Jared Eberwein: 10 days in the desert.
“I recently just got done with a ten day run of shows at a fair in Lancaster, CA. It was with my good friend Dustin McCarty and for him as well through his own show company McCarty BMX Show. I also had the pleasure of getting my young friend and recently new teammate added to FreeAgent this year, Seth Riley. He’s 17 years old and this was his first time ever doing shows, kinda similar to the route I went when I was young. Mike Saavedra set me up with doing my first show, which I’m always stoked and grateful for. We show up to the fairground to setup the first day, and we had a two day heads up that our area was going to be on packed dirt. It’s loose gravel when we actually see it, so it definitely turned out to be a horrible surface to have to deal with and ride on. Shoveling and grooming our runways almost between ever show. Had to get plywood as well to help us maintain our speed to hit the ramp. Couple times the ground got the best of us, but for the most part stayed safe. Sometimes felt like a joke just simply turning around in the sketchy loose gravel dirt, then on the other hand I ended up airing the quarter pipe some of the highest air I think I’ve ever done on it. I felt bad for Seth, this being his first time doing show ever, and he had to do it on this ground surface. Oh, and it was extremely exhausting as well, pedaling back and fourth through that surface. Not the entire time, but enough to really just take the breath right out of you for sure. Seth got use to the ramp and comfortable right away, the first day. It was pretty much smooth sailing after that, but on the other hand it was windy EVERY SINGLE DAY! We pretty much got accustom to the wind halfway through the fair. We were doing three shows a day expect on the weekends we had four, 6,7:30,9,10. Didn’t really think much about it being hot, so I think it was bearable, but the last two days got really hot. Then I looked at the weather for the following week back home in Riverside, and we’ve had a gnarly past week so far, 111,108,107,109, etc. Its been a hot one out here in local, but simmering down. To say the least, we were all out there on our bikes, for our bikes, because of our bikes. So no matter the situation, I will always continue to be forever grateful to always be on my bike!”
-Jared Eberwein
