Nov 2- Day 1
Between the traveling paranoia, hurricanes and windy vert sessions, I would have never guessed this weekend would have turned out so good. I arrived at the Mutiny Hotel at 1am (The name of the hotel going right along with the theme of the event.) I get a call at 5 am to be told I have a radio interview scheduled with Paul and Ron on Zeta radio 94.6. I roll out of bed to start the day.
The Philips Fusion Event consists of a Skateboard vert bowl comp, organized by World Cup Skateboarding; a Freestyle Motocross demo and a Bike vert bowl comp, organized by us, the Hoffman Sports Association. No contests were going down today - just some local bands jamming and an all time skate session broke out on the vert bowl that consisted of some of the old school forefathers of vert skating. Mike McGill was working the ramp and blasting. McTwists have been around for awhile now, but when you see the originator throw it down it’s like watching history recreating itself. Lance Mountain rolled in doing fast plants off the extension into big alley oops across the next wall, seeping with his old school master style.
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| Brewce Martin, style... |
Brewce Martin is aggro. He has so much aggression I thought he might just combust during his high speed carves through the corners. He has tons of energy, haulin’ ass and carvin’ high speed backside 5.0’s. Tony Magnussen dropped straight in to back-to-back comp runs, rippin’ it up with backside smiths, McTwists and frontside 5.0’s through the corners. He also pulled a classic ho ho plant. Toward the end, Brewce and Tony formed a high speed train around the bowl carving through the corners. It really was an honor to be there and watch this session. I hope the crowd knew how lucky they were. Cab’s supposed to show up tomorrow, so almost ½ the Bones Brigade is going to be in the house!
After the skate session, we started our bike demo. It was short and sweet because the rain started pouring, but I had a blast. The event was at Peacock Park, so I had to get a photo of me doing a Peacock air there.
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| Mat's first Peacock at the Peacock Park |
Nov 3- Day 2
I got up, downed my 4 shot espresso mocha, and went to the Coconut Grove for an autograph session. After that I did some promo stuff for the event, and went to watch the comp. The skies were clear and the organizers of the event must have been counting their blessings.
The jam started with Danny Parks. The wind was gusting and Eric B was blastin’ through the PA, getting everyone bouncing. The riders had three runs and the best two of the three counted for their final score. Josh Harrington followed, rippin’ the park up, throwing down double barspins, huge opposite one hand one footers and working the corners. This boy has skills. Brian Dahl dropped in and got a flat on his second wall. He jumped on Jimmy Walker’s bike and busted his original candy bar first trick. For those that don’t know, Brian invented this trick way back in the early days. Next in the ramp was Tom Stober. Before he dropped in, Iron Man pumped through the PA. I couldn’t have chosen a better song for him. The ramp fears Tom. He lofted no handers, supermans and threw a perfect flair. Then, he pumped a couple walls and chucked a tailwhip barely getting it back and making it smooth. Jeremy Fanberg dropped in and hung up on the under vert side of the ramp so deep he almost clipped his sprocket on the coping. That was a rough way to start, but he made up for it with a big flair, and hit up some tech lip tricks like a downside toothpick. Next to drop in was Achim Kujawski straight from Cologne, Germany representing Hoffman Bikes. Achim went big, doing barspins and throwing down a tailwhip for his first time in competition, pulling it clean. This was probably like the third or fourth tailwhip he has ever done. Congrats Achim! Dave Brumlow followed with a huge 540, battling the wind, carving and alley oopin’, flowin’ the bowl, representing Florida. Another Floridian, Rob Nolli dropped in, spinning the bars to x-up, carving the corners, working the lip. He nailed a tailwhip straight to a Canadian pick, on the other side, spinning the bars at the last minute on re-entry. Gnarly.
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| One Big German (Stephan Geisler)- With one big superman seat grab |
Jimmy Walker went bigger than anyone. He carved the corner straight into a huge air. He linked a million variations into a 540 and back into his other variations. Jimmy was ruling. Stephen Geisler was next to drop in. He did a huge extended seat grab, but hung and flattened his tire. Thanks wind… Kevin Robinson came on strong like he’s known for. No handers, switch hands, can cans, switch hand can cans, a huge 540, and then went straight into carving the corners of the bowl right into a no handed flair. Perfect. He adjusted his seat and dropped in again and did a 7 ft. tailwhip and over rotated, but hung on and landed it. I now understand the advantages of going to the gym everyday.
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