4/27/2008

Chad got home from China last monday and just left for China today. Last week was a vert demo for NBC's AST Dew Tour in hopes that we can open the event up to a full competition for BMX & skate next year. Beijing is definitely an interesting place with all the new construction going up for the Olympics this year and the sky scrapers being constructed are bizarre. A day of sightseeing at the Great Wall and the Summer Palace. Both places meant a lot of walking and incredible history. The vert demo took a lot of organizing since it was going to include a lot of over/under doubles and triples riding like in the Huck Jam. It worked out well since Chad, Kevin, DMC have done full Huck Jam shows as well as Jamie and Jimmy doing some of the smaller Huck Jam demos. The only one really nervous about doing any of the over/under stuff was Stevie but he got through it just fine. After a few days of practice the show was all laid out and timed right but the demo's got cut short due to time constraints so the Sat demo's were 12 min long and 5 min long. A whole 17 min of demo riding on Sat but they had a 25-30 min scheduled demo on Sun... too bad it rained. So it was about 42 hours of travel for Chad to get to Beijing and back with 17 minutes of riding in the demo... seems a little off but he says it was worth it. I guess so if he's heading back there right now. This time it's to compete in the Asian X Games. Chad won the event last year so lets hope for a repeat performance. If he sends me some photos and updates I'll put them on here this week as the event happens. Hopefully he'll get some time to go ride and shoot the SMP park that was a mile or two away from the competition venue last year.
ps~Chad added some China pics to the photography page too

4/5/2008

Chad just got home from a week long Albe's roadtrip. Tons of stuff went down on the road. There's photos but somehow Chad lost his card reader and one of the CF cards... we'll see what we can find to help out. It was a loosely planned trip around Florida that started in Orlando and ended in Orlando for Chad but the Albe's guys from MI drove down there and back in the bus. I feel for them considering it's about 24 hours one way. The weather, beaches and good times were well worth it I'm sure. Hopefully we'll get some photo's on here soon. For now here is a photo of Dane Wild's leg from the weekend before the FL trip when Chad went to Detroit to whitness the madness of a bad sticker produced about 6 years ago permanently applied to Dane's leg.

1/4/2008

It's been a little while since the last update but really there's not a lot going on so unless you want to read about random nonsense... I'm going to update once or twice per month... maybe more if Chad shoots photos of the guys riding at camp. There were a few christmas parties like the Camp Woodward party based around the kids since Santa made an appearance at the Lodge. Thanks Gary for making this happen.

The really big news from December was Chad being able to visit Stephen Murray for an afternoon. He said it was a humbling experience and showed him how much strength & progress he's been making. Stephen can move his fingers and toes a little bit which is a good sign since the connection is still present for his brain to control the fingers and toes. Lets all hope his Therapy this month gets him moving some more. He's back in Baltimore for some intense and expensive therapy... hint hint... he still needs donations. For the riders that read this, he'll be at the rehab place in Baltimore for 6 weeks so go visit him and his birthday is Jan 8th I believe so if you're around, say hi.

12/4/2007

Hi Everyone! Please go to the following link to check out Tanner
in a "cool winter hat" photo contest. Thanks!!!

http://www.parents.com/app/photocontest/vote.jsp?entryId=2344900003

If the link does not work, just click on the "got the cutest kid" link,and then click on
"vote for your favorite" underneath the CUTE WINTER HAT BABY PHOTO
CONTEST. There is a box that says, "jump to entry id," type in the following
entry id number:
2344900003

Thank you so much! Enjoy looking at the many adorable
kids in their cute winter hats!!

11/22/2007

Dallas, TX held the LG championships and it didn't go as planned. Chad crashed at the end of his first run, landing on his left side with an arm up in the air made direct contact for the flat bottom to get up close and personal with Chads ribs. Oops. Hope you feel better quickly bro. It's Thanksgiving Day, hopefully you are all hanging out with your families, spending time with them around the dining room table giving thanks for all the good things in your life.

There aren't any more comps the rest of the year, at least none that are worth going to so it's time to let the body heal and ride with the boys all winter long. We'll see what the guys work on and learn this winter for the comps next year. The progression has been crazy these last few years, it'll be interesting to see if everyone can keep it up and where the progression will go.

Here are a few photos from the SEMA auto show at the begining of the month.

11/8/2007

Chad is heading to Dallas, Texas for the LG Championships. He's the defending champ from last year hoping to come home with another victory but doesn't seem too concerned with winning since he's still recovering from his collarbone injury. He said he didn't have high expectation in Orlando and ended up winning with a run he says "I went into that run a bit more mellow doing easier tricks and it felt good to me, it felt smooth so I changed things up mid run and went for the hard tricks". Maybe it'll work out like that again, you just never know with the level of riding at these comps anymore. There are so many different guys that can win on any given day, any little mistake could set you back a few places in the standings. Keep an eye out for the TV broadcast in the next few weeks since I don't believe this is aired live. I'm sure the standings and possible video clips will be up on Vital as soon as the event is done. Should be a good time with a stacked event that has some Kanye and Ludacris showing up for some evening entertainment.

10/31/2007

Chad is on an airplane on his way to Vegas right now for the SEMA auto show. Thanks to Kicker for organizing the Big Air Bash party at the Hard Rock Hotel and bringing out the athletes. There are usually a few moto demos, possible wakeboarding demo as well. Chad has still not seen his truck since it was painted with primer in a warehouse about a year ago. Now it's finished and the guys won't send pictures, it's supposed to be a surprise for his arrival to Vegas. I did get my hands on a picture of the new Bonspeed wheels going to the four corners of the '95 Chevy.

This is what the Chevy used to look like and then the hit & run happened. It then got primered and has since them changed a lot. Paint, wheels, interior, steering wheel, Kicker system, front end & grill. It's not going to look like the same truck. It's now solid blue, we're still not sure what shade of blue but it's one solid color so it's a little less wild mini truck style and more simplified. A lot of people helped make this project happen and their help is much appreciated.

Chad has his point and shot camera with him but forgot the card reader to download the photos during this trip so we're going to be stuck with some images from his phone. Chad was working with a friend on automotive shooting techniques so when the Truck makes it back to PA he said he wants to shoot it like a feature truck. Testing out his automotive photo skills. That's going to be the next update for the photography section on this site. Hopefully he has time to shoot the images and write it up with all the travel happening in the next few weeks.

Tanner is almost 9 months old and growing really quickly. Here he is in the hotel pool while in Florida for the Dew Tour.

10/30/2007

The Halloween party at Keith's house went down the other night and it was pretty good as usual. There was a Mike Spinner outfit, a Bananas, Jesus, the Devil, some good angels and bad angels... we had a good variety of costumes. I've got a few photos to post.



A lot has happened in the last few weeks. Chad went to Berlin, Germany to get a vert comp under his belt before heading to Florida for the Dew Tour final stop. He said Germany went well, he had a good time and it wasn't stressful at all. There was a new competition format of head to head battling all the way to the final two where Chad met up with Simon Tabron and got second place. Tabron threw down like we all know he can do with consistent 900's, smooth 540 variations and a full run of half pipe shredding. Chad said he did a handful of tricks for the first time at that event and felt comfortable enough that he said he was ready for Florida.

Florida Dew Tour went well, you probably know that since vert finals were aired on USA the night everything went down. In the end Chad walked away with a bowl of oranges and a tall first place trophy. It's a bit comical how Chad won the tie breaker with Jamie, the tie breaker takes the score from their other run... the two worst runs in the entire comp. Jamie fell on his first wall with a broken crank arm so he got an 80 and Chad fell on his third or fourth wall and got an 81. Weird how the first place spot was determined by the two worst scores in the comp that night. Chad's pretty stoked that he won his first Dew Tour, he's also stoked that he feels well enough to ride after the shattered collarbone. Well done Chad.

The Kagy's and Wessel's also drove to Virginia for the Nyquist wedding. Short ceremony with a long party with lots of action. It was an event not to be missed and Chad said he was stoked to be part of the event. Ryan and Ali had a great time that day and looked amazing.

Tanner is growing super fast. It's amazing how big this kid is getting. Chad and Tiff couldn't be happier with their little man. He's even trying to rival his daddy's shoe collection.He's also got enough hair to style it, I say the Kagy's give this kid some dreads when they can... ha ha.

10/2/2007

Yeah, we're slacking on the updates... we know. Chad has started riding and seems to feel like the collarbone is healing up nicely. I've heard he's already comfortable enough on vert that he's 10 or 11 feet out, not bad for a guy that hasn't ridden in 2 months. That's what he says is "keeping it mellow and basic for a while". He just spent a whole day in San Diego shooting in the DC studio for upcoming ads, catalogue's and web. That's a lot of flying for a single day but he said it was really productive in multiple ways. The new line of DC shoes and clothing looks amazing and the holiday stuff should ship in the next couple weeks... keep your eye out for it cuz it's looking good. Mirra was at the shoot with Chad and talked about how busy he's been with the new company, interbike & the comps. Must be nuts running your own company while still competing and having a growing family at home. Good Job Dave. Now that Chad can ride he's booked a few trips coming up that make October and November really busy. Germany on the 10th, Dew Tour the following weekend, SEMA auto show in Vegas on Halloween, LG in Dallas after that. Chad said he plans to go have fun at these events and ride the best he can as he re-learns all his tricks again.
Chad has been shooting some cool photos over these last 2 months with all the down time healing. He may post a few on here soon so check the photo page in the next few weeks.

8/6/2007

X Games didn't produce the hardware we were expecting, rather than coming home with medals... Chad got screwed!
Friday the 3rd Chad got another surgery to put his collar bone back together since it was in a lot of pieces and very painful. That is 7 new screws making a total of 13 in his body for now, until the new 7 get removed some time next year.


Now that X Games is behind us and all the highlight reels are showing all the tricks and crashes, we can all start thinking about regular life. For Chad it's a life of healing at home with the family until he can ride again. This injury is going to take him out of the Dew Tour in Portland, Oregon but he should be back on the bike for SLC, Utah. He might not be riding at 100% but he'll be there doing the best he can and collecting a few more points toward the year end title. Unless some miracle happens Chad is out of the running for the number one spot to grab a Dew Cup. This is a shot of the X Games vert ramp, it was fast, smooth and well built so it sucks Chad didn't get to compete on it. The skaters designed the ramp this year and the bigger sections were fun to play around on, the guys didn't seem to be able to carry enough speed to really use it during competition. Seems like it's more of a "mind numbing tube" than last years ramp but guys made the best of it, Chad mentioned that the ramp felt great. He's hoping Nate gets to build the ramp next year so he can finaly compete on a WesselBuilt vert ramp.

8/1/2007 broken!!!!!

After winning the majority of the Soul Bowl last weekend Chad was getting ready for X games mega ramp and crashed. His left collar bone is broken in 2 spots so he can't compete this year. He's seeing another doctor soon about possibly installing a plate to secure the pieces of bone.