Date: april 22-25, 1999.
Place: Louisville, KY.
New format. Riders were grouped into heats of four people and each rider in the heat got two one minute run (three in the finals). The two riders with the highest scores advanced to the next round.
Amateur flatland was on Thursday evening and was the first class in B.S. history to run the new flatland format. The only problem was that many of the amateurs were riding in their first contest, so there was no way to seed them; thus, some classes were much tougher than others. The first group that competed turned out to only have "beginner" level riders, but under the new system, 2 of them HAD to qualify. In some of the other stacked groups, some pretty good experts were edged out. Although this was a problem, it didn't have an effect on the top 6 riders. A good thing about the new format is that everyone gets more than one run. If you don't make the semifinals or the finals you still get to ride again in a consolation round. If you blow your first run you still have a chance to redeem yourself.
There were some really good riders in the contest this time. It looks like some of these guys will be ready for the pros soon. Fourth place went to Andrew Cooper because he did a turbine backpacker and quite a few other swift maneuvers. Last years year-end title winner, Kip Williamson took home third place by pulling off some very original front wheel links. If you can catch the contest on TV you will see/hear a lot of Kip because he is now interviewing the riders, describing the tricks, and telling the ESPN folks what tricks to show on TV. Thanks Kip!
Terry Adams from Louisiana got a well deserved second place. Terry was pulling flawless crossfooted stick bitches to time machines (on the pedals straddling the head tube) and fire hydrant 180 bar flip to hitchhiker. He was also doing some nice funky chicken and hitchhiker links. There was no question who the winner was. Matt Wilhelm blew the competition away by spinning his ass off! He spun a karl kruzer with one hand on the seat and one foot on the bars really fast. He also coasted a dump truck with both feet on the pegs and jumped into a rope with both feet on the pegs...wow. Look for this guy in the pro ranks soon.
Friday was pro vert and pro flat practice. Martti and Nathan Penonzek were in Japan and would not be there, but most of the other big guns were there warming up. Probably the most talked about rider in practice was Andrew Faris. Andrew basically quit doing everything he used to do and started completely over. All of his new moves are pretty much quick, one-hit tricks. He is now doing things like rollbacks to bunny hop tailwhips!
Pro flatland started Saturday at 11:00am. The new format worked out nicely with the pros since they were easier to seed (everyone had competed in a B.S. event before) and there is less of a gap between the best and worst rider in the class. There were 24 riders which made up 6 groups of 4 riders. The top 2 riders in each group advanced to the semi finals (which consisted of 12 riders). These riders were put into 3 groups of 4 and the top 2 riders from each group competed in the 6 man finals. The riders who did not make the cut rode in the 6 man consolation round. Another cool thing was that the top 12 riders got paid.
12th place went to Perry Mervar. No, you did not go back in time to 1990, Perry is back. He has been riding again for the past 8 months after taking an 8 year break. Perry mixed in some nice new moves with his signature old school moves. He was doing spinning hikers, turbined locomotives, and yes, he did the "Perry doom" (riding on the back pegs no-handed and jumping to a bar ride). Scott Powell, who came up with the new format, got 11th place. Scott did mcCircles running on the tire as well as double decades with no back brakes! His riding also landed him the third X-Game spots of the three that were available at this comp. 10th place went to Art Thomason. He never touched more than once in a run and even had two flawless runs! Highlights include clockwise full bar flip to side squeaks to counter clockwise full bar flip to squeakers on the pedal with a half bar flip out. He also pulled links with spinning hikers and 180 bar flip to hikers in them. He was stoked to find out that he landed the 2nd X-Games invite of the contest. Alex Jumelin, from France, break danced on his bike for 9th. This guy can do a 10 trick link in 10 seconds. He has a super rad, quick, fluid style. Chad Degroot was all Alex Jumelinover 8th place. A few too many touches kept him from making the 6 man finals, but he was still ripping it up. This guy has some of the hardest stuff out there and it is so subtle. In one of his links he was doing a crossfoot karl kruzer on the left side of the bike and a few seconds later he was doing it on the right side. For a better description of what he can do, see Baco 8. Gabe Weed was the top rider in the semifinal consolation round. His usual high speed spinning and fluid links were in full effect. Gabe also pulled a crossfoot whiplash to backpacker, 7th place.
The finals were amazing. Everyone was going for their hardest stuff, trying to win. There were a lot of touches because of this, but it was still a cool contest to watch. Dan Rigby had the hardest tricks of the contest. The guy has the coolest/hardest ways into hikes that you have ever seen. He can also do a half packer in a circle and turbine to a backwards one, and start going straight. He could have won if he could have kept his feet off the ground. Sean Peters busted out for 5th place with a no-hand crossfoot tomahawk and his spinning karl kruzer on the Sean Peterspedal. Andrew Faris got 4th place only because he touched. He did a 180 bunny hop to rollback then did a 360 bar spin and immediately went into a backwards hang five. From the backwards hang five he did a backwards backpacker and then somehow did a 360 bar flip and landed in a forward squeaker on the pedal. He also did his gliding junk yard to death truck. Effraim Catlow, from England, is one bad ass rider and the coolest guy you would ever want to meet. He had some of the most original moves in the contest and got a well deserved 3rd. My favorite was when he did a steam roller in a circle holding only the seat and kicked up on the tire with his foot, flipping the bars so that he landed in the same trick with his bars backwards. He also did a steamboat on the pedal and then wrapped his free foot under the bars and put it on the other pedal! He had too many other tricks to describe, but I rode with him a lot over the course of the weekend and I think he can do every single trick that has ever been invented! He got the top X-Games invite. Jason Brown, who recently joined Fish on Redline, took 2nd place. Jason was doing backwards hikers with his bars backwards full bar flipped to forward hikers. This guy can get into and out of hitchhikers more ways than anyone. The big winner was none other than Trevor Meyer. Trevor looked a little flat in qualifying and the semifinals, but he rose to the occasion to kick ass in the finals. He was basically flawless. He did the trick of the contest by doing a turbined death truck that must have gone forward to backward 5 times and he stuck it perfectly! He was doing some of the same links as last year, but he would always throw in some new impossible stuff, like full bar flipped karl kruzers palming the grip.
DMC finished second.
Simon Tabron, full-factory Trek, se lache en flair.
Jamie Bestwick tente un 900.
Last year, Ryan Nyquist was struggling to hit seven feet. This year, he was doing 10 feet airs and pulled his first 540 full barspin.
Dave Mirra crashed hard on a flair.
Jay Miron
STUNTMEN VERT: 1-Miron, Jay 2-Dennis McCoy 3-Simon Tabron 4-Ryan Nyquist 5-Kevin Robinson 6-John Parker 7-Bestwick, Jamie 8-Osato, Dave 9-Jason Davies 10-Dave Mirra
STUNTBOYS VERT: 1-Kraft Kogy 2-Joe Tecca 3-Thad Miller 4-Mike Mancuso 5-Garret Byrnes
Ruben Alcantara tried to tailwhip from a quarter pipe and land grinding down a rail.
Jimmy Levan launched from a wedge over a railing to a nine foot drop outside of the course.
Ryan Nyquist and Rob Nolli ruled street. They initialy tied for first place.
Ryan Nyquistpulled a barspin to x-up flip
Rob Nolli pulled a flip, a decade and a 360-tailwhip over the spine.
STUNTBOYS STREET: 1-Chad Degroot 2-Mike Andrews 3-Van Homan 4-Seth Kimbrough 5-Garret Byrnes