Jason Morris

Code slinger at leastmost and bmxfeed. Ramp building and lip trick enthusiast.

Posts from Jason:

Shelter Session

Joel Barnett, Mario Martin-Alciati and Will Bruce put together this quick edit from a trip from Syracuse, NY to Albany, NY to ride the Shelter Skatepark. Check it out!

D.I.Y. – Marc Seemann

We asked Least Most viewers to send in photos of things that they’ve built that they’re proud of. Here’s a photo that Marc Seemann sent over of an awesome rig he built:

From Marc:
It’s got a ton of mods but my favorite is the custom header I made for the expansion chamber with a stick welder in my basement. It was good for 40 mph until the bottom end cracked!

If you’ve built something awesome, we’d love to see it. Send us a photo via facebook, twitter or email info at leastmost.com.

Gianluca Marrone tweaked

Our friends over at Calle Marconi distro in Italy sent over a few pics of Gianluca Marrone twisting the hell out of a couple of moves…

Ghetto Mansion

Words by Aaron Gates, photos courtesy of Jason Vawter

Every scene has a BMX house or two. If you haven’t lived in one, you’ve probably rode a sketchy ramp at one or crashed at one during a road trip. The Ghetto Mansion is a BMX house in Burnaby, which is one town over from Vancouver. At any given time it houses at least three riders, but it seems like there are always people coming and going.

ghetto living room

The name Ghetto Mansion describes the house quite well. It’s a huge house in Burnaby, one of two in the middle of an industrial area. When your neighbors are auto shops and gas stations, keeping up appearances isn’t that important, so the place is a mess. Walk in and you’ll immediately notice a bunch of makeshift locks on the door, some broken and some still functioning. Some of the walls are tagged and there is the occasional hole that hasn’t been repaired. The house has everything that a BMX house needs. They have a giant stack of classic VHS videos (including a copy of Nowhere Fast), enough room in the basement for bunnyhop sessions, and a revolving cast of awesome riders.

The residents of Ghetto Mansion seem to have their routine down pretty well. They all go to work- welding, machining and things like that. They’ll come home, make a cheese whiz sandwich or breakfast for dinner, and then pack a car full of bikes and pick a place to pedal around. They always ride together, and they’re always out riding. Most of these guys are transplants from the Okanagan Valley, which is a few hours inland from Vancouver. Ryan Hiebert was the first to move; Mat Ridgeway and Kurt Murseli headed out there when Ryan finished school and got a job. There’s this dude Travis who lives there but doesn’t ride, and keeping track of everyone else is a bit of a task.

Even a brief stay at the mansion is memorable. The guys that live there have the admirable quality of focusing on a few simple things, and they’re not too worried about anything else.

Kurt Murseli

Mat Ridgeway

Kurt Murseli

Ryan Hiebert

Kurt Murseli

Ryan Hiebert

Mat Ridgeway

Mat Ridgeway

Mat Ridgeway

Ryan Hiebert and Mat Ridgeway

Kurt Murseli

mansion food of choice

Mat Ridgeway

Mat Ridgeway

Ryan Hiebert

Ryan Hiebert

Barrett Von Wolfgang, Luke Santucci and Ryan Hiebert

Kurt Murseli

Kurt Murseli

Ryan Hiebert

T-1 in Colorado

Joe Rich produced this edit from a T-1 journey to Colorado, featuring Danny Hickerson, Joseph Frans, and Tom Dugan. Awesome doesn’t do it justice. Watch it.

What have you built?

We know that you’re all creative folks and we’d like to see some of the awesome stuff you’ve built!

Hit us on on our Facebook page and link up a photo of something you’ve built that you’re psyched on… we’ll pick our three favorites and send them a couple of Props DVDs for the effort.

http://www.facebook.com/leastmost

FBM Limited Edition Anthem Frame

Crandall just posted up some news on the FBM site of a limited edition Anthem Steadfast frame. It’s coming with custom badges/stickers, the Anthem II 2-disc package and a bunch of other awesome stuff. Check out the FBM site for all of the details.

Gimme Shelter

Running an indoor skatepark isn’t easy. If you’ve been riding for a few years you’ve probably seen a fair number of parks come and go. Upstate NY, specifically the Albany area, has its share of street spots but save a few backyard setups, bmx-friendly transition is almost nonexistent. Fortunately, The Shelter Skatepark in Albany started opening its doors to bikes two years ago, making Northeast winters a little easier to handle.

The Shelter – Version 1

In the summer of 2010, The Shelter was faced with the situation of needing to leave the space they had occupied for close to seven years. The options were few. Move into the vacant warehouse space next door, halving the square footage in the process or close the doors for good. In order to keep the park alive, the existing ramps would have to be broken down and moved. The available warehouse space would need heavy demolition and remodeling before building with existing ramps, a four digit budget in a very short window of time.

At this point you have a choice, take on this very difficult task or let it be and return to the 3-4 hour weekend trips to the closest skatepark. If you’re truly passionate about something, a scenario like this doesn’t look like much of a choice. The only option is to form a plan, pool all available resources and give it all you have.

Demolition of the old park

A bunch of bmxers and a handful of skateboarders proceeded to spend two months putting in long days, late nights and vacation time busting their asses. Lack of electricity, materials and time made the process difficult, but everyone persevered. End result was a fun park to ride all winter long.

Build process

October 22, 2010 the Shelter re-opened its doors.

Trevor Ashworth (right) toothpicking and inspecting the masonite he pre-drilled

There were kids who sat on their bikes complaining that the park wasn’t triple the size with a bowl and full street plaza. There were guys fresh off of two months of building enjoying the fruits of their labor. Most importantly, there were kids with open mouths and wide eyes watching people ride these ramps in ways they could have never imagined.

If you’ve been riding for any length of time, you know you were once in awe as they were. You know how pivotal that moment can be.

Toby Pettinelli (left) walltapping out of the bank to transition he built