This week was Next Level’s first birthday! I’m also finally done with school for the summer and I’m back in Houston for the summer. Everyone at Pearland BMX has the new track almost complete, so once that’s done I’ll be working on all sorts of video projects out there.
If you’ve got video of the USA Jr./Elite National Championship, I’d be stoked if you sent it over to me so I could post it today or tomorrow.
Here’s the top 5 from this week:
Morgan Wade is one of the most talented people to touch a bike ever. At Texas Toast Jam last year, he flipped the most difficult obstacle on the Gauntlet of Death like it was nothing. In this edit, you can see him do some more insane transfers at skate parks and on street.
I post this as I get hyped up for Hangtown this weekend. KTM makes an electric dirt bike and held a demo race to show it off. Arnaud Dubois makes an appearance as does Joel Smets. Joel raced BMX as cross training for when he used to race the MX GP circuit and even owns a track in Belgium. These bikes look like an hour of fun (joke at the expense of their battery life there). Interesting fact is that electric motors have instant torque which means a lot of power all at once.
Shanaze Reade gets some massive pull down the first straight with Mariana Pajon in the 2 spot. Mariana had way more track speed and is almost able to pass by but can’t make it happen. Watch how much she catches up in the second turn alone though.
In the Men’s final, Connor Fields dominates. In the second straight, watch how much more control he has over the doubles than the guy in second. Joris Daudet is on the new carbon GT frame and ends up with a solid third. If you watch closely you’ll notice that he takes a different line through the third straight than everyone else too.
They should seriously let the riders catch their breath before they shove a microphone in their face for an interview though.
Yess has one good looking team! They got the whole crew out for a heavy filming session for one last chance to shred the Abbotsford Indoor before they tore it down. Even with a small, indoor track the team managed to get some good clips. Yess is definitely on point with their video game.
2012 Rookie Pro of the year KJ Romero just dropped his first edit, filmed by Tanner Yeager. There’s plenty of style and of Taco Bell advertising to keep you entertained and get to know KJ. Just watch how perfect those tap manuals are, watch at 2:15 for example. It’s filmed really well, so be sure to watch it in HD.
Ride Más.
Just came across this on Instagram. It’s nice to see Odyssey back in the race word.
My first post was exactly one year ago today. I can’t believe how far the site has come in just a year. The picture above is myself, Shane, Nick, and Emmett on the Spring Break trip.
Around March/April of last year I tried printing a zine. I used the money UTSA gave me to print papers for school and spent it printing out 50 copies or so. In that zine, I wrote an article about BMX in the internet. Well, it was actually more about the lack of BMX racing in the internet.
Once I finally got home for the summer, the first thing I did was start a website to fill the gap that I talked about in the article. I’ve been tracking tags, surfing websites, and following riders on social networks tracking down all the videos I can find. Some weeks get slow when school gets busy, but for the most part I’ve been making a few posts a day for a year now. Lloyd has also been a huge help in creating original content, which is usually put up on Mondays.
I’ve stepped up my social media game recently. You can follow Next Level on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I recently integrated Facebook much better into the site which makes sharing much easier so be sure to like videos that you’re into so all your friends can see them! Commenting is done through Facebook now too. You can also tag #nextlevelbmx on any picture on Instagram and it’ll show up on the right side bar.
So what’s the next level for Next Level? Youtube. It seems a bit ironic that I have a website dedicated to BMX racing videos and I’ve only put out two edits this whole year of running the site. Be on the lookout for more edits and just miscellaneous videos all relating to racing. I’m also going to work on the layout of the site and clean it up a bit. It’s hard to get the time to do this stuff when I’m dealing with a full course load at school.
Anyways, thanks for all the support over the past year! Keep checking the site, sending edits, and leaving comments!
In the last Tylervision you got to see how Tyler and his crew build their track, and now you get to see how things get done at Pearland BMX. After a greedy landlord dispute, the track had to change location and is in the process of rebuilding. The Axtion-Sports Excursion gets put to good use and I’m sure there will be no soft spots in that rhythm now.
@BryceBetts132 sent over this video of the Chico Pro-am which is part of the NorCal Love series. West Side BMX uses quite possibly the most depressing soundtrack ever used in a BMX video, but the racing is still good. I don’t get why those dudes in the second group take each other out when they’re taking four to the main. But then watch how the Tangent rider grabs the dude in front of him to bring him down too. Good move!
Bryce Betts gets the pull all the way around the track, but the Double Cross rider in second manages to power down the last straight and pick up the win.
