Place: Street Scene, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA.
Ride BMX US december 1996: Your TV doesn't really love you. ESPN reached a new low in the eyes of everyone at the contest. It was held at a festival called Street Rage, an outdoor beer/band thing in San Diego. The problem with this is that it cost $25 a day to get in, and no one under twenty-one was allowed. So, no kids could come in and watch, and those who did were supposed to pay $75 for the weekend. Ingenuity is truly the mother of all inventions. Quick thinking saved a lot of people a lot of money. The list of pro riders grew to over 100 riders for the contest, 100 riders that wouldn't have to pay $25 a day. Nice.
Beer gets you drunk. Free alcohol seemed to be everywhere, thanks to the Airwalk booth, and people were getting silly. Chris Moeller at one point did a sumersault in the midst of the booth, leaving several people confused, and less than happy. Go figure.
Ride BMX US december 1996: Kids love pornography. Keith Mulligan returned to our room Saturday night with stars in his eyes. He had meet a personal hero of both of ours, and even gotten an autograph. I can't believe that I missed out on meeting Ron Jeremy... Kids also love professional wrestlers. For some odd reason, Randy "Macho Man" Savage was at the contest, decked out in full gear, and watching pro vert. Making up for missing Ron Jeremy, I made sure to find out what the Macho Man thought of the whole deal. Macho Man, what do you think about this bike riding contest? It doesn't get any better than this. You talk about extreme, we're going all the way the other way. we re gonna shift gears, and go back the other way. I'll meet you ,oole place in the middle, and then I'll toll, to you about it. Are you going to quit wrestling and start riding? Oohhh yeeeaahhhh... but guess what, probably not. How do you think this compares to flying off the top of a steel cage and dropping the big elbow? Off the top of the steel cage? Well let me tell you smething, it's R-E-S-P-E-C-T, respect for them, respect for me. Hey brother, we're all together. I'm gettting chills just thinking about it, man. Right on. Who's your favorite rider? Favorite rider? I don't know, I haven't narrowed it down, but I'm checking everybody out, brother. Kids like to fight. High on life, and excited by the Macho Man's prescence, Sean McKinney and Troy McMurray ran out to the bottom of the ramp, and shouted open challenges to Macho Man. Security quickly grabbed McKinney, but weren't quite sure what to make of Troy. Here's what Macho Man had to say about that. How about that guy that was challenging you from the bottom of the romp (Troy McMurray)? It was too much brother. I needed a bike, I was going to ride down and get him. Thanks Macho Man. Airight brother, check it out.
Ride BMX US december 1996: Taj skipped the contest to stay home and build a bedroom in his basement.
Day Smith now rides for Split clothing. Day also rode amazingly, did a lot of one kick tricks, and took third.
There was only one pink Basic bike at the contest. That one bike belonged to Andrew Faris, who rode with his original flow, pulled his darkside strings, and ended up with second place.
Trevor Meyer is indeed an unstoppable flatland robot here to single handedly take over the planet and initiate his own New World Order. He ruled pro flat.
Nate Hanson has been practicing a lot lately. He rode smoothly all weekend long. Bunnyhop 180 manuals to lardyard and hang five flips were pulled with ease, and if it weren't for a few touches, he would have probably done better than fourth.
Pro flatland results: 1.Trevor Meyer 2.Andrew Faris 3.Day Smith 4.Nate Hanson 5.Phil Dolan 6.Jason Brown 7.Andrew Arroyo 8.Leo Dumlao 9.Jesse Puente
Andrew Faris.
Old dogs can learn new tricks. Dennis McCoy rode really well in vert, and debuted a new trick.., an alley-oop 270 tailwhip to smith. Third place to DMC.
Chris Potts returned to the vert scene with big carved no-handers and double cans. Interesting.
Sometimes nice guys finish fifth. Such was the case with Dave Osato. Dave has been going really high on vert lately, and combined with his techno style, he's becoming a threat to the vert class, too.
John Parker used to have a cow named Stomper when he was a child. Currently though, John is doing decade airs, huge 540s, and 900 attempts to a bike destruction or two. He ended up with a fourth place that would have made his old cow proud.
Diplomacy is the best policy. Matt Hoffman proves that by wearing one Play and one Poor Boy shinguard. He also went really high, rode like the old Matt, and took second in vert.
Jay Miron is really a nice guy. Really. He's also a really good rider. Jay went super-duper high, tailwhipped, turned down, spun the bars in all sorts of variations, 540'ed... the whole deal. He definitely earned first place in vert. Even the Macho Man was impressed.
An anagram is when you rearrange the letters of a word to create another word. I was going to use Jimmy Walker's name as on example, but I'm too stupid to figure anything good out. All in all, Jimmy rode well enough in pro street to get seventh, and please his new sponsor, Trek.
Pro vert results: 1.Jay Miron 2.Matt Hoffman 3.Dennis McCoy (not 5th) 4.John Parker 5.Dave Osato 6.Pat Miller 7.Jimmy Walker 8.Steve Swope
Dave Osato.
Dave Mirra's wrist was injured. During his street qualifying run, Dave flowed around doing manuals and nosepicks. He then decided to pull out of the vert competition to make sure he did not aggravate the injury.
When cornered, normally sedate animals may fight back. So is the case with fed up riders, causing rebel runs to take place throughout the weekend. During all of Joe Rich's runs there were at least three riders on the course. Luc-E was one of them, except he wasn't on his bike. I don't think the ESPN guys were expecting to see anyone doing cartwheels across the course, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it, including the judges. The group of Joes qualified for the finals.
Gonz rules. Mark Gonzales made the drive out, but missed qualifiers. He did several rebel runs, all of which were rod. He did the most perfect barspin down the stairs. He also can do truckdriver bunnyhops... just think about that one for a moment.
Kids really do learn at Woodward. Kennan Harkin is a good example. He's really come into his own as a rider lately. He had a really good flow in San Diego and pulled another 360 flip during his run in pro street. He got ninth place.
Some kids should be kept away from power equipment, including sewing machines. This is obvious if you've ever seen Jeff Harrington's knee pads. Jeff rode really well, though, sticking huge variations and a clean 720 for sixth place.
Box jumps aren't just for freestylers. Todd Lyons and Joey Garcia proved that. Both bump jumped things and flowed with a style that left most of the kids with four pegs wondering. Todd also tried to flip every gap there could be found on the course. Joey got sixth in pro street, Todd got fifth.
Mini ramp world champ Dave Osato took it to the street course and had fun. Dave rides really well when he has fun, but didn't really have it together enough to get any higher than fourth, at least for this contest.
Three is a magic number. Oh yeah it is, it's a magic number. At least it was for Ryan Nyquist, he spun his bars all over the course, and did his back trailer... a truckdriver to barspin back.
When going on trips, it's best to pack in case of emergencies. Dennis McCoy used this advice to it's fullest by bringing some spare cranks. Besides breaking his cranks, Dennis did huge flips, tailwhip taps, truckdrivers and 720s to earn second place.
Jay Miron is really a good guy. I can't stress that point to you enough. He's also a really good rider. I can't stress that enough, either. Got it? Forget all that shit that ESPN likes to dole out. Jay is a really good guy. Ok? Now, with that clear, Jay ruled street. Plain and simple. No-handed to no-footed flips, huge flips, big truck drivers, total Jay flow, and a 720 to barspin attempt left him with another first for the weekend. Well deserved win indeed.
Pro street results: 1.Jay Miron 2.Dennis McCoy 3.Ryan Nyquist 4.Dave Osato 5.Todd Lyons 6.Joey Garcia 7.Jimmy Walker 8.Jeff Harington
Dennis McCoy drops from the sky on the cover of BMX Plus! january 1997.
Ryan Nyquist.
Kennan Harkin.