It’s been another great year, and Santatucci is back again. Happy holidays from everyone here at Northern Embassy!
The fourth and final issue of Union Press is finally complete and now available. Those that aren’t familiar, Union Press is a Canadian BMX newspaper with photos, profiles, stories, and drawings by Brad Hill and Prashant Gopal (myself). After a few hiccups with printing, we’ve finally finished our latest issue, which will also be the last. We’ve put out four issues in the span of two years, and thousands upon thousands of copies in to the hands of riders all over the country. Putting together a paper of this size and scope is not an easy task, but it’s been an incredible learning process the whole time, and a small way to give back to a community and sport that has motivated and inspired us all these years, and all the publications and independent projects that have come before us. While it’s bittersweet to end a print project, shutting it down will allow us to concentrate more energy on our other projects (this website being one of them).
The issue will begin shipping January 2nd, 2014 and be available for free across Canada in better bike shops and is distributed by Ten Pack. Inside you will find a profile on Greg Henry’s Bridgespot, Mike Fiz’s favourite things in Montreal, a joke column from Greg Flag, and a whole lot more from various contributors such as Charlie Coombs, Zach Rampen, Luke Santucci, Charlie Crumlish, Matt Bosco, Riley McMaster, Trent Barker, and Dave Scott. On top of 4 broadsheets full of great photos and content, you’ll also get four fold out posters on the backside from MacNeil, Eclat, BMX Gallery 4130, and BMXFU.
For those that don’t have a reliable bike shop in close distance, or live outside of Canada, you can also order a copy from our online store, which will also come with one of three limited edition stickers. Check out some more photos from some of the spreads below, and look for copies in your local shop soon.
Shawn Duffield by Sarah Fox.
Shawn Duffield’s name has come up quite a bit lately on this site. We’ve posted videos he’s filmed, random photos shot by him, and he even submitted a great shot for our Fall Photo contest. It was only after more closely examining his work and browsing his Flickr account that I wanted to ask him a few questions and give him a chance to showcase more of his photos. He’s a hard working young talent from the west coast with a refreshing view of BMX and it comes through in his photos and videos. Click below for some more images from Shawn, a quick interview about his photography, and expect to see his name come up more and more with great work like this.
Searching for what to play at your Christmas party this weekend? Your DVD of a burning fire place has become un-funny after about 2 minutes? You can’t go wrong with this classic album from the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Some light jazz to play as background music to whatever party you might be hosting, but once Linus and Lucy kicks in at the 10:45 mark everyone will remember and know what they’re listening to. High recommended listening this weekend and over the holidays. Enjoy.
Here’s a random photo of Jordan Hango blasting a one handed table, shot by Riley McMaster. This photo ran in BOTY‘s Go Getta Zine this past summer. Do yourself a favour and go re-watch Hango’s Fit video from last week.
Yes, this video is not BMX, and it’s not even Canadian, but after I read the accompanying store behind it I had to post it up. Martyn Ashton is the mountain biking legend responsible for Road Bike Party, a Youtube video that went viral in 2012 that showcased rather unbelievable freestyle riding of him on a road bike. Yes, a road bike. No, not the fixed gear freestyle kind that receives eye rolls, but a full on legitimate road bike. I remember when I saw the first one and it didn’t even seem real. ‘How could the bike even hold up to the abuse?’, I thought.
Fast forward to just this week and he released Road Bike Party 2, but in September of this year Martyn suffered a horrible accident while riding that damaged his spine, leaving him paralyzed and reliant on a wheelchair. He forged on with his plan for his video and recruited the help Chris Akrigg and (trials and Youtube star) Danny MacAskill, and it pretty much blows away anything else. The three cover all forms of cycling from road, trials, mountain biking, and freestyle (think backflips, front flips, and a loop), all while riding a high end road bike. Whether Martyn will recover is still unknown, but this video is still an opus of his career and nothing short of amazing. Try and not be entertained by this one. You can read the full article about Martyn Ashton’s story here.
Two flatland posts in the span of a week? Crazy I know, but I spotted this video on flatmattersonline.com and it definitely warranted a post. Eric Otto put together a compilation of all the Canadian riders that showed up the the AM Flat Tuner Evolution contest from earlier this fall in Philadelphia. This video is a solid who’s who of the Canadian flatland contest scene with riding from Jean-William Prevost (DUB), Jason Plourde, Jean-Francois Boulianne (JFB), Prasheel Gopal and Percy Marshall. The video is a bit lengthy, and some of the music might be questionable, but the riding throughout is pretty incredible.
Damn. Chalk up another crazy video this week from the west coast. Jordan Hango pedals full speed at spots all over Vancouver in this one for Fit. Too many wild moves in this to start listing them out. Extra points for the use of an instrumental Beastie Boys track.
I remember riding flatland with Jason Plourde outside of Montreal ages ago when he was a young and extremely hyper active rider. He had so much speed and creativity then, now fast forward probably 10 years, after plenty of time spent doing shows in China and further progressing his own riding style, I can say that this flatland video is amazing. Plenty of rolling decades (rollaids? my terminology is rusty), fast spins and scuff-less links. We may not post a lot of flatland videos, but when we do you know they are going to be good.