Endsearch Review

July 11, 2008

REVIEWED BY BRETT ROHLFING

Endsearch has been in the works for a while now but seemed to not be one of those videos to have a lot of hype around it before it’s release. That is most likely a good thing, because most of the videos lately that have been highly anticipated seem to be a let down, possibly due to the over hype.

So here is my take on the best skateboard video you will ever buy from danscomp.

What? Skateboard? This was the main thing I noticed about the video, so I figured I would state it first. The video definitely had a higher budget/ crew than most bmx videos; every clip was covered from at least 2 if not 3 cameras, there was evidence of a photographer present in a lot of shots (sometimes the photographer was shown, sometime just flashes) and for night shots they had the generator powered flood lights. On top of those more skate video type traits, the main reason I called it a skateboard video was the way it was filmed and the music choices. Tony Ennis, the man behind the production and main fisheye’r from what I could tell had told people that it was his goal to make it more like a skateboard video, and he no doubt succeeded. Sometimes the fisheye work was done in a way that I found to be too systematic, like it was going to be filmed in this certain very punctuated way (which I have seen in skating a fair bit) whether it really made sense for the trick or not, but that probably won’t bother many of you. The amount of slow motion used was also much more than normal, but would be normal for a skate video. The music was overall more mellow side than what I fancy for a bike video, but I have noticed that skaters tend to also sometimes pick less heavy tunes in exchange for songs that allow for more artsy edits. If you are looking for hard rap or heavy metal with your bmx, this would not be a good pick for you.

With that out of the way, into the video…

The video begins with a mix of falls, outtakes, a few tricks and a handful of graphics to introduce riders and thank sponsors. Josh Harrington opens the video with a strong performance of manly street moves. So impressive that it sets you up to not like the second section (Rob Darden) as much. Rob’s part opens with a montage of cursing, falls and generally pissed off behavior. His part is far from bad, but it’s nothing mind blowing, though I must give him his props on his trail riding. When I think trails I don’t think Rob Darden, but maybe I should…
Will Love brings the energy back up to where Josh Harrington was thanks to the faster music of the video and mostly thanks to his riding. A ton of tricks stood out to me and the banger was something I had never seen done before.
Next comes the friends section, which has a good number of big names. But the issue I had with it was that for the riders that did sweet stuff but aren’t as recognizable as Aaron Ross it is unfortunate because they did not put up any names of the riders! Here are a few of the riders I could identify that made an appearance: Quinn Semling, Biz Jordan, Kevin Kiraly, Garrett Reynolds and the aforementioned Aaron Ross. Sometimes friends sections might not be up to the level of the rest of the video but in this case it was up to par for sure. It closes with a massive whip over 2 rails from… well I have no idea, because they didn’t put up any names.

Coming back to properly credited riders we have Ty Marrow. Aside from a web vid here and there we don’t see a ton from Mr. Marrow, but after seeing his section I can only hope that will change. Ty has insane pop, being able to hop 3 over a bus stop seat that has to be stem height or more. Along with that he brings a ton of barspin and spin tricks that would make Animal proud, and a few drops that would make the Metal bikes crew smile. Of all the sections, I’d probably watch his if you were wanting to get pumped to go ride.
Dave Dillewaard is one of those guys you see ride the Dew Tour stuff a lot but don’t see a ton else from. Well this shows that side of Dillsy (as he is labeled in the intro) that we don’t see as much. A good mix of street, park and dirt that shows he can ride it all with style.
Ryan Nyquist is the closer. The intro to his section seems to try hard to illustrate that Ryan is human and not the contest robot some think he is but showing him drunk, yelling and goofing off. After the yelling and bar humps stop the serious music begins and the barspins start. I was told Ryan did 60 barspins in his part, and while I don’t doubt it, it doesn’t seem to get old because of the wild places they are placed. One thing I found odd, yet appropriately skate-like was that they put in 3 clips of his brother Shea without making any note of it. Why couldn’t he have been in the friends section? I was informed back when this same non-notating rider placement happened in Facad that it was a skate thing; I find it to just be a strange thing myself. Ryan’s part has the most park for sure but it is entertaining to watch even if it’s hard to identify with ever doing any of what he does. After the manliest double truckdriver you will ever see happens it’s off to the credits for much of what the intro brought you: falls, some tricks and random silly stuff. The bonus sections are the usual. Falls, slideshow, and unused footage. Unlike some unused sections that means new clips that didn’t fit in or maybe aren’t quite as intense, most of this is just unused angles of trick you already saw in the main video, so it gets boring fast.

Overall it’s a solid video, one which may take a time or 2 watching to really enjoy. If you like skate videos than this is perfect for you. If you want nothing but street moves than stay away. I wouldn’t be surprised if a section or 2 was up for a Nora cup award come interbike time. I suggest you give it a go if you have $20 to spare.

On the Net: Vital BMX

July 9, 2008

I am willing to bet a lot of you didn’t know the guy behind Vital BMX is the guy who started Ride BMX years ago. I caught up with Brad McDonald and had the chance to ask him some questions about Vital BMX and Vital Media. I hope you like this one! Let us know in the comments!

Vital Media is the company you are the head man behind along with Todd Toth. What exactly is that company and when was everything started including Vital BMX?
We got things rolling in March, 2006. Prior to that, I was running TransWorld Media, Todd Toth was in charge of advertising for some of the magazines at TransWorld, and Mark Losey used to be the editor of Ride BMX. The first couple months were spent setting everything up, and the site officially launched on August 15, 2006.

How many other people are involved with Vital?
There are about 10 of us who are full-time or part-time, plus a lot of freelance contributors. The main content people for Vital BMX are Mark Losey (Content Director), Kyle Carlson, Glenn Milligan, Terrell Gordy, Alex Auerbach, Brett Rohlfing, Stewart Munro, Larry Rhodes, Dan Panzone, Mike McQueen, Juca Favela, and more. There are definitely more contributors than this, but that’s our regular crew.

Brad on the Left, Todd on the right

Vital BMX is an “online community”, so is it essentially a Myspace/Facebook for action sports people? And what are some of the features that separate Vital from all the other action sports websites out there?
Vital’s overall mix is unique and a little hard to label. It’s a mix of professionally-created content, user-uploaded videos, social networking, BMX products, forums, etc. We’ve got different things we think riders are into. Facebook and MySpace are aimed at everybody, so it’s a completely different type of community. It’s kind of like the difference between being at big party when you’re in high school versus being at the skatepark or trails. The party is good if you’re trying to meet girls, the second one is better for hanging out with your friends who ride.

There was a site redesign a few months back, does that mean there won’t be any changes in the near future or is there going to be some new additions sometime soon?
We definitely have a lot of big ideas in the works. The redesign that people saw was actually part of an entire rebuild that we did. We spent about six months rewriting the code for our site so it would function properly, and also be a better platform to build on. The graphic part is what people obviously noticed, but that was a small part of the whole project. We’ll be steadily rolling out improvements for the rest of this year. If anyone has specific ideas, just let me know. Things are planned out for the next several months, but I always like to hear feedback.

With new riders, videos, photos, news, and all that stuff changing at such a fast pace due to internet, about how much time a day does it take for all the contributors to keep up with everything?
Fortunately, Mark and Kyle handle the content on a day to day basis, so I’m not sure about this question. I have enough other stuff to worry about!

Mark Losey!

Vital gets a large amount of traffic daily, what kinds of stats are you looking at on average in a month, and what are some of the problems you tend to run into most often with the websites?
We’re growing so fast that there really isn’t a typical month – almost every month is bigger than the last. Traffic has grown 100% in the past twelve months. Last month, Vital BMX had 204,000 unique visitors. Based on all the third-party info I’ve seen, as well as the traffic that other sites are claiming, we’re the biggest BMX site in the world. In just the past month, we’ve had visitors from 147 different countries. As far as problems go, it’s always something different. You fix one problem, and another one pops up. If we didn’t have so much traffic, it wouldn’t be nearly as difficult, so I guess we can’t complain.

You and Todd have been in the BMX industry for many years working for Ride BMX and other magazines. What was it like to be able to start something like this and have it become as popular as it has?
I started Ride BMX magazine out of my bedroom when I was 21. I built it up and eventually sold it to TransWorld, although I stayed on to continue running it. Todd started working at Ride with me about eleven years ago. Mark Losey became the editor about 10 years ago. So we all have a lot of experience taking something that’s small and building it into something a lot bigger. That’s pretty much the same thing with Vital, except it’s growing much faster than the magazine ever did. I think once you’ve done something that was successful, you have higher expectations for yourself going forward, and that makes you work harder to achieve it.

It seems like every month you guys have some sort of big contest like the Haro and GT contests. What is coming up next and what are some other things you guys have in the works?
Our members and advertisers are our lifeblood, so we’re always into ideas that will benefit them. I can’t really talk about what we have coming up, but there some good ideas in the pipeline.

Kyle Carlson!

A lot of people who come to the website are not signed up. What are some bonuses for signing up and becoming a member?
We’ve never required people to register in order to view the site. If someone just wants to watch videos, read the news, and lurk around, that’s fine with us. If someone else wants to contribute to the site, that’s even better. But we require people to register in order to post content. This makes people think about what they’re posting, which helps keep the tone of the site much more positive. Anonymity on the Internet inevitably leads to people acting like assholes. Probably more important, though, being a member let’s people establish themselves within the BMX scene. In the past, if someone wanted to get noticed, they practically had to move to southern California, and become friends with the magazine guys. Now, people anywhere in the world can make a name for themselves on Vital, whether it’s as a rider, photographer, videographer, or just someone with an interesting perspective in the forums. It’s definitely leveled the playing field.

I’ve noticed a lot of videos and photos that are featured are from freelance guys. Who should people contact if they have a higher quality submission? And do you guys ever use member submissions as features?
Mark Losey is the main guy for content. You can contact him at mlosey (at) vitalbmx (dotcom).

Obviously it would be a sweet gig to work for Vital BMX, do you guys ever do internships or are you looking to hire anybody for anything in the near future?
I’m always interested in talented and hard-working people. The main thing I look for is someone who is already doing for fun what they hope to get a job doing. Too many people think they can’t do something until it’s their job. That’s like thinking you can’t be a good rider unless you’re sponsored. I can be reached at bmcdonald (at) vitalmedianet (dotcom).

Do you guys ever sponsor events at all? Who should people contact to get involved with you guys?
We haven’t gotten involved with events, but we would if it was the right opportunity and a good fit.

Where would you like to see Vital BMX and Vital Media Network go in the coming years?
Continual improvement. We’re the biggest, but we don’t take our position for granted. We’re always striving to make the site better.

What kind of advice do you have for people out there looking to start up a website or blog?
Just get started. I think sites like BMX Union are great. There are very few technical hurdles to starting a blog, designing graphics, or making videos these days. It’s really about the talent and persistence of the individual, rather than who they know or how much equipment their parents will buy them.

Anything else you would like to add?
Thank you for this interview, and thank you to the members and companies that are supporting us.

See More BMX Videos at VitalBMX.com

I picked this video to use because it has been the most popular video on Vital BMX for a while now.

Props 69 Review

July 9, 2008

So, after hearing very good things about the new issue of Props, which happend to be 69 which is a pretty sweet number, I figured I better check it out. My buddy Kevin happend to have the DVD for me to borrow so that was even more of a plus. This issue had a Randy Taylor bio, Hoffman Trip, Riverside Trails Spot Check, Terry Adams Bio, and a Day in the life of Matt Beringer, along with a few other short edits at the end like Kevin Porters edit he had on the net (and seen at the bottom of this). I know sometimes I don’t make sense or am very clear but I try and explain what I thought going through the video. I am sorry if you get lost at times.

Randy Taylor Bio- Randy is good, like, real good. It starts out with him doing a real long nose manual. His part has a whole lot of really good street lines and some big wall rides. He also has some clips riding the Empire mini, which he does a very mansized flair. I figured that would be all the flairs I would see but then shortly after he does another one in a ditch on this bank, yeah wild. Theres a big ruben wall ride in the ditch and then some clips of a gap to dumpster ride to some spins and whips, he ends it all up with a fakie Luc-e followed by a very long Luc-e. Super good very impressed.

Hoffman Trip- I don’t know why this never occured to me before but the Hoffman team is STACKED. Potaz, Brad Simms, Anthony Napolitan, Kevin Robinson (both weren’t in on this trip), Seth Kimbrough, and Will Love are all just amazing riders. I am sure I am forgetting some of there team but these were the dudes in on the trip. They rip a backyard dirt bowl at some guy’s place, I can’t remember the name. Aj Anaya shows up and rips that place up!
They hit up Downtown Denver where Brad 180s over a 4 foot tall hand rail which I cannot comprehend because that isn’t suppossed to happen. Will Love plows through a fence accidently and it is halarious, Adrian Vigil pops in and does a rollercoaster grind? Basically a grind in the middle of two rails next to each other ya know? Brad finishes that part of the trip off with a manual down a 23 stair rail.
Will love finds love at Zunnie park when a 10 year old girl becomes obsessed with him haha.
Brad Simms can ride street amazing, air a quarter huge, but struggles a bit on trails apparently when his first two times through a set rocks him pretty good.
Then they hit up Boulder’s park and Will Fuf’s a big fence which is awesome, Brad does a HUGE wall ride, and honestly that was the two clips I liked most there.
Finally end up in Albuquerque and ride some ditches, rip those apart but I guess they got 10 flats there. That clip of Brad Simms hoping over a fence from stand still on his feet is in this too so badass. Brad is a freak of nature!

This part of the video is like 20 minutes, it’s long and it was bad to watch this laying in my bed on my laptop because I was way to comfortable.

Riverside Trails- What can I say about this that isn’t obvious. Mike Saavedra rips them apart. To obvious? Luke Parslow kills it. Still to obvious. The locals there like Launchin Lance are all really good. Okay, this is an obvious part I guess. However, I seriously have this thing where I hate seeing double backflips ever since the Stephen Murray ordeal. It just scares me and I can’t imagine doing that with him in the back of your mind as what could happen if something goes wrong.

Terry Adams Bio- The main reason I wanted to check out this video. I was thinking about this, Maybe 2% of all of BMX can name half of the things Terry does on his bike or any flatlander in general. I have a lot of respect for that because it is amazing how impossible the things they do should be. I wanted to interview Terry but the questions Fat Tony and the other dudes ask him basically got it all covered with the best questions. There is a halarious clip of him mowing his lawn and he is just HAULING ASS. I died at that and I don’t know why.
This might be a shock but Terry did something I never would have expected. He threw in a few tricks like Brian Tunney does. You know the street/flatland stuff. Terry does a back peg hop whip and then some 180s down stair sets, ledges, and other cool stuff. I think a lot of people are so blind to flatland that he knew he had to do something to catch the street guys eyes. Respect!

A day in the life of Matt Beringer- This is awesome, basically Matt gives a tour of his house where he has a lot of really cool shit. He lives a pretty awesome life and it is real obvious. Eventually him and his roommate Jeff Brown go all over riding the local parks and seriously, Matt does things I never would think of it’s so good. He has a lot of fun riding and I think some people forget that’s what it is all about. Jeff has a lot of really good barspin tricks that I was stoked on. They also hit up the 50/50 shop and then bring a party back to Matt’s place. Fuzzy Hall and Adam Banton have a session, then you can see Mike Aitken ripping up Matt’s garage ramps.

Out-takes- Normally I skip out-takes for some reason, but when I heard Brad Simms yell “POOOOOOOOP!” I had to watch. There is a lot of funny things that happen when filming is going down apparently so this was fun to watch.

After the products (which there is some good stuff coming out soon or is already out) are shown it goes back to the menu where there is three other web video types to watch.

Twilight Jam- flatland/ramp jam/demo terry adams kills it like usuual, still mad I can’t name any of the flat tricks,

Eastpak edit- nose bonk/180 over big fence=redic, its all stefan lancaster riding austin texas spots majority,
still good! dude rips, 180 over double=good, he crashed a lot doing this edit

Trans Am Jam- bands, bmx, beer, babes, big daddy!, The session has Van Homan, Brian Foster, Brian Hunt, Big Daddy obviously ripping up the place. It is the usual fast lines and good riding. The after riding clips are halarious, Big Daddy gives away his heavy hitter beater to a dude then claims he will get it back by out heavy hitting the guy.

Orchid Porter Line- porters self filmed web vid that was on the net, from a day in Austin type thing. It is below this writing stuff.

Overall- The video was real good, a lot of cool stuff was done and the music/filming was great too. Props has been doing this for a long time and apparently they know what they are doing. Shocker, I know. I would suggest you at least check this one out from a friend if you are not sure if you want to buy it. It is worth buying though but I know how BMXers can be broke and stuff so I understand.

See More BMX Videos at VitalBMX.com

Kevin Porter Orchid video from SmallTown on Vimeo.

BMX Racing

July 7, 2008

BMX Racing is legit. Dudes haul way too much ass and hit jumps that are way too big. Well, in my opinion at least because I am a sissy. I waited a few days to see if Brett Rohlfing would post this since he made it, but he didn’t so I am doing it for him. Basically these dudes are ripping a 35 foot double. Like I said, BMX Racing is LEGIT!

Edit:Click the Read more tab to view it, for some reason it keeps messing up Internet Explorer on the main page? I think that is the problem that keeps messing up on my computer for some reason.

South Park Pro Jump from Brett Rohlfing on Vimeo.

Kenny Horton Interview

July 4, 2008

Kenny is a ripper. He has a super badass part in the new Peg Leg DVD which also is super badass go buy it.
I sent some questions over to him to see what he has going on. Expect to see a few more from the Peg Leg crew. Let him know what you think with a comment.

Name:
Kenny Horton

Photo: Sven

Location:
Newport News, VA

Sponsors:
Peg-leg, and ECD

Years riding:
8 years

Your one of the Peg Leg guys, what is Peg Leg to you and what do you feel is the most important thing to your crew?
Peg-Leg is fun to be apart of, Devin is a real laid back guy and the road trips are always a blast. Either way, if your with Jeff Martin you’re going to have a good time.

Your part from the Peg Leg DVD is out on Vimeo, which kicks MAJOR ass. How long did it take you to film your part and how do you feel about it?
Thank you. We filmed for about 2 years i think. I feel pretty good about my part. I just liked filming for it and I can’t wait to start another project.

Obviously you kill it on street and park, is that all you ride or did you grow up racing and riding trails?
I grew up riding street and ramps. We’ve always had ramps in the backyard and street is everywhere you go. I have fun riding trails but they’re just hard to come by in my area.

Photo: Justin W

It would appear you are riding with brakes. How do you feel about the whole brakeless thing and why aren’t you into that?
Everyone I ride with is brakeless. It’s tempting to take them off but then I’d miss out on skid contests.

You clearly are not too scared when it comes to doing big things, what do you use to get you motivated to ride and do the things you do?
I’ve always liked the feeling of doing bigger things. But When I do get scared i usually talk myself into it. I don”t like to walk away from things so i just think “might as well”.

Where can you typically be found riding?
in my hometown, I go to Richmond a lot. Va Beach is cool too.

I heard you have travelled a fair amount. Where are some of your favorite places you have had the chance to travel to?
Canada was amazing. I recently went to NYC and that is my favorite place. All the riders are really nice and motivated. it’s like a big family up there.

Where are some places you would like to go to someday?
I’d like to go around europe. rotterdam i hear is worth a trip

What are some tricks you could never get sick of doing?
tabletops and barspins

What tricks drive you the craziest trying to figure out?
turndowns. somedays i can do them and some days i can’t

Have you had any crazy injuries from riding at all?
I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve broken my foot, broken my knee cap with some ligament damage. I was off my leg for a year. Other then that just your normal stitches, concussions/knock out stuff.

If you could go on a road trip with any 5 people, who would you pick and where would you go?
Oba Stanley, Devin feil, Jeff martin, Alex Platt and Butcher cause he’s badass.
It would be cool to make a trip to Paris.

What do you think you would be up to if you never got into BMX?
I’d probably be more into art and trying to do something with that.

Photo: Justin W

Outside of BMX what are some of your interests?
Art is a big part of my life. I film and edit weddings. I’m slowly building my collection of LP’s.

I get a vibe that your an artistic dude? What kind of stuff are you into like drawing and things?
usually my ideas come out of nowhere, traveling inspires me, I’ll come home from a trip with different things that i want to paint. Lately, I’ve been into graffiti.

How do you feel about school? Did you go or are you in college for anything?
I think school is pretty important but at the same time, it’s not for everyone. I go to school now for Computer Art.

If you could have 3 wishes, what would they be and why?
#1 to wake up everyday with $500 in my pocket so my friends and I could do nothing but hangout and ride.
#2 to have a house with fullpipes as hallways and a water slide out of the 2nd story window into a pool.
#3 have John Travolta is my personal pilot to fly anywhere.

If you could be sponsored by any company, bmx or not bmx related, who would you pick and why?
PBR beer, because i like to have a good time

What kind of music are you into? Anything you think people should check out?
I’m into all sorts of stuff. Metal, Rap, Jazz, Blues.
check out “your mommas on crack rock” by The Doggs. that songs awesome.

What are some of the all time best movies?
“Dont be a menace to south central while drinking your juice in the hood” is an awesome movie. Also “the wrong guy” with Dave Foley,

Do you spend much time on the computer? Any favorite websites?
on rainy days. the come up is dope and random art websites

Photo: Justin W

What are some things you would like to accomplish in the next few years?
I”d like to graduate from school and travel to the west coast.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?
never take things for granted.

What kind of life advice do you have for people?
have a good time.

Do you have any shout outs or thanks?
Devin and the whole Peg-Leg team. ECD, Everyone who has let me stay at their house. My mom and sisters. my neighbors for putting up with ramp jams at the house.

Kenny Horton – Peg Leg DVD from peg leg on Vimeo.

Seshin News

July 4, 2008

Seshin is a sweet company. Jared Chilko has a video bike check and riding clips up on their site. (P.S that link to Jared old interview is old)

Happy 4th of July + Video

July 4, 2008

I just wanted to throw a happy 4th of July out to everyone. I am gimping around with a bruised/swollen foot so I did some filming last night and it turned out to be a pretty fun edit. I hope everyone gets to blow something cool up today.

On the Horizon: Profile Racing

June 30, 2008

Profile is a brand that if you ride BMX and haven’t heard of you should probably just quit. They make some amazing cranks, hubs, and other parts. The history of profile goes back a long ways and after all these years they are a brand you can depend on. I caught up with Matt Coplon and asked him a whole bunch of questions. I hope you like it, leave some comments if you want.

All photos by Grant Carter

Profile has a long history in BMX. Who was/is the original owner? When did the company start and who runs the show these days?
Jim Alley is the founder. He started the company in New Jersey in 1968 making race car parts (hence the trademarked name…everyone always asks why we don’t take the “Racing” out of our name because we make freestyle parts. Well, we’re legally bound to that name.) Jim is still in the office everyday, he actually works six days a week; he’s the only person here on Saturdays.
He’s the overseer of everything that goes on in the shop.

Madera is a group effort started in 2006 by Profile Racing. Its focus is to produce more streamlined parts (more simply made) here in the shop so that we can offer a less expensive (MSRP wise) alternative to Profile. Madera’s goal is to offer an American made product close to the same price of something made in Taiwan.

Profile has always been american made with a lifetime warranty to back it, why is this the most important thing to you guys, wouldn’t you make more money if it was made in another country?
Jim started the company so he could have control over most, if not all, aspects of manufacturing. Yes, it would be cheaper to do things overseas but there are a ton more advantages doing things in-house. Some examples are:
1.As soon as product is finished it can be shipped out the door.
2.Product can be more immediately tested.
3.Prototyped product can be modified a dozen times (if needed) in one day through the machines.
4.Much less lag time on getting brand new product on the market.

Besides our prices being a little higher because of production costs, warranty on cranks and limited warranty on hubs is built into the cost.

How many people does Profile employ, and who are the people behind the scenes nobody ever hears about at profile, from designers, to machine operators, to the dude that gets your coffee?
There are 16 of us here at the shop at all times.

Jim and his wife run the overall show, call the ultimate shots, and pay the bills.
Corey Alley (Jim and Nancy’s son) is the designer.
Six full time machinists.
One overall promotions guy.
One web designer.
One warranty guy.
And then Grant, Tracy, and myself handle sales.
Besides that, I handle the freestyle teams for both Profile and Madera.

Just a random thought after thinking about being a coffee slave, do you guys offer any internships? If yes, how would somebody go about getting involved in that? How about full time/part time jobs there?
Sorry, we no longer offer Internships (we had some bad experiences). However, getting hired is just timing. If someone leaves, we’ll need to fill that spot. I’ll keep everyone posted.

I would imagine your cranks and hubs won’t be changing too much anytime soon. What does Profile have planned for the future with their products? Any new things you guys will be releasing soon, colorway’s, pros getting signature parts, or changes to current products already available?
We always have so much new stuff in the works that is hard to keep up, seriously. Two weeks in to having something finished it becomes old to us. Unfortunately, it’s still new for three months afterwards and sometimes gets forgotten about in the mix.
Mulville is getting a signature stem and seat.
Degroot is getting more signature seats and his shirt was just released.
New platform pedals will be available in three months.
Two new component colors will be released before September.
By Interbike in September, we should have about 10 new products, some of them being hush-hush for now.

What is the soft goods and other small things you guys produce looking like these days? Is there going to be anything new or in the works?
We’ve left the soft goods up to the team almost exclusively at this point. Currently, Mulville, Saavedra, McDermott, and Phil Aller have designs available. Degroot just did his “Burt Reynolds” shirt which came out a couple weeks ago. Now, Ludwick, McDermott and Hinkens are working on new Madera designs and Mulville is working on yet another wild Profile idea.

For the most part, our designs more recently have little continuity but neither do our riders. Each one has a different personality, so each will produce a completely different design. It keeps things fresh.

Since you are the team manager for profile, who is all on the pro team and flow team these days? Is the race team going to grow with the olympics coming up? And will there be any changes or additions being made to the team you can tell us about?
As far as the US team goes, nothing is changing anytime soon. We have our seven Pros: Mulville, Degroot, Klugiewicz, Cardona, Alavarado, Saavedra, and Keenan. And our newest flow additions have been Greg Smee (Mulville’s addition), Jared Eberwein (Saavedra’s addition), and Chris Gille (Alvarado’s addition). There’s always room for a flow addition or two a year, but I’m leaving that up to our Pro team to decide.

We have been adding flow riders Internationally through our Distributors:

Profile Europe: Levi Rogers and James Harrison.
Sunex (France): Ben Gea and Thomas Calcagno.
Elite (Australia): Liam Fahy-Hampton and Mick Bayzand.
Country Bikes (Germany): Hasn’t really changed as our team in Germany has been tight for years!
Brazil: Leandro Moriera (Conall Keenan addition)

As far as the race team goes, there is no huge change in the near future. As far as the Olympics go, we flow Jill Kitner and Mike Daye hubs so they’ll be shredding on those in China, and hopefully not becoming human rights victims while over there.

How do you go about picking new guys for the team? Do you ever go by “sponsor videos” or is that more of a thing of the past?
It’s funny you ask because at the onset of the youtube revolution, we are constantly flooded by sponsorship videos. I do check them out and respond to the sender, but our sponsorship program has turned into 75% personality and 25% riding. There are so many amazing kids out there now that personality has become the main issue for promotions. Firstly, getting to know the rider is the most important thing…At this point, I leave new additions up to the team itself. We’re all friends (the team and I), we’re all on the same page as far as who we like to ride with/who we like to see ride/who we like to hang out with. I trust their judgment. So when someone is up for consideration, we chat about it, get into conversation with the rider, and feel them out for a bit. Then we decide yes or no. This process always seems to work best.

Who is your favorite person on the team?
They’re all my friends, all awesome dudes so there’s no favorite. However, it’s a toss up between Mulville and Degroot as to who is the funniest. Both of those guys could make you laugh for days.

What is a typical day like for you as TM?
Drive to work which takes an hour and a ton of gas.
Flick off the dude in the hummer pulling his boat to the bay.
Drink a ton of coffee.
Arrive at 7:30am and check emails until 10am. Work on orders (which involves building cranks and hubs), take sales calls, handle team stuff, order shirts, handle shipping to the anodizer, take stock, and work with our web designer and print advert designer on ad layouts among a ton of other small tasks.
Clock out at 4pm, take the toll road home to avoid road rage, drink a Steaz, and then go ride street or the Skatepark of Tampa for three hours.
Repeat.

Will there ever be another Profile DVD anytime soon? Or is it just going to be the web videos you guys have been producing for a while?
We’re trying to continue doing one web edit a month for both Profile and Madera.
As far as an actual video, it has been talked about. Most likely that will happen with Madera first. I’ll keep you posted.

How are you guys looking on the road trip side of things? Is there anything planned at all you can tell us about?
We always have roadtrips planned; they’re one of our most important parts of promotions and the best way to spread the word of both companies. We’re actually traveling so much up until this November that I had to take the semester off from school.

July 2nd, Madera is taking off to Milwaukee for a week.
August 13th, Profile is heading up to New England for a trails roadtrip.
Sept. 6th, My band, Light Yourself on Fire is touring for two weeks. I’m sure we’ll do some promotional things with that trip.
And at the end of October, me, Mulville, and McDermott will be heading to Interbike in Vegas.
And sometime in November, we’re doing another Profile trip from Riverside, Ca. to Arizona.

So a kid snaps his crank or blows up a hub, who does he contact to see if his part is under warranty? and what is the typical procedure to go about getting it replaced?
As far as warranty goes, it’s always good to call us first to go over the protocol.

For cranks, as long as you are the original owner and you have the receipt or warranty card, you’re entitled to a warranty against bending or breaking of both the arms and the spindle.

For hubs, there is a crash replacement warranty available where you can send in your hub to get it rebuilt at a very low cost.

Our entire product line is covered under a manufacturer’s warranty. So, basically, if you get something that is defective, we’ll handle it.

What are the current goals and plans Profile has in the coming years?
We’ll have a bunch of brand new stuff for both Profile and Madera on display at Interbike…Until then, we’re designing that stuff and getting prototypes shot out of the bowels of our machines.

Other than that, our goal is to have fun, party, ride bikes and hopefully discover Ponce De Leon’s fountain of youth so we can stay young in order to keep up.

Where can people pick up Profile goods, and who should a shop or distributor contact to get Profile in their shop or warehouse?
Our Main Distributors in the US are Quality Bike Products, KHS, Tip Plus, and Custom Cycle Supply.

Because our product line is so extensive, some odds and ends you cannot get through our distributors so you’d have to get your shop to contact us direct.

As far as Madera goes, shops can only get it direct from us.

How does somebody go about contacting Profile about product complications, sponsorship questions, just to chat it up?
The General number here at the shop is 727-391-7370. Be careful dialing those digits, one wrong move could send you in touch with a shady massage parlor.

However, emails are easiest and the best:

For Freestyle sponsorship: matt@profileracing.com
For Warranty: Shane@profileracing.com
For Race: Grant@profileracing.com

Anything else you would like to say?
If you’re ever in Tampa, contact me to ride some street and park. We always welcome out of towners and would love to show you around.

If you see me around, don’t hesitate to say hello and shoot the shit.

If you haven’t tried Ethiopian food, make it happen. I’m addicted.

If you ever have any questions regarding Profile, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks for the interview Kurt!