two old men playing in a fountain.

Got to ride with Ben yesterday for the first time in forever. Had a satisfying session, driving from spot to spot. Snapped a couple lazy photos.

Wallride, Ben Piff.

I'll send a free dvd to the first person that explains the historic significance of this spot. Email me if you know.

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February 7 update: Aaron Gates, TJ Henderson, and Ben Ward all knew the answer: this spot was tricked by Lou Rajsich in the classic Portland video ./blueprint. Spot the armpit-high green subrail in the background of the pic above, and then watch Lou hit it up:



Since Aaron already has a copy of the video (as do TJ and Ben), I sent a disc to Aaron's friend Shawn instead.

Btw, the white frame Ben Piff is shown riding here (A Sunday Wave2, I think) came courtesy of Ben Ward's generosity. I remember years ago when B-Dubbs gave me a pair of Mosh pedals, because he was amused by some curb-to-wallride I did. That was a great day.

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Took some video with my digital point-n-shoot at the very end of the session. Ben did a crankflip, and I enjoyed myself, even with a broken chain.



I overdid the color-correction trying to compensate for Vimeo's compression washing out the colors; kind of an old Shine video effect, as Ben put it. Makes the wintry day pop.

4 pegs, straight cable, castillos

Sad news, learning that Caleb Ruecker is off Metal. Sadder still, finding out Caleb recently switched to two-piece bars. I think he was the very last pro holding on to four-piecers. With Caleb dies an important bmx legacy. Dave Young, Jeremy Davis, and Lou Rasjich produced three of the most memorable video parts of the late nineties, double-pegging rail after rail on both sides, wrecking themselves on what-were-they-thinking gaps, while sporting a tight-black-pants style that no other rider dared emulate. Except Caleb.

When Brian "B.C." Castillo left S&M, they continued producing his signature bar, calling it the "A.D." Clever punning. Volume, in a show of good humor, produced a slightly updated version called the Mad Dog Bar (Mad Dog being Chris Moeller's ancient nickname). In between S&M and Volume, Primo created the subtly ugly Moe's Bar for Castillo. Castillo switched to two-piece bars in 2001, and Volume stopped producing the four-piece soon after. Check out this old FreedomBMX interview with Castillo himself, where he comments on the various versions of his signature bar (and also takes credit for the least fashionable stem in bmx). EBCO, honoring the Portland, Oregon Castillo Bar connection, was making a four-piece as late as 2003. S&M returned to calling it the Castillo Bar before quietly handing production over to Sean McKinney's flatland-oriented Revenge Industries sometime in the last couple of years. Here's the Revenge Bar.

Here are the ./blueprint parts for Jeremy and Lou, both of which were posted on theComeUp in the past six months. Dave's part is nowhere to be found on the internet, and perhaps that's a good thing, but here he is on the cover of Ride in 1994. Parrick is supposedly working on a dvd re-release of Nowhere Fast. Until then, no one is throwing away their VCR. Here is a video from Caleb's Myspace. Some excellent riding and crashing in true Castillo Bar style.

And, if you didn't know, "Little" Jeff Landtiser successfully pulled Lou Rasjich's wrist-breaking roof gap for his excellent Building the Underground part. Maybe it was the uncut Slams.

Streetriding pros who ran Castillo Bars:
Brian Castillo
Jason Enns
Dave Friemuth
Dave Young
Jeremy Davis
Lou Rasjich
Matt Beringer
Troy McMurray
The Gonz
Ryan Worcester
Scooter (pegless, brakeless, excellent)
Nate Hanson
Sean McKinney

Please let me know if you can think of others.