Another week down, another major contest down, and finally a week off!! I just got done riding the LG action sports contest in Pomona, Ca this weekend. LG is always my favorite contest of the year because the course's have always been super technical, something that helps my riding ability and hurts all the rookie kids that don't know how to ride very well. This years course was pretty damn hard, but very fun. It had lots of options, and dirt jumps which are always more fun and challenging compared to the standard competition ramp. It was also a format very similar to X games which was head to head. I like head to head because you can go up against anyone and have a chance. You're not giving guys 2 runs to sort out everything, you get one chance to ride your best or else you're out! A lot of the guys complain about it, but I think the complaints come from the guys who doubt their ability and need two tries to get the business done. When the brackets came out, of course I was paired up with my best friend and travel mate for the weekend, Dustin Miller. Alls we could do is laugh about it and make little bets with one another. One bet was whoever won had to buy Del Taco on the way home, so in a way I didn't want to beat him, because I didn't want to fork out the whole 5 bucks that Del Taco would cost!! (Joking!!) Dustin actually made it really easy on me and messed up a couple tricks in his run, which I was bummed about. He's been on the comeback trail as of late and to be honest I really wanted him to ride good and show everyone in the industry that he can still compete with the best of them. I put in a decent run, kind of played it safe since Dustin messed up. It worked to my advantage and I moved on to the next round against.......my other good buddy Adam Jones!! Haha go figure! I knew pretty much from the get go that Adam had me covered, but I still went out and gave it a 100% because if I could move on I would have been no worse than 3rd, which I really wanted!! To no surprise though Adam got me and I was done for the night. I quickly loaded up, finished up some TV work with Fuel and was on the road back to Reno at 11:30 P.M. I had to be back in time for football today!! On the drive back me and my mechanic and Dustin got to talking about what our sport had come too. I kind of feel distant from a lot of the riders because they are so competitive they tend to look at you as someone in their way to making it to the top, not a friend anymore. I hate that more than anything. I'm the guy who has always just enjoyed doing what I do. I like going to the contests and seeing everyone and riding with everyone, but now that vibe isn't there. Everyone is constantly bitching about how bad they got judged and thinking they should have won or been top three, and if you luck out and beat them like I usually do they take it personal and seem to be upset at me or anyone else that beat them. It's not our fault, we all go out and give it a 100% but at the end of the day it's 5 judges opinions, whatever their word is, I don't think it's fair to be upset with a rider/friend because he got the better end of the deal. It just bothers me to the point where I don't even like being around anyone at the contests, I don't need to hear everyone talk bad about everyone. This weekend I parked by out by myself and hung out with people that were fun and it kept me a lot less stressed and aggravated. That's just my take on it, but it for sure seems like in the last couple years this sport has taken a turn in the wrong direction, we are too small of a group to be like this.....