Wow, another year has rolled by us here in BMX land in the great state of New Jersey. What a year. Lots of freestyle contests by CJS, Crazy Bill, BMX Invasion, Shields, Incline..all great supporters of BMX. Our first AA Pro of the new generation, Phil Delizia. More freestyle pros then we know what to do with in NJ. A Pro-Am Open racing series run by two old school BMXers themselves, Rich Farside and Glen Knapper. NJ once again stepped it up another notch. For such a small state we have one hell of a pool of talent. For 2008 brokenspokes will be covering whatever events it can to support the people supporting BMX and as usual we will be open to suggestions on what to do to make things better and of course, the forums will be there to ask questions, b.s. and have fun.
Before I cap this year though, I want to thank some people.
The state NBL board, Scott (and Scott’s wife Donna, the first lady of NJ BMX, who has to deal with all the responsibilities that come with Scott being Commissioner
), Vinny, Lisa, and Nancy. The believed in us and held the door open as we squeezed in to make changes. It was a little bumpy at times but we got done what needed to get done.
Mike Vanderhoff for stepping up and going in when Chris Vliet (thanks for the pm man, the whole state held their breath when you went down) took that digger earlier in the year. Do not stop coming out bro, we need all the people we can get that have the heart you do.
Al Dimino and his dad, and The Knappers. Eastern PA has always been a huge part of NJ and you guys have brought it all into the new generation in a huge way. Charlie Huber would be stoked.
The Cranmers. All of them. Go buy something at SC, even if it’s just some valve caps. 20 years from now, some guy will be going on about them, like I do about the Gleasons, Warnicke..etc.
Pat Shields, he’s pushing hard up there in Flemington.
Al at CJS. The man is changing BMX with his crew up there near Edison.
Rich Farside. No matter how hard this guy got pushed out of the way he kept elbowing his butt back in to get the job done. The guy hates recognition beyond winning races, so I’m not saying anything more.
Glen Knapper. Raised the bar on BMX racing in NJ, by way of PA.
Lee Matos for stepping up to raise the bar on the NJBMX Inc. website in NJ.
Ant-Dog for stepping up when my girl got insulted heavily. I will never forget that.
Rich Carolan, when the insanity of getting things done began to bog down my brain, he let me spill out my guts for hours at a time. For letting me know what the Carolan Foundation is all about and making me feel like there is still some hope for all this. I still feel Rich will be back in the racing scene, just wait and see.
All the riders and their parents who stop by, look at the pics, put up posts, tell me their thoughts and opinions, all in an attempt to make BMX better in NJ. It’s all BMX to me guys and gals and I wanna know what can be done to make it better, and from what I see now, I know some people who have learned how to use this place.

and finally, my lady,
Christine Blake.
Who stood by me as we built our home, as I was gone almost every weekend covering races, who still told me to “get the job done” even after “the incident”. Who’s gonna let me build a trail around our house so we can do some middle aged BMXin on home turf. Whenever something or someone bitch slaps me into thinking, “is this all worth it?”, she makes me realize that no cause worth fighting for is easy.

I will see you all in 2008, with more coverage, my new SE Ripper (thanks SC), more Szines, more videos, more pics, more ideas, more b.s. and of course…

MORE FUN.
When people ask, “where do you live?”, tell them “NJ, the BMX state”
2008, BMX is taking over.
Brett