Cody Pollard in Italy: Behind the Scenes with the Fast & Loose Crew
LUXBMX pro Cody Pollard recently spent some time in Italy, pursuing his yearly/bi-yearly pilgrimage to meet up with his buds in the Fast & Loose crew. It must be tough being a continent apart, with the Fast & Loose guys mostly being on the west coast of America, so you can empathise with Cody as to how exciting it must be to join them on the road and do what BMXers do best, explore the countryside in the name of BMX, fun and adventure.
The following piece arises from Cody's most recent trip, in which he flew to the southern European country of Italy, continuing the never-ending search for transition. The boys have recently released a full length video called 'Magnetar', documenting the last couple years of road trip shenanigans. With this project having just been released, the Fast & Loose crew decided to head overseas to sample a new country, new bowls, new scene and to share the love with a BMX landscape that might not be front of mind. The boys orchestrated a premiere at an indoor skatepark in Milan, in association with a bike shop called Elgasamiento, as well as a few jams.
While the trip to Italy wasn't based around a hardcore filming mission, it certainly met all the pre-requisites for filling up the soul with life-long memories. After flying home and finding his natural position back on the tools, Cody was kind enough to share a bunch of photos from the trip, supported with captions. So all you bikers out there, consider yourself lucky to get a super close, behind the scenes look at what it's like to be on the road with the Fast & Loose crew.
Let's go.
Elbo bowl in Bologna, built by Dreamland skate parks so straight up you know it’s good. It has the old school vicious deep end transition, no belly and all vert. Very hard to trust on your first few hits because you can’t pull back at all. Once you fully trust and just let yourself ride through it, it’s so good man, the reward is well worth it.
Man, nothing beats finding a supermarket for lunch and sitting down in the car park and having a feed, sharing food and shit talking, taking a break from the sun during the hottest part of the day. I love doing this stuff on the road. The simple things man.
I got to ride this bowl on my birthday, the best gift a bloke could ask for. It’s a private backyard bowl on a skater’s property. He wasn’t there at the time but was nice enough to let us ride it as long as the dudes who had pegs removed them. Corey and Santi organised this session and it’s one I’ll have in my memory forever.
Have a go at this swimming hole. Trekking down to it I honestly thought it was bone dry the water was that clear and still it wasn’t until Josh touched it and it rippled that you could see the water. Another way to spend the midday heat cooling off.
Have a go at this little wooden gem. A little indoor bowl owned by a bloke named Rob. He is an absolute legend of a human who looked after us so well while we were in Milan. Real easy to hit the roof and hell scary when it happens haha. The place is called Front Ocean indoor if anyone wants to check it out.
Rob, his wife and young fella front and centre on the 16 inch. Surrounded by a heap of other young shredders that ride Front Ocean park regularly. I wish the world had more people like Rob, the dude has pure love and passion for BMX you can feel it when your around him.
On our way to see Bongzilla play. I probably can’t actually write the things that went down in the back of this van but I was in tears laughing struggling to breathe haha. Bongzilla was all time, another birthday gift in my eyes anyways. They even gave me a vinyl for free. Unbelievable!
This little bowl ripped. Wasn’t big but super fun. Had an awesome local scene as well. It’s cool being somewhere that you can’t understand each other but you’re all stoked on riding together high fiving each other and stuff.
Cruising the streets, taking it all in, how beautiful are all the buildings!
On my last night in Milan, I went for a cruise with the street crew, such a good bunch of dudes. We pulled up at this spot to enjoy the view and have a beer.
Some riding.
Speaking of 'Magnetar', keep your eyes peeled on The Journal as a review of the video is currently being drafted. Shouts to the Fast & Loose boys for their efforts to document BMX and highlight how fun this thing is. Also, big shouts to Cody for being down to take part in this piece.
