the only other time I went was tandem so this was a huge rush. I had to pull the chute and control it on my own so I was a little nervous, but everything went perfect!! I also got to catch Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold in Sydney which was cool because they are two of my favorite bands!! Coming from Reno we don't usually get the big name bands coming through so I have to wait until I'm in Australia or Europe to catch up with them haha!! I got to go up on the stage during soundcheck and check out all the equipment, I'm really into guitars so I think I was more starstruck checking out all the guys guitars then I was actually meeting some of them haha. Other than that its been pretty mellow, just still cranking out shows every Saturday night and usually recovering every Sunday because ummm.. I rode too much Saturday night? Next week we get to stay in the Gold Coast which is basically like a really nice Miami so I cannot wait, I'm going to sit on the beach all week and see if I can get my little pasty body tan for once!! That's about all for now, hope all you guys are doing good out there.

My life in Australia!

Fri, 09 May 2008 03:20:04 -0500

Hey pals, running low on time right now as I am getting ready for our next show so I decided to include a video of the tour I'm doing in Australia. It's an insane show and really a blast to be a part of! I will have some good stories for all you guys next week after everything settles down from the weekend!! P.S. I'm the dude in the pink if any of you were wondering!! And yes I said pink!

MediaZone Moto Exclusive Interview with Ken de Dycker Heading into the GP of Bulgaria

Wed, 07 May 2008 20:02:56 -0500

Another cool MX article from MediaZone. This time they spoke with Ken Dycker, a Belgium rider who's ranked #4 in the FIM standings.

GO REED!!

Wed, 07 May 2008 04:10:14 -0500

Congrats to Chad Reed for completing a fairly impressive Supercross season and claiming the title even after breaking a shoulder. Can't wait to see him ride back in Australia for the new aussie sx series! should be mad ps let me know if your also a fan of reed

Interview with Jeremy Rawle, Producer 199 Lives, The Travis Pastrana Story

Tue, 06 May 2008 23:29:04 -0500

Jeremy Rawle, producer of "199 Lives: The Travis Pastrana Story," sat down with MediaZone Moto recently for some insight into the film and its high-profile star.