Place: Lake Owen Freestyle Camp, Wisconsin.
Organisation: Hoffman crew.
McGoo, BMX Plus! october 1992: With chapter III of Matt Hoffman's Bicycle Stunt Contest at the Lake Owen Training Center in Wisconsin etched in the record books, Wisconsin state officials should consider wedging the term "freestyle" between "ewe's milk" and "goat farms" in their Traveler's Guide To The Dairy State. Until the "Condor" and Co. converged on this pine-covered summer camp outside the tiny town of Cable, only a handful of bears and a few dozen bikers had experienced this freestyler's Utopia. After gorging themselves on two days of flatland, mini and vert ramp mayhem served up at this event, none of the 100 riders and fans who made the trek to Lake Owen are likely to keep this freestyle wonderland a secret any longer. The Lake Owen facility ranks among the coolest places ever chosen to host a contest. Credit for convincing Matt Hoffman to go there goes to Canada's Jay Miron, who works as a counselor at the camp two weeks every summer.
To help everyone get in the right mindset for Saturday's flatland and mini ramp action, the cool folks at Lake Owen turned their ballet studio into a rumpus room where riders could kick back and watch the tube. The sporadic cheesiness of the videos shown by the riders who produced them paled in comparison to the cheesy remarks made by some hecklers in the crowd. Unfortunately, very few of Friday night's knuckleheads bothered to sign up on Saturday or Sunday. The fraternity of freestylers who flocked to every B.S. contest before this one seemed more edgy than usual, but none of them let the bad vibes ruin their good time. Several riders' pitches on positive attitudes must have worked, because the boisterous buffoons hit the road Saturday night. "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" was the underlying sentiment at this event. Like every B.S. Contest before it, the characters present for Chapter III were divided into three categories: Soon-to-bes (novices), Stuntboys (experts), and Stuntmen (pros). Classes included flatland, miniramps and vert, with overall titles up for grabs among riders who entered all three.
SOON TO BE FLAT 1.Rick Wagner 2.Jim Jackson 3.Kevin Lisowe 4.Corey Hengen
STUNTBOYS FLAT 1.Chad DeGroot 2.Mark Hilson 3.Rick Thorne
STUNTMEN FLAT 1.Trevor Meyer 2.Jay Miron 3.Bill Nitschke 4.Dennis McCoy 5.Scott Powell
Standard Bikes' Trevor Meyer, funky scuff. Photo by Karlos/BMX Plus!
Mongoose's Dennis McCoy, dump truck. Photo by Karlos/BMX Plus!
McGoo, BMX Plus! october 1992: Two ramps were used to separate the winners and wanna-bes in Saturday afternoon's mini ramp competition. The two six-foot-high mini-halfs with a spine saw the most practice and appeared to be every rider's favorite, but it was on the seven-foot-high, elbow-shaped boomerang ramp with a hip where many riders pulled out all the stops en route to higher scores. After witnessing Matt Hoffman pull three back flips in his two runs on the first ramp, everyone thought they had seen it all. Jay Miron, however, knew otherwise. Jay returned every sick trick the Condor served up with even spicier variations of his own-on a borrowed bike! In his first run, a badly aborted back flip disintegrated Jays rear wheel and left him scrambling for a loaner from the crowd. When Matt busted a smooth six-foot transfer over the spine, Jay followed with a fat X-ed up transfer to back flip flyout. The only person not blown away by the whole spectacle was mint-ramp rager Dave Mirra. Between episodes of the Matt and Jay Show, the Mirra Man aired reruns of his famous deck tricks, twisted spine transfers and polished peg grinds. A rusty and somewhat out-of-sync Dennis McCoy, fresh off a British tour with Mongoose BMXer "Fuzzy" Hall, bided his time on the spine and conserved his energy for for his last pass in minis on the boomerang. Once the Judges, photographers and deck monkeys took their places around the boomerang, the third and final scoring round for pros began. Matt and Dave, each visibly fatigued from their dogfight ver the spine, rode aggressively but conservatively -both had to ride vert on Sunday. Jay Miron held nothing back, despite the handicap of riding on a borrowed bike, and further solidified his first place status on the judges' score sheets. With nothing but the weekend's overall title in his sights, Dennis McCoy became the third pro in freestyle history to tempt fate by busting a back flip on a mini -what a hero. DMC's do-or-die assault earned him third place on mini, two places behind Jay Miron and Dave Mirra, and just ahead of fourth-place finisher Matt Hoffman. Standards Krt Schmidt followed Matt, with Haro road warrior Chris Potts taking sixth. Not in a long time had such a tight battle been fought in pro freestyle.
Mark Murphy fufanu to icepick to toothpick.
Joe Hulberg rode half his miniramp run with his legs crossed and his feet on the wrong
pedal doing nosepicks, grinds and spine jumps.
Krt Schmidt 360 nosepick tailwhip.
Dave Mirra rocket 360's over the spine.
STUNTBOYS MINI: 1.Mark Murphy 2.Ron Kimler 3.Joe Hulberg 4.Keith Treanor 5.Dave Clymer 6.Rick Thorne 7.Steve Swope 8.Jon Wold
STUNTMEN MINI: 1.Jay Miron 2.Dave Mirra 3.Dennis McCoy 4.Matt Hoffman 5.Krt Schmidt 6.Chris Potts
Standard's Bikes' Krt Schmidt, tailwhip transfer. Photo by Karlos/BMX Plus!
Soon-to-be vert riders started things off on sunday. Nationally ranked AA Pro BMXer Dave Clymer easily took the gold in his first vert contest ever -so easily, in fact, that Matt Hoffman himself was impressed with Dave's riding. Rick Thorne, fresh off Hoffman Bikes' injured reserve list, flew bum-shouldered and all to a solid first in Stuntboys, followed by teammate and event co-organizer Steve Swope. By being the only rider to finish in the top five in all three Stuntboy classes, Rick Thorne took the Stuntboys overall for the weekend quite easily. With only four stuntmen entered in pro vert on Sunday, no one was sure how seriously any of the riders would take the competition. Jay Miron still plagued by the loss of his personal bike, didn't practice. All his announcing and organizing duties left the Condor in the same boat. Last-minute saddle repairs kept DMC off the ramp for most of practice, as well. Dave Mirra was the only pro to get any real practice, and it showed. You name it, Dave busted it. With authority. Only a grudge match between the two greatest vert riders in the world could stop the Mirra Man from taking the win. Unfortunately for Dave, a grudge match between Matt and Jay was exactly what he was up against. Pro vert was a lot like pro minis the day before, but this time Hoffman called all the shots. When Miron did a rocket air and DMC a barspinner, Matt answered both riders with a defiant rocket air barspinner at eight feet. When Mirra did a switch handed 540, Matt spiced things up with a 900 not of this world. When Jay Miron did a no footed back flip, everyone thought Matt had met his match. Like a man possessed, the Condor busted a nearly perfect no-handed version of the same sick trick. Top dollars, high praise and the giddy sense of anticipation dominated yet another vert contest. It went to the Condor. Jay and Dave settled for second and third, respectively. The all-guts-no-glory award and fourth place went to Dennis McCoy for his perfect execution of a never-done-before full bar spin 540. With solid finishes in all three classes, Jay Miron took the pro overall easily from his only challenger, Dennis McCoy. If things get any hotter in the freestyle kitchen than they were at Lake Owen, someone's bound to get burned!
Matt Hoffman did a no handed flip.
Dave Mirra was doing high 540 variations like rocket air 540's and cancan x-up 540's.
SOON TO BE VERT: 1.Dave Clymer 2.Corey Bolton 3.Brad Scott 4.Matt Michalke 5.Jim Rienstra 6.Travis Cunningham
STUNTBOYS VERT: 1.Rick Thorne 2.Steve Swope 3.Jim Walker 4.Mark Owen 5.Eric Carl 6.Keith Treanor 7.Graham Pye
STUNTMEN VERT: 1.Matt Hoffman 2.Jay Miron 3.Dave Mirra 4.Dennis McCoy
Hoffman Bikes' Dave Mirra 540. Photo by Karlos/BMX Plus!