Sponsored by Duffs, Red Bull, Thule, Profile Racing, Kink, Props, Primo, Dig, Metal, Little Devil, Harvest, Hellbent, FSA, Macneil, Trench, Kenda, Animal, Manmade, Cane Creek
Before the weekend everyone was worried about the impending hurricane Isabel. Nae-sayers thought that the weekend would be rained out, but FBM stayed focused, built the sketchiest street course EVER, and pulled off the most ghetto fabulous contest since the last FBM Ghetto Street Comp. Stare at Corey Martinez's amazing maneuver, and try to realize the gravity of the situation. He's blasting a corner air and about to hang up on a rainspoutting that sits almost 20 feet above the ground, and all that he has underneath him is some half-baked ramp made of pallets and reused plywood. That and the fact that he pulled it off pretty well sums up the whole weekend. But there's way more to it than that. The weekend had it all, drama, victory, defeat, blood, sweat, dirt, beer, cops, robbers, and more. Sounds like some sort of Western or action adventure movie huh?
Steve Crandall, www.fbmbmx.com: The whole idea for these contests was to bring people together, have a good time, and ride bikes on some sketchy ass ghetto ramps, back to the basics. Simple enough, but in order to do any kind of event, you need to do a lot of work beforehand. The parking lot we used was ghetto, but you should have seen how much shit we had to clean before it was even rideable. No shit either, a lot of people helped out to make this past weekend possible. The week prior consisted of most of us sweeping the parking lot, shoveling junk, gathering pallets, moving ramps, and stealing wood out of the abandoned building next door. The crew consisted of all of us at FBM, the boys from Richford, a group that showed up from France and Australia, Chicken wrap, Snake, Ryan Corrigan, Shawn Arata, and bunch of others. The Australians camped out on the loading dock the whole time, and one of them set up a tent in the abandoned building. We called him Rocky, his real name was Russell, and he rode awesome in the pro class.
The event was laid out like this, an AM class, a Pro class, a highest bunnyhop contest, a long jump, and best trick on a handrail. All but Pro and the handrail contest were on Saturday, and it was OOFC, (out of fucking control). There were something like 88 riders in Am, and they all killed it. Several riders jumped the dorito right out of the course, and one of the loaded riders, Chris Motorhead, actually pulled a flip out of the course. OUTRAGEOUS. Too much happened to remember, but they were all riding amazing. Check the standings to see who won, most of the top 5 were from PA. Dunny was not one of them.
The bunny hop comp was quick and Jon Saunders won. He's a good kid, and walked away with $177, after Price from action wheels, and Hellbent donated an extra 60 bucks.
The long Jump challenge wasn't so nice, in fact it was fucking brutal, but it was one of the few times Michael Puorro (local shredder) wasn't in the way filming for Standpoint Video Magazine. If you look at the photos, shredder is the guy in every shot with the khaki pants, chasing people around with the death lens. At any rate, shredder is alright, but Cory from Cleveland is not, he got worked, and had to go to the emergency room because he slid across the parking lot on his face, and he wasn't by himself on that one, it seemed like almost everyone who signed up got killed. Ryan Metro ended up winning a box of prizes, and an FBM night train, But he rides for Metal so he probably went home and sold it.
Other highlights from the day included Kreager getting stung by a bee in his upper lip, Jeff Collins screaming at the crowd to make noise with blood gushing from his eye, and the Police stopping by to tell us the event would get shut down if the announcer didn't stop swearing. Later that night, most people went to Kmart's house in richford to session the dirt bowl, and party it up while the Maniac and Brian Yeagle rode off the roof of the trailer, and did 6 foot airs out of the jersey barrier.
Sunday was another day of the inmates running the asylum. I woke up early and rode the course before anyone else showed up, with Jeff Harrington, Stevie Hamilton and a few others, I was glad to get a chance to ride, because trying to run this contest proved to be pretty stressful.
The Handrail Challenge was a mess. A kid named Francis from Queens won the crowd support, and the bike too.
The pro class was simply amazing. 53 of some of today's best riders including Luke fink from Australia, who won the worlds, came to Johnson City New York, to ride the sketchiest ramps, that most people had ever seen. You will want to get the next props to see this shit, but i'll let you know what sticks out, Jeff Harrington, helped organize this whole weekend, and still found time to pull a decade over the dumpster, and qualify for the finals. Jeff rules. Matt sparks tailwhipped, double tailwhipped and rode the entire course, and ended up pulling a tailwhip and a flair in the corner pocket, which proved to be one of the hottest spots of the weekend. Van did it opposite, Corey Martinez barspun it, and then aired out of it, and Chickenwrap and Snake built it. My personal Favorite of the weekend, was Van trying to feeble grind to tailwhip up the grind ledge, he must have tried it 50 times, and he looked like he'd finally given up and was laying on the ground after eating shit, right then, Brock puts Montel Jordan "this is how we do it" in the cd player, and Van just jumps up dancing and laughing at that ridiculous song. He eventually pulled it, and the crowd went nuts. The list of tricks is too long. I'd be here all day if i tried describing all of what happened, so go get the video...
All in all, I'd say everyone had a blast, and these are some of the people i'd like to thank for helping make it possible: Brian Tunney and Duffs, Jeff Regis at Red Bull, Greg Walsh @ Primo, Will at Dig, all the sponsors, Props, Profile, etc... Darren from Manmade, Big Dave, Brock, Chris Hallman, Kerry Sayre, Cornpie, Corrigan, Arata, Snake, and his whole crew, Chicken, the Aussies, Frenchies, and the dudes over at HCS, Nate and his ramp crew, D-day, Katherine, Nichole, Morgan, and the girls for all their help, Mike Tag and his lumber support crew, Dave Contini at ECT, Jeff Collins, for security, Kelly Baker, Ken Musgrave, Ian from Seventies for coming all the way from England and laughing, Kink for the frame, and most importantly all the riders, and everyone who cheered for them. THANKS.
p.s. dave king ain't shit.
Jeff Zielinski, www.ridebmx.com, october 2003: It's common knowledge among street riders that there are always good spots in the ghetto; whether or not it's worth dealing with the locals to ride them is another thing. Anyway, the FBM Ghetto street comp wasn't actually in a traditional ghetto, in this case it was the obstacles—and man, were they ghetto! It's ironic that the comp is held right outside a perfectly good skatepark (many would say one of the best). But hey, that's the novelty of it, isn't it? Believe it or not, there are some riders who don't like the feel of a perfect, skatelited ramp, while others really wouldn't want to ride anything less than Woodward's Cloud Nine. A complete 180 from Cloud Nine, Ghetto street was riddled with potholes, the ramps had holes and lots of splinters, the windowsill sub still had some glass in it (better watch your arm), and the asphalt ground was like rough sandpaper.
Coincidentally, I arrived in the middle of the long jump comp where a number of riders were unfortunate enough to realize that the sandpaper asphalt didn't exactly smooth out their faces when they went OTB. Metal Bike's young afro rocker, Ryan Metro, didn't suffer the same fate and won that comp. After the long jump was the amateur finals and I got to witness first-hand some guy they call Motorhead backflip over a fence to flat—pretty much onto a set of railroad tracks! After beholding the fence flip I ventured out into some of the actual nearby ghetto areas in a bogus attempt to shoot some real "ghetto street" photos.
The following day I tried to get to the comp early in hopes of shooting some Pro practice photos before it got too crowded. I got there around noon, which I think by most "fire, beer, and mayhem" types would be considered early. Judging from practice, it seemed like the back of the course was where all the action was going to happen because that's where the big hip, curved wallride, and tranny walls were located. Sure enough, once Pro qualifying started I was proven right.
Since the riding in the finals was so much better than in qualifying, I think I'll just get right to it. The tranny walls formed a nice pocket-air line that everyone really seemed to enjoy. But what was even more enjoyable was seeing Corey Martinez go way higher across it than anybody else all day—during the finals he went high enough to icepick bonk the gutter on the adjacent wall! Matt Sparks also had some moves on the tranny wall like a tailwhip over the pocket and a flair on the straight tranny. Personally, and I think George Dossantos would agree with me, Josh Stricker was my favorite to watch. He icepicked-to-fakie the windowsill, did a peg fakie on the corner of the tranny wall, and he totally sessioned the big hip with a no-handed fakie, turndowns, and of course some of his signature snapped-into-place tables and one-handed tables. After the one-handed table George pretty much went nuts and started screaming Stricker's name. Besides his usual runs with tricks on everything, Van Homan icepicked-to-barspin the windowsill and after countless tries, he feebled up the grind box to tailwhip. I need to take this opportunity to voice my admiration of Van because this wasn't the first time I've seen him take it a bunch of times at a comp and continue trying something even when he was far beyond tired—just to pull it.
A few attempts before he finally pulled it, Steve Crandall called Van tough, but I think that's an understatement. And then there's Steven Hamilton, who had the line and trick of the contest with something that's pretty hard to describe with words, but I'll try. To help you picture it a little better, think of when people ride a pool and they carve all three walls consecutively, now picture the same scenario, but without the third wall being there. Steven carved the first wall then transferred off the second into an adjacent wedge that was a good six to eight feet away. After a lot of tries, he pulled the straight jump in qualifying, but in the finals he did an alley-oop 360 over it! It was seriously the wildest thing I've ever seen and I don't know if anybody even saw it coming because he was having so much trouble just jumping it straight before. That kid's definitely shining some new light on street riding.
The FBM guys succeeded at putting on one hell of a ghetto contest. Even though the obstacles may have been horrendous, you never would've known it judging from the level of riding and the smiles on everyone's faces.
John Paul Rogers, www.factionbmxmag.com: I missed last year's Ghetto Comp. I was sitting in a car for five days with Van Homan listening to Avril Levigne over and over on the radio while he sang along. I'm sure some of you out there would think that would be the most wonderful road trip you could possibly dream up. I'm not saying it wasn't a real hoot, but I was bummed I missed the Ghetto Comp.
I wasn't sure I was going to make this year's either. Myself, Brian Wiz and Corey Martinez were driving up from Decatur, Alabama in a hurricane with no windshield wipers and trees crashing down onto the freeway. Towards the end of the drive Wiz was manning the wheel and hanging on for dear life as we swerved back and forth with barely any traction. There was wreckage scattered all over the place from multiple car accidents. I got about zero sleep in the passenger seat while I tried to trick myself into thinking we weren't going to die in a car crash.
After those two got out in Bensalem, I drove back to Philly and got in about 9 A.M. and had no urge whatsoever to get back in the van and drive to Binghamton with Stricker later that afternoon. I was hoping/ assuming the hurricane would ransack the shitty makeshift ramps and the contest would be cancelled. I only slept a few measly hours and Stricker called and gave me the bad news; the hurricane had already blown through and the weather was going to be perfect over the weekend. I drug my tired bones out of bed (the week of not drinking with Wiz and Corey made it a hell of a lot easier to get up and at 'em after the long drive), and we shot up to Binghamton.
The ramps were certainly as shitty as I thought they were going to be, but somehow they resembled an entirely useable course. Last year the ramps, I'm going to start calling them obstacles, it's slightly more fitting, anyway, the obstacles were in the gravel parking lot behind the building. Gravel for the most part isn't considered the most stable of riding surfaces, and I don't think there was much rhyme or reason to the layout. This year they moved it to the parking lot on the side of the building where the loading dock is, in the recent gala events that have been thrown at FBM and ECT it has become the happening spot, and the semi smooth asphalt surface is a tiny bit more rideable than loose gravel. It was drizzling when we arrived and Darren Meenan was using power tools to build the most half-assed hitching post thingy ever. There was a box jump, which is big no-no in today's too cool for you circles, but this one was over a dumpster, so it was safe to jump it if you weren't too street. Of course there was a car, but it was hidden under a bunch of crap piled on it that formed a hip and there was a rail on top or something like a ledge, maybe? The curved wallride never fell over, so that was impressive, and the bowl corner was a highlight, but the biggest work of junk art I thought was the Dorito. Hallman's pride and joy. I have no idea what his inspiration was, but the thing was truly a work of art made with about a hundred pieces of scrap wood shingled together that ended up being a hip or an elbow or exactly what it looked like, a fucking Dorito leaning against a fence. I don't know if there were any X-Games spies checking things out for ramp ideas, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Dorito becomes the next big contest obstacle. Hallman should patent it soon and sell pre-fab Doritos to all the people building new parks. Who knew there would be big bucks in Dorito shaped obstacles? Brock drove around drunk on the forklift with his daughter Amelia putting the supplies inside, and after he was done, Stricker, Ryan Corrigan and myself went to Ithaca for the night and slept at Crandall's.
I couldn't tell you how high the eventual bunnyhop winner hopped, but it was Jon Saunders. The runway was downhill, and that increased the difficulty factor, but that only meant you couldn't go any higher, in the long jump it increased the danger level. Face skids on asphalt are painful and gruesome to watch. The best part of the weekend wasn't when some kid skidded on his face with his hands in his pockets for five feet and came to a grinding halt right in front of me. He let out a groan, stood up and blood started gushing out of his face. By Sunday the whole side of it was scabbed and it looked like he was storing a grapefruit in the side of his face. Metro, who is sponsored by Metal won, and Crandall got pissed he wouldn't give the FBM frame he won to the second place and non-sponsored dude. The crowd booed and Metro flipped them off. He more than likely sold the frame for a few hundred bucks. Smart move. The kid is figuring it out young that you aren't going to make money riding, so get it however you can. The cops showed up, and I thought they were going to shut down the contest and write citations because we had exceeded the legal limit of young boys wearing women's pants allowed at public gatherings, but they only wanted Leland to stop cursing.
Saturday night a good chunk of people went to that trailer with all the fishing lures on the wall with the dirt bowl in the yard. I can never remember where it is exactly, but it's somewhere in between Ithaca and Binghamton down the road from the well that has the best drinking water around those parts. I'm pretty sure it's the only well I've been to on the side of the road where I waited in line to fill up a jug of water. It's not a typical trailer park that has a name, like Shady Manor, it's definitely all trailers, but they have big yards. The kid's name that lives there is K-Mart, you do the math, it's some white trash shit. Brian Yeagle and Derrick Girard were rolling in from the roof and blasting huge airs off a Jersey barrier.(Derrick hates being called "the Maine-iac," and I'm doing my best to help that out, but it may be too late.) Once again Stricker, Corrigan and myself ended up back in Ithaca. Mike Tag took us to a house party and none of us knew we were invited, so we were stealing beers out of the fridge and stuffing our pockets in plain site, until they told Tag to ask us to stop stuffing our pockets and just drink the beer. They also asked him if the person that took their Little Homies collection could return it. We got split up after the party, and I slept in the van, and they slept at Crandall's. I tried to get in too, but I couldn't figure out the stupid code on the front door's lock. Stricker got handcuffed by the cops when he was trying to get in. He couldn't figure out the code either, and some goon called the cops and they pulled their guns on him when they showed up and made him drop to his knees. They harassed him until they figured out a guy holding a sandwich, a drink, and a cup of soup probably wasn't trying to rob anyone at three in the morning.
I have to give credit to Jeff Collin's for the outstanding job he did as the head of security. He is big, drunk, loud and in your face. Nobody fucked with him, and he jumped the dumpster on a race cruiser and bashed the side of his head in. Then he circled the course flipping off the crowd, and his front tire blew out and he crashed a second time. I can't even put into words how absurd the scene was. You can't get better white trash carnie entertainment for free anywhere in the world. The pro final was bonkers. Due to the sketchiness, weirdness and strange lines of the course, the riding was different and better than the average contest. Shawn Arata did a gap they dubbed the E-Brake. I can't explain it, but he bashed the top of his head in and was bleeding from his scalp. Corey Martinez chinked a rain gutter at the top of the building on a pocket air on the bowl corner at twenty feet up. Everyone who saw it believed in Jesus for ten seconds. Steven Hamilton won with some weird line. He gapped into the vert wall carved out of the bowl corner and 360'd out into a wedge. He won the whole thing, and a tiny little KTM 50, and oddly enough, he was the only guy competing that fit it. Van Homan did a feeble to tailwhip as Ozzy's Diary of a Madman played. He took fifty tries, was getting water from the crowd, and every time he crashed it took all the strength he could muster to get back up and try it again. It was some real Rocky shit.
I have to give credit to Jeff Collin's for the outstanding job he did as the head of security. He is big, drunk, loud and in your face. Nobody fucked with him, and he jumped the dumpster on a race cruiser and bashed the side of his head in. Then he circled the course flipping off the crowd, and his front tire blew out and he crashed a second time. I can't even put into words how absurd the scene was. You can't get better white trash carnie entertainment for free anywhere in the world. The pro final was bonkers. Due to the sketchiness, weirdness and strange lines of the course, the riding was different and better than the average contest. Shawn Arata did a gap they dubbed the E-Brake. I can't explain it, but he bashed the top of his head in and was bleeding from his scalp. Corey Martinez chinked a rain gutter at the top of the building on a pocket air on the bowl corner at twenty feet up. Everyone who saw it believed in Jesus for ten seconds. Steven Hamilton won with some weird line. He gapped into the vert wall carved out of the bowl corner and 360'd out into a wedge. He won the whole thing, and a tiny little KTM 50, and oddly enough, he was the only guy competing that fit it.
Van Homan did a feeble to tailwhip as Ozzy's Diary of a Madman played. He took fifty tries, was getting water from the crowd, and every time he crashed it took all the strength he could muster to get back up and try it again. It was some real Rocky shit. I had the best time I have ever had at a contest, and I'm sure all the people there would say the same thing, but this carnival needs to be seen to fully understand it. Describe a half naked three hundred pound kid Greco Roman wrestling all comers for a free bike rack? You can't put into words the Greatest BMX Show on Earth.
AMATEURS RESULTS: 1.Jeremy Behler 2.Jacob Pudliner (clipper) 3.Matt Levine 4.Ryan Hillgras 5.Jon Sestito 6.Dave Wagner 7.Karl Poynter 8.Chris Moterhead 9.Chris Schmid 10.John Corts 11.clint reynolds 12 tim raymond 13 ben ogden 14 kevin Briggs 15 jake seeley 16 Jeff Collins Sr. 17 torey kish 18 joel miller 19 mike shreck 20 cody abbatoy 21 jake thibault 22 greg smee 23 evan ayala 24 scott smashu 25 james lukas 26 josh pekich 27 geoff slattery 28 john zoppelt 29 jeremy bruno 30 otto ayala 31 ashley grabb 32 mah alleyruck 33 pete fortson 34 matt adalian 35 denny dubrow 36 Trevor ashworth 37 coty brown 38 steve jaworski 39 frank koch 40 ben cole 41 ken teidman 42 branden bules 43 scotty wemmer 44 dan reid 45 stephen curry 46 mikey sestito 47 scott parsons 48 mike petoczny 49 justin Hochevar 50 rob pet 51 dan southwell 52 kohl campbell 53 colin loughlin 54 fast george Das 55 white scott 56 shawn larson 57 tony vecca 58 cory larson 59 grady metteson 60 brien kielb 61 tom olson 62 todd smith 63 anthony hamilton 64 cory Welker 65 nate presehutti 66 mike donnely 67 randy coffera 68 kyle vian 69 matthew powel 70 jeff collins jr 71 eric russi 72 mano mirabella 73 jason Grosso 74 a. dominic jacobs 75 kerry loper 76 kenny underwood 77 chad rosh 78 jay orr 79 toby pettirelli 80 richard moller 81 zack lambert 82 alexi deRochambeau 83 mike reynolds 84 billy ashly 85 devin cross 86 eric baun 87 eric choate 88 john greenage
PROS RESULTS: 1 Stevie Hamilton 2 Van Homan 3 Corey Martinez 4 Brian Foster 5 Josh Stricker 6 Shawn Arata 7 Luke Fink 8 Jeff Harrington 9 Matt Sparks 10 Even Venditti 11 Cesar Monzon 12 Josh Nandza 13 John Saxton 14 Jon Sanders 15 Chase Hawk 16 Eli Platt 17 Dirty Dan 18 Jared Washington 19 Trey Hinton 20 Mike Tag 21 Rob Tibbs 22 Rocky 23 Paul Horan 24 Cico 25 Vinnie Sammon 26 Will Talemelli 27 Justin Simpson 28 Mike Fede 29 Ryan Sher 30 Kc Badger 31 Joe Simon 32 Local Schredder 33 Metro 34 Jeremy Barrick 35 Little Bun 36 Mike Pataczny 37 Jimmy Levan 38 Fisher 39 Andre Montzarella 40 Nicholas Warren 41 Justin Kendle 42 Brandon Belu 43 Dave Belcher 44 Micah Cranz 45 Maniac 46 Kelly Baker 47 Ed Polio 48 Cruz 49 Josh Surhe 50 Ryan Navazio
Highest Bunnyhop: Jon Saunders
Long Jump: Metro
Handrail Challenge: Francis Macchio
Corey Martinez pocket at the FBM Ghetto jam on the cover of Props spring 2004.
vodeo, www.dailymotion.com: FBM Ghetto Street Comp Binghampton, NY. Props 51.
Jeudi (18/09/2003): Welcome to Johnson City, la veille, on a roule au park East Cost Terminal, et là, après une nuit passée à l'hôtel, on arrive pour voir ce qu'il en est des modules pour la Ghetto Comp, et deux jours avant le truc, y a presque rien et des mecs commencent juste à contruire le park. On demande a Crandall s'ils n'ont pas besoin d'un coup de main pour faire les modules... j'ai jamais fait de modules et ça peut-etre marrant et être une bonne experience. Crandall nous dit "pas de problemes mais c'est dangereux...". Mais c'est pas ça qui va nous arreter:-) et on part avec Dave (un des soudeur FBM) dans le batiment desaffecte qui est juste entre l'usine FBM et l'endroit ou il y aura la Ghetto Comp, et la mission dans ce batiment, c'est de trouver du bois. A premiere vue, le batiment est bien crade et l'escalier pour acceder au batiment est recouvert de 3 cm de crottes et de cadavres d'oiseaux... Apres avoir fait un peu le tour du batiment, on trouve des belles cloisons en contre plaque, ce qui est parfait. Donc, on a commencé a demonter les cloisons avec des pieds de biche pour recuperer le bois, pour ensuite le ramener en passant par le toi du batiment. Pendant qu'on démontait ces cloisons, Chicken (c'est son surnom) a commence à faire le quart de bowl dans un angle de mur, et le park a commencé a prendre forme.
Ensuite, Shawn Arata a commence a faire l'eject du spine, et Vince a commence a faire la reception avec des pallettes. Je le regardais et il avait l'air de galerer, donc je suis venu l'aider mais bon, avec Vince, on se dit qu'il ne faut pas faire n'importe quoi quand même, si on fait une courbe de merde, ça va pas trop le faire, donc on a commencé à placer les pallettes puis à mettre une premiere couche de gros contre-plaqué, tout en consolidant la courbe avec des bout de bois. Apres, on a mis quelques calles avant de recouvrir tout ça de de contreplaque, et a la fin la courbe s'est revelée pas mal du tout et tout le monde a été etonné de ce qu'on avait fait:-).
Apres la contruction de la réception, on a fait une petite pause tout en regardant Chris Hallman qui commençait a faire un gros tas de pallette en face du wall incurvé que Chicken et deux trois mecs avaient presque fini. Avec Vince, on a commence a aider Chris Hallman a faire sont gros tas de bois dont le nom sera le "doritos" ou "the ramp of insanity":-) et donc on a commencé à empiler et clouter tout ca et au debut ça a eu du mal à prendre forme mais le resultat fut pas mal du tout.
Ensuite, Crandall a acheté des pizzas pour les mecs qui ont bossé donc on a fait une petite pause, et pendant ce temps, Crandall a commece à faire des tags sur les rampes et il dessine vraiment bien. Après, on a fini le Doritos et Broke a taggé le logo ECD que j'avais sur mon t-shirt sur le Doritos, et Vince a ecrit deux trois trucs sur le Doritos comme Hangloose et Flava et moi, j'en ai profité pour ecrire www.bmxinfo.com sur le côté du Doritos donc peut-etre que vous le verrez dans une video... là bas, personne ne connaissait bmxinfo.com mais vous, vous connaissez:-)
Apres on a commence a rouler sur le park, c'est Shawn Arata qui a commencé en testant le spine et la courbe du quart de bowl, et à premiere vue c'est pas mal quand on voit les vols qu'il se met !! Ensuite, tout le monde a suivi et roulé sur le park, et notre courbe s'est revelée pas mal et le Doritos (ou le tas de bois) est bien sympa aussi. Mais la nuit arrive vite, tout le monde part petit a petit, et à la fin, il ne reste plus que nous 5 c'est a dire les deux australiens, l'anglais, et nous. Vers les 22h, on a commencé a s'intaller pour dormir, les australiens et l'anglais sur les canapes pres de l'usine FBM et Vince et moi dans la voiture.
Vendredi (19/09/2003): Il a un peu plu pendant la nuit, y'a pas mal de vent et le temps reste couvert. Après un petit dejeuner sur les canapes a regarder les modules, on a commence a voir debarquer Broke, Chicken et d'autres mecs avec plein de bombes de peinture et ils ont recouvert les modules avec des trucs un peu partout.
Ensuite, il a fallu finir la pyramide dont la base est un van, les plans incline sont là mais il faut souder un espece de curb dessus... mais apres 10 minutes il a commence a vraiment pleuvoir et donc on s'est refugié sous le porche dans le canape. Et on en a profite pour visiter l'usine FBM avec Dave, un des mecs qui soude, avant de faire un peu de shopping.
Il pleut toujours apres tout ça donc on negocie une entrée pour le park (East Coast Terminal) et on a du y resté au moin 6 heures voire meme plus ! le park est vraiment bien et y a des truc un peu de partout et une salle avec juste des fun box. A 11h40, c'est a dire 20 minutes avant la fermeture du park, on voit debarquer Sofian, JC et Alex qui étaient ce matin au Canada et ont passé toute la journée dans la voiture en faisant une petite pause aux chutes du Niagara. Pendant ce temps, l'anglais qui est avec nous et que je n'aime pas trop, il faut le dire, car il pense un peu trop à ça gueule... Ce qui ce confirme puisque qu'il nous dit à demain ; il a trouvé un endroit ou dormir et demain matin, il va au trail de Baker... Il est sympa, il pense a nous... D'un autre côté, qu'il se casse, c'est pas plus mal ! Apres les Autraliens, on rencontre des potes et nous on propose d'aller a l'hotel avec eux, mais bon, on prefère rester ici avec les sudistes.
On a ensuite essaye de trouver un truc ouvert pour manger mais on trouve qu'un Donky Donut's, et apres la morale fut qu'on ne sait toujours pas ou manger mais on sait ou il ne faut pas manger... c'est clair que deux bouts de pain ou au milieu on trouve un oeuf qui a bizarrement la meme forme que le pain et qui a ete rechauffé au micro onde, ça fait pas trop envie. Bref, ensuite on est retourne au park pour commencer a installer les voitures pour dormir, et avec Vince, on a pas mal parle avec Sofian les deux autres sudistes sont cassés avec le decalage horaire puisqu'ils sont arrives y a quelques jours aux US contrairement a Sofian qui est là depuis 4 mois, mais on n'a pas trop tarde a se coucher.
Samedi (20/09/2003): Pendant la nuit, du monde est arrivé, avec Vince, on les entendait passer à côté des voitures. En se levant comme tous les matins, Broke est déjà au travail, il bouge trois grosses poutres en acier avec le fenwick, histoire de marquer les limites pour les spectateurs. Avec Vince on a balayé un peu la flotte qu'il restait apres la pluie, et normalement il va faire beau aujourd'hui et demain, donc tout va bien. Avant de venir a la Ghetto Comp on etait à Bethlehem chez Keith Gower et il devait venir avec des potes entre autre Dirt, avec son van et sa caravane, et en fait, il s'est garé de l'autre cote du batiment... On aurait su, on aurait pu dormir dans la caravane, donc on bavarde un peu avec Keith et Dirt. Aujourd'hui, c'est les amateurs normalement et ils sont 100 incrits. Avec Vince, on voulait rouler mais y a deja trop de monde et y a des mecs qui snakent de partout et c'est limite dangereux tellement y a de monde, donc on a preferé regarder, mais on aimerait bien rouler...
A 13h, le contest a commencé et les runs se font par poules de 5. Et c'est peut-etre les amateurs mais ça roule pas mal, y a pas mal de cascades surtout qu'a la fin de chaque run, chaque mec doit faire un tricks, ce qui favorise la cascade:-) Mais y a quand meme du niveau avec des 36 whip, des flip et pas mal de tricks en catastrophe... Les mecs sont a 100% dedans et même après une chute, les mecs y retournent jusqu'a rentrer leurs tricks meme s'ils se demontent dix fois... ils y retournent...
Apres ces qualifs, c'est le bunny up contest, et la barre monte vite. C'est Jon Saunders qui gagne, je cois que c'est le même que l'année dernière, par contre, je ne sais pas combien il a fait en hauteur je l'ai entendu mais c'etait en pouces et je ne me m'en souviens plus mais je pense que c'etait au dessus du metre.
La boucherie apres, avec le saut le plus long. Les mecs arrivent a fond sur un tremplin et certains passent près de la mort et raterrissent bien sur l'avant, jusqu'au moment ou y en a un qui a bien pique de l'avant pour faire 1 mètre sur la tete... il a meme pas pu mettre ses mains pour se retenir, tout son poid etait sur sa tete qui rappait sur le beton bien abrasif, et apres il avait la tete bien en sang ! Apres ça, le concours du saut en longeur a continue avec encore des chutes, et un mec qui est oblige de redresser son guidon apres chaque passage tellement il retombe sur l'avant. A la fin, il ne restait que Jon Saunders et Metro et pour finir, c'est Metro qui gagne.
Apres ces cascades, les finales amateurs ont debuté et c'etait comme les qualifs, par 5, et a la fin chacun faisait un trick, et comme pour les qualifs, il y a des mecs bien flow, mais y en a qui sont bien cascade.
Ensuite, les pros ont commence a rouler et a premiere vue, Martinez, Foster, Shawn Arata, Van et d'autres sont en forme, Martinez nous fait des transferts courbe a courbe dans le bowl bien haut, Van nous fait la meme chose un peu moins haut mais dans les deux sens...
A la nuit tombée, on prend les directions pour aller a une soiree, le soir meme. L'anglais fait encore ses plans dans notre dos... Enfin bref, on est parti manger un chinois puis on est allé prendre une douche avec Sofian, JC et Alex. Pour la douche on est allé dans une station service ou il y avait des douches, normalement c'est 7$ mais bon on y est alle discretement chacun notre tour et on a rien paye. Vers les 11 heures, on est parti a la soiree. Pour les 40 premiers miles, tout s'est tres bien passe, mais apres, les indications n'etaient pas top et je comprends maintenant pourquoi Keith m'avait dit "good luck" en voyant les indications... enfin bref, on a voulu telephoner a Dirt d'une cabine mais ça ne repond pas, il doit etre sous biere encore:-) et la, on voit 4 voitures de flics passer devant nous. Il fallait se rendre a l'evidence, on etait perdu et Vince commençait pêter un peu les plombs, donc on a fait demi tour avant de croiser des voitures dont l'une a un porte velo avec un BMX. On claxonne mais ils tracent sans s'arreter et là, Sofian est parti a leur poursuite (c'est dire faire demi tour et reprendre la direction de Johnson City), mais bon avec sa caisse, il peut les suivre et nous on a fait ce qu'on pouvait pour les suivre aussi avec la Oldsmobile, jusqu'au moment ou les mecs se sont arrete a une station et en fait, c'etait Van, Wizmeski, Martinez et deux, trois autres mecs, et en fait, la soiree etait finie, les flics ayant debarque... surement les 4 voitures qu'on avait vu tout a l'heure. Donc on est rentre sur Johnson City en suivant toute la clique et en arrivant a leur hotel, la Oldsmobile est bien chaude et le liquide de refroidissement bout un peu:-) apres on est parti dormir dans notre hotel c'est a dire dans les voitures a cote du park. Mais 5 minutes apres s'etre couche, Vince pête un peu les plombs et en a mare de dormir dans la voiture et est a deux doigts de couper les ceintures qui sont sur le siege avec un cuter, mais bon, je le raisonne un peu en lui expliquant que c'est pas notre caisse, et apres, il est parti dormir dehors.
Dimanche (21/09/2003): En me levant, je passe au park de la Ghetto Comp et Jeff Harington et Chris Hallman roulent, et par la meme occasion je vois Vince qui se leve. Il a dormi pres des canapes juste a cote des modules. On a recupere nos velos et on les a rejoint pour rouler avec eux. Jeff Harington nous fait des trucs bizarres ou plutot pas courant comme des sauts sur la fun box en restant assis sur la selle ou des sauts de la fun box en mettant sa tete a cote de la roue avant, quand a Vince, comme toujours:-) il a bien roulé avec le wall incurvé, un petit transfert de la courbe qu'on a fait a la reception de la fun box, quant a moi, j'ai passe mon temps a essayer de faire mon premier wall incurvé, mais en general, ça se finit par une bonne chute jusqu'au moment ou je l'ai enfin rentre, juste a temps car en 10 minutes le park s'est rempli et ça devenait dangereux de rouler.
Donc on a regarde les mecs rouler avant que les qualifs pro commencent. Vers 13h30, les qualifs ont debuté, et comme pour les amateurs, les runs sont pas 5 et se finissent par un trick pour chacun. Y a pas mal de monde mais ils ne sont pas tous pros, niveau riding je parle, limite j'aurais pu m'inscrire en pro... Mais y a du niveau, et contrairement a la veille y a pas trop de cascades et pourtant y a des gros et le style est assez present. Les qualifs se sont finies par les 2 meilleurs groupes, Martinez nous fait des transferts courbe a courbe dans le bowl vraiment trop haut et il fait le transfert en bus, Van de même dans les deux sens, Matt Sparks veut rentrer whip en faisant le même transfert dans le bowl et au bout de quelques essais, il le rentre avant de vouloir se poser sur la goutiere en ice pick au dessus de la courbe du bowl mais il n'y arrivera pas, et il est reste deux trois fois agrippe par les mains a la goutiere qui est bien a 4 5 metres de haut, Foster est la aussi avec son style, et encore plein d'autre trucs mais le pire est a venir avec les finales...
Pour attendre les finales, il y a un rail contest, en gros y a un rail et c'est celui qui fait le plus gros tricks sur ce rail qui gagne. C'est vite parti en over axel, over ice pick, prendre le rail en x-up, pour finir par prendre le rail en montant en sortie 180 ou bus bien propre. Moi j'aurais fait gagner le mec qui a fait le rail en montant en sorti bus qui etait vraiment trop propre mais c'est le mec qui a mis 50 essais a faire son axel x-up qui gagne, c'est à dire Francis Macchio qui a un peu le look de Butcher.
Apres ça, les finales ont commencé et il y a 2 groupes de 5 riders. Le premier groupe envoit gros avec un flair en transfert dans le bowl de Matt Sparks qui nous fait aussi un double whip sur le doritos, et sinon Stevie Hamilton est vraiment style et nous fait un truc vraiment impressionnant ! c'est un wall en transfert dans le bowl pour resortir du bowl en transfert au plan incline en 36 et rentre nickel au 3eme essais, Martinez fait le transfert dans le bowl en ajoutant un petit ice bong sur la goutiere, Jeff Harrington fait encore des trucs pas commun comme sauter la fun box assis sur la selle:-). Pour le deuxieme groupe, Foster fait un gros alley oop table sur le doritos, Luke Fink fait un 540 x-up un peu lookdown sur le doritos, Shawn Arata fait un gros transfert de la fun box a la pyramide en lookdown avant de faire un autre transfert 180 en partant de la fun box et en raterrissant dans un plan incline de la pyramide qui part en sens inverse. Il avait un peu mal a la cheville apres ! on se demande pourquoi... Even Venditti a passe toute la finale a vouloir faire un condor roll back sur le doritos et il va trop haut mais a chaque fois il loupe la fin de son roll back, un peu normal vu la vitesse, quant a Van, il finit le contest avec au moins 30 essais pour rentrer feeble sortie whip sur un curb, il est creve mais il veut le rentrer et tout le monde attend ca et juste au moment ou j'arrête de filmer parce que j'en ai deja au moin 30 pas rentre, il le rentre.
Pour finir, c'est Stevie Hamilton qui gagne avec son wall transfert dans le wall pour sortir en 36, et c'est bien merite.
Apres les 30 essais de Van pour rentrer feeble sortie whip, Crandall lui a offert une biere, et petit à petit le park s'est vide, avec Vince on a dit au revoir a tous ceux qu'on connaissait, et les mecs nous on remercié de les avoir aide a faire les modules, mais bon pour nous c'etait pas une contrainte c'etait plutôt sympa, et c'etait la premiere fois qu'on faisait des modules surtout en pallettes:-)
Ensuite, on a quitte Sofian, JC et Alex qui vont rester dans le coin pour aller à la Revolution qui est dans une semaine, et nous on retourne a Bethlehem et il nous reste qu'une semaine de vacances aux us. Enfin, ça m'a vraiment fait plaisir de revoir Sofian pour la deuxieme fois, Sofian qui nous avait prêté la voiture l'annee dernière alors qu'on se connaissait presque pas. Et direction Bethlehem avec les 2 australiens et notre cher anglais...
Conclusion: Apres avoir ete degoute des contests avec Palavas il y a 3 ou 4 ans, où il vaut mieux etre spectateur que rider, et ou l'organisation pense plus a l'argent qu'aux riders, avec des sponsors qui n'ont rien a voir avec le BMX et ne sont là que pour profiter de l'image du bmx et d'autres sports... Apres j'aime pas trop voir des mecs qui ont la grosse tete et qui te jugent sur ton niveau avant de te connaitre, et qui roulent plus pour la gloire... pour moi, le seul plaisir qu'on doit avoir, c'est le plaisir de rouler tout seul ou entre potes. Etre plus fort que d'autres n'a pas trop de sens, c'est pas pour ça que tu te fais plus plaisir et pour moi c'est pas le niveau qui compte mais le plaisir que t'as a faire du BMX, et etre plus fort que quelqu'un d'autre ne veux pas dire qu'on est plus intelligent ou que tu tes fait plus plaisir...
Enfin bref tout ca pour dire que cet évênement etait plus une jam 100% BMX, les sponsors sont des sponsors investis dans le BMX pas tous a 100% mais presque, les riders etaient plus la pour rouler et se faire plaisir pas pour gagner de l'argent, les organisateurs sont 100% BMX, et tout le public etait constitue de riders. Et il n'y avait pas de regles, tu voulais monter sur le toit pour voir le contest, filmer au milieu de l'aire de street ou rouler la nuit ou n'importe quand sur le park, tu pouvais.
Pour moi ca restera un moment inoubliable.
Waking up to the sun on your face is one of the best things in the world, especially when you're counting on it to be out. I got to the course a bit late and there were already tons of people there, both riders and spectators. The course was pretty insane, and a lot bigger than the year prior. It was well-equipped with any and every obstacle that you would want to ride, built to its sketchiest potential. The amateur contest was already happening, and there were some wild things going down. There were 83 kids that entered. Brian Hillgrass from Pennsylvania qualified first, but couldn't pull it all off in the finals. He did a very large gap off a kicker to the curved wall, one of the best moves that went down in the Am contest, but when all was said and done, Jeremy Behler took home the win.
After Am Finals, the traditional long jump and bunny hop contests were held. As usual, the long jump contest was out of control–people getting worked left and right, landing front wheel and trying to ride it out, falling terribly onto their faces. The one rider that survived all the carnage was Metal's own Ryan Metro; he took home a box of prizes and an FBM Night Train. Next came the bunnyhop contest. Washington, DC's, Jon Saunders cleared 39" and walked away with 177 bucks.
Sunday was the day to be there. There was a very good turnout for the Pro class. Tons of big names showed up for the festivities: Van Homan, Ryan Sher, Brian Foster, the Maine-iac, Corey Martinez, Chase Hawk, Rob Tibbs, and the list goes on. There were a total of 50 pros that kept the action going throughout the day. I think every rider was doing some sort of crazy maneuver; I would hate to have been one of the judges and have to cut the riders down to a final ten, but it had to be done.
Before the pro finals they held the rail contest, and it was short and sweet. There were a lot of things thrown down on that rail, but in the end the win went to Frank Macchio from Queens, who did an X-up crooked grind.
Finishing tenth was Evan Vendetti. Evan won last year's Am contest and decided to bump himself up to the pro ranks. Evan rode well, but the one trick that was getting everyone going was a huge no-handed fakie he was doing over the Dorito hip (all the random pieces of ply used for the hip made it look like a stack of Doritos). He was hitting it fakie just as high as people would be jumping it regular. Coming down backward at that speed is a very insane thing.
Coming in ninth was Matt Sparks. I can tell you one thing: Matt is really good at doing tailwhips and flips. He did one of those tricks off almost every obstacle on the course. Some of his highlights were a double-whip on the hip, a whip over the corner pocket, and for some reason, he did a flair corner pocket air. I think it took my mind at least two minutes to compute what I had just witnessed. He also flaired one of the really tight, sketchy vert walls. I just started laughing when I saw that, because I didn't think it was possible.
Taking the eighth spot was Mr. Jeff Harrington. Jeff rode with his usual Harrington style, doing moves that people didn't even know existed and lines that no one else would think of, such as jumping the dumpster doubles-to-manual all the way to the vert walls into a bump-jump 360 fakie wallride. And yes, he did do a decade over the dumpster doubles. For some reason, he thinks that trick is easier than a regular 360.
Coming in seventh was Luke Fink. In case you don't know who he is, this kid is from Australia and he won the Worlds this year. He thought it would be a good idea to go from winning the Worlds to entering the Ghetto Street contest. Luke rode really well and did some very big tricks. 540-lookbacks over the hip, 360-whips over the dumpster double, and he even pulled off a clean 720 over it. I do believe he flipped it as well. That's really all that stuck out in my head; there was too much going on at one time to notice everything from every rider.
The sixth spot went to FBM's Shawn Arata. Shawn did some wild stuff. He did an alley-oop air-to-fufanu on a hip with a sub rail on it. It was pretty much a 270 over a hip with a fufanu thrown in. He also threw in a whopper as a crowd pleaser. He did a huge transfer air from the lip of the dumpster double to the lip of the hip–it was seriously about 25 feet. They had to clear the crowd out so he could get enough speed to clear it. It was insane.
Taking home the fifth spot, and pissed that he made the finals because he didn't feel like riding, was Josh Stricker. Even though he said he didn't want to ride at all, it didn't show. He laid down some of the best tables over the hip, along with huge one-handed table airs. With the Stricker pop, he icepick-to-fakied a high windowsill out of a not-so-steep quarter.
Coming in fourth was the "Blue Falcon" himself, Brian Foster. It seemed that Brian was no longer riding for Fit at the contest and went back to his old sponsor, Cycle Craft. Well, that's what Crandall said, anyway. Brian was flowing through the course better than I'd seen anyone all weekend. He would just bounce around, hitting everything and doing something good on each obstacle. He single-handedly destroyed the hip, doing huge one-footed darksides and one-handed table 270s. It was quite enjoyable to watch.
In the third position was Corey Martinez. I just don't understand what goes through this guy's head when he's riding. He would hit this sketchy spine ramp that was hard to jump regular and do huge tuck no-handers on it. In my mind, the trick of the contest was his pocket air. First he did a barspin pocket air higher than anyone else's regular airs. Then he decided to pedal as fast as he could at it and aired out of the building to an icepick chink on the roof's gutter. It was probably the biggest pocket air ever done.
The runner-up position went to Van Homan. Van did almost everything you could ask for. Huge icepick on a windowsill to barspin out, downside whips and topside no-footed cans on the hip, alley-oop pocket airs, and so much more came out of this kid. If I know one thing, it's that Van likes riding his bike a lot more than most people. He was trying a feeble grind up a ledge to tailwhip off, and he would not stop until he pulled it. Just when you thought he wouldn't try it anymore, they put on his song from the Little Devil video and he got right back to it and pulled it. That is dedication, my friends.
Going from seventh in qualifying to the number one position was Steve Hamilton. There's not much I can say about this kid–he's really good. Brakeless nosewheelies-to-180, manual up a grind ledge to 180 gap off, and lines that were original to everyone. The one line that got him the win was from a wedge to wallride over a couple of ramps, into the vert wall that led into the pocket corner, with a launch out of the corner over a 15-foot gap into a wedge. He threw in a 360 over the gap in the finals to boot, and he couldn't have done it any more perfectly.
The prizes were handed out and everyone was pleased. Everyone said their good-byes and had one last chant of "mutha f–ing FBM". The anticipation for next year's Ghetto Street contest has already started to grow inside me. Thanks to Crandall and the boys at FBM for the good times and great oldies.