BMX Plus! december 1986: As an exhibition attraction to Expo '86, the awesome World's Fair in Vancouver, Canada, the Freestyle World Championships were great. The almost Olympic appeal of the Expo was undeniable-and perfect for an event labeled "World Championship?' Tourists from around the world packed the grandstands of the Kodak Bowl for a view of the radness. Was the contest packed with international participants? Not really. The majority of the 72 participants were from the U.S. and Canada, with one rider from Switzerland and one from France. Produced by the International Event Corporation (the same organization that put together last summer's $15,000-pro-purse North American Continental Championships in Whistler, Canada), the freestyle contest was sanctioned by the International BMX Federation and run by the Canadian Freestyle Association using AFA rules. The Kodak Bowl provided a great forum for the competition, and the smooth asphalt surface was extremely popular with the riders. Skyway, Mongoose and Kuwahara sent full squads of combatants, and while most of the other major factory teams had a couple of riders in attendance, there were some serious absentees. Mike Dominguez wasn't there, and neither were any riders from Red Line or CW.
Robert Peterson.
BMX Plus! december 1986: Newcomer 14-year-old Matt Hoffman is Skyway's latest addition to its freestyle squad. He ripped in Canada: second behind Tim Rogers.
Eddie Fiola on the cover of Super BMX october 1986.
After practice, everyone was anticipating the 14-15 Ramp class. Skyway's most recent addition to its factory team, 14-year-old Matthew Hoffman, and Kuwahara's Tim Rogers were both shredding. Before the contest Robert Peterson talked about Matt. "We picked him up about a month ago. He is the most awesome rider I've ever seen ride a ramp. Considering he's had three bikes in the last month, he's never been used to any of them, and I've seen him pull ten-foot airs, no-footed fakie airs, no-handed aerials, switch-handed aerials, no-footed cancans and lookback cancans -it's sickening he's so good." One of Matt's unplanned trips of the weekend occured during practice. He overshot the top of the ramp during a popout, and bailed off the backside of the platform. He emerged unscathed (the full-on JT body armor he wears definitely helped), but the same couldn't be said for the car used to brace the ramp. It now sports a custom-modified roof line.During actual competition, Tim Rogers had the hot routine and Matt ended up second. Matt's airs were awesome, but he needed to spend more time on the small ramp.
A pair of thirds netted the overall title for General's Brian Belcher. Brian's also starting to get some sponsorship from Coca-Cola.
Jason Parkes dominated the 16 & Over Flatland-after a complete rerun of his routine. His chain derailed partway through his run, and though he finished without it, the last part of his routine was nowhere near as radical or smooth as the beginning. Afterwards, organizers for the event asked Jason if he'd like a second chance, and he snapped up the opportunity. "I was pretty bummed out when my chain came off. I couldn't really put it back on-I thought my run was pretty close to being over. Then they came up and asked me if I wanted to redo it. I was pretty happy about that. I wouldn't have asked. I know the AFA rules state that a rider only gets ten seconds to fix his bike-I guess it's a little different here." The choice was also given to Valentin Dufour, the entrant from Switzerland, who suffered a similar fate. He declined. To say Jason shredded on his second performance would be a gross understatement-though Jason definitely understates it himself. "I did a couple of tricks and a bunch of boomerang stuff at the end. It was pretty cool-I pulled off everything, mostly. I pulled off a mega-spin (kin to an infinity roll, except it's done on the back wheel only). Basically, I just hung on to the bike, and did it pretty smoothly. I touched down a couple times-I always touch down a few times."
Portland, Oregon's Monte Hill, riding for The Bike Gallery, thrashed the 16 & Over Ramp class. Rad turndowns, one-handed one-footers and more gave him the win over new Mongoose recruit Marty Schlesinger. Marty had stem problems during the entire weekend. After one of his airs, Marty's bars slipped so far forward that Mongoose team manager Russ Okawa had to help straighten the bars so Marty could continue.
Eddie Roman combined a seventh in flatland and a third in ramp to pick up the win for the 16 & Over Overall.
Superclass flatland results: 1.Corey Sehn 2.Darcy Lisecki
13 and under flatland results: 1.Scott Beattie
14-15 flatland results: 1.Scotty Freeman 2.Trevor Hernandez 3.Jody Spriggs 4.Doug Nachtigall 5.Danny Madison
16 and over flatland results: 1.Jason Parkes 2.Wade Snell 3.Derreck Oriee 4.Ron Bofque 5.Tyler Bollhorn
Superclass ramp results: 1.Darcy Lisecki 2.Patrick Borowski 3.Corey Sehn
14-15 ramp results: 1.Tim Rogers 2.Mathew Hoffman 3.Brian Belcher 4.Doug Nachtigall 5.Danny Madison
16 and over ramp results: 1.Monte Hill 2.Marty Schlesinger 3.Eddie Roman 4.Andrew Engelleder 5.Jeff Bacon
Eddie Roman: I got the World Champion Overall title in 1986. It's kind of a joke to me, because the contest was in Canada, so most of the American guys I usually rode against were not there. Also, the judging was lame. But hey, I didn't complain!
Derek Oriee, february 2012: The whole contest to me was kind or surreal. I was new to the Kuwahara team and my first major contest and then placing 3rd, just 2 spots behind Jason Parks. Kuwahara rented us an RV and we towed the Kuwahara trailer from Los Angeles, CA to Vancouver. It was myself, Ron Camero, Mike Loverage, Mario Aguirre, Roland Rascon, Robert Cardoza (Kuwahara's Team Manager) and guest rider Larry Manayan (SE Racing). It was a fun road trip. Kuwahara/Canada treated us well.
Hmmmm... Some of the funny things...
... Ron Camero hording his food and locking it all in his duffle bag and then getting food poisoning from the same food.
...The were not enough beds in the RV (unless you wanted to share) so, Ron Camero and I decided to bring a tent to sleep in. The guys teased us all the way there about having to sleep in a tent. Well, the septic tank in the RV overflowed on the way to Vancouver and totally wasted the carpet. That thing stunk soooooooo bad. The guys wanted to sleep in the tent Ron and I brought and we wouldn't let them.
...We opened up the RV's septic tank drain and let it drain down a industrial business area's alley ass we drove down the alley.
...Pulling up in the small, one horse towns blasting Run DMC from a huge ghetto blaster in back of the RV.
... Sitting in traffic on our way into Los Angeles and stuck on the Graprvine. We were doing sticker tossing from the RV and we got pulled over. Nothing happened. Cop just told us to knock it off.
...The funniest thing... We got our full deposit back on the RV.
Besides all that, that's all I can really remember. Can't believe it has been 25 years.
Robert Peterson: "I can sum up myfeelings in about 3000 words. I'm stoked, fully! I made one little, little mistake. I tapped on a Furillo spin. (That's a backwards-frarnestand bar spin). I get so nervous that I actually throw up if I watch everyone ride. I practiced apart from everyone else, and when I went out to set up, I looked the other way. Even after my run I didn't watch Woody ride. Normally, I do watch the riders after me. The windsurfer worked very well here, and I did the squeak and the blindsider, flawlessly. On a backwards framestand, I tried to do it one-footed but got sketchy, so l pulled it into a 180 all the way around the contest area. I was kicking it over and getting it to turn around. I finally beat Woody and Martin. They weren't there when I won in New York."
Woody Itson: "I think the judges have a good sense of humor. The consensus is that it was a snow job. Same thing as always. The judges really weren't qualified to judge a contest. They don't know how to ride, so what qualifies them to judge ? The guy they had judging degree of difficulty doesn't even know what he's talking about. He ranked Eddie's tricks harder than mine. I did the absolute hardest tricks in BMX freestyle today. I did a top gun, which involves a straight-arm handstand, I did a bar stand, a double boomerang, boomerankle, pedal picker, a fire hydrant into a pedal picker, a pedal picker flipover, a backwards pedal picker, G-turns-l mean, I did every hard trick there is. I'd rather have second and be able to ride like I did than get first and not deserve it."
Rick Allison: "I was conservative because when I went out in practice I found I wasn't riding very well and wasn't really sure of myself. So I took it easy, played a cool song by Janet Jackson and had a fun time. I did the usual gut levers, surfers, decade, and all the fun tricks. Fortunately, the crowd was really responsive and I had a good time. I'm proud of third cause I beat a very good riderMartin. I think Peterson did great, but I think Woody should have wanhe was really rad. Everybody rode so well, who's to say who should have won."
Martin Aparijo: "I took fourth. Great is first, good is second, wow is third, and fourth is okay. I don't think I got what I deserved -definitely not. I would have placed myself second. I did a backwards walkaround, backwards cherrypicker, backwards gut lever, backwards wheelie. Non-difficulty tricks -just the easy stuff.
Robert Peterson: "The thing that has most significantly affected my performance in BMX freestyle is the invention of the wheel."
Pro flatland results: 1.Robert Peterson 2.Woody Itson 3.Rick Allison 4.Martin Aparijo 5.Eddie Fiola 6.Ron Wilkerson 7.Maurice Meyer
Maurice Meyer: I think I did the worst of all the Skyway riders! Hugo, Eddie, Robert, Matt and Scotty all got firsts and I forget what I got. I was slipping in my run though.
Woody Itson: I got second at the World Championships this year (as they sponsored the event this year, everyone on Skyway won).
Robert Peterson: I’ve heard every whining, complaining comment about this one. The fact is I went home with the trophy!
BMX Plus! december 1986: Controversy also marred the results in the Pro Ramp class. Eddie Fiola (as per his normal style) didn't wear a faceguard or a full-face helmet. AFA rules require one. Eddie gets away with this in the U.S. He didn't get away with it in Canada. The judges deducted five points from his score, which moved him back to second place (behind Hugo Gonzales) by less than half a point. Of course, Eddie wasn't exactly happy about all this-even though he went onto win the Pro Overall with fifth in Flatland and a second-place finish on the ramps. The CFA's Marcie Thorburn explains what happened. "Actually, he could have been disqualified instead of having the points deducted. What should have happened was, the music should have been stopped; we would have told the crowd that there was a problem with the music; we would have asked Eddie to put on a mouthguard. In actual fact, that's what we tried to do, and it was overruled by someone in the announcer's stand. It's AFA's rules. We've been asked to follow them, and it's a worldsanctioned event, it's up to us to make sure that rules are adhered to."
Hugo's run was crazy as usual. During one section of his run, he jumped from the quarterpipe to a dirt-and-sawdust landing outside the contest area, Measurements taken later showed that his flight was 24 feet—tabletopped, of course. What really made it rad was that on his approach he spiked a pedal into the asphalt. That kicked the back end into a wild swapper, but he got it back under control before takeoff- otherwise, he may have flown even farther. He also did two shorter versions of the same jump during practice—once over one of the officials, and another time seriously surprising a TV cameraman and the commentator. Oh yeah, for his finale he did a 720 off the side of the quaterpipe onto flat ground. Typical Hugo. How did he like his results? “l’m stokedl I can't believe it. How do you react to this? I never thought I'd win a pro competition against these guys." Other notables included Brian Blyther, starting off his routine with a 540 air that accidently turned into a 720—which he pulled off !
Hugo Gonzales: I won the 1986 world freestyle championships in Vancover, Canada in the pro-ramps contest.
Howard Avery, january 2009: I remember at the Worlds in Vancouver Canada in 1986 Brian Blyther did a quarterpipe 720 by accident but he pulled it clean with the rollback.
Pro ramps results: 1.Hugo Gonzales 2.Eddie Fiola 3.Brian Blyther 4.Ron Wilkerson
BMX Plus! december 1986: Was this a true World Championships of Freestyle? In name, yes. In the opinions of the participants, it was a split decision. Winners always agree it’s as prestigious as labeled, but losers rarely do. Was it actually that elite? As with the BMX World Championships, it's difficult to put a great deal of importance into a title that's decided during one weekend. A series of events would be the true way to determine World Champions, especially when the results of these contests are influenced so much by the judges’ opinions.