Yes, I am up and alive
„Oh, he is still alive“ might some of you think since it has been a while that I wrote the last newsletter in this form. Ever since I changed the newssystem on my website bustywolter.com I have been a little bit lazy with sending out these newsletters.

In the last months I was pretty busy and nearly nonstop on the road. But I am sure you don‘t want to hear my lousy excuses and hopefully you are interested in what I have been up to this year. So I will just start my summary...

The year 2009 started pretty much with the end of 2008 when I got informed that some of my sponsors quit their support, mostly because of the bad economy right now. So now I am no longer with DVS Shoes (but thanks for the good support in the last six years) and Eastpak (also big props for the great support since 2002). Since the car companies are having a hard time, Suzuki stopped their car support, but luckily they keep on giving me my beloved bikes! On a good note on the sponsor side of things: swatch brought me into their international swatch Outlaws team and I found a new sponsor with Specialized, who are hooking me up with great Mountainbikes! Also Magura is providing their good handlebars to most of the UPFORCE
crew. Welcome on board!



For 2009 I have decided to pretty much not compete anymore. I want to focus more on shows, especially with our mobile UPFORCE FMX SHOW setup, and getting coverage through different things as cool photo- and videoshootings and roadtrips and I want to try to work closer together with my sponsors. I am very happy with my FMX-career and have fulfilled way more than I could ever dream of. Riding FMX is still my mainthing, but I will try to start the first steps into my after-pro- career now as well. Trying to be smart and stuff like that you know... HAHA!

The year started as usual with the FMX show during the SX in Dortmund, it was great as every year! The Masters of Dirt tour switched to a great show-concept for 2009 and I participated in the first three events of he year in Belfast, Vienna and Linz. Especially Vienna was a big highlight of the year, the show was pretty insane! You shouldn‘t be missing it next year! I had shows at the „Wir Schanzen Tour“ snowboard contest lined up, but unfortunately this one completely rained out and we had to cancel it after practice in sunny wweather. Big bummer! Fab and me also rode the VAT on Wheel show in the Netherlands, which was pretty fun. Both of us made it into the final, in which the crowd decided, who the winner is. Fab rides like a maniac
right now and is in the form of his life. But as always I brought out the entertainer and showmanship, so the crowd couldn‘t decide who should win. So Fab and me decided the crowd is the winner since they have seen a great event... My last show was last weekend at the Dirtmasters Festival, one of Europes biggest Mountainbike festivals. During the VANS Rocknight my Upforce buddies and me showed the enthusiastic crowd what we are able to do.

I also did a regional MX race just for fun and finished 3rd overall on my twostroke Suzuki (YES, I am still racing a twostroke and it is a hell of a fun!!!). Besides riding my bike I have been busy with some other things as well. Since the beginning of the year I am helping Ryan Leyba as Euro FMX-insider with the ESPN actionsports website, providing him regularly with interviews, stories, pictures, videos and that stuff to fill the website. This made me write a little bit more again for motoX magazine in Germany as well.

What I am really happy about is that Red Bull hired me as expert for the Red Bull X-Fighters TV production. I have to interview the riders during the event after their runs and produce some more stories about the events. My kickoff in Mexico went well and right now I am in Canada for the second round. That is one of those jobs that I have dreamed about and it just happened, so big thanks to all the Red Bull mediahouse guys and Stefan Kleinalstede of Magnum Film. At the Dirtamasters Festival I was announcing during the slopestyle contest for two days in a row and everybody told me afterwards that I did a good job. So I am really getting back into the media side of things, what has been my plan anyway. So things are turning out well for me old
guy (old for FMX terms...).



Also the SPOTelicious videoproject of me and some friends is getting more and more work, so we keep on trying to build that one up as well in the future. Last but not least, my rockstar „career“ is getting to new levels as well since with our band „DAN DRYERS“ we have recorded our first full album „Wrestling in Tijuana“ that can be bought from now on. We have filmed our first video, played together with NOFX (yes, exactly THESE punkgods NOFX), had our first song played on MTV and did some concerts. For September and October we have a little tour planed, so make sure to check our new site on www.myspace.com/dandryers.
That‘s it fo rnow, thanks for reading and here is the promise to try to keep you updated more often!

Cheers, Busty


[www.bustywolter.com]