S E E N O E V I L B M X

France, Belgium, Holland.

Well this year started much like last year with a hoiliday at the Pethica's sweet house in france ( 70km west from Bordeaux). The place is a bling island in the middle of rural france. massive fresh water lake down the road for windsurfing ( fucking hard work) and a fun 15km cycle to the sea. nearly killed a french dude at the bottom of a brakeless hill on the first trip. Spent many a jokes evening in the bars, this is year is the 5th year ive been out there, so know some of the locals now. Big shout out to Teri, the only other BMXer in Medoc!?! We ripped the metal park a couple of times. A week later and i was boarding a bus for the city of Bordeaux. Photos. 1- pic of rankin the day before i left, cool graff. 2- scott keeping old mens tricks alive with a glyn stand. 3- Bikes on the hot driveway. 4- The MBK moped, pedal start and sooo much fun. me and the boys ragged the shit out of it, morning breakfast runs to the village, even had a tow rope for a while (well sketch) 5- is this inside or out? fire during a big electrical storm on the last night.

After getting myself a nice hotel ( top floor room, dont know what it is but i always end up with the top floor) went out to find some of the spots me and alex rode last year. it was really bloody hot for all of this week! got a puncture while ride in a jersey barrier playground by the river. some guy doing repairs on the road gave me a pump to keep, which was well sound and about 5 mins later i repaid the favour to some woman with a flat, good deeds eh!! meet a french bmxer called Julien, he stopped to say hello by crashing into me. nice guy and showed me a lot of spots on the map. Eat a lot of fromage avec le baggette, its dirt cheap to buy food like that. also found a pub called the Oxford arms a few roads away from my hotel, good times.
Took a day trip to a town called Cestas, 45mins away on the train, took a few hours to find the park, but well worth it. proper ghetto, loud tunes, sunburn! photos 1- beer googles on the way home from the pub one night, after barfly Henry had bought me a lot of shots of Jd's. 2- Tarmac bowl by the river. WTF? 3- Cestas local, clicked, also had whip air dialed. 4- Pro, sponsered by Adidas, forgotten names, sorry. Pulled a crankflip 360 tap to crankflip out on a 7' spine. so good. 5- Julien told me there was a race track in the north, so spent a relaxed afternoon looking for it. nice people there, ive always wanted to have a go and whoow, racing is fun, but ya need a brake. got laped by a 14 year old kid.

From Bordeaux, got the train to Nantes, which is a really cool city, absolutly massive and a strange mix of old stone and ultra new glass. Marble street park in the middle of the city. Went to a massive indoor park called 'Le Hanger' it had everything, rhythem, bowl, vert, two street areas. really friendly locals, the kids were convinced i was sponsered by etnies ( had a sweat angel t-shirt on) lots of lame french by me and jokes time. if i ever open a park this is the place i would base it on, it was that good! Next it was off to Le mans, home of the 24 hour race. the train went via Angers, which has the biggest most hench castel i have ever seen! not so much street here and lots of wierd costume soildiers in le mans. chilled and did some shopping, good meals. went to Rouen, proberly my favourite city, really nice buildings, empty car park manul pads and live music. also went to a metal midi ramp, just outside the city, proper transitions and french school kids, when they found out my name, they went away and came back with 5 kids and a teacher all called Michael ! took a day trip to the sea side to le Havre, to ride the new concrete park. its sick! so many lines, but you need to go in the morning, cos its shut down with little fashion gimps in the afternoon. good mix of bowls, hips and ledges in quite a small space. photos 1- I took a brake from riding, went outside for a fag and found this guy busting some smooth moves. Flue, rolling backwards to half barflip to  whiplash. 2-  inside le Hanger, insteed to metal sheets to join the ramps to the floor they used rubber, good idea. also had cool paintings on all the walls. 3- Mirror while taking a walk to the top of a hill in le mans. 4- Le Havre park, right on the beach and covered in stylish graff. 5- my spacious room in Rouen. loved this place, made me feel like a king everytime i got back.

Rouen to Lillie, very top north corner of france. cool city with loads of random flatbanks, rode a load of street here, also spent a very chill morning walking about the citadel, huge old fortress, real cool and full of interesting wildlife and joggers! good music in one of the bars here. and then it rained, a lot, went to brussels, but hardly left the hotel, because it was rainng so hard. still gave me time to fuck about with the camra and watch an entire 96 lap champ car race on tv, good stuff. Quick hop to Rotterdam in holland. good tourist info here and i was checked into a 175 person dorm hostel within minutes of getting off the train. this place is proper high tech, everything is spotless clean, and so bike freindly, more cycle tracks than roads! no joke.
big metal skatepark in the middle of the city, beneath tall glass towerblocks. locals here were fucking rippers. nuff different styles and nuff pulled tricks. they took me to some really good street spots and to a village festival at a skatepark, where 10,000 people rollerbladed past on a tour of the city. strange to see. photos 1-  out the hotel window, rain and cars. 2-  Rotterdam box jump.  this dude was 16, and  did 35+  flips in one day. 3-  whip, this guy had some serious hang time. 4-  360 , guy also did seat stand manuls and barspins both ways. 5- one foot x-up. safe gez, " I aint emo!!!" he hate emo kids, haha

Took a day trip to Amsterdam, to ride the bowl. its so simple, but so nice to ride, get a lot of passing tourist stopping to watch. then went off to look for a mini i knew about. met some of the locals here, they all kind of ride similar, but have air tricks wired. wish i had more time here, as they talked about some other good spots around the city. locked my bike and went for food and a koffie, umm well lets just say i had trouble finding my bike again. haha. back in rotterdam, did some last minute shopping, because clothes are cheapo. then met the boys to go ride a bank to steep bank set up. that evening we rode in a giant cereal bowl. its not set flat in the ground, so you go from up hill 10miles an hour to banked down hill 30+ and back again. big drop into a lake most of the way round it as well! went to a vibrant jazz bar, just sort of walked in off the street and had a very enjoyable evening.2 days later i was on a ferry back to good old blighty. stayed with a mate in london for the night, catching up and getting wrecked, deep freeze to the ear and frozen food fight anyone?! photos 1- umm lights and stuff, off the train in A Dam. 2- me 4th lap, on the 3rd ring. coming to the top and dizzy as!!! this was so scary but a real rush. 3- coming into the high speed section, 3rd ring, hold on for dear life!

well ive been back a couple of days now, rested and got back into the Oxford swing.  Travelling is always a good laugh and helps to keep things fresh. it didnt cost much and could have been cheaper if id wanted. Trains in Europe are sorted, easy with a bike and cost nothing! It feels pretty liberating spending time in a place where nobody really speaks english and even more so sleeping in a hostel room with a crew of randomers.
Always go to tourist info when you get to a big city, a street map is a street riders best friend, also they might know where a skatepark is.
Try not to plan a trip to much before you leave, its better to just go with the flow and be flexible.
Take a watch, a small penknife and a simple tool kit. a sheet sleeping bag is also a good idea. put an amount of cash in your main bag just in case and take a phone number for your bank ( my card got a black spot,  left me in a difficult situation and resulted in the call center woman getting an ear full!)
I guess just enjoy in,  oh yeh and dont stress about trying to take picture, sometimes it feels good to leave everything in your room and just go  for a ride!
As always if you want info, or contacts for the places ive been just drop me an email. also ive got 250 more photos so if your that interested let me know
Michael     SNE    MSD