Nick Loves Da Kids!

What a day :) Started at 2 am when I went to sleep after visiting my friend Veronica who was in a car accident a week ago with a drunk driver and got a lil banged up. Get well soon kidd! Got home after chillin with her and some friends in Hayward at 2am so I was hella tired. Set the alarm for 5am because I had to get to Al's house early to get started on the ramps for a school show. Woke up at 5am wondering if I even slept and hopped in the van to head to Gilroy. Got to Al's and he wasnt home so I slept for like 20min. until he showed up. We scooted over to home depot at 6am and started grabbing wood for a landing ramp he needed built. he was stressing it but Ive built more ramps than the average bear and I knew it was easily doable in the time slot we had (2hrs.) so grabbed everything and $170.00 later we were gone from there and headed back to his house to get things going. Al seemed a little unsure but I told him chill I got this LOL. Started cutting pieces and drawing things out as the sun came up and the rain came down. True BMX shit right there, standing in the rain building a landing ramp with electric tools- ridiculous. I knocked it out in just under 2 hours with like 1 min. to spare and joked about we had plenty of time for Mc. Donals breakfast haha. So check the pics on my work of art landing ramp :) We take off with about 45min. to spare on our trip to Soledad for the demo. We need a small plug for the trailer lights and that ends up balling us up for 45minutes so were now cutting it close or more less late for the show - haha thought we were dialed. Did I mention we leave and the landing flies literally flies upward out of the trailer? Yeah sketchy as all hell and on a normal everyday road we laughed our asses off and almost hit a prius with it. We loaded it back up changed the layout and it was good. Got to the school @ 1:00 with the show starting at 1:30 but still had to setup the PA and the ramps. Got it all done right at 1:30 while the kids were already waiting for us. No practice runs at the ramp or anything total dry run for sure...

Al n the kids...

K let me explain these shows Ive been doing shows for red ribbon,dare, etc. stuff for like 10 years I'd guess and they are seriously the best thing you can ever do for kids. Jumping over a teacher is next to God in kids eyes and if you ever get a chance man check one out or even ride in one and bring joy to the purest people on earth- Kids! They loved it every second from Al's rad speeches to singing along to Nas, and me jumping over their favorite teachers. The principal was psyked and Al was glad it all went off pretty well. I did a superman and dislocated my shoulder somehow though and that really hurt and has my shoulder all screwed u right now :( Ill keep ya posted on how long yet another injury is going to take to heal.. Whats going on? Anyway we wrap up the show meet this rad chick named Olivia who was a teachers aid and shame on me for not gettin her contact info cuz she was pretty cool in the 5 minutes we talked to her and would like to meet her again when Im not dieing from my shoulder lol. Enjoy the pics of the show and once again if you ever get a chance help the kids out and spread the drug free message its very worth it. Also theres a pic of the prototype fork as well- Moving Exodus Forward!

From this in the dark and rain...

To this beautiful creation :)

Prototype Fork...

More Exodus Stuff

Exodus is slowly rolling forward still :)

Pegs Last week I got a set of sample pegs in the mail and started testing those out. The set I am rocking are some crazy plastic stuff that bounces really high and they are alot of fun off your bike let alone on your bike haha. Anyway things are looking good for them right now 4in. long and 1 1/2 across, so they are smaller then a pleg which I think is too big and looks odd. They have less flex than the plegs Ive ridden and the odd thing is I designed mine to have no hardware, so itll be good to see if I end up having to use something inside or not. Im gonna sample another narrower set @ 1 3/8" across and see if those work well because Ive always like small pegs :)

Fork is on its way as well and Im really excited because the co. knocked out the sample from idea to cad drawing to real physical sample in like 3weeks which shows me they aint messin around. Weight should be between 26-32 ounces for the final version and like always Ill shave what I can when I get the sample in and get it all dialed up. It will be multi use designed for race/trails/park whatever you toss at it. I should have it in about a week.

Bars are waiting on a few paint scuffs on some white sets and then they will be shipping as well! Really glad to have those coming because thatll be the first real product and Ill know if things are going to catch on or fizzle out really quick, cant say im nervous about it more excited than anything :) Stickers have been ordered and Im waiting on those to arrive and still trying to get the final layout for the info card I wanna toss on them.

Knee is gettin better but it isnt rushing LOL

Vegas again...

Haha so this round of Vegas wasnt as great as interbike weekend but was a ton of fun anyway. I got there on friday morning and we went ahead and checked into our first hotel next to the track. Everyone showered and got ready for practice at Nellis, like I said this hotel was only a few blocks from the track so we dubbed it the "jock" room, because if you were serious about results and wanted a good nights sleep then this spot was definitely for you haha. Practice was cool I stopped and picked up a heating pad/icepack, ace bandage, and ibuprofen to try and get my knee moving good so I can make a race happen saturday or sunday... total came out to $7.77 so I knew gambling was going to be good to me :)

Everyone hated the track I saw it 3 weeks earlier so I knew it sucked but everyone else was bummed. Oh well. Partied, lost a bunch of money and helped Vegas keep the lights going just a little longer.

Our *Gucci* room was way too rad for a porr guy like myself. Flat screens 2 of everything like 3000 sq. ft. it was plain silly, the pool had sand around it for that matter! It was Bananas and Im psyked Steph hooked it up pretty cheap. *Gucci* what can ya say?

Saturday races went well my knee was still way stiff so I sat out and cheered my boys on. Alan shut down Elite Open and bought me lunch with Leveques money! haha suckafishes thought they were gonna beat Alan when he has gate 1 in the main adn a cell phone bill to pay? Yo ass is trippin. Not only did he win but he made it a point to cut off Arnaud Du Bois who woulda been an Olympian but some drama shafted him. Alans my boy and we roll together so I was psyked for him. Got back to the *Gucci* estate and got ready to dip out for the nightly gambling...
Roulette smoked me, slots, poker, the whole 9 yards I could not win to save my soul! Met up with the boys who had the bar on lock. Patron shots when I walked up and I knew these fools were in for a long or really short night haha. Met quite a few different people so shout out Mark the bartender that races with us, Azil from LA, It was my first chill session with Doug E Fresh and he lived up to the hype, Carla and Christian were both rad and fuckin Carla took all of our money from roulette. Me Alan and Fresh decided were gonna pool our cash and go $150 on red- we roll black why the hell did we choose red? Lost it. Carla rolls right behind us plays for like 5 minutes and upps her stack by like $120bucks so I was like you have my money give it back haha. Stayed at Mandalay till like 5,6am and then headed back to the *Gucci* estate just in time to get clothes and get cleaned up for the track at 8am. Good times for sure and things were so solid where did I go wrong? the room had some drama- Roybal was gonna toss a bike 7 stories but decided to piss in Fowlers helmet instead. Funny but nassssstttttyyyyyy. Haha Sunday everyone who at the bar is draggin a$$. Fresh crashes first round and calls it a day, Roybal only rides the main event and balls up pretty badly, Rob wasnt feeling it and didnt even show up. Haha these goons wanna run up a few hundred at the bar and then not even get to work when it comes time for the riding? haha Drove home good ol I-5 and can you believe all the little boony redneck towns out there? Barstow haha who the hell would end up in that shithole? Be glad im from the YAY AREAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Pics to be posted very soon! Stay tuned

Pics

Finally some pics from AZ. Man my comp and cam have been trippin...Anyway family reunion shots of our section, dance party, Tito Castillo me n my dad, and the family. I stopped by to visit my grandmas grave in my hometown and the amount of people that I knew from highschool that have already passed away is ridiculous to say the least. Some before even 21 years old and thats a real bummer. Lives cut far too short are a reminder to be thankful for every moment you get... Much love.

AZ Represent...

Been a few good days here in Arizona. Weathers beastly hot as usual so 95+ temps arent anything to these guys which makes me laugh because Im such a wuss now haha. Spoiled by that Bay weather for sure. Anyway just wanted to post some pics of some good ol friends from AZ. Tito is the older cat and his son is Mario Castillo. They've known me since I was a lil dude and they have always been really good to both me and my family and just solid dudes. I was psyked to see them both and had to get some pics. Mario just had ACL surgery after it being torn for a good 15-20 years so we talked about that a bit and his dad Tito had some heart surgery last year so health is definitely shining on him for sure. Aight no more rambling the reunion is today and Im psyked to be seeing so many old friends. Been watchin the Disney cup nonstop on the webcast. 150 motos so it was tiny and the usual few guys are their in my class. Woulda been nice to dice it with em but next time around :) Aight 10-4 over n out enjoy the pics yeeeee

So close yet so far...

So Disney Cup is this weekend and Im going to miss it. Maybe just bad luck, or call it what you will but I needed the scores and adding another Disney Cup on the top of the TV sounded really nice. Im pretty bummed I tried hard all day and got some half way answers from some people but I dont trek across the country to Florida and have no solid plan. Damnit. I was close but timing just bit me in the ass :) Im off to AZ for a family reunion though and thats good for me to attend. Ill take pics of course and damnit Disney was mine!

Good Morning!

And what a beautiful morning it is :) Ive never been so happy to recieve a bill in my life. Bars are set to ship in a few days/week and I need to divvy up the cash for them. Typically when I get a bill its nothing nice at all but this is one that I will happily pay and Im really excited. I almost wish I didnt already have both my bikes setup with the sample sets just so Id have an excuse to get new ones LOL Heres a morning shot of my breakfast so if you ever wonder what keeps the motivation thriving and the wheels turning theres the secret right there. Wheaties? Haha that stuff is for jocks... Enjoy the day people. Carpe Diem

Sheeesh

So Im watching sportscenter tonight and I hear that 19 yr. old Alexei Cherepanov a first round draft pick to the New York Rangers hockey team died of a sudden heart attack during a hockey game in Russia. What the hell is going on these days? 19 years old and you just up and die of a heart attack? Granted this kid probably worked harder than most of us ever will to get to where he is physically and his heart might not have been fit for it but to up and die is crazy to say the least. Anyway it puts things in perspective and reinforces my "tomorrow isnt promised theory" and lets me know that you might die tomorrow so you damn well oughta live today. Prayers to that family who Im sure is hurting at the loss of such a great talent and loved one that has been taken from them. Respect.

Worked today and hung out with my uncle Gabe. That fool is pretty rad hes a straight hard working dude that has tons of ambition just like me. We were chatting it up today on the way to dropping me off and he asks when are you starting a bike shop dude? I reply with dont think I havent thought about it man. See alot of people have asked me this question and alot of people have expressed interest in seeing it happen. The Bay is missing a real solid BMX shop and Id love to be the one to deliver it to them but in due time is the best I can say right now. Anyway we get to talking about stuff and I mention all the people I know that never go outside the comfort zone, never take a chance, just do the 9-5 stuff that they are accustomed to and never really push the limits. People- do not be afraid to fail! Try things and learn from experience, just because it hasn't been done doesnt mean it can't be done. Its all out for the taking you just have to be willing to make a grab at it. Lastly I got this email link today about tracking information about websites and stuff like that and I learned that my good ol blog here gets an average of 65.4 views a day :) Pretty awesome huh? Thanks for stopping by kids!

Bump n run?

I thought this was gonna look like a rough move but it was fairly clean actually, watch closely and check how much more I pedal than most the guys I race, whats up with that?

http://www.go211.com/u/2goldenstatenational08/videos/9876

Exodus Fork in the works...

As I have previously stated- when im hurt the only good thing that comes out of it is the Exodus project gets handled with a bit more attention. Sample has been confirmed and is in the process of being built up and shipped to me to see if all is well. Weight should be between 30-33 ounces, expect some small changes with the top cap and itll be fairly similar to 90% of the forks out on the market because it seems everyone has a basic fork out, I just took the time to make sure mine was light enough to actually function. It should be light enough to race on and not feel like a tank and its right in tune with an Odyssey race fork as far weight and thats what I rock on my park bike. Like I said if the sample goes well I may shave an ounce here or there, but details were a must before anything else. Stay tuned as it moves forward! Business cards also arrived so check the pic of that as well :)

Uh Oh...

Spaghetti-O! Yeah I am a little concerned to say the least haha. Life is good though I cant complain.

Uh oh...

So went to work and rode today which was chill. Checked out the new Roosevelt Park and it was pretty good. I aired a vert section and got spit out to flat like some old gum and hit my left knee, yeah the bad one :( Im kinda concerned cuz its all swollen and of course has some pain. Time will tell but I aint psyked about it at all. heres a pic of me snoozing at Lancaster thanks to Tina for the kodak moment!

Lancaster Ca, Race

MUD! Geez louise man saturday was going great until mother nature let it flood on us. I was bummed I mudded to a 4th in the cruiser main after looking good 1st round with the win so I was kinda thinkin 4th was weak. Foot down in every turn just had fun with the amount of mud and snapped a shot of my bike after the 1 lap. haha shitty. Sunday brought sun and luckily for me a win after some last turn kamakazi dives. I was psyked and my mom got a big trophy so alls well. Hung out with the crew this weekend Lisa was rad as always, Tina was my new addition to the cool kid list and I had a good time chattin it up with her shes legit and were pretty much buddies now, Brad crashed our hotel, Rio Frio dipped to Mexico to celebrate coming out of the closet, and Arturo and Mikey Gunz were all kicking back this weekend. I got history with most of them cats so it was chill all weekend good times in good company. I got a pic in the local paper in Lancaster which was cool and I laughed about :) Really awesome trip was cold at times and the rain didnt make it the best but the company was top notch! Thanks to all the crew and lets do it again ASAP.