Westside BMX
Corner Balcatta Road and Vasto Place
BALCATTA
Tuesday Night 7.00pm
Bunny Lim (h) 9342 1919 (w) 9201 1755
Ok. Orange Grips is back from his overseas GALLIVANTING and Jigme's back from... actually. Jigme never goes anywhere. The important thing is that Jigme's here, and that he's ok. So all these factors considered, it was time to dust off the crotch plate, mouth guard, elbow/wrist/shin pads, wipe down the body armour, don the MTX helmet and wear underpants, because it's TIME FOR ANOTHER SAFARI. We had the directions, scrawled onto the back of a ripped pizza box and we were ready to roll.
Supplies were needed, so we dropped off into a servo to get petrol, elephant gun shells, Just Juice and Shapes. O.G. got some pie or something. But seriously, WHO CARES WHAT O.G. DOES?
The lucky club this time around was Westside BMX in Balcatta. We felt like the Southside team was going to show up any minute with tec-9's and shake us down, but they were too scared. Maybe too busy rebuilding their berms. (see Southside safari entry).
First Impressions
Well, we were impressed from the get go. We saw the sign, and O.G. was already saying "schweeet maate!" and I was grinning. We rounded the corner to a full par cark (yes. I said par cark) and were instantly "wtfercised" when we saw how many BMXers were floating around. The place was chock-a-block full of a mixture of BMX Mums, BMX Kids, BMX Organisers and BMX Safari fans. (A big "Hi" to the people at the gate who grinningly recognised us as the "guys who do that thing on Blake's site". I didn't get your names, but hope to see you there again sometime). Orange Grips was making crude comments about the BMX Mums around the place, to which I was disgusted. Mainly because I was like "Man, these are these kids Mums, and mentioning them in any way would be disrespectful" but he didn't listen. He's a bastard. Truly. I think it's worth a mention that the first person who spoke to us was a kid with a fresh old school shitheap of a bike with reverse pedal brakes, asking us for $1.50 cos he needed a drink. And then, tapping his back rim, asked us if we had any spare rims. Rough neighbourhood I understand!
The track
The track was beautiful. It really was. The surface was awesome, never boggy, never too hard, not a single corrugation in the hizzouse. The jumps were a bit flatter than Cockburn so a little more Safari friendly. And there was a little strip in the middle of the track with the perfect little double, tiny tabletop and a step-up. This double was the exact thing OG and I were looking for. The step-up eluded us for today, but the double was a lot of fun to jump, and we didn't even break our collarbones once! Most stuff on the track was a little too big for us, for now, but the smaller jump in the middle that was away from the main track meant we could still clear something. It was sweet ass honey. Take a gander at some pics.
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The admin and riders
I'll start this with a story that O.G. told me from his recent trip to the land of the rising sun.
He was visiting a local track/park and saw some 13 year old kids clutching their handlebars while
going over jumps screaming 'NINNJAAAA!'. Obviously, this was hilarious and needed to be repeated.
O.G. and I said it I think, once. That's all it took. Someone overheard it and I kept hearing someone
scream 'NINJAAAA' when they were jumping. I also overheard one kid saying "What's a Ninja?" :/
Anyway... After a brief explanation to this kid that, to scream "NINJAAA" over jumps in BMX
was now the coolest thing to do since O.G. stopped wetting his bed, it was all on. Kids yelling
'NINJAAAA' over the jumps made us proud to be Japanese Joke Importers. I wonder if the kids
in Japan will ever know.
So in short.. The riders there were pretty cool. No aggro as such, friendliness all around and copious amounts of kids expounding the gospel of the Ninja. We had a quick yarn with an official type gentleman who was only happy to fill us in on what's going on with the track being opened, why it's not normally open, and how it looks possible that, because of the massive interest, the track could well be opened to the public more often, such as on Weekends/Long Weekends etc. Hey YOU! Write into the local council of Westside BMX and let them know that you'd love for the track to be opened on the weekends, and let your disdain be known for the total asshat cheese-eaters who go in there and smash/steal/graffiti the place. These people are one of the main reasons for these parks not being open all the time! Respect the tracks and we'll have sweet bmx action all year round.
In Conclusion
We have a new winner. This is the Safari's #1 pick as of today. If you ever get the chance to cruise down on an open day, especially in the holiday period, do so. You're damn near guaranteed a good day in the sun if the turnout/atmosphere was similar to todays. Thanks to the guys who were there keeping the track open, the dude on the P.A. telling the busters who were about 10 bikes thick, gathering on the tabletop to move on, and of course, the woman who ran the canteen. Without which, my Sunkist and Python would not have been purchased. Ooh, that's another thing. BMX canteens kick ass! I think the day was made all the better because Orange Grips didn't cause any multi-buster pile ups. And any day unscathed is a good day.
Hey wait a minute! We didn't take the piss out of anyone. Besides O.G. of course... I do remember a kid there, with the most heinously buckled rim I've ever spotto'd. It was amazing. It shook his whole bike as he rode. But I'm not one to take photographs of kids bikes, purely on the basis that their rim is buckled... Or am I? It must be said though, that this kid was busting some speed over jumps, so he totally regains all honor.
