Friday, April 5

BMX Update 06.04.02

By Josh Root
EXPN.com

So it's been a little bit since we last had an update. I guess that's what happens when I get caught up tramping through foreign countries. But now that I'm back in the land of litigation and skate-stoppers, I can fill you in on exciting news in the BMX world.

Tony Hawk had the first show of his "Boom Boom Huck Jam" at the Mandalay Bay Casino on the Las Vegas strip. The show was a circus style event with BMX, Motocross and obviously skateboarding. BMX riders included Dave Mirra, Dennis McCoy, John Parker, Kevin Robinson and Mat Hoffman. The Offspring and Social Distortion provided the soundtrack. It sounds like there was over $1,000,000 involved in getting all the ramps together. I guess that's why tickets were $75. Look for the show in a city near you, as it is supposed to be going on tour this fall.

For years now, Rob Sugary and Wade Nelson have been putting together a jam in the backwater BC town of Nelson. Appropriately called "The Nelson Jam", it has always been half social event and half contest for anyone near the BC area. Every year it goes off like crazy, and this year sounds like it was no exception. I'm not really sure who won the riding contest, but the mustache contest was won by Vancouver flatlander Cory Stratychuk. There's a good report on www.chasebmxmag.com or you can read about it in the upcoming issue.

Love Park (or JFK Plaza) in Philly has been fenced in with "no trespassing" signs all over it. Rumor has it that the setup that we all love will be changed to make it a lot less BMX/skateboarding friendly. Hooray for urban improvement. I'm sure there are many other things that Philly could be doing with money. Like getting homeless of the streets perhaps?

You just missed the MOSH team out on tour through the east. Dummy, you should pay more attention.

Venice Beach KOD (King of Dirt) is June 21-23. Pro and Ams, so get your bike there and ride it for fame and glory.

The Vans team has been out on tour this spring. Cory Nastazio, Dennis McCoy, Rick Thorne and others have been showing up at Vans Skateparks across the country.

Faction BMX magazine (formerly "BMX Action", but not the old "BMX Action" from the 80's) has relocated from California to Philly. John Paul Rogers will be bringing his special blend of chaos to the east now. Fathers of girls all over the west coast were said to be very relieved.

The rumors are true, Mat Hoffman and Simon Tabron are both riding Skyway Tuff Wheels. And they've both had wheel-shattering crashes recently. There's no connection, so go satisfy your old school dreams and pick up a set.

The Nokia/FISE contest in Palavas, France was a great event that I was at recently. Palavas is a half trashy tourist resort and half working fishing village. So that added some flavor to the place. Since I'm such a down to earth person. I stayed in a little room over a local restaurant instead of the hotels that all the other guys were in (that's what I get for not getting a hotel room set up in advance). Then again, I was two blocks from the ramps, rather than the 20 minutes (walking) that the hotels were. Lots of great riding happened and Lionel from fresh bikes has replaced Steve Swope as my favorite announcer of all time.

Osato pulling a 360 nosepick tailwhip in Palavas.

Here are the PRO results:

Dirt:
1) Ryan Nyquist
2) Stephane Renaud
3) Gael Sibeth
4) Bibi Noirot
5) Cyril Dangeul
6) Matt Beyers
7) Elian Tornior
8) Alex Dropsy
9) Stephane Cayet
10) Laurent Nesme

Street:
1) Jay Miron
2) Ryan Nyquist
3) Dave Osato
4) John Heaton
5) Rueben Alcantara
6) Sergio Layos
7) Pascal Guerard
8) Bibi Noirot
9) Benni Korthaus
10) Ben Manual

Flatland:
1) Viki Gomez
2) Martti Kuoppa
3) Michael Steingraeber
4) Frank Lukas
5) Phil Dolan
6) Alex Jumelin
7) Jimmy Petitet
8) Sergio Goncalves
9) Armin Batoumeni
10) Christophe Dassie

Vert:
1) Simon Tabron
2) Eduardo Terreros
3) Zach Shaw
4) Stephan Geisler
5) Alex Reinke
6) Achim Kujawski
7) Romaric Fath
8) Stephane Meneau
9) Nicolas Jurcovich

Nyquist in the middle of a one handed 360 in Palavas.

Koji Kraft & Jimmy Walker both ride for Hoffman Bikes now. Shouldn't you be riding one too?

Kevin Little and John Pratt are on 1664. 1664 is Canadian. Have you ever seen that show from Canada called "Talking to Americans"? It makes us look as dumb as we really are.

Mike Laird is on Huffy, which gives them +10 to their Amazing Riding skill points.

And finally, if you needed any convincing that pro BMX is truly and international affair, you should just look at the latest pro results from the Georgia EXPN Invitational. Just one example would be that all three pro classes were won by folks from "across the pond" (that means Europeans).

Bad news from up north, Calgary's Ken Dowdle wrote to say that the City of Calgary is considering banning BMX from the amazing Millennium park there. Booooooo, boooooo to this I say. And if this is what you say also, write a well thought out letter (no swearing is probably good, or at least not much) to: madeleine.king@gov.calgary.ab.ca. She is a city official up there and the best bet that BMX has to stay riding at a great park.

I sleep now go to. I think that would be good.