SMB's Review of 2012...

SMB Bearings have had another cracking year - all thanks to you! 

So, we thought we'd cast our minds back over a few of the best bits...

January

We were delighted to be joined by Ian Emery, RC Helicopter pilot - he has wowed us with his meteoric rise up the AHA's ranking this year...

February

F1 In Schools competitors Adactus won the central England F1 in Schools Championship & also best engineered car...

Well done lads!  We're thrilled that our bearings played a small part in your overall success.   

 March  

Our new advert featured in Model Helicopter World magazine for the first time...    

If you look closely, you can see that the lovely Ian Emery is our poster boy!    

April    

We had loads of spiffy videos from Shannon Francis, our lovely Bristol-based sponsored scooter rider - here's an example of just such a vid:  

     

May

Our EBAY SKATE SHOP finally opened - YEAY!!!

 

We continue to sell over 2000 other items via our traditional store (ye olde fashioned telephone & email), but thought that we'd give this a whirl & so far, so good!

June

Vive La France! Our French gravity sports champions took podiums galore & most of the style & glory at La Rigalet...

Marie Bougourd & Philipe Dupuy at Rigalet

Schaeffer Mclean continued to wow us with his skills - this 8 year old skateboarder has had quite a year & his international acclaim continues to grow. 

Check out this great vid for a show of skills & also a lovely reminder of what summer sunshine looks like!

July

We were so, so proud of young Harry Redstone - we went to watch him competing at Swindon Radio Controlled Model Car Club (SRCMCC for short!) & although he didn't do so well whilst his bearing sponsors were watching (I think we might have put him off his stride a bit :-) ) he has had an amazing overall season & race series & is thinking of competing in national competitions next year...

Harry & his Dad in the pits between races

August

We were delighted to catch up with Stan at Jankowski Weathervanes again, it is always a real treat to see where our bearings end up & this is never truer than in the hands of a real artisan like Stan...

September

We got in early & donated heaps of prizes to Hogtoberfest - a downhill skateboarding weekend of mayhem!

October

Ian Emery finished 3rd in the AHA British Nationals!  What an astounding first-season result for our local RC heli hero.

November

Our customers continue to delight with their ingenuity - not least this month RSL Steeper & their prosthetic hand (that allows one wearer to make a famous Gallic gesture for the first time in 5 long years!), & Hans Meevis, a wonderfull talented jeweller currently based in Germany.

The fun part came when the lovely ladies at Valleys Roller Dolls got in touch - this dynamic bunch of roller derby afficianados needed some decent skate bearings & we were happy to oblige. 

We look forward to helping them out in the future & following their roller derby progress -if they're not too shy, we'll hopefully tell you more about them soon :-)

December

Well, what a year it has been!  I hope you enjoyed just a small sample of our many highlights from 2012.  We'd like to thank our clients for their continued custom, our suppliers for their continued support & our friends for keeping us entertained all bally year! 



Christmas lights in London last weekend

We'd like to wish you all the very best for the festive season & the coming year - see you in 2013!!

SMB Skate Crew, video updates...

A video from Shannon Francis to celebrate her upcoming website
www.shannonfrancis.co.uk ...



And a lovely vid from Schaeffer Mclean...  "the Summer 2012 Adventure with Schaeffer McLean 8 year old skateboarder travelling and having fun on a skateboard. Filmed in Spain, England and Norway including a short tour of all the skate parks on the Costa de la Luz. On our journey we came across a forest fire which inspired the title. The weather temperatures were reaching 43c on some of the days and a week later this fire swept through a huge area of countryside. Thanks to the amazing Haugaland in Norway and Subside Skate Park in Bristol, they are both really great parks".




Thanks guys!  Awesome videos :-)

Scooter check video...

Our friend Shannon Francis has some awesome friends & some awesome scooter skills, both as a stunt scooter rider & also as a scooter maintenance wizard - you can check it all out in her videos & here is her latest as a taster...

Shannon currently has a big old case of chicken pox right now -bleurgh...

  hope you feel better really soon Shannon!!

Shannon Francis, scooter rider...

Our friend, Bristol based Shannon Francis, has just made us this really cool advert:

Thanks very much Shannon, you're a star & we are delighted to be sponsoring someone as passionate, creative (Shannon shares some great photos & videos) & dedicated as you.

Shannon is also sponsored by Rat Scooters & Campus Skate Park, 

because she is THE BEST!

Shannon's latest Instagram photo...



You don't just have to take our word for it though - check out her out on YouTube & on Facebook or maybe even meet her in person if you're down at Campus Skate Park, Bristol...

Skate/Scoot videos...

Hey guys!  We've had some exciting new videos from the SMB Skate Crew - check them out:

Shannon Francis, Bristol based scooter fanatic...



Schaeffer McLean at this years 2012 NASS Festival near Bristol in England The World Cup was held here so Schaeffer couldn't enter the competitions but he had fun just messing around. Although Schaeffer couldn't get to skate the Pro Course he skated backstage with all the Girl Skaters from around the world warming up for the World Cup competition including the winners of the Xgames. His friend and girl competitor Anita Arvelo Almonte came 6th place overall. Schaeffer skated the Route One Mini ramp for a bit and got a very quick go on the Pro Course at the very end. The guys throwing themselves down the stairs were trying to win cash for best tricks. This is the video of the fun Schaeffer had...


The awesome French downhill rider Marie Bougourd (aka Spoky Woky) has been having an amazing IGSA season & has been updating her blog - check it out here

Spoky Woky takes 1st at Confortable

We'll bring you more news and updates soon - in the meantime we'd just like to say a big fat congratulations to our skate crew for being so AWESOME!!!!

Shannon Francis, new stunt scooter vids...

Yeay for Shannon, who is getting to be an awesome stunt scooter rider & who is also epic at videoing her antics!







And this is Shannon's friend, Curtis Vandries:




It's so nice to see Shannon & her friends developing as stunt scooter riders & trying new stuff - keep up the good work guys, you're a real inspiration! :0)

Video edits from our Facebook friends...

Thanks to everyone who's shared an edit with us this week, there's been some real talent on show & we thought we should share it with our friends who aren't Facebook nuts!

Charlie Whitehouse:

Luke Dafforn:

Liam Witchard:

& last but not least, Shannon Francis!

Thanks guys, a great range of talent & fun on show here - surely enough to inspire everyone to get out & give it a go this weekend! :0)

****

Shannon Francis, stunt scooter star...

We're delighted to be able to share the latest video creation from Shannon Francis.  The Bristol-based stunt scooter rider shows off some great skill & very kindly shows off our logo too :0)



We are delighted to sponsor someone so proactive & enthusiastic - keep up the good work Shannon!
You can follow Shannon at her fanpage, where there's lots of news about the Bristol scoot scene.

Shannon Francis, sponsored skater...

A lovely celebration vid by Shannon, our awesome stunt-scooter rider, on account of her being so popular on Facebook that she now has 1000 "likes"... go girl!

SMB Skate crew update

Aaron Skippings has just updated his own blog & has been keeping us entertained with his downhill skating antics & general Facebook musings on life's important issues, like whether a Sherbert Dip Dab explosion, the aftermath of which was witnessed by his unsuspecting parents, could lead to an accidental drugs charge...

Maria (aka Spoky Woky) of 'Team for Ride' fame has just sent us the designs for her new downhill skating leathers & we are proud as punch to be displayed on her thigh... :0)

 

And here are some amazing images from her year so far...

Tony Leard & Doug Brown have been working on some publicity materials for us:

We are hoping to get some posters made up for the guys to use, especially as Doug tours extensively for his Skate Straight programme.

Shannon Francis has been busy too,

the Bristol stunt scooter rider has picked up a heap of new sponsors & still finds time to practise her second passion - video edits of her adventures...



I am sure that there's lots more to tell you, but that's all I can think of right now!

Happy weekend everyone :0)

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SMB Skate Crew season update...

Aaron Skippings

Aaron tells us about his season:
"The season for me has been an awesome one , travelling countries and skating with friends is what its all about ,theres always that time in the year for us who cant skate because of the dreadful winter ,in that time saving money ,getting hyped up for the next year of skating just becomes natural as you know every bit of money you earn is another awesome day etc away shredding it up.

For me starting the first euro race in kozakov was brilliant as i had never had the chance to skate it before ,so many stories of how gnarly it was made me crave for it even more but there was always that butterfly waking up now and again in my stomach.

I can tell you now kozakov was one of the best tracks i have skated since almabtrieb,so fast and tech at the same time just completed it for me . shame about the weather but qualifying was in the rain which resulted in some fast people crashing out and not making the cut as there was only 1 qualifying run because of the time wasted in previous wet weather days.  I managed to qualify and was prepped for racing .OMG!  Racing was amazing, first heat was a proper tough one going up against some proper fast guys but i held them off and managed to get in there into 2nd place and get through to the second round.

2nd round was here ,all top professionals at the start line and then me ;), was a crazy race and have never been so fast in a heat but i didnt make the cut which wasnt a bad thing as i finished in the top 30!  Proper stoke right there! ,apart from the weather ,great event ,great people,great skating ,i will be back in 2012!

favourite videos/pics  - our bandito video ofcourse!


Euro Bandito from Oliver Slaughter on Vimeo.


http://www.skatehousemedia.com/08/16/2011/euro-bandito

Upcoming Events
ride the dragon in wales 17th-18th september:


Click here for more details

Thanks Aaron!  So great to hear all of your news & so many congratulations on a fine season.


Doug Brown

We've recently welcomed pro-skater Doug Brown to our crew... 

Doug does a great deal of motivational speaking & tours to promote the Skate Straight programme for youngsters, but still manages to fit some skating action inbetween!  Doug updated us this morning,  "Today I'm off on a skate adventure with a crew for fun and filming. I'm proud to announce my new sponsor is SMB Bearings out of England. This will be a great partnership as they are fully behind my efforts and they are good people. These bearings are great quality and the best I've ever had."  Thanks Doug!  We really appreciate your feedback on the bearings & are so pleased that you like them.

John Griffiths

No updates from John as yet, but he's heading off to Wales with Aaron to attend the Ride the Dragon event & has had a busy European IGSA season with some great results.
Schaeffer Mclean

The youngest member of the SMB Skate Crew, 7 year old Schaeffer has just return from a European skate trip & his new video is a corker!

"This video is part of a European skate adventure which was filmed across 6 countries. Sadly the Camera and footage was lost just before leaving the 4th country at Krakow Bus Station. This is the footage from a secondary camera of mainly the last 2 countries we visited. See if you can figure out which countries they were! Thank you to everyone who showed us skate spots - we discovered some amazing places. It has to be said that the Security Guard at the beginning kindly let us skate in the end. This is the story of Schaeffer's Skate Travels...."




Shannon Francis

The only stunt scooter rider on the team, Shannon's been busy honing her skills, hanging out with friends & putting together some great video edits of their escapades!



Team For Ride - the gravity sports gang!

Another succesful season for the French gravity sports team, getting good results consitently throughtout the IGSA competitions.  We look forward to a full season update from them soon.

Tony Leard

Lately i havent been doing as much skating due to an injury im dealing with from a recent fall.  But i should be on board soon. I'm mainly busy with graphic design lately, and busy filming trick tip videos for one of my sponsors. But everything lately is picking up good, and i designed a shirt for a company as well.

Check out Tony's blog for his latest news.

Thanks for all the exciting news people!  Wer'll keep you updated with all our skate crew's exciting adventures, as & when they happen :0)

Off to the Lake District for a week's kayaking now, so talk to you all again very soon

 (just as soon as I've dried out)!

SMB Skate Crew update...

SMB Bearings is proud to sponsor an AMAZING bunch of riders & we are delighted to bring you some of their latest news:

Welcome to John Griffiths, UK downhill skateboarder:

John will be travelling to Europe this year to race Kozakov and Insul on the IGSA European tour and hopes to do well. John says "I have been riding downhill for three years now and have competed successfully on an national and international level, heres a list of my results so far:

3rd - Festival longboarderz in portugal
1st - Marignar outlaw
1st - Bo peep outlaw
2nd - Sheepy outlaw
3rd - Bo peep crash & burn "

We look forward to following John's progress closely :0)



New videos from our Bristol crew - Shannon Francis, stunt scooter rider:



& Schaeffer Mclean, 7 year-old skateboarder:



Aaron Skippings has just announced a new blog, so that we can all keep up with his exploits... check it out here


Gravity sports "Team for Ride" won out at last weekend's Familia Challenge in France - Marie stole the show for the ladies, bagging 1st place

And buttboarding we have Fabien at the front & Thibaut bringing up the rear in their race at the Familia...

Tony Leard, US skateboarder & awesome graphic designer, has been a real treat for us - proactive, helpful & talented, he's produced some great graphics to support the SMB Skate Crew & here are the results so far:

Thanks to you all - we are so pleased (& a little bit awed) to be represented by such a talented bunch of riders!

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Stunt-scooter riding, meet a star of the future...

Gone are the days that scooters were the poor relations to skateboards, they are now seriously competing in stunts, tricks, turns & flips at skateparks across the UK.  Let us introduce to you a very talented lady - please meet Shannon Francis from Bristol, already picked as a hot new star in the world of stunt-scooter/trick scooter riding in the UK.  Shannon has only been riding for 18 months but already shows serious skills, as well as bags of enthusiasm!

See her latest vid here:

You rock Shannon!  Thanks for sharing your pics & vids with us :0)

Find out more about the sport & scooter community here  ...