Well, look at that… A whole week has flown by and I don’t even know where it went. Well, I do since there’s a whole bunch of content up on the site now. What I mean is that I got back from Toronto last monday and haven’t posted up the random photos I shot on the trip. Last thursday I made my way over to Milwaukee to meet up with Jon Wells, Jeff Dowhen, Grant Castelluzzo, Tippy and Nirve where we all loaded into the infamous Sun Ringle van and headed towards Canadia for the Toronto BMX Jam. I shot a bunch of random photos and figured I’d share the story from the trip…
Thursday started out with me getting into Milwaukee a bit before Jeff and Jon were off work, so I chilled at 4Seasons with Dirt Dan Bogard and Lil Jon until they were ready to hit the road. After they got there, we piled in and started the 11ish hour trek to Toronto. We got a late start so we luckily had a place to stay with Flip from Albe’s in Detroit (Even though we didn’t get to his place till 3 in the morning). This was the first time I had the chance to go to Detroit and it was pretty confusing. This huge city is filled with abandoned houses and warehouses galore and in a sense is pretty rough looking. But it still looks like it’s a pretty rad city to visit. We didn’t get the chance to spend much time around the city, but I wouldn’t say no to a trip there to take a closer look.
First picture from the trip. I’m not sure what the hell I’m doing, but Jeff’s mustache is looking primed.
We made a stop at a McDunglow’s in a truck stop. (McDunglow is what they call McDonald’s in Tiawan according to Jon) Random road trip fact. The U.S has the dollar menu (You know, those 99 cent BMX friendly menu), but in Canada they have the $1.89 menu (not as BMX friendly menu).
The light cover in the van looks oddly like something Kanye West would wear. These have made an appearance in pretty much every photo album from trips in that van.
Friday started out with us being woken up to Flip’s kids going absolutely nuts throwing shit, making terroristic threats and requesting chocolate milk while hanging from the ceiling. I woke up to one of them decked out in this Transformers costume with a toy gun pointed at me with the first question being “Are any of you girls?”. I wonder who taught him that…
Nothing better than starting your day with a cup of joe…. Well, none of us had any coffee so Nirve thought a cup of 2 Girls 1 Cup would do the trick.
Jon Wells should have professional driver on his resume. I can only imagine how many miles he has driven over the years from all the trips he has done. Jon is also a professional T-Pain Auto Tune rapper and dancer. I’m not sure if he’s singing here or coughing, but regardless he’s entertaining as hell.
After the chaos, we made a trip over to Albe’s headquarters. It was kind of weird, but exciting to go to the store for me. I’ve been ordering from there since I was like 15, so walking in the place where the majority of my bike parts have come from over the years was a cool experience. The bus was parked out front, and that thing alone has way too many ridiculous stories. Flip was telling us about the time they were on the highway and saw deer so they slowed way down to a stop and a deer still ran into the side of it full speed. Just one of the dents in the beast.
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The store front that I think a lot of people didn’t even know they had. I was planning on doing a bunch of photos from inside the shop, but I ended up geeking out with all of the stuff they had and talking. This place gets orders from all over the world on a daily basis which is pretty wild to think about when it comes to BMX. While we were there, Jon insured that the Sun Ringle rims were getting the proper display.
I’m not sure if this was a prank or not, but Flip told us this place had awesome food. The food was the opposite of awesome, and none of us were psyched. I’m pretty sure Flip was laughing his ass off when we texted him about the food being shit.
Detroit has a lot of ghetto run down and abandoned buildings, but they also have a huge fricken tire.
After the shitty food, we hit up Transitions Ramp Park for a session before going over the boarder. This is another place I had always heard about, but never been. We got a real good session in and Grant C filmed a whole bunch, so there will be an edit from the trip eventually. I guess they just finished up their new box jump rhythm that day, which was rad since that was fun as hell to ride.
Quick tour of the park…
Grant Castelluzzo is an absolute tech machine. I don’t get how the hell he does anything he does, but he does it and he does it consistently. I believe each of these involved a smith before what you see. Yeah, what the hell?
Nirve getting flat. I’ve seen Nirve ride before, but this trip made me realize how good he really is. You will see some stuff in the edit…
Jeff Dowhen did this over ice for Grant a few minutes before and I wanted to get a shot of it. I knew Jeff didn’t really want to do it, but he did it anyways. The first go his bike went flying and bashed my shin. I paid the price for asking him to do it. I’m just glad he got it next go.
Jon can drive a van and mow the lawn real damn good. This took a few goes and the ones he didn’t land looked so wild since his arms were completely stretched out trying to pull it back in. If you ever want to see a rad fufanus, abubaca or lawn mower just ask Jon and he will come through.
Grant getting luc-e to 180’d.
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Jeff getting a clip.
From time to time Jonathan would come out and wander off to a secluded location to take care of business. If you see Jonathan out on a trip, quickly hide his phone an Jon will be back to party.
There was a constant stream of Tweets going until we hit Canada and had to stop due to the insane international data rates. You should have seen these guys freaking out when they realized we were back in the U.S on monday.
Speaking of partying, it looks like somebody was on it at Culvers…
After the session and a quick grub session at some wholesome American food we got back on the road and started making our way to Canada.
After the boarder, the phones went off and no communication outside of the van was capable. I couldn’t even send texts on my ghetto phone. Canada, eh.
Every BMX road trips requires at least one Truck Stop, stop. You could spend hours finding funny and crazy things that is for sale in them. We spent a good amount of time at this one until the girl at the register was getting offended by all the Canada jokes. They have it coming with the endless supply of funny. Two items above were damn near purchased.
After that stop it was a straight shot the rest of the way to Toronto. Jon and I had a priority stop on the list and that would be this hidden gem in downtown Toronto…
Burrito Bandidos is one of my favorite spots in Toronto. They make some DAMN GOOD burritos and I’d advise anyone who goes to Toronto to make a stop. It’s worth it.
After the stop for some food, we still had some time to kill until Jeff DuPaul and the crew could get through Customs and get to Toronto. We decided to make a stop at the hostel we stayed in last year to see how it was holding up and relive the glory days… or night that birthed the term “America!”
Jeff Dowhen had a fact off about America with a very drunk Australian girl pretty much one year to the day on that very couch. Apparently some heated fact off’s went down since the couch had been torn up. “AMERICA!”
Jon Wells hustled some pool against some guy from, like, Sweden.
After the stop and watching a bunch of drunken fights on the streets, we got word that Team Jeff DuPaul infiltrated the country (after being red flagged for the next 10 years) and got to the hotel.
Proper BMX road trip hotel rules applied. 11 dudes in 1 room. Approximately 9 people more than the front desk was aware of. A little bit of advice for the youngin’s out there who are about to start venturing onto road trips. The key to getting a bunch of your friends into a hotel without them noticing is walking in like you have already been checked in for a few days. Spot the elevator as fast as possible and casually make your way like you knew where it was the whole time. If they ask if they can help you, just say “nope, but I’m ready to crash in that comfy bed again tonight” or something. Also, know about how many floors there are. If they ask you what room you are in, remember that most hotels start the room number with the floor. We were in 1309. 13th floor, room 9. This can also be applied to getting past security at events as well. Walking in like you are supposed to be there is key. Just make sure you have a back up story ready for when things head south.
The next morning we made our way over to the coliseum to check out the contest. I made the amateur mistake of assuming they got my email about credentials to get my pass and asked the people in charge. Of course they had no info on me so I got dicked into paying $10 to get in. This would have been avoided by just walking by like we were supposed to be there, similar to how we did with the security guard. I decided to pass on shooting photos of the contest after this and after I saw 69 other people with cameras on the decks and everything.
I got bored and decided to shoot a couple of shots from the sidelines. Nothing serious, just a few shots out of boredom. Drew Bezanson goes high.
Anything and everything that went to flat this weekend was the streetest.
Jeff Dowhen rode hard enough to avoid getting last place. He ended up getting 7th… from last this year.
James Lukas was cursed with the last place spot this year. I’ll let it slide since he did have to share a room with 10 other people the night before and sleeping was a bit rough.
This was the first time I’ve had the chance to meet Denny Pascasio in person. We’ve known each other for a few years now so it wasn’t even awkward. He gave me permission to drop the “n” bomb too. I’m too scared to believe that card is accepted everywhere. However, he was saying “GUTB, Niggggggggggaaaaaa” in this photo. GiveUpTheButt baby girl…
Jeff DuPaul in the flesh. What the hell is Dylan Stark doing?
Creepin’ on DK’s newest pro, Chris Childs. Style for days, and sleeps sitting up.
Flair
Flip fakie.
John Heaton came out of hiding to kick everyones ass. I was so psyched to see him riding after a few years of him going under the radar.
Grant applying for his Rockstar contract.
I psyched Denny out and made him think he was getting Rockstar contract. Wells creepin’.
Random superman.
Tippy McTallestBMXriderinToronto
Mykel “Panty Droppin'” Larrin. The announcer kept calling him Micah and Mike thinking it was funny. I didn’t laugh.
Shady Rob reallllly loves BMX and Canada.
Another BMX road trip tip: Don’t pass out with your shoes on first in a room filled with BMX riders. Antics will be turned up to high. Jeff gave Denny a proper Carlton fade. This probably could have been prevented if we would have just used this fine product I found at Wal-Mart last night.
We made Denny finish his hair cut on his own. He did a real good job. I’m pretty sure this will be all of the rage soon enough.
We managed to smuggle pizzas and other treats out of the riders lounge area while we watched the riding go down. You know you are winning when you eat more than you paid for.
Saturday night we had a session at Joyride which is so much fun to ride. If you ever have the chance to make it up there, you won’t be disappointed. There’s literally so much to ride there and it’s all dialed as hell. We ended up filming a whole bunch of clips from there, in a section that you will be real surprised we filmed in, so expect that soon too.
After the contest wrapped up on sunday, we loaded up the van for a straight shot back to Milwaukee. 11 hour haul followed by another 4 hours for me. Once we were back in the U.S the quotes from the weekend started blasting on Twitter, and the domain YouzaNastyGirl.com was purchased. We got back to Milwaukee at 3 a.m and I got back home at 7:15 just in time to stop by work to tell him “I have slept 2 hours in the last 48 hours, and have been driving for the last 15. I’m not going to make it in today.” My boss just laughed at me and told me to go home.
Overall, the trip was a good time. A good start to the year and a bunch of good stories because of it. I hope you enjoyed the ride. Big thanks to all the dudes who were in on the trip and everything. Thanks to Sun Ringle for continuing to let us take the van out on the road for good times!
