Cali Baby!!!!

Hi all,

Its been a while since my last blog update. honestly been a bit lazy haha.
Well got back from California last week, went out there for two weeks pre season training. We flew into LA on the monday and had to stay there the night because we could only pick up the RV the day after we flew in. Spent the night in a hostel on Venice beach which was sweet, have always wanted to go there. only thing was that dinner which was pizza's for nine of us and a few drinks was £333 damn expensive definitely learnt from that.
the next day we picked up the RV and headed down to San Diego to meet up with Mike Montgomery. Got down there around 3pm found Claremont Skate Park put our bikes together and had our first ride. Met up with Kalin Law. Was an awesome park loads of lines and had good fun even though i dont really like skate park. The park closed at 6pm so we followed Kalin to a supermarket to buy some food and a few beverages then went down to the bay where we spent our first night in the RV. The next day we went back to the skate park for a proper session where Mike turned up and pretty much shut it down. Never seen anyone ride a park like that on a MTB was awesome to watch. My 898 rode really well I was still ironing out the little issues with a new bike. My shoulder was still playing up so could not have a heavy sesh. Spent another night down at the bay, Jack in The Box for dinner and just chilled out. The next day we went and rented some surf boards and had a good little surf. We were all a bit scard when the woman who gave us the Boards said that the Life Guard tower had spotted a Shark in the bay, but we went out any way. Caught a few waves was super fun. Could not go to Cali and not surf. After the surfing we drove to The Compound in Perris near Riverside further in land. Rode some epic trails which were flood lit. rode there till 10pm and I could hardly hold the bars so I called it a night. We spent the night in a Wal-Mart car park which was handy because they are open 24 hours and had a Mcdonalds so Breakfast was sorted, Coffee and Pancakes. We then made our way to Woodward took us around 5 hours, It was a long drive. we arrived in the early evening, signed in and had a walk around. Man that place is amazing a little smaller than i thought but still sick. We met Benny Korthaus and Mislav Mironovic who had been there for a week training. we had a ride that evening on the street course. Blake and I did a little filming, Then we went up to the Lodge for the night. Next day and it was heavy Training day, spent all day riding the foam pit learning new tricks, got a few new bangers in the bag. Tyler McCaul, Andrew Taylor and Greg Watts also turned up and we had a sick time sending stuff into the foam. Went out for dinner that night to a Sports bar in Town. had huge burgers and bigger beers it got a bit messy but so much fun. The next day everyone was a little tired from the night before. we had one last half day ride where we finished off filming and then packed up the RV and headed for Aptos.
That was a very very long drive took us around 9 hours to get there. finally made it pulled into a Starbucks in Aptos and then witnessed a woman get arrested and start singing, crying, laughing and making some wired noises all at the same time. made for so good entertainment. We finally got to sleep and the next day we pulled into the Post Office trails and met up with Tyler. built the bikes up and had a ride. the rest of the locals turned up and we helped out and built a landing. Then out of the blue Ryan Nyquist turned up which was amazing. We had a chat and decided to go ride the Aptos step up. got there and it was very run down, we tried to ride it but it was messed so we left there and rode Foggle's step up which was sick. landed my first super flip and watching Ryan ride was crazy the tricks he was pulling over it was insane. The Pilgrem steped up and pulled the worlds first Windshield wiper on a MTB and Lane Mcdermot did a double flip. the step up was the best thing we rode the whole trip. after having a blast in Aptos and seeing Santa Cruz we headed back down to LA and checked out Malibu, spoke to a guy who new Charlie Sheen and his dad. had a day in Hollywood and a night out saw some amazing cars. Then headed back down to San Diego rode Claremont Skate park again had a bbq at Mike's and a house party at Kalin's then spent the rest of the night on the beach at the bay. Then it was our last day and we headed back to the Compound to ride the jumps in day light. arrived there and saw Nasty riding and a whole load of pro bmxer's was a super fun day riding and chilling in the sun. that night we drove back to LA and monday we dropped off the RV and went to the airport to fly home. 10 hour flights are the worst thing. being stuck in a cigar tube not able to leave or sleep is crap.

The trip was awesome and i definitely want to go back soon. Ill try put up some vid's and pic's soon.

Cheers for now..