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The Chris Birch Column
written by Chris Birch

[07-11-2008]

Hey Everyone, well I feel its a good time for another update! Its been a MEGA busy 2months for me and Fmx4Ever. I dont think Ive travel so many Kilometers in this past 6/8 weeks. I took the time to draw you a illstration of were Ive been in the world the last few weeks.

Well firstly I think I should start with FMX4Evers 10day tour of the Ukraine. I missed out on this tour last year, due to injury but had heard many good things from the boys!

This year we had 5 RedBull Xfighter Teaser demos in the 10 days that we were there. Last year the guys had very good weather. Unfortunatley for us this year 8 of the 10 days was rain, rain, rain! Two of the shows in Kiev were moved in to a Large hall with just enough height clearest to jump 20meters. We made all our calculations, double checking are measurments to convince our selfs that we were not going to hit the beams across the roof! Now the moment of truth.... The first jump! It was fine, close but fine! The show was a sucess we were out the terencle rain that didnt stop and the crownd that had packed in to the hall were pumped!

With all the rain on this years tour of Ukraine it was all forgotton about come the last location in Odesa. We flew there the day of the event and we had left the rain in Kiev, we now had T- shirt weather!! We were all buzzing looking forward to ride the show. The location was in the middle of the city where a small fair (carnival) was. We had two of our mobiles trucks here side by side to make one huge wide landing ramp so we can jump side by side and sequence our jumps. The tour finished off on a super high. I was told there were over 15000 people crowded in to this square. People were everywhere as far as the eye could see!



Something else that we got up to in our off time in the Ukraine is that we were taken shooting! I got to shoot a sniper rifel, a rifel from WWI and a AK. Areal expeirence!! I, Broecky and Franklin brought our targets back from the gun range to Belgium and now have them up on the wall in my house! Thats all Im going to say on the Ukraine, there loads more but I may as well write a book!!!

The gang from the RedBull Xfighter teasers Ukraine Tour
Directly from the Ukraine me and Franklin then flew directly from Belgium to Alicante, Spain. Then drove with Morgan Carlson to a The Gouveia Winter Jam in Portugal for the weekend. It was areal cool layback event to do. Unfornately I have no pics at this time but we had a super good landing and some really big riding was been thrown down!

From there to Lubtheen Germany. Another cool event, organised by Sven Schreiber. Unfortunately for me on my first jump of the night. Its like I hit the jump in 1st gear and had a big big crash. Luckly I was to walked away with a bloody nose and Mouth and a bit of a heavy knock to my knee. The bike had eaten me back pretty good too but was a bit worse for wear! Like I said it was a big one!

Here's a link on youtube of the the crash it not the best footage but maybe in time ther will be some better coverage!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S19A-L1X6XA


There was no doubt about it that I did take a big knock and was battered later that night after my body had cool down. Ive done something to my Knee but the last few day as I write this it's feeling alot more normal and I think Im ok. The bad things was from this crash directly the next day I and Franklin had to fly 13hours to Ecuador, South America for a two week tour, 4 shows....!

To be continue...

Cheers Birch ... AKA Swampy

www.fmx4ever.com
www.sirswampy.com




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