Place: SCRAP Chicago, IL.
James Shepherd, Ride BMX UK april 1994: Rumours were again flying about impending showdowns and altercations between various riders and companies. After last year's tension and conflict-filled event, no-one really knew what to expect this year. Luckily, however, the rumours never materialized into anything and the focus finally seemed to be back on the riding.
Upon arriving at the contest site, it became obvious that slightly less people turned up than last year. Keep in mind, though, that last year's contest was more than likely the biggest one since the late eighties. The smaller number of people seemed like a blessing to me, it meant there would be more spectator area and more room to ride. The park hadn't changed much from last year. The street course had a jump box, decked spine, five foot quarter, eight or nine foot quarter, four foot tight quarter with a four foot sub-box, two foot punk ramp with big railing behind it, and two new additions - a four foot high elbowed hip, and a small banked funbox. The mini ramp was the same, with its five foot decked spine and slow transitions.
STUNTBOYS
James Shepherd, Ride BMX UK april 1994: Stuntboy flat was pretty exciting. After a second place tie between Cardoso Lionel from France and Sean Peters, the judges re-figured the scores [this time dropping the lowest score], giving Cardoso the win. California flatlander Sean McKinney won both the class and the title with a nearly flawless run. After his class, he also decided to turn pro the same day [not unlike Matt Hoffman a few years back]. Pro flat would be anything but boring.
STUNTBOYS FLAT RESULTS: 1-Sean McKinney 2-Lionel Cardoso 3-Sean Peters 4-Carl Potts 5-Mark Hilson 6-Bobby Fisher
STUNTMEN
James Shepherd, Ride BMX UK april 1994: In pro flat, only six points separated first from eighth place. With that many rad guys in one class, I didn't want to leave anyone out, so the following is a short blow-by-blow account of each of the 8 finalists. Ross Smith rode with a blend of old and new school originality. When I first saw Ross back in '89, he had every trick dialled. His run in Chicago proved that since I've seen him last, he definitely been riding - a lot. Sporting a Led Zeppelin t-shirt and riding to [what else] Zep, Ross pulled a double straddle-roni and went for several double rolaid attempts [definitely the crowd's favourite trick]. I heard that he pulls double and even triple rolaids - 8th place and 89.2 points. Sean McKinney faired well in the stacked pro class and proved that he has no problem learning the newest tricks. Dark side slide to hitchiker, 7th place with 89.4 points. Day Smith didn't have the run of his life but he did take his shirt off mid-run which [I can only guess] was because it got caught on his bars, not to impress the ladies -6th place and 91.2 points. Edgar Placencia, who I think rides for Bob Morales' new bike company, did really well. He rides with a clean fast style, and if he could have stayed on a little more he might have scored another win - 5th place and 91.6 points. Chris Young is starting to make quite a name for himself in pro flat. His fluid, consistent style works very well in the contest environment - 4th place and 92 points. Canadian Steve Roy doesn't make it to very many comps, but when he does he always places top three. He has a classic style - fast, smooth, and flowing, with a lot of old and new school tricks blended together. He also came sooo close to a quadruple decade 3rd place and 93.2 points. Chad Degroot has been making up tricks like crazy as of late. Flatland is all about originality, and Chad is just that. Some people thought his run deserved a first place finish but don't worry he is due for a win real soon - 2nd place and 95 points. The only person who stood in Chad's way was Chase Gouin. After afew months of obscurity, Chase burst back on the scene with a little help from Guns N' Roses. Nailing every trick in his book, Chase rode with the aura of a true freestyle rock star- 1st place and 95.6 points, and the year end title.
STUNTMEN FLAT RESULTS: 1-Chase Gouin 2-Chad DeGroot 3-Steve Roy 4-Chris Young 5-Day Smith 6-Edgar Placenscia 7-Sean McKinney 8-Ross Smith 9-Alexis Desolneux
Edgar Placenscia spinning on the pedal, stubble duck caboose, double cross footed whiplash to backward halpacker turbine au practice, switch footed time machines straight into decades off the pedals..
Sean McKinney hitchiker to bridge to caboose.
Ross Smith double rolling decade
Chad DeGroot
Chase Gouin. Photo by Brad McDonald.
John Parker pulled a flair in practice.
Dennis McCoy 1-1/2 barspin in the middle of a burly 540 five feet out.
STUNTMEN VERT RESULTS: 1-Dennis McCoy 2-Jay Miron 3-Dave Mirra 4-John Parker 5-Kevin Robinson 6-John Byers 7-Dave Brumlow
STUNTBOYS VERT RESULTS: 1.Pat Miller 2.John Doyle 3.Jim Walker 4.Pat Dehne 5.Jay Eggleston 6.Rob Sigaty
SOON TO BE VERT RESULTS: 1.Mike Ocoboc
Jay Miron perfect flip to fakie. Photo by Brad McDonald.
James Shepherd, Ride BMX UK april 1994: In Stuntboy mini ramp, Eben Krackau took third place and had a good time goofing around during his runs. Despite his clowning around, he still managed to do some great riding. Pennsylvania rider Mel Cody did a nice tailwhip over the spine and a 720 on his way to 2nd place. Speaking of tailwhips over the spine, Tai Mihelich did the biggest one I've ever seen. He carved ten feet up the transition wall and hit one at about five feet. Like everyone else, he had trouble with lip tricks on the mellow ramp, but more than made up for it with huge jumps over the spine - 1st place. After all the points were counted, Eben Krackau ended up with the mini ramp/street year end title.
STUNTBOYS MINI RAMP RESULTS: 1.Taj Mihelich 2.Mel Cody 3.Eben Krackau 4.Christopher Hallman 5.Rick Thorne 6.Joe Hurlburt 7.Colin Winkleman 8.John LucE Englebert
James Shepherd, Ride BMX UK april 1994: In Stuntmen ramp, the battle for the top three spots was between Dennis McCoy, Jay Miron, and Dave Mirra. DMC had his usual bag of tricks and it went something like this: tailwhip to tailtap, nose manuals, 360 barspins to 180 attempt over the spine, flip over the spine, and a 180 flip to axle stall attempt for 94.1 points and third place. There seemed to be contest within acontest going on between Jay and Dave. It went all weekend long, but was most exciting during mini ramp. Jay started with a big flip over the spine. In his next run, Dave did one even higher. During Jay's next run, he pulled one that could have only been higher if Steve Swope had pulled him on his motorcycle. At Dave's next at bat, he too pulled one higher than humanely possible. I really couldn't tell who went higher, there's apoint when things justseem too big to measure. The guys who had the job of measuring gave Jay second place with 94.1 points, and Dave first with 96.1 points. Dave was now unbeaten so far in the comp, but Jay won the mini/street year end title. Much respect for both.
STUNTMEN MINI RAMP RESULTS: 1-Dave Mirra 2-Jay Miron 3-Dennis McCoy 4-Rob Nolli 5-Bill Nitschke
Taj Mihelich.
James Shepherd, Ride BMX UK april 1994: In Stuntboy street/mini, Jon Peacy basically just had to show up to win the year end title. With his clothing company Folded just starting to take off, he opted to stay at home and take care of business. Even so, his points lead was big enough that without being there, he still stood a good chance. Second place holder Eben Krackau blew his chances by missing sign-ups for street. Third place holder Joe Rich had a very good chance because of his consistency, but was out with an injury. Although I don't know their exact placings, top three finishes in both classes might have been enough for Jon Luc-E Englebert or Taj Mihelich. Car trouble for Jon and bike trouble for Taj kept them both out of the street comp. As a matter of fact with this many heavies sidelined, top three finishes might have been enough for anybody to take a top spot in the year end points.
Things really got rolling on Friday night when Stunthoy street started. One guy who didn't make the final cut but did stoke everyone was a guy named Smiley. In Dave Clymer fashion, he rode across and off the deck of the vert ramp, attempting to land on the transition of the quarterpipe next to it. Unfortunately for Smiley, he overshot the quarter for a brutal flat cement landing. You could actually see every part of his bike bend upon impact. It was more punk rock that a Black Flag box set. Here's a rundown of guys that made the top four in Stuntboy street: George Smoot, 4th place worked the course a little more than most, which helped his scores. Awell-rounded run that included a nice tailwhip from the spine to the 3ft box. Rob Sigaty, 3rd, has a very Stuntman-like style, ie back to back tricks - a flip over the box to flip over the spine to flip fakie attempt on the 8ft quarter. Rick Thorne, 2nd, seems to be doing just fine back on the freestyle horse again. If you were there and you thought his runs looked dialled and preplanned, that's because they were. He pulled flips over the box the spine and after a few harsh slams, he pulled one to fakie on the big quarter. Back on the freestyle contest front and sporting a new full-factory ride from Haro, Todd Lyons came in a strong first place. As always, Todd rode fast as hell and completely insane -the biggest flips in the amateur class and jumps from the hip to the vert ramp deck in all his runs. It was cool to see him at his first BS contest he's burly.
STUNTBOYS STREET RESULTS: 1-Todd Lyons 2-Rick Thorne 3-Rob Sigaty 4-George Smoot 5-Ed Koening 6-Mike Forney 7.Jeremy Verlhulst 8.Jody Donnelly
STUNTMEN
James Shepherd, Ride BMX UK april 1994: In pro street Kevin Robinson [6th] and Bill Nitshcke [5th] rounded out the class. Rob Nolli took 4th place, just 3 points out of 3rd. Jay Miron was really sick [literally]. After one of his runs he even came close to passing out. On the course, I don't think too many people noticed his illness. Except for cutting his runs short, he seemed in top form - big one footed 360's, barspin jumps to one handers, flips on the box and spine, and backwards grinds on the rail behind the punk ramp - 3rd place, 93.6 points. Here's a small portion of one of Dennis McCoy's runs; big flip over the box to flip over the spine to abubaca on the punk ramp railing to crash. Missing one or two tricks was the only thing keeping DMC in second place. Other highlights included him making a 360 tailwhip manual manuals on the sub-box, and a 360 with a 540 barspin thrown in 93.87 points. You might have already guessed that Dave Mirra won. Just like last year, Dave won by landing big tricks. "How big?" How about giant indian air 360's over the box, the biggest flips jumps, and a perfect flip twist on the big quarter. The craziest part about the flair was that the ramp was only eight feet wide. That was probably the trick that gave Dave the extra 0.06 points he needed for first place - 93.93 points.
STUNTMEN STREET RESULTS: 1-Dave Mirra 2-Dennis McCoy 3-Jay Miron 4-Rob Nolli 5-Bill Nitschke 6-Kevin Robinson
Edward Koenning nothing.
Dave Mirra abubaca. Photo by Brad McDonald.