Events

The AIL Championships were held this past weekend on Saturday November 5th 2011 at Woodward West in Tehachapi California. I have been waiting for this day since the preliminary competition held back in April, so needless to say I was uber excited to attend the event!

The “Italian Bladers Connection” was founded in the early winter months of 2011. When a group of friends was on their way to Winterclash, they figured out they had to do something about the small, but rather strong scene from Italy. They decided to put all Italian blader contests and events under the same banner. Lucas Brandi, Jason Adriani, Nicola Fiorenza, Pietro Firrincieli and Marco Valera shared their ideas which led to the creation of a layout for the championships, which turned out to be a great success.

So, this is it? The 15th and final Showdown at the Hoedown, or at least at the current location. It's been a great ride, and I agree it may be time to move on. I've managed to attend all but the first Hoedown, and every year I am impressed by not only the level of skating, but the level of community this event brings. It might start with the fact that Eisenberg's Skatepark is a family run park and Miss Vicky, Arlo's mom, is in attendance cheering on the skaters with the rest of us. Whatever it is I want to personally thank everyone who has ever been to a Hoedown be it to skate, watch, or just get drunk in the parking lot – we call it tailgating in Texas – it's been a lot of fun.

The 15th Annual Hoedown competition went down this weekend at Eisenbergs Skatepark in Plano, TX, where local hero John Sullivan took the win. Thanks to Jason Reyna, we've got some amazing pictures shot by Randy Edwards for you!

The third weekend of October was a moment many Polish skaters were waiting for. As some of you may know, this year all the biggest skatepark competitions in Poland were linked together to form an official Polish Rolling League. Top skaters were working hard to show up at every stop and place high, so they could gain points for the overall ranking. The main organizer, Green Association, co-operated together with the Polish Federation of Roller Skating, which meant that the winners of the league could be titled as the official Polish Champions in Aggressive In-line Skating. Not to mention the prizes, which were good enough to motivate skaters for their highest performance.

After having a full day of skating yesterday it felt good to get a few extra hours of sleep especially because I knew today we were going to Woodward Beijing, the newest member to the Woodward family. Growing up I never had the chance to visit Woodward, it wasn't until much later in my pro career that I went to Woodward West for the first time. That being said, this morning when I woke up I had the kid on Christmas morning attitude and after doing a bit of exploring around my hotel and grabbing coffee, Franky Zhang picked me up at 12pm. Beijing is huge and even though I'm staying in Beijing we still had to drive two hours to get to Woodward Beijing.

My third day in China started off bright and early. At 8am the phone rang and I heard Frankys voice telling me, "Brian I'm in the lobby, time to go get pants". I did need new pants due to ripping a pair the previous day but I was a little confused by the time that he had chose to go shopping, but hey, when in Beijing!

Waking up periodically through the first night, Thursday morning couldn't come soon enough! My day started when Asian team rider, Franky Zhang, picked me up around 11am and took me to one of his favorite places to eat in Beijing which strangely enough was Indian food. After a nice lunch we headed to the press conference that was being held for the CX games which included all the organizers of the event as well as two pro BMXers.

Brian Aragon arrived into Beijing airport at 3pm, today. Franky Zhang and the CX-Games staff swept in and picked him up. Before he even had a chance to take a breath, Brian was swarmed by the Chinese media. After some interviews Brian and Franky headed to their hotel to rest and chill out before starting their responsibilities for the event. Tomorrow, Brian will attend the news conference taking place before the start of the Beijing CX-Games. Check back tomorrow for more updates.