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ive known josh for probably 5 or so years. hes always been the kid that whatever new trick was happening.. he was one of the first to have it dialed. and now hes taken that even further and comin up w/ the hot moves. hes been getting a ton of coverage lately and has got the internet goin nuts. haha.. so heres some words.and a video video courtest of kyle carlson and yoinked from vitalbmx.com A/S/L 20 year old male living in tempe arizona. how long have you been shreddin almost half my life, 7 years favorite az spots ( without giving exact locations duh) Freestone skatepark, ditches, a couple jib jab spots by my house like some wall rides and curbs. We have really good spots, just kinda spread out. favorite dudes to ride w/ I have a couple groups I alternate riding with. My roomates, smoker drew and jeremey, shane and the kids at reed, kids from out of town. I probably should have just said everybody. you recently started spending alot more time on your front wheel. what started that? Like two years ago, nobody rode anymore, and if they did it was at the phoenix skatepark, which was horrible. So I rode by myself. It's hard to go out riding spots by yourself so I just played around in my front yard. do you think flatland inspired street riding will continue to progress.. beyond hang 5s and hang nothings? Right now nose wheelies are hot. I think that isnt slowing down anytime soon. But as far as getting really complicated flat moves on street, I dont know crazy people will get with that. I say that because a few years ago people used to do flatland runs on the deck of 1/4's and that never really caught on. People can always appreciate something that takes a lot of balance though. you also recently got hooked up w/ fit, how did that come about. That happened this year at interbike. Kyle Carlson and robbie talked about it for a little while. Robbie was interested so he wanted to meet up and talk. He told me to meet him at anthem skatepark, I was so excited to get there that i forgot about things like speed limits and cars not being able to go around turns at high speeds and damn near killed myself and a cop. Since then robbie has been hookin me up with bikes. I couldn't be happier. lately youve been blowin up on the internet. how do you feel about that? I can't complain. The internet is kinda like the new coverage in bmx. We have sites like Vital, bmxonline, the come up, fatbmx and this one that have news and videos all within a few days of the events happening and its free. But then theres all the shit talkers. That part is kinda werid. Some how some way those kids dont hate me. Thats awesome because its such a hard group to please. It's just a bummer seeing some of the stuff people say about my friends. is it wierd having people talk about you like they know you when you havnt met them once in your life? Thats something I could have never imagined happening. I had a kid tell me to my face that he rides with Josh Betley. It's werid, but flattering I guess. what are your plans for this year? travel? film? ride? All of the above! Bike riding is number one. It's not like team serious, its just thats what I love to do. I defintly plan on riding a whole bunch traveling and filming as much as i can. I have a couple projects in the works that i'm really psyked on. who do you think is going to win the az part of the local exposure tour, and be the next from AZ to "come up" hah This is a hard one. I would really like to see either Shane Reider, Alan Blackmore, Johny (dont know his last name, I just know he airs really high) or that rueben kid from douglas. All those guys are amazing bike riders with a really good attitude. But if he wanted to Jason Owens could take it no problem. what do you think is the reason for the HUGE scene in AZ? and who are your inspirations/favorites ( might be the same as your friends) I think we have a such a huge scene because we live in a large area with tons of people and year round riding. Its so awesome having so many good riders around to feed off. I'm really inspired by all the people I ride with even if its once or twice a year. I feel like I ride differnt around differnt people so its good to be always mixing it up. I really like riding with shane reider, rocky canales, bryan booye, smoker dave, drew hosselton, jeremy sawyer, eric balhman, chadwick, kc badger, sean sexton, bink, nate fleegle, derek riggs, greg litecky, jason owens, thats just a few people, all from arizona that really inspire me. if you could live any where besides here where would it be and why I would move somewhere else maybe on the east coast just for a complete change up. My family is originally from pennsylvania, seems like a differnt world everytime I go back, but in a good way. what do you do besides ride a little bike? I work at a bike store so I'm around bikes all day. I usually just hang out with my friends, watch tons of movies, pretend like i'm going to fix up my vw corrado, drink coffee, go to roller derby, listen to music and chill. any thanks? My family, my friends, fit bikes and CARLSON CO.