Who's Your Daddy?

Speed School X

2009-07-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

My old buddy Cowboy Kenny and I had the opportunity to do the Speed School X experience in Irwindale, CA a couple of months ago. We had a killer time and actually learned a lot more than we expected (as we have both done several schools in the past and are cocky FMX riders that think we know it all anyways).

Don't have a cow man...... We even got to meet Mrs. Nancy Cartwright, the Celebrity Voice of Bart Simpson, whom is an avid racing fan and supporter of Sped School X!

I was beyond impressed with the entire program from start to finish and I can't wait to go back!

Check out the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE4l0myopcc

Catching up

2009-07-26T20:03:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to put a minute or two into my vid skills. Unfortunately I can never seem to find the time because i am a million miles a minute trying to keep the pace of life. Heres a vid I put together from an amazing experience I had at the Red Bull Air Race in San Diego a couple of months ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNL5fyZwEoI

2009-05-08T10:16:00.000-07:00

The latest and greatest.

Well everyone, it's been a while since my last update. i've definitely been pretty slammed with riding, business and plain nonsense, but the show must go on. I'm gonna get a bit cheezy on this post and throw in some others works', so don't be mad at me. It's better than nothing right?

I've been on a few adventures this past bit, but the best have been the ones to the baseball field to see my sons tear it up. Nate has been one of the Key players on his team (which are leading their division) and Josh has been giving a strong effort at his coach pitch games. Nothing makes me happier than to see them give a strong effort and improve every time they play.

Since I last wrote, I have actually moved from my sweet spot in Fallbrook (due to crappy county sound regulations and a crap economy). Despite being bummed about the move, my attitude is to make the best of the situation and I think that is happening. I have now set up my riding spot and 1onWon training facility at the new Pala raceway in North San Diego County. It is an awesome track and has what i feel to be the best dirt in southern California. I think I have hit a Grand Slam by teaming up with Pala Raceway. I really have a lot of faith in the place attached are a couple of action shots of yours truly turning laps out there. You can check out their info @ www.palaraceway.com . And of course my training info @ www.1onWon.com

. So until next time, behave yourselves. I'll be getting prepped up for what I hope to be an Epic Summer filled with cool trips with my sons, huge quarterpipes in Chicago and Gold Medals at L.A. X-Games.

check it. rr

Good morning America.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Weekend/story?id=7488259&page=1

Night Rider.

http://freeridemx.com/index.php/site/entry/night-rider/

I'm Baaaaack

2009-01-29T23:36:00.000-08:00

You can't get rid of me that easy! C'mon now.

I guess I was a bit Blogged out for a while. But I'm stoked to be back on here doing some work and hustlin'. I've done a lot since the last blog and I have to say that I am definitely bummed that I haven't stayed on top of documenting at least some of my travels.

Anyhow, the time is now and i'm on a mission trying to work harder than ever to Entertain you people. It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it!

Heres a video that I put a lot of work into the last day. (mostly cause I'm still learning, not because it's good!)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2dJr5mTuq0

The NEW Knight Rider!

2008-09-02T18:39:00.000-07:00

Well, my little buddy Georgie Fechter from Masters of Dirt in Austria called me and mentioned that he was putting together a car to drive the rally and asked if I wanted to drive some of it. Before i even found out it was KITT, I said yes I would drive some if my schedule allowed it. Then he mentioned that he was going to do it in one of the original Knight Rider cars, I told myself I HAD to do it. unfortunately I was only able to drive 1 day due to my crazy schedule, b ut let me tell you, I made the most of it. The MOD crew allowed me to drive the 2nd days leg from LA to San Diego. I showed up in Hollywood the night before I got to drive and coincidentally ran into the MOD/Fuel Girls crew just 200ft from the 101 and Hollywood Blvd split, where KIT decided to take a siesta. I was treated to helping push the 1982 Trans Am almost 2.5 miles to the rendezvous point near all the tourist crap. I figured the next day would be a hell of an adventure and I wasn't disappointed! The first drive to checkpoint 1 was cake from Hollywood to Huntington Beach, but once we left the beach it was a mad dash south to the next checkpoint in Carlsbad, CA about 70 miles away. I found myself sitting behind KIT doing around 120 in the middle of at least 15-20 luxurious sportscars. It was insane to say the least. by the time we wheeled into Downtown San Diego, KIT was on his last strut. I think the HOFF has been replaced by the REN-Diesel! (yes I just gave myself a nickname, hahaha) I cant wait to do it again next year! And hopefully for at least a couple more days.

drive on...rr

Hooked on Making Vids

2008-08-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

New Video.... I'm hooked!

seriously, I can't get enough of my GoPro. I have so much footage already that I don't know where to start. So, naturally i went back to my favorite gig of the Summer. It was a lot of trial, error and straight up time to make it to 59' 2" on that darn 1/4pipe .... And about exactly the same amount of mental effort went into editing this video up. I know its a bit cheeseball, but I'm happy with it. Let me know what you think!..

http://www.vimeo.com/1614790

One Crazy Summer!

2008-08-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

No time to start chatting, but I was messing around on a flight the other day and made this little poster up. I figure its a good stall tactic! I think the term "One Crazy Summer" sums it up. Also, take a gander at this link to see the progress of the GoPro Hero cam. I'm having so much fun with the thing! http://www.vimeo.com/1518764

OVERWHELMED

2008-07-23T02:25:00.000-07:00

Wow....... Thats really all I can say right now. It's been a week and a half since the Red Bull Experiment and it seems like I haven't found a second to rest (besides my 20 hours of travel to and from Madrid for the Red Bull X-Fighters). X-Games is in a week and a half and I am entered in 3 events; Best Whip, Step-Up and Speed & Style. I have been working my butt off. Thanks to my mechanic Andy Dalton, aka Drinky B, things are going way smoother than previous episodes of me multitasking myself into insanity.

I guess I'm still on cloud nine a bit from the experiment on July 11th. The night went 100% perfect as far as the ride went. I do wish my little guys could have been there, but it wasn't in the cards I guess..... The coolest thing to me besides going way past my projected goal, was that it actually went exactly like I had envisioned time and time over again in my head.

I have to make sure and say thanks to Red Bull for making this a reality and all of the crew that did a killer and reliable job on Set-up. From Dane Herron industries, Freeride Technology, Jack Murphy Productions, the 20k+ fans and locals that I hope are now fans and even to the cute little Red Bull girlies running around breaking hearts and pumping up the product. Thank for your support and hard work to make things go off absolutely perfect.

Obama Supports Renner

Throttle Entertainment vid

Red Bull You Tube Vid

GoPro Hero Cam!!!!!!

Preppin up for the BIG SHOW!

2008-07-09T00:59:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm only 3 nights out from what will possibly be one of the biggest nights of my career.

I guess I'm getting a little nervous now. I've been to the venue and scoped out the build. I'm totally blown away at how massive this ramp looks on the Santa Monica Pier! This is totally right up Red Bulls alley when it comes to uniqueness and superior commitment to a project. I'm in awe that all of this is based around me.

All in all though, I am super exited to make history Friday night.

I've attached a personal teaser video that I though yallz might enjoy. It's from my 2nd to last practice session. FYI, the last practice session went even better!

Big thanks to the entire squad for making this Experiment happen, especially with such a short notice!

Wish me some luck already!

Into Africa

2008-06-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

It's been a wild Summer so far. Between the preparation for the Red Bull Experiment on July 11th and X-Fighters Texas (which has come and gone with a so/so performance on my part), I decided to stick to my word and head down to South Africa for the biggest FMX show ever brought to the original "Dirty South". Besides getting sick and having to ride a sub-par bike, i was pumped on the Masters of Dirt show and the people of South Africa.

My good friend Jason "Party" Moriarty led the show as well as the babysitting club for all of us foreigners. As you can probably see by the pics, the Safari was the highlight! By some coincidence, we lucked out and got a private tour by the "Lion Park" park Ranger. I'm pretty darn busy catching up since the trip, so I can't go on and on, but hopefully the pics help tell the story.

Until next time.. RR Out!

Putting in the work.

2008-06-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

It's a good feeling to put in some hard work and long hours. Honestly, in all of my years of FMX, I haven't really applied myself to much of a training program. As of the last couple weeks, I can no longer say that. I have been on my bike(s) putting in a lot of time and effort for this Summer. The cat has been out of the bag for a while now as to the fact that I am retiring from FMX comps and my goal is to go out on a good note. To me, that doest mean by winning, just by putting in a solid ride and Entertaining the fans like I always have tried to do.

The Summer has arrived quick. And with this busy and hectic schedule, I suppose it will come and go really fast. Even when the Fall comes around, I have a pretty busy itinerary. Thats not a bad thing I guess. Minus the fact that I miss some quality time with my Kids, it is always good to have some job security, especially in this day and age. its crazy out there. I hope one day my little guys realize that.

So I'll wrap it up I guess. I've got an early morning and a hectic few days ahead of me before I head to Texas for the first ever Red Bull X-Fighters in the USA! look out Summer, here I come!

2008-05-23T00:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a wild couple of weeks.

2008-05-08T22:33:00.000-07:00

Howdy folks, sorry to have been slipping a bit on the bloggage. Since the bogus call at the MotoX championships, i have taken a little breather from the ramps and jumps in order to get a second wind and get fired up for what I hope to be my best Summer yet.

May 3rd was a cool day for me as i got the opportunity to wrench for my son Nate at the KTM KJSC race during the Las Vegas Supercross. Even though he was a bit intimidated, Nate really did an awesome job in the race and passed a few kids to take 10th. I was so proud of the little guy. He really did amazing, especially for never riding. I have been around the KJSC rig many times but never really realized how awesome of a job the entire crew does. much respect and thanks from the Renner camp!

Well. after Vegas SX, things got pretty wild..... Well, wild is probably not the best word to describe my last few days. Insane may be a bit better. How about Psychotic?.... I'm not exactly sure how to describe a trip with the Nitro Circus crew these days. Obviously, that is what I am getting to, as i just returned home from an out of hand few days in the middle of one of the worlds most beautiful lakes, Lake Powell, which borders Utah and Arizona. To make a long story short, let me say that you will not be disapointed when Thrillbillies Doublewide comes out later this year. I can't even begin to describe the things I witnessed in my days at the lake. TP truly is a MadMan possessed and now has a complete army of possessed accomplices running around and participating right by his side. I chose to bail early to ensure no physical harm!

Chugging along and getting hosed along the way

2008-04-15T21:45:00.000-07:00

Hey Yallz'. I have to be quick cause I'm strapped for time, but I wanted to check in and let everyone know that I made it back safe from the GRO tour and Pinned it straight to the Moto-X Championships in San Diego to put in some lackluster rides and take home a 2nd in Speed + Style as well as a bogus and in my opinion, incomplete 2nd in the Step Up comp.
The Great Ride Open season 2 ended up turning out quite alright even with Mother Nature trying to torture us at every stop. I'm confident the folks @ OneEyedBird Productions will put together an amazing 6 episodes from the trip! It was a great time, but I can't help but feel like I enjoyed the 1st seasons trip better. The weather was the main factor regulating our good times and goofiness around the fire. However, we made the best of it and had a killer time. Keep your eyes and ears pen for it on Fuel later this year!

After only spending 1 day home regrouping, I headed to San Diego for the 1st Moto-X World Championships. What a unique experience to say the least. My boy Dane Herron and crew built a spectacle of a course/track that had to be seen to believed. My weekend went so so.

Here is a post I put up on FreestyleMTX.com regarding my situation at the Moto-X Championships in San Diego this past weekend where I really go the short end of the stick during the final moments of the Step-Up comp:

I lost on a freegin COIN TOSS. Plain and Simple. I respect the fact that we are given the opportunity to have the event and all, but if it is BS, what's the point? I was actually really pumped that it was thinning down the way it did. i would have much rather gotten beat buy Matt than RC. I like and respect all of those guys i'm riding with,..... Props to him for getting over the bar, but I would not have wanted to take the win like that and I feel like being a person who believes in fair competition and also a person not intimidated by corporate BS, If if our roles were reversed, I would have not accepted the win until the other guy got his fair shake (maybe I am just stubborn like that).....I am not mad at Matt, but I am furious with ESPN and the organizers. I did not get beat. I got shafted. I am 110% confident that i could have cleared that height easily with 5 more feet of run in ant the poles being held back like he did. I didn't even get the opp. That event is my livelihood and to them they just wanted us off of the course asap...Corporate BS.

RC was going high, but he got out of control and wadded up, so if anyone thinks he should have won, suck it. i could have pinned it harder, looped out and cleared the bar only to sketch out on the sub-par landing. It was a competition, get over it. It sucks that he couldn't do his second jump and sucks even worse that he got busted up.

I cannot wait for Summer X. If I'm invited.

Great Ride Open 60% done....:(

2008-04-03T21:24:00.000-07:00

Well, so far so good on the filming of the second season of Red Bull and Fuel TV's hit series, "The Great Ride Open". I have once again been put on the road with a swell crew of peeps in search of the next perfect day of riding. Drake McElroy, Tommy Clowers, rookie Lance Coury and Myself along with some cameos from Jeff Tilton, Tarah Geiger and Myles Richmond are the riders involved with this seasons filming. Choosing to hit some less popular spots this year has for sure been an adventure in itself. We started the tour with Gordon's Well (South of Glamis), then shot up to Dumont Dunes for a wild wind filled experience. After the dunes, the caravan blew right past vegas in route to Caineville, Utah for some guaranteed thrills on our third and most popular stop. After some great riding at Caineville, we ripped over to a new spot and were shown an amazing new playground in the foothills near Grand Junction, Colorado. I don't have any riding pics to post, but hopefully you'll dig the shots I took during my downtime! I'll do a recap next week along with some action shots (i hope)!

Pura Vida Mang

2008-03-26T02:07:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the circus... Nitro Circus that is! This stop was a real drag let me tell ya, we were "forced" to head down to Costa Rica. Yeah, paradise it was a difficult choice to make the trek to Paradise. I don't even know where to start, but I'll try.

Red Bull mastermind and friend Hayes Wheeless teamed up with TP and the Nitro Circus leaders Greg Godfrey and Jeremy Rawle with a wild plan for some unique and beautiful locations for the next installment of the "Travis and the Nitro Circus" series. I can't share all the details in order maintain some surprise and anticipation for the release, but i have to say that I am confident that the next vid will not disappoint. Travis, Jolene, Jim, Kenny, Andy Bell, Godfrey, Tenacious J (Tenacio on this trip), Base Jumper "Plamer" and myself, as well as my boys/videographers Donny and Party Marty, were treated like superstars by the Red Bull crew all week. We had an amazing time chilling with the entire Red Bull Costa Staff. It actually made leaving a bit sad for all of us.

Jim DeChamp was the star of the trip. Like I said, I can't elaborate, but Jim managed to survive the week after a few brushes with near disaster. (just a hint, never let Jim borrow your Rhino, especially in front of 20k Supercross fans an a fully blown SX track)!

As for myself, I really didn't accomplish as much as I was hoping, but I got in a few great rides in the rain Forest and met some really cool people! Big thanks again, to the Entire Red Bull Costa Rica Staff and Hayes' Red Bull latin America crew!

Ok, I am slammed trying to get ready for the next Season of 'The Great Ride Open', so I'm ghost. Late!

Uh oh, another little hobby, I got a camera.

2008-03-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

Just what I needed, another toy. Yup, I got a camera, nothing super gnar, but a descent little Canon. I figured it would be rad to try and document stuff a bit better than I have been through my life and even more so in the amazing days and years of my boys' lives.

I've luckily learned some of the tricks of the trades through some of my photographer buddies so I think I am doing ok. But seriously though, I have gotten a lot more respect this first week for them because it is pretty tough to get those money shots. I feel like it could get pretty addicting, so I'm planning to keep the battery charged so that I can score more shots for the blog updates.

I put up shots of my kids, the RR ranch and a few shots of my KTM teammates from Supermoto, Kurt Nicoll, Troy Herfoss and Chris Fillmore.

Lemme know what ya think!

Another one bites the dust

2008-03-02T20:18:00.000-08:00

It's late as heck here in Rotterdam, Holland.... Or should I say early? Whatever the case, I am just getting my stuff together before heading to the Airport and figured I'd drop a quik line about the weekend. It also helps that a really cool local Dutch photographer named Jeremy Staay was on top of his game and already sent me some really cool shots from the weekend. You can scope out his works @ www.Staay-fotografie.nl .

As for the show, it was pretty fun. A lot of cool friends and riders were in the show and it was a really low pressure gig even though they made it a contest format. I won teh whip contest both days and pulled a2nd in the fmx on day 2. My old buddy Matt 'cooter brown' Buyten kicked our butts pretty bad both days in front of his Heritage home crowd.

So now its back to reality. I'm on the quickest flight home possible to hopefully make it to see some of my little guy Nates baseball game. It's his 3rd game and I am so bummed that I have had to miss games due to my freegin schedule of shows.... It's tough, but hopefully one day I can slow it down and still make that money. Nobody has ever said this whole 'Life' thing was easy, thats for sure.

Flat out all over the place

2008-02-27T13:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry peeps, I got a little off of my game the past couple of weeks. Since I last wrote, I decided to do exactly the same trip the following week with my International crew of buddies as I did in my last post. It was tough, but I dug deep to find a couple of days to take some really talented international FMX friends out to Beaumont and Ocotillo Wells for some real American Freeriding. I figure it is great training for my Freeride Tours that I am planning to start booking up this Spring. Eigo Sato of Japan was the trooper of the fielfd that also consisted of Frances' Thomas Paget and Jeremy Renuat, as well as Italion Stallion Massimo Biancanchini..... And Crew of course. Eigo went wild out in the hills and charged everything without hesitation.

I would have loved to stick around for their final few days, but I had to head out to the Indianapolis Motorcycle Dealers Trade Show. When I say "had to", don't go thinking it was too raw of a deal. Ogio basically flew me out to start a band, name it 'Cheap Date' and rock the house! (in a nutshell). HaHaHa, ok, they brought me out to be a dork and play Rock band with my little buddies Cam McQueen, Jeff Williams and Andy Bell. Yeah we rocked. I also found a bit of time to goof off with the folks from Racer x. Check it.

http://www.racerxfilms.com/20080220_Mon-Tradeshow/20080220_Mon-Tradeshow.html

After all of the rocking out and mega rock star parties, I made it back to BroCal in 1 piece and exited to get a few days of riding in before heading to Vienna Austria, but of course, it rained me out. So I hopped on a plane to Austria with zero ramp practice in nearly a month. I'm not sure if its the old age or what, but man it gets harder and harder to sleep on planes. Its like they made my chair with mahogany and was planning to fit Gary Coleman in that musty, Euro Armpit smelling corner that they called Seat 23a. Anyhow, made it to the show a bit jet lagged and lazied around the first day and won the Whip comp, Step-Up comp and got 6th in the FMX final. Sunday I won the Whip and Step up again and actually rode with both eyes open and got 3rd. The Masters of Dirt Show was really cool and had a bunch of highlights. I could go on and on, but I gotta send love to my Nitro Circus Sister (and 1onWon Team Rider) Jolene Van Vugt for performing in her first ever FMX show. After only practicing FMX for 3 weeks, she opened both shows with a 1 woman demo that was rewarded with Standing ovations both days. Looks like someone has some potential to go with all that craziness!

Directly after the Sunday show, I hit the Road with my Belgian Buddies Peter and Stoica, headed for the West Austrian Alps, aka, Ze Halps! Before I knew it I was carving corners in T-Shirt weather (Al Gore is pissed) and tumbling through the many of the "Montafon" area's terrain parks. With that said, I'll move right along to tuesday and sum that day up with the phrase "Bed Ridden"! Now I'm in Belgium, prepping up for a show in Rotterdam that I really have no Idea what it is about. So now u know, and knowing is half the battle.

Awesome week of Freeriding!

2008-02-08T00:37:00.000-08:00

Awe man, I have lived in SoCal for 8 years now and have never seen the dirt as good as good as it was this week. From my track to Beaumont, to the abandoned wastelands of Ocotillo Wells, I will be forever spoiled. Saturday we had a little ride day @ the Ranch and were stoked out by mama nature with a little rain in the a.m., making the track "tits". It was so god in fact , that my dawg Hot Carl and I were grinding gears in our BobCats for 5 hours tuning up the track and making a couple of new sections. Everyone was really pumped with it, including myself.

Tuesday was unreal as well, as I helped organize a bunch of guy's out to Beaumont and session the "chocolate cake" covered hills. you can check out the footage Simon Cudby threw together at www.racerxfilms.com . I'll let the vid from Cudby and the Pics from Carl Stone do the talking, as I got to ride with David Pingree, Eric Sorby, Myles Richmond and Steven Haugelstein. We didn't find many huge hits, but some fun little hippers and a wicked natural moto track that Pingree made up.

Speaking of Carl Stone, I was lucky enough to connect with him while he is on the West Coast shooting Supercross for Racer X. He rolled out with myself and renowned cinematographer Taylor Congdon to snag some shots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkKzkPoBtIU . I tried my hardest to wear them out by riding from sun up to sun down, but due to there addiction to my single cup coffee maker, I was no match for them! .. We crushed it, to say the least!

Since I was lucky enough to round them both up, I decided to rally out to Ocotillo and meet Tommy Clowers and take advantage of a perfect scenario. Imagine, 2 riders, a filmer, a photographer and a million acres of virtual wasteland that was freshly saturated with the perfect amount of water just a few days before (definitely not a wasteland to us).

I think you got the point. I'll quit bragging for now!

Dang I love my job!

Loma Linda Childrens Hospital Benifit

2008-02-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

It was that time of the year again. I believe it was the 7th time that MX riders had the opportunity to come and cheer up the kids at the acclaimed Loma Linda Children's Hospital near San Bernardino, CA. It was the 4th year that Jeff Tilton and Tommy Clowers' Red Bull TnT show came to rock the house. I have ridden the 3 previous years, but had to pull out of the demo this year due to some soreness from my foam pit session the day before. Being a parent of two crazy little dudes may help intensify the situation, but even though it's sad tpo see some down and out groms, the smiles than we muster up out of these kids is priceless and will keep me coming back for years to come! Big props to all of the sponsors and especially all of the riders and moto celebs that were a part. Steve Bauer, Jeff Tilton, Tommy Clowers, Erin Bates, Myles Richmond, Zach Osborne, the folks at Smooth Industries, FMF, Troy Lee Designs, Pro-Circuit, Transworld MX, MXGirls.com, and a lot more including myself were all very fortunate, grateful and blessed to be a part of such a cool deal. Big props to Steve Bauer for making this happen! Also, all of the parents being supportive and tough during hard times, much respect!

Enjoy the photos courtesy of http://www.racetime.com/index.php/LIFESTYLE-PHOTOS/Loma-Linda-Big-Air-Kid-s-Fair.html

Also give a looksy to http://www.mxgirls.com/LLCH_KidFair/ . as they have some cool pics of the event too.

RR Ranch in full swing

2008-02-02T00:33:00.001-08:00

Thursday I had a bunch of riding buds over to the ole Ranch to do some riding. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but I think I may have over done it a bit, because I woke up Friday morning with one heck of a tight body. i think the years of crashing things is finally catching up with me. Hopefully it just had something to do with the lack of riding the past couple of weeks though. Orrrrrrr, it could have something to do with me doing an impression of an ostrich jamming my head into the foam pit while trying front flips on the 110. Who knows! Anyhow, I'll let the photos do the talking. These super crisp shots are courtesy of Racer X Canadas own James Lissimore. Check out is other works @ www.lissimorephoto.com . Thanks Dude!

Riders: Tommy Clowers, Jeff Tilton, Myles Richmond, Benoit Milot, Mat Rebeaud and Muah.

Rain Rain Go Away!

2008-01-24T19:25:00.000-08:00

It seems that the ole saying, "when it rains it pours" is not just an analogy. My compound is under water right now and of course I finally have gotten past my holiday slump. I am sooo ready to ride right now. Due to some prior obligations though, I can't just pack up the Rage'n and head out to the hills, but I can still reminisce!

Check put these Rich Van Every pics that he took while we were filming the Ocotilllo Wells segment of "the Great ride open" on Fuel T.V. And the Dune pic is another RVE classic from Red Bull Ride to the Hills 06' @ Glamis.

ok, I'm keeping this one short and utilizing my time to catch up on my house stuff!

So far so good in 2008

2008-01-14T10:23:00.000-08:00

i'll be pretty brief in this one, but thats not a bad thing. i am too darn busy having a good time!

We started new years out in the desert at Ocotillo Wells doing some riding and Ranger rallying (or as the socal locals call it "mobbing" the hills). Nate had his 8th birthday on Dec 29th and got a new KTM 50sx. He got the hang of the bigger bike really fast and decided that he is going to be a Freerider like Dad when he gets bigger. His main goal of the weekend was to get some big air and he got it! It was so fun to ride through Ocotillos' majestic hills with my little man in tow. It was awesome stopping and watching him find his little "kickers". Josh on the other hand rode for a total of about 4.5 minutes. He says he don't want to crash. Ironically, he must have bumped his head a million times playing and just being a kid during the week.

Being that the first few rounds of Supercross are held on the West coast, January is always a blast because some of my buddies come into town to play a couple of days before hand. Now that I have the "Renner Ranch", we have had a couple of good ride days. A couple members of the the Nitro crew even stopped by and put it on there blog as well, check it, http://nitrocircusblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/renners-ranch.html . Andy Bell, Tenacious J and myself headed up to do battle at the annual Racer X Industry party @ Pole Position Raceway in Corona (in which I dominated). It was a riot getting to battle with guys like Windham, Reed and the MX industry big timers. Best part of the night was when Pole Position Founder, Ken Faught let me take my boys on the track after hours! They loved it! I think Nate may have some potential in finally putting his middle name (Racer) to use! Either that, or I have to change it to "Freerider".

Another big shout out to Live Nation and especially Nicole Mancuso for setting up some tickets to the Monster Jam at Angels Stadium. I was their scouting the Monster Jam scene hoping to see that their is room for a "Who's Your Daddy" truck! It was a great show, but I will admit that it sucked watching the FMX show and letting 4 other riders get the spotlight in front of a sold out stadium. Also, I'm not sure if it was gravedigger, or someone in my group, but some one was running some "Bad Gas" in Anaheim!

Until next time. RR out.

2007 Year in Reveiw!

2008-01-01T15:35:00.000-08:00

Happy New year everyone.! I know, I know, it’s hard to believe that 2008 is already here. I can’t believe it, I’ll tell you that. It seems like 07’ was a flash until I really start looking back at my year and think about all of my amazing travels of the year. I’ll point out my highlights of each month of 07’.

I’ll jump right into January: it was the last day of the month where I broke the world record for step-up at 35’ 6” or for my Euro fans, that’s 10.75 meters. I did it within the specifications for X-Games competition, so I was hoping that would get me into Step up at Summer X in August.

February was a great month as well. I did a lot of cool stuff, but my highlight was definetly getting the chance to ride my friend Robbie Maddison’s now annual Red Bull X-Ray freeride event in Pikton, Australia. It has one of the coolest freeride lines ever put together and the crew from On the Pipe 4 was there to document it. So you gotta check that out.

One of my checkmarks on my todo list was fulfilled in March, as my bud Jeff Tilton and Rd Bull put together the opportunity t do FMX demo’s at Supercross. Tilton, Tommy Clowers, Jake Windham and myself were given the chance to ride 6 of the Supercross rounds on the TnT Setup an hour before the races got underway. It was a big hit and hopefully I get that chance again.

April was hands down my favorite month, due to one event. Hopefully most of you have seen it on Fuel TV by no,. it was called The Great Ride Open; a 14 day road trip that Included a cast of ix top FMX riders and and some of the best terrain that the Southwest U.S. has to offer. Another Jeff Tilton inspired project that I am greatful to have been a part of. Seriously though, the trip changed me as a person as well as my attitude as to why I ride my bike. Good news too, we start filming this spring for the second season!

May was the month of the Quarterpipe for me. First off, it was the second annual Doug Parsons Quarterpipe challenge. This year it was dubbed an actual contest and had the riders going bigger than ever to try and bring in some extra coin. I’m happy to say that I won the event and was rewarded with some cool media exposure and some newfound knowledge of a new, super technical aspect for FMX. I brought it with me to the second stop of the Red Bull X-Fighters tour and went really big on the Quarterpipe that they built there (unfortunately I choked on my tricks and finished poorly).

I have to say that June is a hard month to pick a favorite. I was flat out busy all month. I guess not too busy to celebrate my 30th birthday though. We ended up having a pretty big get together don at my ranch. Nothing out of the norm; just a bunch of family, friends and a good ole fashioned day of riding to keep everyone happy. Cool presents included a blown up pic that was framed of my whip over the infamous Louisville step-down, a custon skinned Gutar hero Guitar courtesy of Ogio and a Cowboy hat to remind me that yes, I am a redneck at heart!

July was a busy one as well. But to break the monotony of the American lifestyle, I headed to Europe for 2 weeks and did some events fro Red Bull in Poland. It was really colol do do dems with my good friend Jimbo Verburgh and crew at some really unique locations on the seaside of Poland. I met some really cool people and had and amazing time.

Ok, I’ll have to go on a rant for August. I had an amazing month. It started with winning the Gold at the Summer X-Games in Step up (highlight of my career so far, I still cant believe it). I really didn’t have a day to spare all month, but still headed south of the border to Baja Mexico to film for the Transworld Movie called “Why”. It was unreal, as Todd Potter and I got to ravage virgin landscape nearly a hundred miles from civilization. We rode trails, hit tons of new jumps and I even got to surf a perfect point break without another person to either side of me for literally miles! Check out the movie to see how it went down.

September was pretty mellow. You know standard…… haha, yeah right. My big adrenaline rush of the month came at the Miller Motorsports park in Salt lake City as I was involved in a 4 way duel at the celebrity car race during the Nascar West series. I had driven my car to the limit trying to keep the pace with Pastrana and I unfortunetly drove too squirrelly and roasted my tires and brakes. On the last lap, 3 corners from the checkered, I tried to outbreak Chad Reed and Andy bell while not having any brakes. I know, you may say that does not make since, but after hitting the wall at 90mph, you may start talking silly as well. Sliding into a wall at 90 is so far the biggest adrenaline rush I have ever had. Even if it cost $18,000.00 dollars, it was awesome!

I decided to spend 2 weeks in Florida during October. My son Josh wanted to go there to celebrate his 5th Birthday, so I decided to do my now semi-annual show at my old home/local track Dade City Raceway on Halloween weekend. And since I was going to already have a big in town, the Dew Tour was coming to Orlando just 1 week before, so I was given a wildcard to ride there. I could go on and on, but there is something about returning home that really makes me want to stay. I don’t know if it’s the Family, Friends or just the good ole humidity, but I love stepping off of the plane in the good old F.L..

November started awesome as Red Bull and Travis Pastrana collaborated to have the movie premier of Thrillbillies (aka, Nitro Circus 5) at the ultimate SoCal fall/winter weekend destination, “Glamis”. It was a production like no other of its kind, I really can’t even describe it. Its another one that could make a story in itself, but to keep it short, I’ll just say that it was rad to ride the dunes on my 450 for 3 days and hit jumps flat out as fast as my bike would go only to come back to camp with a bunch of friends and expensive dune toys to tear up the night with. I have to add that later in the moth I did the A Day in the Dirt race with my little Brother Ricky and had a blast. Lil bro made me proud as he took my KTM to the front of all of the Pro races, beating some big name s and talents. In a nutshell it was top 5 weekends in a long time.

December was one of my busiest, but I’ll have to share my obvious favorite. Even if its not as big time as X-Games Los Angeles, X-Games Dubai was special to me because I brought home a Gold Medal for the first X-Games whip contest ever. My buddy “Huck-a-Chuck” Caruthers gave me a run for the money but unfortunately hit the dirt hard and got knocked out. This trip was amazing to say the least. Besides the Gold Medal, I had a killer time.

So there ya go…. Wow, that really turned into a mission.. Well, if you made it this far, thanks for reading. Stay tuned, hopefully 2008 is even more eventful!

RR

Globetrotting and Deprived of Sleep.

2007-12-11T01:40:00.000-08:00

Well, it looks like I slacked off for a couple weeks, but I have a good excuse.....I was half-way around the world and have been non-stop since I last checked in. Overwhelming for sure, but in the grand scheme of things its been a great time.

Day in the Dirt was awesome as predicted. Actually even better, as my brother Ricky cleaned house in the pro class and we did pretty well in our team races despite the fact that I am a squirrel. Kenny Alexander, Troy Lee and the entire Stunt/Film Industry of riders put on an awesome event every year! Big thanks for having us out.

After the race, Ricky and I headed to Geneva, Switzerland for the annual Geneva SX. It was a good time and despite neither one of us really doing very good, i really had a lot of fun.

From Geneva, I spent a couple of awesome days in the Swiss Alps and missed out on Boarding because of bad weather. All good however because we ended up doing some cool stuff to pass the time, like go-karting with Mat Rebeaud and crew. They also took Todd Potter, Alvaro DelFarro and I to see the Chillon Castle that sits on the Geneva Lake. It was an amazing place.

Then it was off to Dubai for X-Games Dubai. There was a whip contest the first day and I won that sucker in the middle of a head to head final with Chuck Coruthers. Huck-a-chuck was in old form and ended up tasting the sandy middle Eastern dirt, luckily he was ok, but it was really gnarly. I decided to lay low in best trick and not show my big stuff, so i did a heel clicker! Props to Greg Hartman for winning Best trick!

So now its home for 2 1/2 days and back o Germany for the Munich Supercrossover! Should be a killer time! I am literally falling asleep at the laptop, so I guess thats a sign to get up and off this thing.

RR

Gobble Gobble Gobble

2007-11-20T07:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Turkey day fellow Americans and Happy whatever it is in your country day to anyone else. I don't know about you guys, but I am ready to be a typical American on Thursday and gorge out on some good eatin'! I really can't believe it's Thanksgiving already. I mean dang, it seems like just yesterday I had a Turkey leg in one hand and a throttle in the other when I raced the annual "A Day in the Dirt" race last year along with my good friend Shaw "Uncle" Dunkel.

I think it will be my 4th year in a row of heading to "A Day in the Dirt", which is always changing venues. This year it goes back to its original track, LACR Raceway near Palmdale. Also, I am normally teamed up with Shaw, who cannot make it out from Florida this year (HE'S A WORKAHLOLIC). This year, I'll be riding the team races with my little brother Ricky Renner, who some of you may have heard of as he did pretty well this year in his rookie season on the AMA circuit, earning National #75. I am really exited to go and do this race with him, even if it makes me fell like a geezer that my baby brother is 18 and all grown up. Whatever the case, I am his biggest fan!

Anyhow, if anyone gets a chance to come up, it is a really good time and there are a lot of celebs in the house riding and just having a good ole time on there holiday weekend. Practice Friday and racing Saturday/Sunday, with Sunday hosting the Moto-a-gogo team race and the "Coup de Grace" endurance race... hope Ricky doesn't lap me!

Happy Holidays peeps!
RR

Bonjour and Stuff

2007-11-13T07:45:00.000-08:00

Howdy, I mean Bonjour! I just got back from the twentieth something annual Paris Bercy Supercross and am pretty beat up. It was my 5th year in a row and at 3 shows a night, 3 nights per weekend, I decided to splat myself on the ground during my final show #45! I'm ok, but it was sure as hell a close one. It all started at the first show on Friday night: I realized that I was obviously the veteran old guy that was definitely gonna be relying on my showman skills and hopfully big whips if I wanted to impress this crowd. Luckily I have been back to work on my backflips or I would most likely gotten boo'd off the floor after they saw my tricks in comparison with the other riders. Never a claimer on the big new stuff, I was surrounded by guys that push the envelope: Eigo Sato from Japan, My Red Bull KTM teamate Mat Rebeaud (Swiss), The new bad boys of France the Paget Brothers, Thomas and Charley and their mentor and mega FMX o.g. Manu Troux, who would be making his last Bercy appearance and then making a full fledged retirement at the end of the year. I realized I was out of my league with tricks when I noticed that I was the only guy without the flip "antlers" as I call them (the added bars that lock your arms on the bars to do Superman backflips). It was a long weekend, but I suprisingly fealt good in the mix with these guys. I still have a couple of unique tricks that let me stand out. But it was the Paget Brothers that stole the show, for sure. I won't start a list of all the crazy things these guys were doing, but I will however mention that I am really stoked to know these guys and will definitely help them out if they decide to give er' a go in the u.s.. Thomas Paget once again raised teh FMX bar on Saturday night when he pulled a Backflip Double Grab (fully extended I may add). It was off the charts and I still don't beleive it!
With all that energy transfering to our final show on Sunday, we went buck wild out there. I was having one of the best times ever before I got bitten. It was a full on rebelious FMX free for all as we all went crazy doing whatever we pleased. Rebeaud and I buddied up and were doing little mini trains with the same trick. We agreed to do back to back Backflip whips and I never normaly follow people. Now I know why, since Mat hauls butt at the ramp and I am a turtle, I timed the thing sooo bad. As I landed about 1/2 a bike short and a bit sideways on the landing, my feet ripped off of the pegs and in a flash, I was doing a double side saddled superman whisky throttle into the tunnel and directly at Mat! Just before impact, I laid her over and did a slide t-bone into him, he luckily lifted his leg just before impact. It was intense! The crowd went nuts as we both rolled out of the tunnel with two mangled bikes. Fortunetly we were both ok, unfortunetly I wiped out my whole parts allowance in one crash!

Now I am starting a 2 week mx training cram session to get prepared for the Day in the Dirt race in Palmdale, California that I'll be racing in with my Little Brother Ricky as a teamate. I can't wait. I think Ricky will come out here and suprise some people. Hopefully hes not embarassed of his OLDer brother!

until next time, RR out

Dust Boogers, Big Air and plenty of Red Bull

2007-11-07T08:52:00.000-08:00

Trying to stay true to my word, here I am again in a time crunch trying to jot down a note on my crazy adventures in life. As per normal, last week went by in a flash as i headed to Californias Imperial Valley, to be exact, The Glamis Sand Dunes. The big to do was based through Red Bull as the helped launch a 2 night Movie Premeir for Travis Pastrana and Crew's (includes me) next movie release dubbed "Thrillbillies". I pulled into Glamis Thursday night and my jaw dropped. It was wild to see how much effort red Bull had put into it. We had our own little tent city that included some of the top riders in the world; Tommy Clowers, Jeff Tilton, Tarah Gieger, Robbie Maddison, newbie Lance Coury and some unknown named Travis Pastrana. Once the word was out, more non-red bull ridrs came out, such as Josh Grant, Todd Potter and Danial Sani. I even spotted sictor Victor Sheldon riding a quad! Travis decided to ride his Suzuke 4 fitty without oil in it, which resulted in a kaboom. (I personally think he did it on purpose so I wouldn't show him up). To date, Josh Grant is the baddest dude I have ever ridden the dunes with. We buddied up and sessioned the hills every day and never hit a jump that wasn't wide freegin open. Every night after the premeir (which was a huge sucess), we rallied the troops out to oldsmobile hill and closed drove the wheels of of our buggies. Tomcat has an awesome sand rail, and was gracious to give everyone rides. Even though my Polaris Ranger rides were a hit, sand cars are where its at, I am hoping to work myself into one of those before its all said and done.
At the end of the weekend, at the same time that I can say I was over it and ready to get home to see the grommets, it was tough to leave camp and all of the new friends that I had made. Looking back, I really had a good time. Especially for coming home with half the desert in my nose! What a dust bowl!

Well its wednesday the 7th and I fly out tonight for Paris, France for the infamous Paris/Bercy Supercross. My friend Manu Troux (from france) and i are claiming this as our last ride in Bercy. It should be a great weekend as usual. The racing is always good and this year should be even better as Chad Reed and Grant Langston will be coming to spice things up.
I'll post up when i get back. ya heard.
rr

I Finally Figured It Out!

2007-10-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

What up everyone. I guess now that i figured out how to log on to this thing I better write something.

I will start off talking about my daily stories nd see how good i can keep up. Kinda like a moto diary. Enjoy:

Well today was a pretty mellow, yet cool day. I did some early running around and stpped by TLD to get on top of my Day in the Dirt entries. It should be interesting, because this year I am teaming up with my little brother Ricky, who just got through with his first full year pro. I guess i need to get up to speed so I dont let him down.

After my TLD stop I swung by the KTM race shop and picked up my 1st 2008 model and a 990 LC8 v-twin racing engine that I am planning on building a chopper with, with my buddy Jesse Rooke. As for my bike pickup, I am trying to start leaning towards the 450 four stoke for all of my freeriding and motocross needs, so this year KTM is getting me on a program that will get me on 2 450's. I'll also be getting an 08' 250 two stroke as well, but I am planning on trying my 450 on the ramp before the new year. We'll have to wait and see if my skinny butt can lean back and pull around a 450. I'd rather do backflips than backflops.

After that, I went home and met up with my old bud and hero Mike Metzger. We had a good little session and even though Metz has been out of the saddle with a broken back, he is looking good on his 3 Brothers KTM.

As i sit here at the end of the day writing this, it really starts sinking in that I am blessed to have a great job and hobby all rolled into one!

Stay in touch and I will hopefully be rubbing it in more often!

RR