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Event: Backyard jam round 2. Date: october 2004. Place: Derby, UK. |
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| Once again the Etnies Backyard Jam saw BMX bike riding pushed to new levels. 90+ experts and over 50 pro's anihilated our Nate Wessel-designed Derby street course, with Fit's Van Homan emerging the eventual victor (among super close competition), and Federal's Corey Martinez once again taking the Snickers best trick purse. Anyone who attended would agree judging was no enviable responsibility, with riders continually throwing down moves that were, quite simply, off the hook. And the treats were coming in just as thick and fast off the course as on, with the video premieres of STF, S&M, Federal and T1 releases taking place at our second 3 day event. |
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| EXPERTS | |
| As is always the case, many of the riders in expert street finals could easily have hung in pro. Countless good stuff went on, with many riders using all the obstacles on the course to pull off some pretty advanced moves - with the kind of riding quality coming through in the UK ranks, its a rosy picture for the future. Tom Raw emerged top of the pile in 1st, ahead of Frenchman Georges Pich, with Leon Perkins in 3rd. Skims to all who took part, sorry there is not more space for mentions. | Expert Street Finals: 1.Tom Raw 2.Georges Pich 3.Leon Perkins 4.Jason Davies 5.Tom Robinson 6.Chris Collins 7.Chris Jenner 8.Jimmy Thali 9.Edward Mullins 10.Will Herrmann 11.Nathan Beddows 12.Andy Pilsbury 13.Nicolas Lefevre 13.Louie Hartley 15.Niki Croft 16.Mike Miller 17.Liam Eltham 18.Chris Nunn 19.Ross Waring 20.Daniel Shearer 74.50 21 Rob Stacey 74.00 21 Gary Wells 74.00 23 Leon Harvey 73.75 24 Steve Saunders 72.75 24 Chris Zalocki 72.75 26 Scott Buchanan 72.50 27 Scotty "Yak" Webb 71.25 28 Nuno Nunes 70.50 29 Thomas Bridges 69.50 30 Matthew Coates 69.00 31 Michael Richardson 68.75 32 Rob Reed 68.25 33 Eddy Truett 68.00 34 Andrew Reed 67.75 35 Carl Norfolk 67.25 36 Gary Butler 67.00 37 Simon Hall 66.75 38 Luke Freeman 66.50 38 Sam Ward 66.50 40 Kurt Crossman 66.25 41 Dean Cueson 65.75 42 Matthew Sillis 65.25 43 Karl Dean 64.75 43 Daniel McInerey 64.75 43 jimmy "punt" shea 64.75 43 Tom Curtin 64.75 47 Nathan Evans 64.25 48 Ray "X-Ray" Allen 63.50 49 James Elliott 62.50 50 Ashley Munn 62.25 51 Jon Bracey 61.75 51 Scott Burton 61.75 53 Edward Crouch 61.00 54 Jon Foxley-Evans 60.00 54 Josh Shipley 60.00 56 Charlie Johnston 59.75 56 Matt Goodall 59.75 56 Rob Palmer 59.75 59 Alex Hoyer 59.00 60 Paul aka "Silverback" Rushmore 58.75 61 Dean Hempshall 58.50 61 Rob Wainwright 58.50 63 Kane Hennessy 58.25 64 Lewis Knowles 58.00 64 Ben Warren 58.00 66 Matty Truett 56.75 66 Adam Galt 56.75 68 Nicky Black 55.75 69 Sonny Nutall 55.25 70 David Randle 54.75 71 Tom Forster 54.50 72 Raymond I Fellows 54.25 73 Stuart White 52.75 74 Lawson Prescott 52.50 75 Richard Brake 52.25 76 Ashley Watts 52.00 77 Ross Evans 51.75 78 Ben Franklin 51.50 79 Tom Lowe 51.25 80 Sam Barclay 50.75 81 Dave Kershaw 50.50 82 Zach Williams 49.75 83 Luke Pagett 49.50 84 Jamie Wasley 48.00 85 Liam Vance 47.50 86 Steve Artus |
| PROS | |
| Pro Finals saw so much nuts riding go down that it’s near on impossible to pick highlights; every rider who qualified – and many who did not – had something to get the “yeah’s” ringing out from the 1000 strong crowd. Making his first appearance at the Backyard jam was US trail master Chris Doyle, who made up for lost time with his signature clicked turndown 360’s over the spine, and spun up a media frenzy with massive whip and 360 transfers from the spine to the driveway. “Dirty Dan” Bogard also made his first appearance, doing it for Kink Bikes and showing how good kids can get when they live in a Skatepark. At just 16, this guy was awesomely good, getting tech with a 270 to icepick and back over the jersey barrier spine, nose wheelies on the driveway, and came super close to a footjam tailwhip nosepick to fakie on the spine. Expect to see a lot more of this guy in future. Expect also to see a lot more of Federal Bikes’ Will Love. Showing why Ian Morris is truly the “Alex Fergusson of the BMX world” (Grotbags), Will justified his signing with a downside whip drop from shed roof into the wallride tranny, and a crazy tailwhip to feeble on the grindbox. Another new kid on the block was Diamond Back’s 19 year old Steven Lilly, who rode smooth and fast, proving his ability with a barspin to manual to feeble to 180 out (kids these days eh!!). Placing just ahead of him in 16th was local boy and previous amateur winner, Matthew Roe, who scared the crowd silly by pedaling like a madman at everything, going huge on the 10ft and landing smooth 360’s and turndowns over the spine and doubles. Accompanying Roe in pro street were a brace of UK riders, headed up by Owain Clegg. Clegg rode the whole course well, with some good variations over the doubles (double boner seatgrab and stretched out suicides) spliced with some technical stuff like backside boneless on the shed roof and a step thru footjam Canadian nosepick on the spine, placing him 10th overall. Coming in behind him was Will Jackson, who dominated the grindbox and spine with real street moves,while also demonstrating good all round ability. Will ended with a barspin fakie transfer from spine to minramp and came in 11th. Twelfth also went to a Brit. Luke Marchant showed fluid style and speed, clicking inverts and turndowns out of the wallride and high up on the 10ft quarter. No doubt he’d have placed higher had he pulled off the high speed lazy 180 over the doubles that he came so close to. John Rogers also impressed, with a tailwhip 360 to manual to 180 out over the spine, and a 540 fufanu on the shed roof, standing out in his 13th place run. Proceedings higher up the rankings were dominated however by US riders; with the noteable exception of Fly bikes Sergio Layos. Last year’s winner, Layos once again left us wondering what it is about Spanish riders and flow. Personally, I like the theory about growing up riding scooters, but whatever it is Layos is such a treat to watch, whether just pumping around or clicking switch 360 lookbacks over the doubles. Kevin Porter also made the trip to represent Fly, and did so in a rather unorthodox fashion. Porter spent most of his runs and the best trick contest trying to ride along the spectator barrier round the side of the course and tailwhip 180 into the spine. Though he couldn’t quite make this happen, Porter did 180 off this super narrow barrier and just slipped off a tailwhip from it too. But for those who were there all weekend, the Porter highlight to remember was hands down a 720 into, and then 720 out of, the super tight doubles section, with about 8ft between first landing and second takeoff. Propping up the top eight was half-cab king Bruce Crisman, who showed us all why he holds an x-games street gold with a smooth run all over the course, before nibbling a super-hard fakie half cab line. Crisman ruled it in the end, with a 180 to fakie into the doubles, half cab out then rollback from the vert wall to half cab back into the doubles and a 360 out (Sounds complicated you say. And it was). Once again the event featured a strong presence from event sponsors Etnies, with both their US and UK team riders shredding, and 3 of them making the top 4 places. Brian Vowell blew away the crowd with his tech-wizardry in his first jam appearance, pulling off a double tailwhip nosepick to fakie and some crazy hang-five variations in practice (but failing unfortunately to recreate them for the judges). Ruben Alcantara didn’t have the best of final runs either, but as usual had all the original lines and flow of a master on display. 2002 Derby winner Taj Mihelich was going all out again, nailing a fufanu on top of the vert wall section of the wallride. And the UK’s Ben Hennon wasn’t holding back either, throwing down 360-whips over the spine and doubles and taking 3 hard slams chasing a trick he’s yet to pull – the 360 downside whip. Not to be outdone, Canada’s John Heaton was also going huge, airing the wallride, and landing a flair to tyretap on the strange wedged subox above the 6ft quarter that became known as the “shed roof”. Placing just above Heaton, and demonstrating all kinds of skills in territory both home and alien, was the UK’s Jamie Bestwick. The former Derby local, riding only his second street competition in 10 years, obviously went ludicrously high on the 10ft quarter, but also surprised many with an array of more technical moves proving what a complete rider Jamie is away from the vert ramp as well. Called joint second at the presentation, Jamie was later pipped at the post for second by Etnies teammate Mike “Rooftop” Escamilla, after some no doubt very exciting statistical analysis. Rooftop was nonetheless very deserving of the placing, with clean runs and big tricks to boot. Intent on selling his King bike, Rooftop demonstrated its aerial capabilities with flair transfers out of the 10ft quarter and from the 6ft quarter into the middle wallride transition. (He also lived up to his name for heights, peg grinding the wallride from the quarter). But the pro street belonged to Fit / Orchid rider Van Homan, who came out on top after near spotless runs in qualifying and the finals, making full use of every obstacle on the course. Homan had it all, with huge no foot can cans, downside whips out of the wallride, backrail fufanus, and a nuts transfer to feeble the box from the doubles take off among his highlights. To cap it all off, Van did an old school no hander from the 10ft quarter into the step up quarter pipe, straight into a tailwhip into the cheese wedge. The man was on fire. |
Pro Street Finals: 1.Van Homan 2.Mike Escamilla 3.Jamie Bestwick 4.John Heaton 5.Corey Martinez 6.Sergio Layos 7.Taj Mihelich 8.Chris Doyle 9.Bruce Crisman 10.Owain Clegg 11.Will Jackson 12.Luke Marchant 13.John Rogers 14.Kevin Porter 15.Ben Hennon 16.Matthew Roe 17.Steven Lilly 18.Ruben Alcantara 19.Dan Bogard 20.Brian Vowell 74.20 21 Jon Taylor 76.60 22 Phil Aller 76.50 23 Pedro Seca 75.00 24 Chris Mahoney 74.80 24 Will Love 74.80 26 Dave Frieumuth 74.60 27 Gaz Wilson 74.00 28 Paul Jeffries 73.00 29 Bob Scerbo 72.40 30 Ron Kimler 71.60 31 Christian Ziegler 70.40 31 Ross Tanner 70.40 33 Vinnie Hunter 70.00 34 Matthew Wakefield 69.60 35 Josh Stricker 69.40 35 Robin Fenlon 69.40 37 Brian Wizmerski 68.60 38 Josh Elkington 68.20 39 Martyn Tambling 66.60 40 Amos Burke 66.00 41 Caleb Kilby 65.20 41 Cameron Hardy 65.20 43 Robert 'Brownie' Brown 63.00 44 Mitch Yeates 61.20 45 Mark Webb 61.00 46 Joe Fox 59.00 47 Nick Vale 57.60 48 Ryan Barrett 55.80 48 Daniel McGeary 55.80 50 Glen Wood 54.80 51 Matthew Oliver 52.60 52 Ben Dukes 45.40 |
| Snickers Best Trick | |
| In case the spectators hadn’t seen enough lunacy in the pro street finals, Snickers put up £1500 for the best trick contest where riders had 30 mins to perform their ultimate stunt. Justifying his 2004 NORA street rider cup - and once again leaving the jam with not one but two cheques – Federal’s Corey Martinez took the honours. Having pulled off an inverted 360 over the jersey barrier straight into a barspin to icepick on the miniramp backrail, and a massive whip gap from spine to doubles landing, during his 5th place street run, it was hard to see how this could be bettered. But Corey is Corey, and had a little something left up his sleeve (and just take a minute to think about this!!) …..a barspin to icepick to barspin back in, on top of the vert wall of all things. 4th attempt. Job Done. |
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| Premieres | |
| 50 pros, 90 amateurs and 4 film premieres, aaaaahhh, too much good riding to take in….. Friday night kicked off at the crowded Blue Dog venue in the city centre, with the premieres of the latest offerings from STF media and S&M bikes. Both videos looked to be pretty good, although both seemed to feature the back of peoples heads a lot from where I was standing, and the nights excesses of alcohol wiped my memory of details. Suffice to say there was plenty of local support in the house for Fraser Byrne’s STF video “Sequel”, and Bob (Scerbo), Wiz and Stricker looked psyched with the reception “Please kill me” received. Views of the screen were much improved for the Saturday night, with at least 200 riders getting a clear view of the Federal and T1 videos which were projected onto the street course wall ride and played out through the van load of speakers provided by SWAB (SoundWavesAgainstBastardization). First up was a 20 minute interview featurette of Terrible one and friends, where it transpired that Taj and Joe are actually one and the same person (hence Terrible ONE) and that, despite physical appearances, Ian Morris is three times the man Taj/Joe is, because he owns not one but three companies. One of these companies is Federal, and judging by the team video they know what’s up. The Steven Hamilton and Corey Martinez sections have to be seen to be believed. I’m not even going to attempt to describe any of it cos I have no hope of doing them justice. “Nuts” is just not a strong enough word. Although still at core a riding video, Terrible one’s, “you get what you get” was more of a film, if you will - and definately something done a bit differently. With footage from the T1 world tour, this video had a sometimes reflective feel; an appreciation for the broader impact of riding on your life, and where it can take you. It also featured Garrett Byrnes riding some of the most ridiculous bicycles ever to be hidden in a welders garage. Obviously this was still coupled with footage of the unreal bike skills we’ve all come to expect from arguably the world’s best team, featuring Taj Mihelich, Joe Rich, Ruben Alcantara, Garrett Byrnes, Scott Malyon, Shaun “Elf” Walters and Paul Buchanan, filmed on location at the T1 ramp and never seen before spots on the world tour. For anyone who truly loves BMX - and understands that 20” bike riding would not be where it is today without T1 - this video is a must see, combining insane riding with an element missing from most videos: the appreciation of how many friends, experiences and good times we owe to riding. |
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