Dean Hearne and Purple Aki

This is Dean Hearne. He once had a ponytail, for which there is no reasonable excuse and he once won the Urban Games Dirt Jumping Contest, which he informs me, was technically the European Dirt Jumping Championship so that therefore made him the European Dirt jumping Champion. His next major achievement was getting last place, (the wooden spoon) in two consecutive Backyard Jams. He would have attempted what in extreme television terms they call a 'threepeat' but they stopped having those Jams.
Dean is testament to the highs and lows of BMX contest riding. He was at Rampworx in Liverpool for the first time in years with the Animal bikes crew. It was cool catching up with him, laughing, drinking tea and talking about scallies, his new Fairdale single speed bike, his favourite yoga position and his personal fitness trainer and his regime of lunges and exercises which easily brought us onto the subject of Purple Aki.
Dean had never heard of the legend that is Purple Aki. Luckily, Ben Lewis was able to drop some knowledge and confirm the infamous, bogeyman status of Mr Arobieke, a man so feared that a Crown Court Judge described him as the living embodiment of an urban myth, a real live Candyman. If you've never heard of or seen Purple Aki then I urge you to look him up on Wikipedia, You tube, Facebook or Images etc,etc.
I think Dean will be checking out who is watching him next time he is doing lunges just incase he ever hears the words, 'you look like you workout.'

Birkenhead Park. Yani. Wet

Sunday was a wet, wet, wet day. It was also the Birkenhead Park Crit so I went to see Yani race. Chris Boardmans dad was driving the lead car around the course. It was a grim day that was more like a late October day rather than a summer July day. The conditions were sketchy on the standing water surface and there was a big crash taking out about 8 riders which required an ambulance to attend. Yani was at the front of the pack alot and actually pulled the pack around for a few laps before blowing up at the end. Yani is a beast.

Flaming Lips 2

Flaming Lips

I went to see The Flaming Lips play a gig at Jodrell Bank, I'm not a big fan of theirs but figured it would be a very unique gig and using the huge Lovell Telescope as a backdrop projection screen just seemed an amazing idea.
It was a very sunny day which melted into a warm, clear night and Wayne Coyne spoke before the gig about how stoked he was to playing in that location. It was a great show, big space ball, lights, lazers, huge hands, huge balloons and a fucking huge telescope.

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt

Not a good week at the office for some. I'm not a computer nerd so I bet this link hasn't worked, if you got the computer skills to pay the bills then you work it out.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/gallery/2011/jul/11/tourde-france-2011-crashes#/?picture=376709842&index=14

It's way further than a mile. Adequate Swimmers.

A few months ago my friend from work, Sarah, entered us into a swimming race called The Dee Mile, which is abit of a lie since it is over 2000metres long. It takes place in the River Dee at Chester and the finishline is the suspension bridge.
After a few months of training we were ready for the race. That didn't really matter in the end as I messed up our chances of actually making it to the startline. You had to register no later than 6pm, then you had a 30 minute walk to the start which was at 7pm. What with me titting about on our way there we arrived in Chester so late that it meant Sarah had to jump out of my car and run to register us. Our pal, Debbie followed in her car, the only parking spaces we could find was on the main High Street. Next thing you know we're having to get changed into our wetsuits in shop doorways, obviously getting weird looks from shoppers and OAP's on their way to Bingo.
So we are very late now and we are having to run to the startline. As the three of us are running, a lady walking her fawn coloured, pug dog, trips and takes a heavy fall. We can't rush past her, so we go to her assistance. As she's laying on the floor, she lifts her head up and a blonde wig slides off her head onto the floor, were the pug instantly attacked the wig. It was a near perfect colour match, you couldn't tell were the wig started and the dog ended. Debbie wrestled the wig from the dog and as discreetly as you can do such a thing, handed the wig back to the lady, while I helped get her to sit on a bench.
It was a bit of trippy scene and I'm sure the lady was a bit freaked out as to why people were wearing wetsuits. Anyway, we were the last to make it to the startline but we weren't the last out the water. We swam like silky otters.