4 manches par an en pros et amateurs étaient prévues au départ.
Malheureusement, seulement deux contests se sont déroulés sous le label de cette organisation:
TIGNES 1999 et le FISE 2000
Medias: Cream #5, Soul #7, Freedom #31, www.fatbmx.com, Bicloune vidéo.
Bart de Jong, www.fatbmx.com report:
The time that French parents were organising contests for their kids is gone. Not that it was bad that way, but at some point the riders themselves grow up and know exactly what they want. It's the "old school" generation that puts on the contests nowadays.
In France Lionel Cardoso decided it was time for a contest series. The BMX Action Series was born and the first contest took place at ski resort Tignes, France. In one week the organisation crew had built a fairly nice street course in the Olympic sports hall at 2000m height. In fact, 70% of the Palavas ramps were up and ready for some serious abuse.
Flatland, King Of Box and "street" were on the program for round one with two classes in each discipline. The turnout was good, the music was good (only if you were into hiphop), the surface was good and the riding that was going on in practise was good. The hall was open till late at night so plenty of riding for all on this cold December day.
The jump box that was used for the "Best trick" competition was rad. Remember the tailwhip and invert pictures of Taj in Palavas ? It was the same box. Saturday night was King Of Box night. Winner in Expert was Arnaud Pichol, clean style, winning it with a superman seat grab. After some breakdance demo and some fly girl dancing it was time for the pro K.O.B.. Thomas Wullschleger did a huge flip for 3rd. A tie for second went to Vincent Vernet (double seat grab) and Patrick Guimez who was stirring some soup with a one-handed X-down, to 1-hand X-up to X-up. The winner came from Switzerland. Frederic Borel must have been on a high altitude trainings camp or something. His best trick was a truckdriver.
The night that followed was too crazy. It was Lionel's B-day and the organiser decided that this needed to be celebrated by some bottles of vodka in a shitty bar. Alcohol and BMX goes together hand in hand and in no-time the dance floor was full. In the meantime it was snowing outside. As soon as the drunk BMX posse rolled out of Jack's Bar, a snowball fight was inevitable. It kind of turned into a Blockhaus against "foreigners" battle that made it all the way to the inside of our hotel. Blackjack and co surprised Marcin, Soren, Marcus Wilke and myself with a snow attack in our room that we could only defend with a bag filled with oranges. Needless to say, it turned into a big mess.
Back to the contest. It was a typical Sunday morning. People were either still drunk, or too tired from the short night. In that case, the best thing to do is start with the flatland class. 8 riders made it to the finals in pro flat. Although qualified in 4th, Stephane Libersac finished in 8th with all kind of hitchhiker, backpacker and front wheel bar spinning tricks. Carlos Leal showed that he deserves to be in the French Pro class. Sweet run and as a reward he lighted a cigarette. 4th went to contest organiser Lionel Cardoso who rode very well. I wonder how he does it, next to making a magazine, running a BMX business, DJ-ing and organising this contest. Respect to Ritchie. Alexis Desolneux just returned from Japan. Still jet lagged he did original brakeless tricks for 3rd. Alex Jumelin moves fast. I would like to see a TV commentator try to follow his tricks. No chance. Plenty of tricks for 2nd place cash. Jimmy Petitet is riding a frame that probably will never make it into production. Jimmy showed this bike works but it isn't the bike that does the tricks, it's the guy on top. Lots of brakeless spinning was going on. 439 points meant 1st place.
It was later in the afternoon when the pro street finals were about to happen. Everyone was wearing a helmet after they saw Thomas Fritscher get a serious concussion the night before. There is nothing wrong wearing a helmet. Christophe Canitrot does some modelling on the side but his heart is at BMX. His head was somewhere else in the finals. 8th place for the tall S rider. True street came from Gervais Rousseau. Pascal Guerard finished 6th behind Soren Jacobs who was busting big over the funbox and ledges. Vincent Vernet is a talented rider. Lots of controlled manual stuff but his biggest trick was a huge transfer that must have scored high by the judges. Nicolas Cambon is a true street rider. No brakes, small bars, fat chain and original tricks using other lines than everyone else. Good old John Petit did backwards grinds, ice-picks on the wall (too tough to explain), wallrides to fakie and some kind of half-cab on the 10 meter long block that was used for manuals most of the time. First place went to orange thrower number 1, Markus Wilke, who used the whole street course to pull barspin fakies, abubacas, alley oop tire taps, tailwhip foot plants and all that good stuff for first place. Stoked.
It's cool to have indoor events in the wintertime and this first BMXA contest was a good one. Lionel, Daniel, Herve crew know what riders are all about. You better get ready to head down to Palavas for their second contest of the BMX Action Series.