Thursday, September 6

Rolling the Dice

By Sarah Blyth

If you're going to have a contest at any of the many skateparks in Vancouver, BC, this is probably the one you're going to pick. The park was designed by Kyle Dion, who's been making parks all over BC lately, and he did a bang-up job. The park is everything that a beginner could dream of and has almost everything that the pros would put in their own park, which is maybe why it's the home park of the local MacNeil/Ten Pack riders. That said, you know that the quality of this park is sick. On any given day you could see pros Jay Miron, Dave Osato, Jason Enns and Dom Mach - as well as countless other great up and coming pros destroying the park.

When I heard that Terry Carson was organizing a contest at the park as a fundraiser for the Skatepark Association, I was pretty excited. The park was a virgin to bike contests, so I knew that the turnout would be huge - but the turnout was way more than I was expecting. We knew that some friends were coming up from Seattle, but had no idea that people would come from as far away as Edmonton, Alberta.

A rider who shall go nameless busts out a backwards smith grind.

Practice started Saturday morning at about 9 or so, but I didn't show up 'til noon when the contest should have been underway - but of course this is BMX, and things were a bit behind. The sun was shining pretty hard, it was pretty hot, so I was thinking now would be a good time to put on some sunscreen. Why the rush? I thought I'd better just check out practice - and it was in full swing. Riding in that park was absolute mayhem. This park is known for being busy, but holy crap it was nuts.

The contest eventually got underway once Terry was able to run out and get a new microphone. Darcy Saccucci and Terry were sharing the MC'ing and DJ'ing duties on this day and two things these two love to do is rip on people over the mic. 80's metal was the musical choice of the day, as it is everyday for Terry.

The beginners class were run first and there was a bunch of stand-out kids, but it's just amazing to see some of these kids just blasting. Joey Pierce from Mission, BC was blasting top-side no-footed cancan's off the hip, hovering around the 4 foot mark - and he can't be a day over 14! Travis Lyons was just destroying the park and didn't seem like he belonged in this class, but we later found out that it was his first contest, so that's fair. He ended up winning, so it looks like he'll be moving up to the expert class for his next contest - and has a pretty good shot at winning if he keeps it up.

The Pro demos were run pretty casually between the two classes. The pros that were on hand had to do other shows around the area, and they were definitely the highlight of the contest. Greg Nicholson (Solid Bikes) wasted no time busting huge airs over the spine. Matt Sager came up from Olympia, Washington to join local pros Jason Enns (Volume), Rob Parsons (FBM) for the demo. Matt spent most of the time riding the mini, and it shows because he was doing some of the more technical tricks - tailwhip nosepicks on the spine, and tailwhips to tailtaps. Jason Enns owns that park and showed us all how it's supposed to be done. During one of his runs, he came up and did an icepick on the sub next to where Chris was shooting photos. Jason held the icepick for so long, Chris had time to move, focus, and take a picture from above. That's the kind of skills Jason has.

Rob Parsons was just recently picked up by FBM bikes, and there's no doubt that he's on the right bike company - he's just a bad-ass. Fresh home from his day of teaching at Woodward camp, he absolutely sky's everything in the park. I won't go into details, but yes, he was only at Woodward for a day. At one point during the demo, Greg Nicholson came ripping toward the wall of a quarterpipe and busted a backflip hovering above the ten foot mark - to flat bottom. He later did another one and ended up in a pile on the concrete. That's what we Love about Greg so much, he can eat crap and get right back up and do it again. He was floating some airs a good nine feet above the coping of the spine. I was starting to feel the effects of the sun, so you'd think now would be a really good time to put some sunscreen on, if I could only find it, did I even pack any?

The expert class eventually started around 3. The first thing I have to say is there are some really, really good riders around here. I don't know where they all came from. Well, I know where a few of them came from, but they're just blowing up. Luke Hurdle had just gotten back from his golfing trip at Woodward with Rob Parsons, and he has this park dialed. It's his home park, so he had nice turndowns over the spine, and his peg-bonk to manuals are just so sweet. Luke takes 3rd. Greg Parsons had the most technical riding of the experts, finally nailing a fufanu to icepick to fakie after trying several times during his runs. He even busted out an abubaca on the 8 foot quarterpipe. The judges liked his run a whole bunch, so they gave him second. 18 year-old Harrison Boyce was up from Seattle for the weekend and he had a mission. He wanted to win that contest. Harrison used the whole course, and used it well. He was grinding the ledges, manualing the handrails and ledges, and jumping like a madman. He did exactly what he was there for, and he won. Congrats, Harrison.

Harrison Boyce blasting a table high above the hip.

The last event of the day was the foot-down contest. This is very serious event and in case you've never heard of it before, here's how you play. Everyone rides around the park trying to knock their opponents over - if you put your foot down, you're out. The last person still riding is the winner. This game is best when you have more than ten people in a crowded area, like a skatepark. It might sound a little ridiculous, but when bystanders start throwing their bikes into the bowl to knock people down, it becomes quite exciting. Ben MacPherson, the human washboard, was the last man standing, or I suppose riding, so he'll hold his title 'King of the foot-down' until next year.

The awards were given out with many prizes from MacNeil Bikes, Ride On, Primo, 3 Ride.com, 1664 BMX, Nettwerk Records and Universal Music. There was also had a draw for a MacNeil 'Miron' frame. Some little kid ended up winning it, making all the big kids green with envy. There was a sticker, CD and record toss, so of course the crowd went ape. Never in my life did I think I'd ever see a record toss. Do any of these kids even have record players?

By the end of the day, the spectators outnumbered the riders by five to one, and there were fifty riders entered. It's amazing how people are drawn to heavy metal like that, but I suppose it could be that people passing by might have been enticed to come and sit in the grass and watch a bunch of kids kill themselves on their bikes. I ended up going home with a crazy sunburn at the end of the day - good thing I was going to be standing out in a parking lot all day Sunday to watch the flatland jam going down just up the street. Will I ever learn?

Results

Beginner
1. tie - Travis Lions / Joey Pierce
2. Jordan Cook
3. Frank Vass
4. Ian Daykin
5. Greg Russel

Expert
1. Harrison Boyce
2. Greg Parsons
3. Luke Hurdle
4. Al Shantz
5. Jonathan D.