|
Posted by Steve Cox on Friday, November 13, 2009
A couple weeks ago, I sold my 2008 Honda CRF450R to a young man from Camp Pendleton. He and a couple of his friends came to my house and picked it up, and almost two weeks to the day later, which was last Wednesday – Veteran’s Day – I went out to Pala Raceway to ride a bit and hang out with this group of Marines.
 1 David Cho Having grown up with my dad, who was a Marine who served three tours in Vietnam and may be paying the price for his service now (as the cancer he is fighting, according to doctors, is likely from exposure to Agent Orange), I’ve always been a fan of the Marines. They seem to be the proudest and probably ballsiest (is that a word?) group of men and women around, and all of them I know never quite leave the Marine Corps, no matter how long they’ve been a civilian.
So I was proud to make friends with these guys, who were all part of the 1st EOD Company. EOD stands for Explosive Ordinance Disposal. Basically, these are the guys who are tasked with taking out the roadside Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s a special group of people who sign up voluntarily for the Marine Corps during a time of war, and even a more special group that sign up for the kind of duty David Cho did, both for the risk, and for the reason why they do it.
Well, one of the two guys who came along to my house that night was Sergeant David Cho. He’s a huge motocross fan, and he had recently bought a used bike from the Star Racing team and was really into it.
I’d like to give you some background on Dave: He joined the Marine Corps in 2004 because he wanted to help out his country. His friends and family said that he’s the kind of person who constantly seeks out a challenge and figured that, in his pursuit of helping his country and facing a challenge, the Marines fit the bill. His initial job in the Corps was as a Computer Technician, and after being exposed to IEDs in Iraq, instead of just hoping he would never encounter such a thing again, he worked his job until such a time that he could get a transfer into the EOD, where he has served ever since as an EOD Technician. To put it simply, he wanted to be one of the guys everyone else could rely upon to get rid of those bombs that are costing us so many servicemen and women.
Specifically, he is part of a three-man EOD team, and his job is to be the demolition specialist, which means he selects and builds the explosive charges that are required to render safe or dispose of those roadside bombs. It’s not limited just to that, though, as EOD Techs handle everything that is explosively hazardous, which literally includes everything from unexploded military munitions to nuclear devices. Dave has been to Iraq twice now, and coming up this spring, his team will be heading over to Afghanistan.
 1 Well, Dave was out there at Pala – on Veteran’s Day – having a good time until he took a trip over the bars. While we’ve all been there, the unfortunate part of this crash was that he was knocked out for quite some time, and when he came to he couldn’t feel his legs. He has a fractured T5 vertebrae.
The latest on Dave is that he is in ICU and they’re waiting for him to stabilize before they do the necessary surgery on his back. They’re cautiously hopeful that he may recover much or all of his function over time, as the cord itself is not severed, but right now Sgt. David Cho is facing the biggest challenge he has ever had to face.
While the Marines are covering his direct medical costs, there are a lot of ancillary costs that he and his family are going to incur related to such an injury, and for the time being the Marines in his unit have given the following instructions for donation to help out one of our veterans who was so badly injured on Veteran’s Day:
Please send checks to:
David Cho
4613 Mardi Gras St.
Oceanside, CA 92057
He’s a young man who certainly could use the charity right now, and who deserves it more than most of us.
Sometimes, when you’re busy complaining about the weather or the quality of last night’s dinner, it takes something like this to make you realize how fortunate you are to have those things to complain about. After all, if things weren’t so good for you, you certainly wouldn’t take the time to whine about minutia like that.
Here’s a letter from Dave Cho’s longtime buddy Victor.
 1 David Cho and his girlfriend, Cat. Dave does not take crap from anyone. He is a genuine tough guy with a fun personality who is always looking for a challenge. He is determined to excel in everything he pursues, no matter how much pain he is in. If he is given the opportunity to walk again, I am willing to bet my life savings that he will ride again.
Together we have spent a countless number of days looking for a thrill. Together we played on the 10th Marines Football Team and were both starting players! The team went undefeated that year until the championship game, where we suffered our first and only loss. Dave went into and left every game amped, knowing that he gave everything he had on the field.
During the thanksgiving 96-hour holiday of 2006, Dave and I planned a snowboarding trip in Eastern North Carolina. There was supposed to be 10 of us that went on this trip, so I rented a cabin and we were supposed to split the cost. Everyone but Dave bailed at the last minute. He could always be counted on. We only got off the slopes that weekend for two reasons: 1) to sleep, 2) to eat. Even our cabin neighbors commented on how impressed they were with our drive. “You just keep on truckin’,” said one of the younger women of the group. We always pushed each other, at some point during any of these events, one of us always had the urge to quit, but we never said it and never showed it! Also we could never let one of us out perform the other.
The two of us worked on the same schedule. Since we were still fairly you and fresh to the Marine Corps. we took on second jobs at Jacksonville’s Bowling alley. We had to at the time to compensate for the sub-par pay from the Marine Corps and support our love of motorcycles. So, during the day we did our Marine Corps thing, in the afternoon was football practice, and at night was the bowling alley.
Soon after all the long days, we began to get worn out, but we didn’t let a little sleep deprivation get in the way of our goals. Eventually it paid off. We had our street bikes and our dirt bikes and rarely spent a weekend where we didn’t hit the track. As athletically gifted as he is, the guy is accident prone. I must have spent hours laughing at all of the little mishaps he had. Like the time he forgot to put his kickstand down on the R6 while he was sitting on it. He leaned it over and like a falling tree, without trying to brace himself he went down.
 1 Let’s not forget to mention the countless spills he took on the track. He could jump fairly well but he was never too good in the turns. We had a few debates on how he should gradually roll on the throttle in the turns and not just crack it wide open. Neither of us cared at the time, because he just wanted to go fast and I got a chuckle every time he took a spill. All his crashes or mishaps were harmless and entertaining. We always laughed at each other’s misfortunes. It made us realize the funny side of possibly bad things.
This time is different. This time, I’m not laughing. I answered the phone after seeing “Cat”, Dave’s Girlfriend, on the caller ID. Everything seemed normal until I heard, “Hey, Vic, sorry to bother you.” I knew at this instant there was something terribly wrong. Dave is one of my closest friends. Him and Cat could never bother me. That is when I learned what happened. It wasn’t until after six and a half hours of driving for it to become reality. The entire time I had hoped it was a twisted practical joke to get me down there so that we could go riding. My hopes were wrong and I had a hard time dealing with what was in front of me: Dave (Sgt. Cho) lying helpless in a hospital bed. I can’t tell you how gut-wrenching it is to see someone as tough as him with tubes down his throat and potentially paralyzed from the chest down. You can walk around your whole life thinking you are Superman until you see a moment like this. Knowing one of your best friends is in a life-altering state. Knowing that, as you look at his motionless, battered body, that could be you in that position.
Posted by Steve Cox on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Posted by Steve Matthes on Thursday, October 29, 2009
I made it, I’m here in gay Paree otherwise known as Paris, France. This weekend is the annual Bercy Supercross held at the Omni Palacesports. All of us media (uhhh, that would be only me) and the riders are holed up at the Novatel hotel right next door to the arena. The Bercy Supercross is always a good time and this is my first time here since 2001. That year I was working for Nick Wey and we captured third overall on the weekend. I was making sure that many people knew that today but Nick kept telling me to shut up.
 1 The arena is covered in grass and is pretty cool looking. This race as been going on since '84 or something like that. The contingent of American riders is strong but we’re down one soldier as Ezra Lusk didn’t make the expected trip over. Rumors are that he hurt his hand practicing for the race. So without Yogi, it’s still a strong line-up with a guy named James Stewart here, his new teammate Josh “Chicken-Chips” Hill on what looks to be a pretty stock 2010 YZ450, Nick Wey debuting his new Kawasaki ride, Jason Thomas in his second race on the BBMX Suzuki, JGR Yamaha’s Justin Brayton in his debut ride for that team (he’s on a 2009) and H&H’s Matt Boni.
So today the plan was just to arrive and get to the hotel to grab some zzz’s – which I did and felt wonderful upon waking up. I almost had an incident on the plane though with this lady who I wanted to punch.
Look, I know I’m a bigger guy but I still fit in a coach seat just fine; there’s no fat like leaking over the arm-rest or anything like that. So I get into my seat and my shoulder is kind of touching the lady next to me and I can see she’s kind of upset. I was reading the New York Post and halfway through it she tells me that every time I turn the page, I’m hitting her in the shoulder, so I apologize and she says that I have to move over (?!?) to give her more room. I ask her where exactly she would like me to go, keep in mind I’m giving her the armrest as well. So as the plane is taking off, I’m relaxing listening to music and she is literally throwing her shoulder into me like she’s pretending she’s LT and on the ’86 Giants. I just ignore her until she taps me on the shoulder and demands me to move! I ask her where I should go and she points and says, “That way.” I remind her that I’m in a seat, there’s an armrest on my other side and I have nowhere to go. I show her the armrest in between us and remind her that she has room. She goes to get up and asks me to move, I tell her to go the other way and tensions were high at this point. I’m not sure if she wanted me to get a meat cleaver and just start hacking away at my arm so that she should have more room or what.
 1 Nick Wey lines up the stickers just right. He had to put his hat on backwards for this act. Long story short, she goes away for a while and life is bliss. She comes back and after sitting down for about ten minutes says “YOU HAVE TO MOVE OVER!” and I’m a pretty nice guy and all but I took my headphones off, looked her in the eyes and said calmly “There’s nowhere for me to go, this is it. Do not bother me again the rest of the flight.” And put my headphones on.
So the crazy lady never bothered me again.
I met up with Jason Thomas and his mechanic Dan Truman at the airport where we then jumped in a van provided by the promoters to get to the hotel. After checking in I went for a little walk and yep, everything seemed to be the same as the last time I was here. I bought a bear-claw the size of Matt Boni’s head from a pastry shop and went back to the room for some shut-eye.
Went to the stadium and basically watched the mechanics prepare the bikes. Watching Nick Wey put on graphics is always a good time as his OCD kicks in and he has to have his look top-notch. One time when I worked for him he got a new painted helmet and put on the top of the TV in the hotel room and got up to turn it every 10 minutes. This is what I dealt with back then… Anyway, his stickers look good and he has about a day and a half on the Kawasaki.
 1 JT's wrench Truman has help this weekend. The team even brought a whole other bike! Take that everyone else... The Yamaha pits have Stewie, Hill and Brayton in them and there is a little area for James blocked off. I call it “Motel 7.” There are some funky looking chairs in there that I’m going to have to get a photo of tomorrow. Hill’s bike is a 2010 but looks a little haggard and I hear it was a magazine bike last week. I don’t think there are a ton of these bikes out yet!
Just got done with dinner and then a knock on my door produced Wey who wanted to hang out and talk about all his 2010 options. Sounds like there is still some things to be settled with the two-seven.
Look for more action-packed updates tomorrow where I try to get another bear-claw. Practice begins sometime around 10:00 a.m. EST!
Posted by Steve Matthes on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Posted by Steve Cox on Thursday, October 08, 2009
We’re all Americans
Yes, all of us are Americans. Everyone reading this blog, anyway. I know, you’re thinking, “But I was born, raised, and live in England!” Yes, you’re an American, too. You all are.
Of course, I’m not talking about being American strictly from the standpoint of citizenship, but rather from the standpoint of being what many non-Americans attribute to Americans. I’m talking about arrogance, brashness, cockiness... These sorts of things. I’ve been well aware of our country’s reputation for having cocky, stupid people who go around the world proclaiming dominance and carrying themselves little to no humility, but I had an epiphany when I was in Italy last week for the Motocross des Nations, and that is that Americans aren’t any more cocky than any other nation, but perhaps the people in America tend to have more reason to be sure of themselves.
Let me explain.
In my younger, dumber days, I would talk a lot about the superiority of the U.S. in just about everything. Hey, if it was American, it was better! Of course, with time and travel come perspective, and with perspective comes the realization that I was just being an idiot. By now, I’m well aware of the fact that the U.S. isn’t automatically better at everything, and frankly it’s worse with some things than many other countries, but one thing I, and most every other motocross fan in American, could always hang my hat on was that our motocross riders were faster than those offered in the rest of the world.
 1 This crowd is less than pumped that the USA is going to win again. However, even last year, the year before, etc., I never went around at the races telling people how badly the U.S. team was going to kill everyone at the Motocross des Nations, even when I knew it was true. I’m sure the same can’t be said for many other Americans, but it’s true of me. But this year in Italy, I was one of few American journalists/photographers at the event, and I seemed to catch the brunt of what everyone was throwing around. Various journalists and every non-American fan I ran into were all wishing and hoping upon hope that the USA was going to lose, and they were taking it out on me.
And I mean I heard it every way you could imagine. I had a journalist ask me why I came all that way to watch the U.S. team lose to Italy or France... with a smirk. I had others do similar things and say similar things. On Saturday, after our team’s very average showing in qualifying, Youthstream’s Mario Marini asked me what I thought of the track, and I said I thought it was awesome, and very wide, which should mean that bad starts shouldn’t be an excuse for losing the Motocross des Nations, as everyone would have room to pass. I knew I was setting myself up to not have any excuses for the U.S. team if they lost, but I didn’t want there to be any.
Then, while sitting outside of my hotel in Brescia, Italy, drinking Heinekens with some of the guys from the team, DC, and a few others, we had multiple sets of fans come hang out, mostly Brits on this occasion, and they were all loudly and brashly proclaiming how the USA was going to lose. One claimed Cairoli and Team Italy would take the title, while another thought it would go to France or Belgium, because of the “poor team” we sent this year.
Eventually, it started to piss me off. The race hadn’t even been run yet and these people were proudly and arrogantly proclaiming champions, or simply which team wouldn’t be the champion. I heard it Friday, and then again Saturday into Saturday night before I finally snapped back at a British woman who wanted nothing more than to see the USA lose, telling her that the only reason she was rooting so hard against the USA is because the USA has been so dominant, and that was actually a compliment. She denied it. She said she “just really likes Antonio Cairoli.” Yeah, right.
At that point, I lost it and told her that the USA was going to win, and that I hoped it ruined her vacation.
The next day, more of the same. Check out this picture of the fans after it was clear the U.S. was going to win again. They’re not pumped.
While I was very proud of our riders and team that made this win happen, though, I realized something, which is that the same arrogance that us Americans are known for, it must be human nature, because everyone is guilty of it if they’re in a situation where they’re supremely confident in the eventual outcome of an event. So, really, everyone is an American in that regard. It just so happens that, as far as motocross is concerned, we’re still the top country in the world, and many of us come across as cocky because we’re confident in our team, while the rest of the world can rarely show that side of pride.
So, any of you guys reading this who were so supremely confident in the U.S. team’s inability to win the event, remember this next time you see some arrogant, brash, cocky American walking around like his MXdN team is god’s gift to motocross racing: You’re just like us.
Well, just like us, except that we have 20 wins in the last 28 years...
Posted by Steve Cox on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Posted by Steve Matthes on Wednesday, September 23, 2009
This week in the always thrilling Racer X Fantasy Football League we saw a few different things happen. One was that whomever had Frank Gore most likely won big (like last week when whomever had Drew Brees mopped up). We saw three teams go to two and oh and I lost to The Weeges, which is ironic because I was making fun of him last week for not knowing much about football. Guess what? He had Frank Gore! Last week I went against Drew Brees and lost. I’m not bitter or anything but my team sucks and I’m getting the short straw here. In other news, Motown Mayhem accumulated the most points this week despite not starting a QB. Sigh… I’m gonna go punch myself in the nuts now.
Here are the scores…
Posted by Steve Matthes on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Bryan Stealey is the managing editor of Racer X Illustrated, Road Racer X, and the event programs that are published by Filter Publications. He's also a part of t...
More...
Check out old Blogandt archives at http://theweege.blogspot.com/ and even older ones at More...
Billy Ursic has been racing motocross since the age of 13 and joined Racer X as an intern during his final semester of college, where he studied marketing. Ursic held an <...
More...
Jason Hooper may have gotten his job at Racer X because he's a FOTP (friend of Travis Pastrana), but it turns out he's actually put his BFA from WVU to good use. Hoop grew...
More...
Davey Coombs has been a motocross fan his entire life. As he grew up working at his family’s motocross races, he was also picking up knowledge and ideas. After a short career...
More...
Keith Burgie spent his teen years racing, but it was clear from the first time he sat on a dirt bike and promptly wheelied over backwards that he should probably think about a desk...
More...
After nearly a decade on the road as a professional musician, Gregg Lowley returned to his hometown of Morgantown, West Virginia, and began working for Racer X in the spri...
More...
Steve Matthes was a mechanic on the SX/MX tour for eleven years but has now dropped the wrenches and picked up a pen. His contacts in the the industry are numerous, and sometimes t...
More...
Andy Bowyer began racing motocross at age 4 and went on to become an amateur national champion. After racing professionally for three years he embarked on a five-year career at Fox...
More...
David Pingree began racing motocross and supercross professionally in 1993. During the ten-year span of his career he rode for many top teams, including Pro Circuit Kawasaki, Suzuk...
More...
Steve Cox is one of the few journalists and photographers who travel the entire AMA circuit, and he's done exactly that for the last several years. He bri...
More...
David Brozik's roots at the mag run deep ... literally. He got his start twenty-two years ago, pulling weeds and mowing the lawn for the Coombs family. He continued to work intermi...
More...
Originally from England, Dave “Langers” Langran moved to the States in August ‘99 to start a career as a designer in the motocross industry. After a year of desig...
More...
Alissa Murphy is a sophomore at West Virginia University, which churned out a large portion of the staff here at Racer X. She's studying journalism with the goal of making...
More...
Matt Ware began interning at Racer X in the spring of 2000; his first official duties were to ship out free stickers and make coffee. He was eventually promoted to traveli...
More...
Laurel C. Allen (aka LCA) is the senior editor of Road Racer X, and her office at Racer X HQ is an island of full-face helmets and leath...
More...
Chris Jonnum has been the editor of Road Racer X since its 2003 founding, prior to which he worked at Cycle News off and on for ten years. Though he has a degree ...
More...
UK import Simon Cudby began photographing car races when he was 13 and has been shooting action ever since. Based in California, Simon—widely regarded as one of the sport's m...
More...
Julie Kramer began writing and shooting photos for The Racing Paper when she was just a senior in high school. She was instantly hooked on the sport and went to WVU for jo...
More...
Jeff Kocan joined Racer X in 1998 as a part-time proofreader while still a lowly undergrad at West Virginia University. Now the senior editor of Racer X and co-se...
More...
You may not know Wes Williams by name, but if you’ve ever watched The Racer X Motocross Show on Motocross.com Presented by Toyota Trucks, you’ve seen his skill...
More...
A back-of-the-pack A rider and student at the University of Colorado, Mike Fisher began working for Racer X in 2005 as a design intern. Faced with the harsh reality that h...
More...
|
|