Tag Archives: bmx racing kids

Lockdown Log Day 26

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God has it really been 26 days in lockdown, yep it sure has and like I’ve said before, other than the recent couple of miserable days I cant help think how it has helped having a decent spell of weather, and long may it continue. Incidentally for those who are regular readers, typically Birmingham national weekend was another corker for weather that’s three in a row now!!!!!!

So to business first, got the creative hat on the other night and came up with a new T shirt design which is available to ORDER NOW by CLICKING HERE. Have to say I’m really happy with how this one has come out, I think it’s possibly one of my favourites to date actually. I’m going to tip a nod to DJ Flavs for helping me get my head into creativity mode when he was briefly hosting a FB live set before rudely being kicked off. Think I’m right in saying he’ll be broadcasting on “twitch” this Friday so tune in, he doesn’t disappoint. The longer evenings and the great weather we’ve been having were my inspiration for the ” KEY WEST” design, putting our iconic skull logo on a playful setting sun image, it’s got to be the go to T-shirt for when we are all back on the beach. Whilst having more free time to work on SUB22 I recently discovered that our hoodies have actually been our bestseller which really surprised me, so I think for a limited time I will run the new KEY WEST design on our hoodies just to help you stay warm when you are taking in the sunset wherever you are.

Last week I was approached by Decoy committee and asked if I would take up the challenge laid down by Exeter BMX club and produce our own version of ‘The Toilet Roll Challenge’. A great concept thought up by Exeter and we as a household certainly had some fun producing our own parts to include in the final edit. It was great getting everyones clips sent through and I hope you all were happy with what we finished with. I know I’m going to be biased but even with all the other clubs versions that have been produced since, I still think ours is the best, so well done to all who contributed, and for those of you who are reading and thinking “what the hell is he on about”, check the video out by CLICKING HERE

Zoom, House party and a huge increase in Tik Tok’s has to be part of everyones homes right now. Daughter is Tik Tokin’, Henry is always watching them whilst the wife caught up with her girlie friends the other night for a drink on Zoom, that is when they all managed to get logged in!!!! I played host to a game of Family Fortunes on Zoom last weekend which was fun. Again it helped pass time creating the quiz and was great to see family as together as we all can be in the current situation. One word of warning for anyone using zoom for the first time though, make sure when you exit the session that you have fully exited and not just turned your video feed off and left your microphone active (WHOOPSIE DAISY NANNY ANGIE)

On the whole I would say we are still coping well with the current situation, but think it’s fair to say we are all missing the BMX family, and Henry and myself are also missing sport in general. Since we got into BMX approximately six and a half years ago I can’t honestly remember going so many days without riding a track. I think the last time Henry rode a track was 11th of March, 39 days ago. A week today we should all have been rocking up at Exeter for round 3 of the SW regional series and the week after at Decoy for round 4, let’s see how the weather turns out for those. Really missed the Birmingham weekend, that’s one of my favourites, great track, sensible drive time, good camping and always look forward to Pizza from the takeaway over the road. If I think about it all for too long its even worse. We really enjoy the additional social aspect that BMX has added to our lives, it literally is like another family away from home, meeting all our friends at regional races and sharing drunken nights to remember and some to forget at nationals. Is this how it will be when our racing days are over??????

To finish this edition, walking has become the daily exercise of choice for Vicki and I, and boy have we been chalking up the miles, so much so that dependant on how much longer we are off work I’ll be going back looking like I’ve just had 2 weeks in Caribbean, dropped to a 28 waist and in desperate need of a new pair of trainers. Has anyone else had to resort to home lockdown haircut yet? Mine is getting close and I’m not sure who I trust to ‘HAVE A GO’. I tidied up Henry around back and sides and got a reputable 6/10 from a barber, which considering I only had a small set of clippers, no comb and no scissors I’ll take. Henry is not keen on me cutting the top mind, but it’s going to need it sooner rather than later so watch this space.

Hope everyone is staying fit and healthy, and look forward to seeing you all on the other side of this. Stay safe

Burnham-on-Sea, not to be!!!

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So there we go, what should have been a day at Burnham for round 2 of the South West regional series has fallen to the now inforced effective lockdown situation that the Corona Virus has brought about. The best I can bring you is a small edit I made at last years Burnham round. CLICK HERE for a direct link to it on YOUTUBE. Olympics and Euros have both been postponed until next year ,the worlds have been ‘postponed’ BC have pushed back the date of suspended events to end of June at the earliest which regionally puts pay to Exeter, Decoy, Cornwall, Bideford and Bristol rounds and Birmingham, Scotland and Cyclopark on the national circuit. I think it’s safe to say there’s not going to be any racing any time soon. I would like to point out at this point the weather today was dry and sunny, I’ll admit it was cold in the wind, but that’s now the first two regional rounds that actually would have been DRY, typical. I wouldn’t even like to guess how racing is going to play out, and whilst given the health of the nation is hugely more important than racing, at some point in the future the people who sit in the appropriate places will have to make decisions about the knock on effect with respect to qualifications to events due to be taking place in 2021, strange times.

I will go on record now and say I am amazed that we have managed to pretty much get through this first week of isolation/social distancing. I honestly expected us all to be wanting to throttle each other but it’s been OK. I’ve begun getting on with all those jobs around the house that you just normally put off, probably because when you’re working your free time is more valuable and those sort of things are way down the list. Now however I’m looking for things to occupy the day, Vicki says to me ‘you can’t relax can you?’ Yes I can and actually doing these odd jobs is in a way relaxing, they serve as a purpose in the day, you don’t have the usual time restraints of rushing to get the job done by the end of the day because I can always finish it tomorrow. I’ve got a couple of runs in this week, got back on INSANITY workouts and gained an invaluable respect from Henry when we went out for a ride together in my domain, on the road. Oh how sweet it was to keep turning around to him and say ‘come on keep up’, he slept well that night believe me. Henry and I are managing to get out pretty much every day on a bike of some kind, my track stands are definitely improving, practice hasn’t made perfect yet but it’s made it a damn site better than this time last week I won’t be beaten. Henry is improving his flat manuals day by day and is also just managing to hold me off in our little sprint battles. We’re both also trying to master the unicycle, it’s been sat in the loft for I don’t know how long and what better time to learn new skills. All of these things have been made far easier though with the decent weather lately. Imagine if we were going through this isolation period back when we were getting the monsoons. Trying to socially isolate when you’re flooded out of your home, queing up outside your local supermarket when its lashing it down, really being stuck inside because its just too awful to go out, that would have been isolation on another level.

Thursday nights show of appreciation for NHS workers was brilliant, in fact when Vicki and I have been out for the odd walk this week people in general have been way more friendly than normal. Everyone has been of the 2 metre distance when passing and saying ‘hello’ and ‘thanks’, sad thing is that it takes a global crisis to get the best out of people, however if this can’t pull people together then there really wouldn’t be much hope right?? Anyone who is still playing any kind of working role now should be thanked really. Although the virus does appear on the whole to be more detrimental to the elderly and those with other existing medical conditions, it’s not limited to those alone and so anyone now who still has any dealing with the public in any way is putting themselves at a greater risk of becoming ill and thus should be respected for fulfilling whatever role the play. One small thing that has also caught my attention is new TV ads. Over the last week particularly in the morning there has been an alarming number of new adverts for things like life insurance, will writing, cremations, and funerals, jeeeeeeez, slightly concerning hey.

For those of you who do regularly read these and had a go at the riddle from last time the answer was “THE MOON”. For those who got it, congrats, for those that didn’t unlucky, for anyone reading this for the first time, go back to the previous post and see if you would have guessed it, for everyone else it’s the name given when someone flashes you their backside.

Many thanks to those who have ordered the new T-Shirt design CV-19 I hope you like it when it arrives. If you do find yourselves with time on your hands I have a new feature on the SUB22 website. You can now design your own T-shirt!!!!! Get your kids on it let them be inspired for a few hours and best of all you can get your design printed and shipped. Being based online, for now we are still able to fulfil orders, so what are you waiting for??? CLICK HERE to get directed straight to the design studio now. Keep safe everyone, we are stronger together, and together we will get through this and remember when things do get fraught at home ‘ you’re not stuck at home, you’re safe at home.’

Parkfield Regional (or not)

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Feel a bit lost really, almost cheated in someway, this is about the time we would be back home from the first South West regional race, going over the days events, analysing Sqorz timings, comparing, contrasting, what went right what went wrong, who impressed and who’s dropped off. New bikes, new teams, new kit, new helmets, having to re educate yourself to recognise those you normally follow, who’s racing up? Why are they doing that? Why the delay? The first race nerves, the tension, excitement, novice first timers, parents screaming ‘PEDAL’, Sharon screaming ‘Louis, Zach, Max, (sorry Sharon) a warming cup of something resembling tea from a poly cup, the smell of GT85, the smell of portaloos, the smiles, the cheers, the tears, the tantrums, the cash I’ve spent to never win a raffle prize again, see you next week for round 2 at Burnham!!!!! Instead of all that there was no alarm wake up call, leisurely tea and breakfast in bed for Vic (mothers day and all that) re runs of ‘ Cant pay well take it away’. Walk to town for some food shopping and grab some milk for my elderly neighbour. Unpack the shopping, coffee, get my cruiser out and have a go at Cornwall BMX clubs Track stand challenge (Totally crap at it now but will prove to you that practice pays off as huge progress was made in just a few hours today) Roast, and then sitting down to blog. Now some would feel like the way today played out would be lovely, but its been odd, really odd and sadly a feeling I think for the short term foreseeable future, we will all have to get used to.

At this moment in time I’m still fortunate enough to be at work, however I have already been thinking of ways to keep myself entertained over the impending lockdown weeks to come, and let’s not be naive, they are going to come. I’m thinking that as we have a major shut down of some huge sporting events, maybe we should re-create our own and share them with you. Oxford, Cambridge boat race was due to be next weekend, The Masters golf, The Grand National and London Marathon to name a few. I’ve also thought maybe a should broaden my sporting horizon and look into new things, for example after a very quick internet search last night did you know that they have a championship event for HOBBY HORSEING!!!!!!!!!! No word of a lie, head to Youtube and search ‘hobby horse competition’. Check out the 2019 Finnish championship edit, the funniest thing ever, I’m considering doing a voiceover/ commentary to this, what do you think??? There was a whole host of other random sports I found but I will keep those to myself for now as potential upcoming projects/entertainment/boredom killers. My excitement over these findings however has unnerved the wife a little her words were something like ‘ GOD if this is what you’re like whilst you are still able to go to work I fear for us all when you have to be at home……….’ no need for that I thought, just rude!!!!!!

Ive seen a significant number of businesses on social media tonight announcing that they will be closing now for the foreseeable future and given the apparent lack of understanding from significant numbers of people who chose to go out like we’ve just come out of isolation today, I think we’ve got a week at best before Government pull the plug completely. Please remember to try and be mindful with what you do in your time, we love our bikes and we love to be out on them. Ride, but ride in a manner which will drastically reduce the risk of you needing a hospital visit, they just don’t need you in there right now and lets be honest would you really want to be there???

Lastly something new, its important to keep the brain as well as the body active so I have a little teaser for you. Nothing to win, no place on a plane, just bragging rights at getting it right, try not to spoil for others by commenting the answer just let us know if you think you know. Here goes. Always old, sometimes new, never sad, sometimes blue, never empty, sometimes full, never push, always pulls. What am I ?? Answer in the next edition. Cheers all, stay healthy.

Netflix and sprints!!

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Well as I’m sure you’re all aware it’s now official, as of Tuesday, BC finally announced a halt to all racing until the end of April at the earliest. Although a little behind a lot of other sporting organisations to pull the plug it was only going to be a matter of time, we are going through very strange times, uncharted territory if you like, the sort of thing that our future generations will be studying in their history lessons. I don’t think you’re human if you don’t have some concern over the situation. Those who know me best will know I’m very laid back but even I’ve had my concerns, mine isn’t health as I think we are all generally fit and healthy enough that we’d get through it but lack of work and money which it seems will be inevitable is a worry. I try to take comfort in the thought that when things get to that stage then the vast majority of the country will be the same and government interventions will be applied!!!

So schools are now to close, for how long who knows, probably not even those who may know, the challenge is going to be keeping them occupied. If yours are anything like Henry, its going to be a challenge for all concerned. Open tracks can be a lure but we shall stay away. I don’t think it’s right in the current situation to unnecessarily take up a seat in A+E. Yes he rides all the time, no he doesn’t have a habit of coming off, but you know what, he’s even less likely to if he’s not riding a track. Hospitals and NHS staff don’t need the extra burden of avoidable services and staff care, their skills are required for a greater good right now. I hate the thought of him not riding the track, and he will be climbing the walls but believe it or not there is a greater issue going on here and we all need to play our part in it, and that extends to all the buffoons who are clearing the shelves of our supermarkets, idiots. I will keep Henry active, sprints, turbo sessions, core work, I see various online offers for training programs around, which I’m sure are great but certainly for me I’m watching my cash right now because although I’m still fortunate to be working, I’m under no illusion, it will cease for a period of time and it will be money for necessities only until things start to return to normal.

It’s a strange time, a worrying time and what will be will be. It made me chuckle to read the odd comment on social media concerning how the rest of the race season is going to play out, how we’ll qualify for this that or the other, dropping regionals to focus on nationals, you probably read them like I did. We’ve had one national weekend and dependant on where you are in the country possibly one regional, what you stressing for?? Once things start returning to normal it will all work itself out don’t stress. If you need a focus, work on your sprints and strength training, offer your services to the elderly and vulnerable in your area, they may be stuck at home and need some shopping, get on the bike, down the shops for them, two in one, helping out whilst getting some training in, booooom.

Lastly for this chapter is look out for each other. It’s often times like these when those you least expect need help actually really need it. If you haven’t heard from someone for a while on social media, phones, texts, whatsapps, snapchat and anything else, give them a call send them a message, it takes nothing now to stay in touch, no excuses. Whilst places are still open try and support your small local guy and that includes your bike shops, the BMX business is a niche market and I hope that everyone in the industry makes it out the other side and will be trackside when normal order resumes.

Stay safe and more appropriately STAYSTRONG

BTW, opinions please. Do you think it would be politically correct to add my masked logo to the catalogue, never know these days what will offend, and if I did add it would you buy. Cheers all.

Winter Racing, do you, don’t you??

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I took Henry last weekend to the last round of the South West Wild West series at Decoy which managed to pull in 71 riders, the lowest of that particular series, the highest 112 and averaging at 88. A couple of long standing regulars on the BMX circuit asked me why I thought numbers were relatively low??

First off, as personal preference, over the winter months I like to give Henry a rest from racing. He still rides at least 3 sessions a week and can easily be more, but I think it’s good to have a break from the mental and physical demands of racing, however I do like to pick and choose some winter races to make sure he doesn’t get what I refer to as race rusty. From memory I think he raced on 4 occasions this winter, it would have been a couple more but due to prior arrangements clashing with racing under the roof rounds we didn’t attend any.

I wonder if over the last couple of years it appears that there has been a sudden influx of other winter series races being introduced. It didn’t seem that long ago that you had your core of RUTR and Deep South and that was pretty much it wasn’t it?? This year off the top of my head we had 2 seperate series, totalling 9 races in the SW and Birmingham ran a four race series. Is it just a simple case that there is too much racing to go around and subsequently not enough riders? If people are being let’s say selective in their racing, what influences where you race, locality, weather, track standard, national host, standard of riding, habitual choice. The Birmingham series as example, centrally located, hosting a national attracted an average of 140 whilst the long standing Deep South had an average 202, with one round pulling in 244 which is about 30 riders higher than the average entry to a SW regional last year!!! RUTR never fails to fill its allocation within hours of going live, it’s a good 4 to 4.5 hour drive from anywhere south of M4 corridor, if you want a good practice session it requires a two day commitment plus expense of overnight stay, plus you pay for the practice session but you are in the comfort of being indoors, maybe we all just love stretching ourselves to the max!!!!

On reflection of the last race we attended at Decoy I paid £10 race entry, is this possibly a touch too much for a winter race pulling average 88 riders, does that put people off? More appealing at £7/8 maybe. Would you rather spend your race fees on a series where you are more likely to get more than 4/5 riders in an age group. Practice was still one hour of open track, one hour of gates, there seemed to be a lot of hanging around, with the numbers here relatively low this could easily have halved and racing under way at least an hour earlier, would it be more appealing if the whole event could be over and done by lunchtime? I guess its difficult to judge, a schedule needs to publicised before race day and if you are fortunate enough to be pulling greater numbers then you need the longer practice sessions, catch 22. For us as a family, the normal regional/national circuit takes up a good percentage of weekends in the year, committing to more through the winter is an easy starter for family meltdown. Time is becoming more and more of an invaluable commodity, that’s not to say that a day of racing in off season is a waste of time, but is it valuable time? Likewise back to entry fees, part of those fees go toward end of season trophies, cut the fees and risk lowering the quality of the trophies etc. What has become apparent certainly in our close proximity is that the winter races seem to serve as a good grass routes introduction to racing, giving new up starters a taste of what a regional race series entails, the format of race day, where to go what to do, make them feel more confident to hopefully enter the regional series. Equally as you become a more seasoned racer perhaps to get the adequate level of racing you require you have to gravitate away to where it naturally seems to be.

As ever let us know your thoughts and opinions, smash a like, share, and make sure you subscribe to the blog.

NEW DESIGN OUT NOW!!!!

Freepost offer on now up until Midnight Sunday March 1st, remember Mothers day is coming!!

Bournemouth National

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“Didn’t we have a lovely time the day we raced in Bournemouth” It certainly wasn’t your average race weekend was it? I will be the first to hold my hands up and say I honestly didn’t think Bournemouth hosting a national weekend was going to work………….BUT despite the curveball of the great British summer putting pay to Saturdays racing I thought it was probably one of the best this year. The track looked to ride well, spectator viewing was really good, having team/club gazebos set back from the immediate trackside was a real plus,(more of that next year please) parking was close by, camping was perfectly located and, added additional entertainment of watching the occasional unsuspecting adult or child catching their foot in the odd animal burrowing, and going arse over tit!!! Beer tent proved to be a hit despite possibly fueling a little Friday night fight club session, putting on the band was good however it does divide opinion with regard to trying to get younger riders off to sleep on the nearby campsite. They knocked it on the head at just after 10 which I think is just about acceptable, certainly more acceptable than the vocalist who at the end was literally killing ‘The Killers’. The two pump tracks that were put up were getting good use and the eliminator competition on Saturday looked to have drawn good numbers especially considering significant numbers would have left due to the days racing being cancelled.

Saturday ended up feeling really odd, national weekend and no racing. I think a lot of people had a real head scratching moment, either eventually went off exploring or just took the day off and relaxed. Cancelling the days racing was exactly the right call, riders health and safety has to be paramount, and no we’re not mollycoddling here, it was dangerous. The moment a rider or spectator for that matter was involved in any wind related incident be that on track or off, organisers wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, other major events had been cancelled and a weather warning was in place. I did hear of some people voicing their annoyance to organisers, come on, really people!!!! The only thing that possibly could have been done any better was to call it earlier and by that I’m saying to my knowledge the ” Head Honcho” who makes the call didn’t arrive on site until shortly before first practice was due to start. C’mon, you know there’s a situation potential, get there, call it earlier and save yourselves from the hassle of people having wasted journeys, communication people!!!!!! Double points on the Sunday though……………….not sure that was the right call but also understand you’re never going to come up with a solution that would please all, personally it worked out for Henry, he rode well placed 12th and bagged himself good points but others may have had a bad day, been caught up in a crash, and end up with a double helping of duff and no chance of changing things. Like I say not really sure what could have been done that would have pleased all, win some lose some I guess.

Race day Sunday all seemed to run smoothly, and I was hugely impressed by the amount of people that were still around trackside when finals were running, appeared to be way more than normaI and was great to see. Heard the stories regarding the dog that was not taking too kindly to other dogs, then when back home later learn that this was also the dog that was locked up in the car and announced over the MC!!!!!!!! That will explain this posting from Derby regarding the upcoming Brits .

I was a little surprised that there was no celebration of all the Worlds finalists from Zolder. Whether one was planned for Saturday or not I don’t know. Hopefully there will be something done in a couple of weeks in Derby. It may also interest you to know that for whatever reason BC gave no recognition, in fact not even a mention of any of our worlds finalists via their Twitter feed. The junior and elite men and women get the odd tweet but that was all. I guess when considering some of the younger ones there may be some legalities over naming names and all that BUT, to not even come out and say huge congrats to our Challenge class riders who have achieved X,Y, Z……………….shocking!!!!!! Anyone reading this please go check it out and comment if I missed it but don’t think I have. Anyone with good direct contact with BC want to question this???? I keep hearing the sport is in decline, numbers keep dropping, What better way to draw attention than to celebrate WORLD SUCCESS, go through the twitter feed BC are not she about celebrating success, its all over so why shun BMX!!!!!

Anyhow, another national series done, personal best result for Henry finishing 16th, super proud of him, things are really starting to come together for him. Hopefully we can have a good winter season and hit the ground running when we start back next year.

Please please help to spread the word if you like what you read. Smash the follow button below to get updated to new posts, give this a like and leave us a comment, (on this site as well as FB please) good, bad or indifferent, it all helps to guide traffic to the site. Remember sharing is caring, anyone you know in the BMX community that would have an opinion or would enjoy the read, direct them here. Anything in particular you would like to see covered in future posts????? Oh and finally I nearly forgot, there was one question that has been left unresolved from the Bournemouth Weekend, ” Who is Neil Forsyth???”

South West Brits

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Honoured to be asked and able to supply the design for the South West regions Brits T shirts this year.

Going with the day of the dead theme, our logo was a great starting point. We decided to make it a little more theme appropriate by adding features like diamond’s, dots swirls and curls.

It’s going to be great to see a good spread of these in Derby later this month.

Like the look of this, check out our webstore SUB22 and see our full design range