Things are going good out here in Cali,Have been riding Loads of BMX. Rach is back into things and riding like nothing ever happened.good to see. Danny Mach came out for a few weeks,he is a good guy to have around,super easy to get along with. Cone Head was out here for three weeks,felt like we were staying in an army training camp. Been hitting up mini road trips with the other BMX guys in Newport,Cristian Becerine,Javier Colombo,David Graph and our crew. Clay has been flat out Filming,we rode with Mikey Day at Simi Valley,good to ride with someone who can out manuel me…! We got another few weeks out here and the weather is getting better now,Should be hooking up with Kye Forte for some dirt jumps action..keep it here….

Christmas was the last chance to get the digger in and build some new lines ready for summer.

The trails are looking dialled,Everyone who dropped by said the  place looks like The Nike 6.0 adverts.

So damn excited to ride them in the summer.

When Red Bull told us about the possibility of a street race in a favela in Rhio de janero it sounded like madness, Everyone knows the reputation of the Rhio Favelas,not the sort of places you go alone.

However,what ever thoughts i had of 9mm’s and H+K Mp5’s were soon stubbed out by the feeling and reception we got when we entered the Santa Marta Favela.

As we rolled up in the truck,there where so many local people there just hanging around,helping where they could and so so excited and stoked to have something going down in there home.The first impression i had was that it was a crazy mess and so dirty,but then when you start to look closely and go into the houses you see how much pride they have in what they have,it is a mess but there is no money there,if you took money away from anywhere it would become a shit hole,but they work hard to make what they have count.

After a crazy day of practise on the course,dodging dogs,chickens and people,me and Gee went with a local guy to have food in his house,there was so many people there and the guy did not actually know how many kids he had.Huge pots of food were being cooked on just an open fire in the middle of the kitchen with no chimney,the smoke just went into the room and out the window. As we were standing there talking a woman came in from outside and handed me a baby,i thought she wanted to take a picture but she just walked off,i held it for so long before starting to think that she was not coming back for it.In the end i had to just hand it to another older kid and hope for the best!

Being there at that race and that house i really felt proud to be doing what we do.To be able to take something into there home and give them so much excitement,without them having to spend any money or travel anywhere,there are not many sports that can access people like that.Red Bull did an outstanding job with this race and Everyone was very impressed.

Saturday night was X-Fighters night in London,After a hectic shopping session around Harrods we left the Red Bull Hotel with the other athletes and headed to Battersea power station,The site of the 2009 Red Bull X-Fighters final. It was amazing to see the work that had been put in from the 17,000 spectaters to the Shipping container village that was the VIP area,stacked with Athletes from every disciplin it was rad to catch up with guys we know like the Forte Brothers,Baz Keep,John Tayler. I also met my Long time Hero David Knight and his Girlfriend Tarah Gieger,100m Sprinter Jason Gardener and from a distance the Football legend Didier Drogba.

Thanks a lot to Robbie Henderson from Red Bull for putting on a show and looking after us.

Two things that stood out for me,The massive cranes that held the lights,next time we shoot a night section with Clay,these will make life much easier. And the after party,where everyone was drinking alot but nobody was very drunk….?

Day two at the jumps and they are looking rad, Me and Powy have been tag teaming the digger.I work for a few hours then go home and hit the gym while He makes as big a mess as possible,Ready for me to clean up when i get back.Could not have done it without you tho mate.Cheers.

Most of the dirt is in place now,just need the crew to get down there and get shaping.The digger has had a rough few days but its all coming together now.

So with my shoulder down it was time to get the digger out and build some fresh lines at the trails.Its been a hard week,up at 6.00 on the digger and then taking breaks to hit the gym and drive to Manchester for physio.I thought having a bust shoulder would be an excuse to just stay in bed and watch Lord Of The Rings,But apparently not.

The Jumps are looking amazing,Cheers to everyone for helping out.

This is the moment it all went wrong,Bromont 4X track was one off the best tracks of 09,After a year of settleing in the coarse was dialled.

My Coach Darren Roberts had come out to this race,along with Pro Golfer Paul Casey,after making the decision not to race Downhill,i was feeling strong for 4X.I had my warm up down and i won all my rounds leading into the final.However,my gates had been low end all night and come final i choose to go in lane 4 with the thoughts of swooping wide and cutting under everyone,However,when the gate droped i had a good gate,i landed backside manual on the first jump and was pretty much level with Prokop,as i went to move over on the last jump,he had the same idea and we all ended up wrapped on the floor.

After loads of tests and scans,nothing is broken and i am working closely with Phill Burt and Darrren to get back up to speed for the world champs.

However with all this time on my hands,i am getting bored,so i have got a mini digger arriving any moment to build some new jumps in a local wood.I will do some daily updates on progress so keep it here.

Andorra world cup,Day one,three runs into practise,I clip my pedal on a rock and get pitched over the bars of a drop and land on the ugliest rock i have ever seen,Game over.I was fairly sure something was nackered but tryed to ride down,mainly to escape the eager pramedic who would not listen to me that the lump on my collerbone was the old break and was all ready with the morphine and ambulance ride to hospital.After getting a safe distance away Gee pulled me over and gave my bike to a photographer to walk down with.Cheers to that Dude.

I made it back to the pits and after the fastest hospital session ever (Thanks to Cedrics Girl Nuria for hooking that up) they told me nothing was broken and i needed to have a scan to see what the ligement damage was.Not what i wanted to hear.A break is simple,lazer,rest,done but now i have know idea….

Today we hooked up with Dakar Rally winner Cyril Despres,The original plan was to just get some lifestyle shots with Cyril and check out his set up.

However things got a little more intense,we arrived in the pouring rain and went straight down to his work shop to check out his Rally bikes wich vary from The 650 Bike we were going to ride that day to the smaller 250f and 300xc to the Bigger 700 Dakar Bike,It was nuts to see just how big those bikes are they ride.

After checking everything out we kitted up and got the bikes out,it was real welsh Enduro weather,the type of conditions that only Steve Irland gets when ever he puts on a Wirral Offroad,We have spent our fair share of time on Enduro rides in the pissing rain so we were itching to get out and stuck in a bog.

We headed up the mountain with Clay Filming for the ATHERTON PROJECT in the Polaris Buggy,The river you see behind Rach was the first task,Cyril Barreled in there and went up it like it was nothing,It was rad to get just a few basic tips, We ride alot of Moto but to get advice from someone so rad reminded me of how fast you learn when you first start a sport.

www.cyrildespres.com

Thanks alot to Alex and Cyril for letting us cane the bikes,Cyril is opening the World Cup in Andorra,Best of luck Mate.

We Trucked from Llangynog to the second round of the World cup 4x in Houfalize,then hit the road again to Le Breese…..

Top of the mountain pass before droping down into Andorra,There is so much snow around and more forcast for the Weekend of the race,

The view from the pass on the way up to Font-Romeu,after riding Montpellier BMX track we drove up through the cloud into clear Blue skys.

Stevie knows a Leprechaun when he sees one,However,He is not sure about this one.