The Pool event report. By BdJ

May 21, 2011

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 4974 times

Thanks to Nike 6.0 for the invite to come over to England for The Pool contest. Things weren’t clear when I got asked to come over but since it was a Nike event, you kinda have a good feeling about it and you say yes before you even ask. It’s kind of like those Red Bull BMX events that were taking place for a couple of years. You just knew they were going to be good. For a long time things remained unclear. I Simply had not asked for more info and was ready for a surprise. When the video clips started appearing with their team riders in it, it started to make sense and I had an idea of what was going to happen. If you put a BMX-er in the position as the manager of a swimming pool, you start looking for that plug.

Instead of being the only person to fly into Stansted airport and find myself figuring out how to get to Dagenham in Essex, I opted to fly into Heathrow airport to get picked up. Andrew was there with the 6.0 sign so things already looked good. I love it when someone’s there to pick you up. We traveled to a different terminal where Kay Clauberg

and Markus Wilke were already waiting. They had fun playing Yahtzee on the ipad so I didn’t feel too bad for letting them wait on me. We were 4 in the 17 seater so we had plenty of space. It took practically 90 minutes to get from the West side of London to the East side and I wondered if it would have been just quicker to get there from Stansted. Anyway, we checked into the Travelodge hotel and headed to the swimmingpool.

The building looked pretty rough on the outside, just like the neighbourhood. Familiar faces were seen walking in and a few hugs were shared. The babypool had been turned into a miniramp already but it was the main pool that I was looking forward to. A chilled practice session was going on already, with 40 of the best riders in the world and Ben Bello. It was insane what they did. It took 4 days to get the pool drained and 14 guys to work for 8 days in a row for 14 hours straight to get the end result. But it was great. It all started to make sense at this point. The Pool video clips, the name of the event, the logo with the seventies font, and why they couldn’t invite a crowd. Pictures of the Nike 6.0 riders were put up on the walls

in true ‘70-s style to add to the theme. All swimming pool items were left up, the signs, the rescue ring, the diving board, the lifeguard chairs so it felt you were still at the pool, but with bikes this time. The staff was wearing white clothes and the package that was provided to the media included flipflops, a towel, locker key, and more cool things related to a swimming pool. It all just matched.

Ten riders were picked as team captains. They could each invite three riders/friends for a weekend in London. Some riders were more competitive and picked riders they thought would do good so they could end up getting a big check at the end of the day. Others just picked friends they usually ride with and formed a team.

One captain got asked when most of the riders had already found a spot but inviting friends to go to London for a weekend wasn’t too hard. The end result was that 40 of the best riders out there were all in one place ready to ride a pool of wood with too many lines. Practice itself was amazing. After getting a feel of the transitions, the corners, the rails and the ledges it was time to “one-up” eachother which resulted in some exciting riding and smiles on the faces of everyone. The invited media had plenty of time to shoot some pictures or get some footy and and already in practice it was possible to get some good stuff. The best riders don’t slow down, it’s what they do every day, they just had to adjust it to the Dagenham pool.

The contest itself was scheduled for Saturday. Each team got a 10 minute session. All riders’ individual scores would be added up to form a final team score with the best 4 teams going into the finals. It was a bit unclear if the riders needed to make it a team performance or if they could go at it one by one and do their thing. Ruben Alcantara’s team put in some team effort which was fun to watch. Team Harry Main started off with a train that a lot of height/spins and whips in it. Other than that most teams opted to ride whatever each of them wanted to ride. Some rode the street section (team AK), others focused more on the jump box (Team HM) while others flowed around the bowl looking for lines. Teams that had a good

combination of all this made it to the finals.

It had been a long afternoon of riding already when the 10 teams had finished qualifying. Some catching up was done in the downtime. The invited people that showed up for the day were also blown away with what they were seeing. The overall vibe at the comp was good. The locals enjoyed the local food while people from out of town were sceptical before giving everything a go. When the Red Stripe started to show up, the food wasn’t of any importance any longer and the vibe got even better quickly.

Finals. 5 teams showed up. Garrett Reynolds’ team got squeezed in Knipogende emoticon

but who doesn’t want to see him ride again? Didn’t hear any complaints from the people at the pool. Too bad two of his team members were injured (Kevin Kiraly and Ty Morrow) so his team had his original pick Sean Sexton and guest rider Paul Ryan. They ended up on 5th place anyway but Nike 6.0 had thrown in another $ 1000.= bucks for 5th place and it was all good. Fourth place was for Sebastian Keep’s “Austin” team which was a good combo of riders.

Chase Hawk had the flow, Baz the lines and the stricks and street aces Dan Lacey and Bruno Hoffmann took care of business on the street section as well as the quarters. Lacey’s 360-s on the box were sick too. Team Monster (Main, Wallace, Coleborn and Kyle Baldock) got third place. They did not only bring the tricks, they brought it to the next level. Kyle Baldock might not have been a common name in BMX in England but he sure put himself on the map with no-handed double flips, fronties on the diving board and off the jump box, barspin flip whips and way, way more. 2011 Dew Tour Park candidate for sure. Harry Main pulled his flair drop in from the wall and Coleborn triple whipped like it was nothing. Ben Wallace took care of the lines and the tricks as well. Solid riders, solid team. Third place.

The two best riders of the event in my eyes were Drew Bezanson and Dennis Enarson. They had each picked a team for the event. But who was going to win this one? It depended on how their team mates rode. Drew’s team had Pat Casey, Rob Wise and Michael Beran. Enarson’s team had Chad Kerley, Josh Harrington and Jeremiah Smith. Both teams stepped it up in the finals and the little crowd made a lot of noise more than once. In the end, when scored were added up, Dennis Enarson’s team got the first place swimming trophy and I don’t think anyone could argue that. Kerley pulled everything he wanted to do, Smith got better towards the end of the day, Josh Harrington gave it his all and Dennis Enarson is just plain good on a bike.

The event was a winner, in many ways. Hopefully more to come.

BdJ