There's a cool little feature over on RideBMX about Dean Dickinson finding and riding his 100th pool. Dean is a bloodhound when it comes to pool missions, and he's cleaned more pools than those guys in the porn flicks. Check it out, it's a good reminder that there's more to ride than the local park, and if you put a little effort in, the session is always better.

The legendary Taj Mihelich has been enjoying a bit of a spike in Internet attention lately, thanks in part to the entertaining and insightful content he's been throwing down on his RideBmx blog. The dude's a progressive and unique rider, co-founder of Terrible One, an artist, and the bass player for The Snake Trap, to name just a few of his many talents.

In addition to the attention generated by his blog, questions starting simmering about the recent drying up of his long-time deal with etnies, as well as the evolving relationship he has with Giant Bicycles. Lo and behold, two interviews with Taj popped up at about the same time this week, so check them out at Bicycle Union and BMX Union (no relation, oddly enough).

(Photo from the Nike Lightning Bolts art show in L.A. poached from Taj's blog.)

While we're on the subject of riders with personality, we should definitely be talking about Pat Laughlin, aka Big Daddy. If you haven't seen any of his videos, they're a must-watch - pure comedy. New Jersey shredder Brad Gethard is the man behind the edits; check out The Marination Bracket to catch up on all the past Daddy-Vision webisodes. The latest, featuring Daddy rapping over some of his riding clips, is below:

Still have some holiday cash burning a hole in your pocket? Here's a suggestion for you: click on over to Dan's Comp and grab some goods from the Stay Strong collection. You will A) have some killer threads to rock, B) be helping Stephen Murray out with his mountain of medical expenses as he continues his recovery, and C) be entered into Dan's latest contest, where you could win Alistair Whitton's bike, a one-week stay at Woodward, two pairs of Vans shoes, a pair of Oakley sunglasses, Alistair's signature Pro-Tec helmet, and a case of Rockstar Energy drinks. What the hell are you waiting for? All that booty's worth a whopping $2500!

You have until February 13th to make your purchase and be entered into the contest; check here for the rules. While you're waiting for your new Stay Strong gear, check out this edit that Alistair put together from the Unit in Greenville...



RoCKstAr RIdAZ @ the UNIT HD from alistair on Vimeo.

Sometimes it seems pretty tough to do your own thing and have a little personality these days. That's why it's so good that guys like Sean Burns exist in BMX. Oblivious to the latest trends, Burns absolutely wrecks shit when it comes to street riding, and he's never going to change his own style to make the BMX fashion police nod their approval. He earned the 2008 NORA Cup Award for Video Part of the Year last September, and he's now part owner of long-time sponsor Metal Bikes.

He's got a bike check up on the eclat site, and a dirty little interview on The Come Up as well. If that's not enough for you, keep up with his twisted blogging tirades on the Metal site.

Photo by Jeff Allen