Metro Jam's run a bit differently that other contests you may have been to in the past. Riders go in groups of four, basically forming their own little jam sessions. That means each guy gets plenty of time to ride, and it feels way less stressful than two-run-do-or-die events. Over 80 pros signed up for the contest, so qualifying was not a quick process. Still, it wasn't exactly boring, with people doing things like hurricane-to-540-out, crazy tailwhip transfers, and icepicks and fufanus on the fence of death. Qualifying ended around 6PM on Saturday, and the results were announced later that night at the Orchid video premiere. Chris Doyle showed up to the premiere late, which meant the only seats open were in the front of the theater. As he and his girlfriend walked to the front, Jay read off the results, and just as he got to the first place, Doyle was standing directly in front of him-perfect, since Chris qualified in first place.
The finals on Sunday were incredible. A few of the most notable highlights included Brian Kachinsky murdering himself on the rails. During qualifying, Brian made nearly every trick work perfectly, but the rails fought back in the finals, and left him a little bit sore by the end of the comp. The group consisting of John Heaton, Dave Freimuth, Dave Osato, and Alistair Whitton was fun to watch, especially Osato, who nearly pulled a bunnyhop-360-whip into a wedge sub. Freimuth nailed a perfect 270-to-icepick-over-and-back on the huge sub rail on his first try, and then he nearly killed himself on a flip-fly-out gone terribly wrong.
One of the big surprises of the weekend was New England's Brian Hunt. Brian puts in a lot of time at Rye Airfield, and it shows. He blasted the hips, had all the wallride tricks, and even tailwhipped the same tranny-to-tranny gap that helped put Doyle in first place the day before. You're going to hear a lot more about Brian, I promise.
The top four guys in the finals blew me away. Van Homan took the fourth spot, and it was well earned. Aside from things you'd expect from Vandever, he also jumped a wedge hip and used a rail as backside! Morgan Wade took third, and was as impressive as always. Morgan had flair-whips from a quarter to a wedge, a few nearly pulled wallride-to-bikeflips, and more hair and energy than anyone else on the course. When Dave Osato is in the mood to ride, he's nearly unstoppable, and he was in the right frame of mind in Toronto. Describing someone's riding as powerful sounds so weird, but it fits Osato perfectly.
First place belonged to the ruler of the weekend, Josh Harrington. When Josh was on the course, he was barspinning onto rails, doing x-up grinds down the kinker, and going eight feet over the hip. When not on the course, he was sitting behind the ramps getting his knee taped up by the medics. No amount of torn ligaments could keep Josh out of the winner's circle this weekend, and everyone in the building was stoked to see him get the win.
After the official contest ended, riders were invited to take place in a 20-minute hard trick contest on the monolith in the center of the course. From the second the jam started, it was an all-out battle. Riders were literally attacking the rails left and right, and it was pretty hard to keep up with all of the action. Corey Martinez won the jam with a 180-gap-to-rail-to-180, and he actually tried to barspin on the way onto the rail, too! Will Love bunnyhopped over the kinked rail repeatedly during the jam, and at the last second, he pulled a bunnyhop-tailwhip over it. Jim Cielencki, Josh Harrington, and a handful of others gave the rails another beating, but the biggest move that almost happened was Dave Osato's bunnyhop-tailwhip-to-gap-to-rail. Video game tricks, my friends, that's all I can say.
Both the first and second place Expert finalists will win a week at Woodward, including food and lodging. It’ll be up to the finalists to get to the camp, but once you’re there everything is included. We’re pretty excited about this, and imagine the two people than win this will be, as it’s quite a valuable prize.
Josh Harrington precision footjam nosepick at the Toronto Metro jam on the cover of Ride BMX US july 2005. Photo by Mark Losey.
Pro Street
01 Josh Harrington
02 Dave Osato
03 Morgan Wade
04 Van Homan
05 Gary Young
06 Allen Cooke
07 Brian Hunt
08 Chris Doyle
09 Danny Hickerson
10 John Heaton
11 Dave Freimuth
12 Bruce Crisman
13 Alistair Whitton
14 Brian Kachinski
15 Max Vincent
16 John Pratt
17 Chris Silva
18 Brian Foster
19 Clint Reynolds
20 Dustin Guenther
21 Anthony Napolitan
22 Corey Martinez
23 Will Love
24 Anthony Cico
25 John Rodgers
26 Steve Cuesta
27 Steve Schwartz
28 Ben Boyko
29 Quinn Semling
30 Justin Inman
31 David Moon
32 Mike Szczesny
33 Matt Beyers
34 Mitch Yates
35 Chase Dehart
36 Garret Reynolds
37 Micheal Skolnik
38 Phil Aller
39 Josh Elkington
40 Jim Cielencki
41 Dane Wild
42 Patrick Denis
43 Mark Potozzny
44 Al Shantz
45 Tony Neyer
46 Randy Brown
47 Darin Reid
48 Justin Clappison
49 Eben Fischer
50 Michael Brennan
51 Jason Teet
52 Karl Engstrom
53 Tony Mortenson
54 Phill McFadden
55 Lee Dennis
56 Alessandro Barbero
57 Billy Howard
58 Brandon Bellew
59 Ian Schwartz
60 Andy Alvarez
61 Brad Jamieson
62 James Lukas
63 Ty Stuyvesant
64 Joe Schiavi
65 John Saxton
66 Chris Orbell
67 Ricky Bates
68 Ryan Garvock
69 Jason Perz
70 Chris Stechlinski
71 Stephen Gray
72 Jerimiah Jones
73 Cole Youngberg
Oakley Hard Trick (on the center-piece): Corey Martinez Gap to backwards rail 180 out.
Oakley Hard Trick (during Pro finals): Dave Freimuth 270 over icepick on the sub.
Expert Street
01 Davey Cooperwasser
02 Josh Lichti
03 Evan Malburg
04 Eric Trepanier
05 Andrew Lazaruk
06 Nicholas Soloniak
07 Luke Santucci
08 Jared Smoke
09 Jeff Robertson
10 Jeremy Deme
11 Matt Morren
12 Dave Wininger
13 David Harrington
14 Michael Lefebvre
15 Glen Hoerdt
16 Ken Oliver
17 Frank Vass
18 Sam Lowe
19 Mike Clow
20 Charlie Crumlish
21 Greg McMillan
22 Mark Hoerdt
23 Nina Buitrago
24 Rich Redmond
25 Paul Hoerdt
26 Matt Peebles
27 Jeff Evans
28 Charles Deschamps
29 Greg D'Amico
30 Andrew Katulich
31 Mike Poos
32 Dave Thomas
33 Dave Wagner
34 James Steele
35 Stacey Mulligan
36 Brett Bates
37 Dylan Gray
38 Ivan Rudman
39 Jim Blum
40 Beatrice Trang
I was really happy to win, and I never expected it. I did a Props interview afterward, and they asked if that was my first big contest win, and I said, "I think it's my first big contest win in the U.S." Then I realized that I wasn't in the U.S. I've won some other stuff in England and stuff like that, but this was the contest I'm most psyched on. I'd rather win Metro Jam than pretty much any contest in the U.S. or Canada.