Place: South Padre Island
New pros: Joe Rich, Colin Winkleman, Ron Kimler, Dave Freimuth, Troy McMurray, Todd Lyons, Pat Dehne, Eduardo Terreros, Andrew Faris, Matt Gibson.
In the finals, the canadian Andrew Faris took eighth. He did his tailwhip to darkside stuff. He did front wheel stuff with his foot on the inside peg. Seventh went to texan Matt Gipson. Pro debut, strong links, showing some switching skills. Rolling death into switch-footed rolling lardyard into perverted). Sixth place went to this big tall guy with a crazy gold bike. He rode slow and smooth (Chris Young, savvy smooth style. Whiplash back into hang five on the pedal with his right foot over the bar). Another foreigner, Phil Dolan, took fifth. Leftfooted junkyard, switched it to an inside pedal, leftfooted stick-b, which is pretty tough on the inside pedal. He did a rolling hitchhiker around the world.. Fourth went to this darkhaired kid who was spinning around like crazy (Sean Peters definitely ripped. Cross-footed x-up megaspin into an inside circle junkyard. Halflash whips back and forth to crossfooted Mccircles. He was rockin' the house. Day Smith took third. Pinky squeaks to cross footed mccircles. Second place went to Trevor Meyer. With his big handlebars, Trevor went out with a cross-footed tomahawk on the pedal. He also did a front wheel link into inside circle k's, with the handlebars backwards on the pedal. Paul Osicka used so many original tricks during his run that most people had no idea what he was doing most of the time. Paul did a whiplash whithout getting off the bike. See the photo and try to figure it out for yourself. Also double-footed pinky squeaks into one-handed pinky squeaks into one-handed steamroller into a onehanded funky chicken back over into a one-handed front yard.
STUNTBOYS FLAT: 1.Ruben Castillo 2.Patrick Anderson 3.Aaron Behnke 4.Arthur Thomason
STUNTMEN FLAT: 1-Paul Osicka $1500 2-Trevor Meyer $1100 3-Day Smith $800 4-Sean Peters $600 5-Phil Dolan $400 6-Chris Young $300 7-Matt Gibson $200 8-Andrew Faris $100
Paul Osicka
In eighth place was some kid name John Cousert, He rode pretty well, getting some good air. Mel Cody went pretty high and was doing a bunch of stuff like taking his hands and feet off his bike. He even went up, jumped, and then came right back down the ramp backwards. That was cool enough for seventh place. The next boy up was another Texan; Chris Saldivar. He was jumping real high and carving all the way across the ramp one handed one footed. He was also doing some strange tricks on the coping of the ramp. Sixth. The next boy, Jay Eggleston, rode damn well for fifth. Mark Owen had some big airs and some good variations like no-footers, something called a lookback and a flip. In third was Josh Heino. He got a bunch of air, spun around in a 540. and took his hands and feet off. Third place for sure. Next came french canadian Eric Gagne. He was going really high, doing all sorts of crazy stuff, and then he fell hard, he got right up, and tried a flip twist! He got a well-deserved second. After that, the Gute came out. He was spinning around in 540s, doing all sorts of crazy stuff (switchhanded turndowns, multiple variations, 540 tailtaps). He deserved first place, even with that crazy afro he's got going.
STUNTBOYS VERT: 1-Kevin Gutierrez 2-Eric Gagne 3-Josh Heino 4-Mark Owen 5-Jay Eggleston 6-Chris Saldivar 7-Mel Cody 8-John Cousert
STUNTMEN
Steve Swope was doing cherokees, jammin' salmons, 540s, and flip attempts. Eighth place. Next came some guy they were calling the Lip Lord (Pat Dehne). He was doing a bunch of lip tricks, and some really big airs. Good enough for seventh. Then came the guy they called the Grandfather (Dennis McCoy). He was riding well, but his broken hand seemed to keep him down in sixth. Fifth place went to one more Canadian (Dave Osato). He was going damn high, and doing big manuals, nosepicks, toothpicks,... He went for a bunnyhop tailwhip drop-in on vert. Fourth place went to John Parker who was taking off his hands, his feet, swinging them all around... He even did a 900 and pulled it! Next was Matt Hoffman. He was going crazy high, doing three tricks in one jump, his rocket full barspin to reverse, spinning 540s, if only he could've stopped crashing. Third place. Second went to Dave Mirra. He was going back to back with the crazy tricks. Pendulums, tailwhips, 540s... Jay Miron was unstoppable. He was going back to back to back, and did the highest 540 and a huge boomerang air. He was carving the whole length of the ramp with every trick, and the only ones that seemed to give him troubles were flips, and that's understandable.
STUNTMEN VERT: 1-Jay Miron $1500 2-Dave Mirra $1100 3-Matt Hoffman $800 4-John Parker $600 5-Dave Osato $400 6-Dennis McCoy $300 7-Pat Dehne $200 8-Steve Swope $100
Pat Miller on the cover of BMX Plus! july 1996.
Greg Axford is canadian and was jumping real high, and crashing real hard. Seventh place serves that punk right. Mason Smith was from England and he was riding all over the course like a big freak. He did something heard the announcer call a 540 nosepick. He got sixth. Another Canadian, Jason Enns, was doing all these technical tricks on the spine like big icepick grinds. Fifth place. Eben Krackau from Texas rode damn good, he even jumped from that spine over to the quarter and landed backwards down it. He deserved that fourth place. In third place there was Luc-E. Bus to bus. That boy's good. The next guy was the Kevin Gutierrez, and he was 720 over the hip, switch-handed turndowns, his crazy rockwalk decade drop in, he even did a 360 over the spine thing that landed him right straight on the flat ground, but lie held on... Second place for the Gute. Then Blue Helmet Boy (Colin Winkleman) came along! This boy went nuts! He did two flip twists an the mini, a big old flip jump, and this huge gap jump from one quarter to another that had to be twenty feet. 1st place.
STUNTBOYS STREET RESULTS: 1-Colin Winkleman 2-Kevin Gutierrez 3-John luc-e Englebert 4-Eben Krackau 5-Jason Enns 6-Mason Smith 7-Greg Axeford 8-David Quesada
STUNTMEN:
Twenty stuntmen in qualifiers. Troy McMurray pulled perfect 2-1/2 barspin 360's but didn't make it to the finals.
Dave Osato come out and was doing tailwhips, and all sorts of technical tricks in the mini. Tenth place. Blue Helmet Boy, Colin Winkleman decided to go pro! He still did his big gap jump for ninth. Next up was the whiny little English kid Stuart King. He was spinning like crazy perfect 720, tailwhips to tailtaps, and a toothpick busdriver. Another damn Canadian, Rob Sigaty, rode good. Perfect flips to fakie, toothpicks to busdrivers, tailwhips... Rob rode really well and got seventh. Ron Kimler was supposed to be making his pro debut, but the boy rode like he's been pro forever; huge one-handed double cancans, tech tricks, bike destruction... All with a smile for sixth. Taj Mihelich was riding the course smoother than anybody out there for fifth. Next, from Pennsylvania, Joe Rich, was also his first pro contest, but you never would have known. He jumped over that big quarter gap to a manual on the other side, did fufanu on the big ol' wall and jumped like a crazy man. Fourth place. Third place went to Rob Nolli. He was doing all sorts of crazy stuff; tailwhip the quarter gap, 720s, nosepicks to busdrivers, and a flip from the quarter to the spine that broke his ankle. Jay Miron went out and rode super smooth alley-oop grinds on the wall, an alleyoop busdriver over the quarter gap, he even rode up the wall, aired out and rolled down the ledge on the roll in. Dave Mirra got first. He rode like crazy with a big ol' smile the whole time. He was tailwhippin', barspinnin', and 540'in' over every single thing in the place. He even pulled the cleanest flip twist known to man...
STUNTMEN STREET RESULTS: 1-Dave Mirra $1500 2-Jay Miron $1100 3-Rob Nolli $800 4-Joe Rich $600 5-Taj Mihelich $400 6-Ron Kimler $300 7-Rob Sigaty $200 8-Stuart King $100 9-Colin Winkleman 10-Dave Osato
Taj Mihelich on the cover of Ride BMX US #22 june 1996. Photo by Keith Mulligan.