Braeden Barnard put together this awesome edit of Dylan King doing what he does best, riding and building trails. Like Braeden says “Hard work pays off with such amazing trails to ride“. There’s very few things that feel better than flowing through some trails. Come spring, go dig!
As the Embassy gets older, I often look back on it’s earliest stages. We originally had the idea of having an Embassy intro for every edit we put out so that word of our site could spread. The idea was to switch up the intro every few months to keep things fresh, but we kept getting so much positive feedback on the original intro that it stuck around alot longer than originally planned. I do feel that it’s run it’s course/ it’s time to switch it up though, what do you think?
I’ve always been a big fan of Mos Def so when we agreed on the name Northern Embassy, my brain starting thinking of a bunch of possible intro ideas but I immediately knew we’d have to use this song. The part we used comes in at 2:39.
Another fun fact about the early stages of the Embassy, that likely very few know about, is that we originally had planned to use the name The Operative, but literally a few days before we planned to launch the site Josh Suhre dropped The Operativ brand. We decided the two names would be much too close and came up with The Northern Embassy. Looking back on it, I’m glad we changed the name.
Here’s a couple original intro’s that Luke Santucci had put together:
Terry Proveda has been telling me about this short documentary he has been working on for a while on Winnipeg flatland veteran Bill Borys. He just finished it and sent it over to me, and after one watch I’d have to say it’s a very compelling and powerful piece on the obsessive nature and sacrifice some people (i.e. bike riders) can make in their lives. Billy has devoted nearly 20 years of his life in the pursuit of flatland, and it has taken him from highs to lows. I’ll leave you with what he wrote and ask you to give it a watch and form your own opinion.
“At only 14 years of age Billy Borys left home and began a quest to become one of the best flatland BMX riders in the world. After a few years of riding, he got sponsored by one of the biggest BMX companies at the time, started entering pro class at competitions, and moved to the states to pursue his dream. ‘Going to X-tremes’ gives a glimpse into Billy’s life; from growing up with nothing to being on top of the world living his dream- and then having everything stripped away from him again. But one thing that will never be lost is his passion for riding. It doesn’t matter to Billy if he has a bed to sleep on or not, all that matters is that he can ride his bike.”
Adam Piatek taking care of business in PoCo. This kid shreds so damn much it’s crazy. So jealous of that last clip.
With the first weekend of March quickly approaching I figured what better time to repost the La Revolution video. La Revolution was the first real BMX contest I ever saw in person and it seriously feels like it went down last year. La Rev set the tone for what would be the amazing Metro Jam era. It’s hard to believe it’s already been over 10 years since.
I remember making the trip to Toronto from Montreal with Eric Trepanier, not knowing much about the contest except that Eric was going up and we had a ride with his parents. The drive up ended up being around 10 hours instead of 5/6, there was a huge car pile up on the 401. When I got to the contest I realized that every single pro that I looked up to at that time was there and shredding. I met my favorite rider, Garrett Byrnes, we met/talked with Jim Cielencki after he pulled something I couldn’t even imagine possible until that weekend, the 180 handplant over the spine. Needless to say the La Revolution weekend was a monumental moment in BMX for me. Although I had already been riding for a few years at that point, there was no chance in hell I would ever be giving it up after seeing so much awesomeness/ good people and good riding 6 hours from where I grew up. I’m sure the same could be said for those who attended Metro Jams in Vancouver and even Street Justice contests in Alberta.
Although it was a contest, there wasn’t a competitive vibe in the air, and you could tell every dude there was having a good time with friends and enjoying the TO nightlife. BMX, and specifically BMX in Canada, needs an event or events like La Revolution/Metro today. With rider numbers at an all time high in Canada, young riders need to see an event like this at least once in their lifetime, in my opinion. Although current Toronto BMX Jams aren’t the same as Metro Jams once we’re, a big thanks goes out to Mike Heaton for putting on Canada’s largest BMX event year after year. If your anywhere around the GTA on March 1st to 3rd get out to the Toronto BMX Jam . Shout out to anyone, any shop or any organization who have held or hold BMX events in Canada!
One of Canada’s finest right here, proving he put in serious work in 2012. A lot of familiar faces in this. Hell yah Bobby!
I had been meaning to post the first trailer (seen above) for Dave Scott’s Open Liquor 3 for the past little while, and then this new one (seen below) edited by Taylor Elvy showed up online today. After having only recently watched Open Liquor 2, and spending some time around Dave Scott, I must advocate that you do the same. His videos can be described the same way you could describe him: a controlled mess, yet acutely on point.
Ian Fleming hooked up this leftover footy edit from their 2012 Nova Scotia BUSINESS DVD, featuring Harrison Forward and Ian Fleming. Lots of good riding and dope spots in this, Harrison killin it. If you haven’t got your copy yet, cop one here, Ed’s got his.
Here’s a new video to start off your week. Jordan Krupa firing it out in Austin and Niagara Falls. Filmed by Charlie Crumlish and edited by Brad Hill. Don’t forget to check out Brad’s Austin photogallery from the other week too.