Factory Comp 2006

Begin

A couple of years ago I gave The Mrs. a teddy bear because she was having a bad day. Eventually the dogs got ahold of the bear and, basically, its been theirs ever since. The reason I can't have nice things has decided to make the bear his "girlfriend." I decided to make the, what, 10 - 15 hour drive down to Newnan to check out the comp instead of watching a puppy hump a stuffed animal.

For the photogeeks out there, pretty much everything here was shot at 1/200sec and ISO 400 using a Canon Digital Rebel XT with a 70 - 300mm Quantaray lens and a Quantaray by Sunpak flash (Quantaray, the choice for cheap). If I tried to slow the shutter down too much below 1/160 I ended up with an ode to Transworld Skate Mag circa 1987, if I tried to up the ISO enough to get bright shots I ended up with noise upon noise. The flash worked really well, except for the part where it couldn't keep up with my burst. Since I wasn't trying to be out there in front of guys throwing bikes, you get what you get. Also, thank the good Lord for Photoshop. I'm open for advice.

Some of the pictures need a little additional tweakage, but let's be honest you're not here for the pictures, you're here because I make fun of your friends.

Beginner Class

We got there a little late for the beginner class, and so I don't have any pictures. The undisputed ruler of the Beginner class was Mick Malik. In talking to his parents we found that the only real reason that Mick entered the beginner class is because "He just turned 11. But when he gets his tailwhips down, we've told him, he's not a beginner anymore."

You see this kid, with his transferring and his custom powdercoated candy-apple red forks. Yeah, he's the reason I won't enter a contest. I'm 33 years old, meaning when he was born I had already been having to explain to people why I don't drink for a full year. If I entered a contest and got stomped by an 11 year old, you'd find me in the parkinglot sucking on the exhaust pipe of the yuppiemobile.

No, seriously.

When I was his age I was accidentally breaking furniture because I was trying to learn cherrypickers in my grandmama's den (sorry about the lamp, Grandmama) and this kid's learning tailwhips. Oy

I was going to joke about this kid in his full-face and his tiny elbow pads and his chest protector, but The Mrs. makes me dress exactly like this when I ride (especially the tiny elbow pads).

Little kids love air, too.

That's really it for the beginners. I don't have the kid on the Huffy with front suspension doing a framestand, which is sad, because he rocked.