Simpel Session report 2011. By BdJ

Feb 11, 2011

Written by Bart de Jong

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The 2011 Simpel Session was highly anticipated. The 65 interviews we did with the riders before the event sure didn't help to keep the event on the DL. And for good reason. It was my 8th time there and Risto and Mario make it better every year. The mix of riders each had a section on the course where they could show their thing this year which added to the level of riding. Mixing all these styles of riding into a final results sheet wasn't the easiest of things to do but in the end we had riders like Brian Kachinsky and Maddog in the finals,

plus riders like Kevin Kalkoff and Pat Casey, who have a completely different style. Also Ty Morrow made it in and Anton Evstifeev from Russia who had some killer qualifying runs. Trick stars, style cats and street rats from all over the world had to battle it out in the 25 man finals. The course worked for all of them.

The arena was filled up pretty well on Saturday during qualifying. It was a long sit, till 10pm but the riding was insane, in every group of four which made it more than bearable. But straight after qualifying it was off to Vapiano for some dinner and well deserved drinks, like the night before. Being in a foreign town with the BMX crew is something else. Here for a good time, not a long time. The drinks were flowing, the clubs were rocking, and the girls were into it. Those who had heard the stories about the good

looking girls in Estonia got their stories confirmed. In short, the vibe was great, every night, till late.

But what about the contest? The good part was that it didn't start until in the afternoon. Finals started at 16:00hr on Sunday, right after skateboarding. Ryan Sheckler won that one with Cruysberghs (Bel) on 2nd and Nassim (NED) in third. Anyway, time to sleep in to charge the batteries.

I don't think I need to make a list of tricks to tell you who did what. Today's media works faster than that. I wonder what the magazines are going to write after you've seen everything from every angle at least twice already. A crew of 120 media people attended so I guess this contest did get the recognition it deserved. It was broadcaster live as well which is amazing. Did we say this all happened in Estonia?

I can only end this report by thanking Risto and Mario

and their crew one more time. Much respect for putting an event together where everyone is leaving with a smile on their face. Can't wait for 2012.

BdJ