Yardbarker: MikeMason

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!!!

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.

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!

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!!

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!