| Event: BS 1996 round 3 Date: august 2-4, 1996 Place: Barnum Harbor, Chicago, ILLINOIS | |
| Since eight of the top pros street and vert riders are already commited to the Olympics, these two disciplines at this event will not count for the year end title. Cash money. The American dollar motivates and during a certain weekend in August, Chicago was the place to get paid. ESPN had upped the stakes in freestyle and NBC was making it easier to cash in. NBC was airing some freestyle of their own as the Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta would include a handful of freestyle's best in the closing ceremonies. The ceremonies pulled ten top riders away from Chicago and made it much easier for other stunt riders to collect a fat check. | |
| FLAT | |
| The closing ceremonies contained no flatland, so nearly thirty riders made the trek to Chicago for some fun and fortune. All flatlanders love riding on bumpy, broken up pavement, so this contest was like heaven. It's obvious that the people from CE Sports (the company which organizes these events) love flat because it only took several hours of Chuck D's time to get pro flat moved to level ground. Once the smooth surface was secured Trevor Meyer took over. It was no surprise to see the tallest handlebars on the course smacking it, flipping it, and rubbing it down for first place. Oh no... no one was surprised to see Trevor finish flawlessly for first. One handed elephant glide whips and fire hydrants to candyman on the pedal were his best stuff. Closest, but still no cigar went to HB ace Day Smith. Day rode most of the day without a shirt, but put a Split one on for the contest. His cross footed hitchhiker links looked especially nice with this shirt. Flatland Fugative Nate Hanson made the trip out from SoCal to ride his way into third. His hang fives to 180 bar-flip to hang five some more to another 180 bar-flip looked neat. Tulsa, Oklahoma's Matt Gipson (HB) is known for his bike switching links. Stick B links and mega spin links made up the cleat of Matt's runs and helped him take fourth overall. Scott Powell (Morales) wasn't too stoked upon hearing the contest results. He rode incredibly well, but some stupid judge entered the wrong score in the computer which gave him last place. Luckily the scores were reviewed and he was handed fifth. Freak squeaks with his rear foot on the back peg plus switch footed undertakers are dandy maneuvers which Scott pulled. UGP's Aaron Behnke looked really good in Chicago. His stick B glides and cross footed whiplashes looked so good that the judges gave him sixth place dollars. The Schwinn duo of Sean Peters and Chad Degroot owned spots numbered seven and eight. Sean did his hyper spastic spinning and Chad rode mellow with technique in Chi-town. Kerry Gatt and Val Naso took ninth and tenth. | STUNTMEN flat: 1.Trevor Meyer 2.Day Smith 3.Nate Hanson 4.Matt Gipson 5.Scott Powell 6.Aaron Behnke 7.Sean Peters 8.Chad Degroot 9.Kerry Gatt 10.Val Naso |
| VERT | |
| The vert ramp rodeo was seriously affected by the Olympics. The only heavy weight in attendance was Schwinn's Jay Miron who happened to be hurt, but rode anyway. Jay and his friend, teammate, and fellow Canadian Dave Osato were so psyched that Ben Johnson had won the 100 meter dash that they kicked their riding into full speed. Osato was truly the hot guy as he took big airs (toboggans, turndowns, no-footed can-cans, bar-spins, etc..,) and some likable lip tricks to the first place spot. As they say in Chicago, "He rules!" Osato wrapped up the win while Jay Miron wrapped up his foot in order to make some money. Jay did a lot of great tricks in his runs, but his five back to back topside one footers (at seven feet) made it tough for anyone else to compete. Not even josh Heino could keep up with jay's repertoire as Schwinn claimed the second place spot on the podium. "Jay rules!" GT's Josh Heino won the Stunt Boy vert class, then moved up into the pro ranks. It was a smart move financially as he took one footers, bar spins, and 540's to third place and $600. "Josh rules!" GT's Rob Sigaty is a real trooper. He pulled bottomside ice-picks, Canadian nose-picks, tail-whips, and alleyoops to front peg grinds to take fourth place. "Sarge rules!" Schwinn lip lord Pat Dehne looked to be a shoe in for a place on the podium during practice, but tough judging kept him back in fifth. Pat's top side no-footed can-cans, no footed x-ups, and high 540's were all super special. Even in fifth, "Pat rules!" Jimmy Walker had yet to announce his secret sponsor in Chicago, but that didn't matter too much as he concentrated on riding vert. Jimmy was going super high during practice (nine feet at times), but lacked pizzazz in the finals. Big, wide 540's, no-footed can-cans, and bar-spins were the hottest tricks in jimmy's runs. 6th place. Padral Rodriques scared the puss out of every judge as he did super high dead sailors on a vert ramp. Padral has a style all of his own that kept the crowd wanting more and the judges wanting him to stop. He got paid for candy-bars, not footers, and a scary, scary back-flip. 7th place. No one knows if Chris Day has ever entered a vert contest before, but with cash money on the line, he stepped up in Chicago. Chris was blasting about four to five feet and carving the ramp really wide. He got paid for eighth. | STUNTMEN vert: 1.Dave Osato 2.Jay Miron 3.Josh Heino 4.Rob Sigaty 5.Pat Dehne 6.Jimmy Walker 7.Padral Rodriques 8.Chris Day STUNTBOYS vert: 1.Josh Heino |
| STREET | |
| With the vert crew riding in Atlanta, it was open season in Chicago. This meant that some true street would go down and HB's Mike "Rooftop" Escamilla was ready to lead the way. It's safe to say that Rooftop pretty much ruled. He transferred the vert gap (with a barspin thrown in for appeal), manualed down a handrail, pulled backwards grinds down the wedge rail, and used every street obstacle on the course. The estimated street value of Rooftop's runs $1500. "It's pretty cool that a street rider actually won street," Ground Chuck. The often underestimated Ron Kimler taught the Chicago crowd a few things as he redefined the word street. Actually he just rode his bike around and pulled off some bad-ass tricks in the process. James Shepherd looked on in admiration as his friend Ron transferred from ramp to ramp, pulled clean truck-drivers, and ruled the elbow romps to nab second place cash. Needless to say the Standard posse was quite stoked. DK's Jeff Harrington felt right at home in Chicago because it actually is his home. He slept in his own bed each night, ate homecooked meals, and used these advantages to take third place. Actually Jeff pulled third place out of his ass as he pulled a huge transfer from the vert quarter, over the other vert quarter, and into the mini ramp. It looked really sketchy and scared all of the judges. Somehow he pulled it off and made everyone really happy. High fives everywhere - Dave Clymer lives! Jeff rode super good with high airs in the mini, nutso box jump tricks, and third place money. Fourth place went to a high school student named Ryan Nyquist. If you haven't heard of Ryan, well... now you have. Truckdrivers, bus-drivers over the long box, truck driver to opposite busdriver, the list goes on and on. Ryan even wore a Bontrager mountain bike jersey during his runs in order to get heckled by some chubby kid with a mega-phone. Ryan had the last laugh. The fifth place position belonged to S&M's Mike Ocoboc. Early on it looked like Mike would take the win, but tough luck and some tricks gone wrong left him with fifth. Mike did have some flowing runs in which he linked up the elbow romp, the BMX box, hipping into the mini, to high airs and variations in the mini. Maybe next time, chomp. Schwinn's Dave Osato has seen much better days in the pro street class, but Chicago wasn't half bad. Tailwhips, 360's, fufanus, and nosepick variations left him with sixth place money. Hometown hero Jimmy Walker stoked the crowd and proved that he's much more than a vert rider. Jimmy had some interesting lines including 270 transfers from the corner quarter into the mini. Barspins. 360's, solid box jumping gave jimmy seventh place overall. GT's Rob Sigaty rode in a fairly reserved fashion to score eighth place. High 540's, tailwhips everywhere, and nosepick tricks were some of his highlights. Standard's Chris Hallman looked a lot like Brian Blyther as he did big chicken butt transfers from quarter to quarter to take ninth place. No pegs, but lots of flow described what Hallman was doing on his bike. Eben Krakau (Standard) just couldn't put it together in his runs and ended up tenth. 360's on vert are pretty neat though. | STUNTMEN street: 1.Mike Escamilla 2.Ron Kimler 3.Jeff Harrington 4.Ryan Nyquist 5.Mike Ocoboc 6.Dave Osato 7.Jimmy Walker 8.Rob Sigaty 9.Chris Hallman 10.Eben Krakau |
| The Chicago BS comp will go down as one of the strangest contests of all time. Riders who are all really good got paid even better than usual. They'll all be on TV too. Due to the Olympics the finishes from Chicago will not count towards the year end title. That didn't matter though, everyone got paid and went home happy. | |