The hardest part of judging is pretty much all of it. You have 20 guys competing against each other, all with different styles and all with a huge bag of tricks. It’s pretty much anyone’s game. Clay Brown even told me the hardest part of judging today’s event was Rob Darden and Diogo Canina because they had similar runs. But they ended up with 3rd and 2nd, which was a huge jump from yesterday. Who won? You’ll have to wait to the end of this little story…or just jump to the bottom and see if you’re really impatient. Another thing about contests is that not placing well does not necessarily mean you didn’t do great things on your bike. Sometimes things just don’t go as planned. One of the crowd’s favorite, 13-year-old Nicholi Rogatkin, had a few falls but nailed a flip-whip over the box! Did I mention he was 13? He’s frickin’ 13 and does flip-whips! Another standout was Chase Hawk. He’s not known for doing the craziest stunts, but man he can make bike riding look soooo good. His style is something most riders wish they had.

I may have jumped the gun telling you what place Rob and Diogo got because I usually wait until this part of the story for that. So I guess we’ll just talk about fifth and fourth. In fifth, Mike Spinner definitely had some of the hardest tricks like a 1080 and triple-whips, but not hitting more of the course hurt his score some. Garrett Reynolds does so much stuff back to back that it’s too hard to write notes during his run. I actually have carpel tunnel just trying to keep up. Thanks a lot, Garrett. He ended up with fourth. And the winner—again—was Daniel Dhers, who pretty much showed the Nike 6.0 HB BMX Pro course whose daddy it was. That’s just what happens when you do corked out, no-handed 720s, no-handed 360’s over the big box, and pretty much whatever he wants on any ramp at any time.

This contest format is something that hasn’t really been done before and the riders are now getting into the flow of it. I think you will see place changes like Rob and Diogo did today, hence the title of this story, “The Tides Have Turned.” What will tomorrow bring? I can’t really be sure exactly, but I do know another amazing contest will unfold.

Leigh Ramsdell

Pics by Justin Kosman

2010/9/1 22:25:24 - GFFT Video Contest - Anton Örn Arnarson
2010/9/1 22:00:00 - Woodward West Adds Massive MegaRamp
2010/9/1 21:00:00 - Road Fools 18 Edit 2 - Daddy & the Tree
2010/9/1 19:20:00 - Channel 4Down BMX :: Boyley Jam 2010. By Channel 4Down
2010/9/1 10:19:20 - Eurobike 2010. Open for 2 hours and the first update of the new 2011 BMX products. By bdJ
2010/9/1 9:50:00 - Akin edit. By Craig Tull
2010/9/1 9:30:00 - Road Fools 18 Edit 1 - Pre-trip
2010/9/1 9:00:00 - Tuesdays with Miles: Scott Ditchburn
2010/9/1 4:20:00 - Backyard Sesh At Mike Spinner's
2010/9/1 1:30:00 - FAT FAVOURITES list with Pat Casey
2010/8/31 22:50:00 - Kamil 'Robak' Nowak Promo edit. By Bodziu.
2010/8/31 19:20:00 - Sunday Edit - Horsham. By Ben Foster
2010/8/31 15:30:00 - Extreme Playgrounds miniramp contest Pinneberg, Germany. Report by BdJ
2010/8/31 13:50:00 - Stereo Bike Co. Mini-Trip Madrid 2010 edit. By Stereo Bikes
2010/8/31 11:30:00 - FAT FAVOURITES list with Damo Wilkinson
2010/8/31 10:06:48 - King Of Dirt 2010. By Lénaïc Maréchal / LMVisual
2010/8/31 6:30:00 - Mike Vincent "Back on Track" interview
2010/8/31 4:20:00 - Running the new line. By Bicycle Union
2010/8/31 4:10:00 - New line of Products offered by Insight BMX
2010/8/31 4:00:00 - VANS . US TEAM . LORDS OF DIRT. By GREENFILMS
2010/8/31 3:40:00 - We-Ride.net Project
2010/8/31 2:00:00 - Bikefight 2010 Randers. By Lasse Soeltoft
2010/8/31 1:50:00 - THE JAG BMX GLOBAL CHAMPIONSHIP Daytona, Ormond Beach, Florida December 18-22, 2010
2010/8/31 1:40:00 - Leatherback Chandler Bike Park edit. By Bink Seavey
2010/8/31 1:00:00 - Jared Swafford for Season bikes. By Levi Brewer