Monday, October 29

Meet the Street

By Josh Root
EXPN.com

Peep our Meet The Street Gallery

The 2-hip Meet The Street contest isn’t like any other contest I’ve ever been to. I would go as far as to say that it is the complete opposite of any TV contest that has ever existed. And that’s exactly how Ron Wilkerson wants it.

Rich Hirsch, Bruce Crisman and I all piled into the car in Portland Oregon to make the drive down to San Francisco and Golden Gate Park for the 2001 Meet the Street. We made a few stops in Ashland and Talent to ride their excellent skateparks. Then straightlined it late into the night, through the wasteland that is the I-5 northern California route.

The 2-hip crew trying frantically to get the ramps together.

Getting to the contest site early was a good idea, as I actually found a legal parking spot. I swear, that town was designed for horses. We arrived promptly at 8:00am (which was what the 2-hip website said we had to do if we wanted to register), and found 100 kids standing around a pile of unfinished ramps. Ron and the 2-hip crew must have been around somewhere, since we parked in front of their van, but there didn’t appear to be anyone over the age of 17 in the whole place.

More and more riders started to show up, and finally Ron flew into the place driving a huge flatbed truck with even more ramps piled on the back. Much frantic building and painting ensued. As soon as any ramp was even close to being finished, masses of riders would instantly descend and session it to death.

The course was pretty close to what it had been the year before. Narrow quarter pipes, sketchy sub box, industrial dumpster, broken down car, and there was some new stuff like a huge wall ride transfer and a rail that looked like it was stolen on the way to the comp. And of course there was a jump box. Don’t ask me why there is a jump box at a street contest. But I’d guess that it has something to do with the fact that 2-hip is one of the companies that has been doing summer tour shows for years and years now. I guess it’s just hard to let go of something like that. Besides, whatever the contest is called, the crowd always likes jump box tricks.

The number of riders in the pro class seemed to be larger than last year, I think there were 20 or close to it. And the number of riders in the two amateur classes were once again maxed out at 40 per class. With the almost 200 bikers trying to ride at the same time, practice was impossible, but everyone tried anyway.

Vandalism is encouraged at Meet The Street.

I wish I could say that I watched every one of the young future BMX pros, but well, it was REALLY long and boring. So the Oregon posse wandered up to Haight and bought lunch at one of the hippie cafes.

After what seemed like a week and a half, the amateur classes finished with what was supposed to be their prelim run, so pro practice was finally able to start. Even with the crowd thinning, it was pretty hard for the pros to get many runs in. Kids were still trying to get in the way and the crowd steadily moved closer and closer onto the course. This led to some spectacular collisions. Including one between Bruce and Cameron Birdwell that had Bruce flying upsidedown straight to his back and could have been straight out of the WWF.

Once the pro class started and each rider got the course to himself, things actually started happening. Mike Griffith, wallride to crankflip out. Bruce Crisman, fufanu on the hip subbox. Jimmy Levan, box jump turndown 360 that was easily 20 feet up. Strieby, tailwhip backflip. All sorts of brakeless tricks from Troy McMurray. Rich Hirsch, wallride to invert. It was the riding that we’d all come to see. Sadly each rider only got 2 minutes of it.

Sprocket grind on the flat rail.

Other exciting events included the Solid bikes crew getting rowdy, yelling, and blowing fire at the riders. Troy took it onto himself to wallride into one of the hecklers. But due to the 40oz of protection that he had, it hardly stunned him. The yelling and fire went on until some sort of fight broke out and the whole contest ground to a halt as someone got the crap beat out of him.

But that’s what makes Meet the Street the interesting event that it is. If you want clean sanitized action sports, watch Warren Miller movies. Me, I’d rather watch the spectacle in San Francisco.

After it was all over came the really fun part, waiting for the results to be announced. One of the good things about a TV contest is that you know almost instantly what the standings and results are. Oh, you may not like the results, but at least you’ll know them. The 2-hip contest was absolutely not at all like this. We must have waited for an hour and a half for the results. It was dark and cold by the time pro results were read off and checks handed out. Here’s the final score:

Really Great (Pro)
1. Adam Strieby (Redline)
2. Bruce Crisman (Diamondback)
3. Jimmy Levan (Metal)
4. Rob Darden (S&M)
5. Ty Hathaway (Pacesetter Bike Shop)
6. Mike Krnaich
7. Troy McMurray (S&M)
8. Gary Young (Dirt Bros.)
9. Ryan Armstrong (2-Hip)
10. Mike Heinz [tie]
10. Ben Boyco [tie]

Great
1. Andre Murillo
2. Samar Corilo
3. David Camacho
4. Josh Pyle
5. Jake Honesto
6. Chris Masters
7. Eben Fischer (Tie)
7. Marcos Torres (Tie)
7. Chad Bautista (Tie)
10. Tim "Fuzzy" Bosstock

Good
1. Tony Campos
2. Jimmy Makin
3. Josh Bingham
4. Scott Richards
5. Michael Drummer
6. Wes Rowe (Tie)
6. Charles Landgren (Tie)
8. Tyson Fitzpatrick
9. Evan Khan
10. Greg Vermulen