The first time John Beck attempted to race a BMX bike as a child, things didn’t go so well.
“When I was 10 years old my mother took me out to a BMX track in Houston, Texas, where I grew up,” Beck began. “My very first race I went over the handle bars and busted out my front tooth.
“So, she realized that sport was going to be a little too expensive. She ended up giving me a basketball and said, ‘Here, you’re tall. This will work out better for you and will be a lot cheaper, too.’”
Thirty one years later, Beck is giving BMX racing another try – thanks to … More
Field Notes explores Honolulu’s vibrant and varied scenes and subcultures. This month: the Sandbox BMX races.
WHAT IT IS
A gathering of bicycle motocross riders and their supporters (moms, dads, aunties, uncles, etc.) at an off-roading area on Sand Island known as the Sandbox. They use a winding, wavy dirt track, which they painstakingly built and diligently maintain, under an agreement with the state, which owns the land. Practice days are Mondays and Wednesdays, and races are held Saturdays, throughout the year.
THE TRACK
Volunteers donated or scrounged virtually everything that went into making the track, from the … More
Papendal, Netherlands (June 15, 2013) — At the third stop of the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup, Connor Fields (Henderson, Nev./Chase BMX) won his second consecutive world cup superfinal time trial on Saturday after posting the fastest time around the supercross track in Papendal, Netherlands. In the elite women’s race Alise Post (Saint Cloud, Minn./Redline Bicycles) finished second to 2012 Olympic supercross gold medalist Mariana Pajon of Colombia.
Fields, who qualified in second after his first run, posted a time of 38.064 in the superfinal to secure the victory, just under two tenths of a second ahead of runner-up Jelle van Gorkom (NED).
The BMX Hall of Fame will induct five members at a ceremony September 28 at the Olympic Training Center. This year’s inductees are in the categories of Pioneer Racer, Racer, Industry, Freestyler and Woman.
The inductees were chosen from among a record number of nominations and voted on by nearly 500 members of the BMX industry and current Hall inductees.