Simple Session 12 report. By BdJ. Pics by Artem

Apr 09, 2012

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 4853 times

It's been a week now since the Simple Session took place in Estonia and like most of the people that made the trip, it took a bit of time to recover. The stories and the parties are a big part of the event but it wears you out, at least it hit me. In the meantime you've seen plenty of videos pop up of the event, from people who partly skipped the partying but they got their job done. It's always tough to go sit behind a computer when you know everyone is in town having a good time. Sometimes I just take the moment and enjoy it, rather than sit in the hotel room by myself typing up a story and getting some pictures online. In fact, this year we had a photographer there in the name of Artem, from Russia. He needed a pass, and we needed pics. Since I was stuck behind the judging table again (for about 7 hours straight on Saturday during qualifying of 100+ pro riders), it was good to have a man in the field. He came back with some killer shots so even if you don't want to read the entire report, you can enjoy Artem's pics.

The Simple Session is always an killer event to look out for.

It brings the BMX community together and everyone around it that has some interest in the BMX scene. Because of the Kalmre brothers we visit their country at least once a year. It's something for them to be proud of. They definitely put their country on the map. And not only that, Vapiano should give them a gold card for free food all year. There was no time that there were no BMX riders inside all weekend long. For good reason, because the system works. You go in, receive a card, you order food, and they put it onthe card. You order drinks and they put it on the card, You order desert and it gets added too. When you leave, they swipe your card and you pay your € 5,20 for a pizza and a few Euros for your beer. The place is good and cheap and we did our brunches and late night dinners there every day. Not that the Old Town or the rest of Tallinn doesn't have anything to offer, but it's just convenient as it's just outside of the hotel and you will meet your buddies there.

After the brunches it was off to the Saku Suurhal for the event. Giant busses took care of the transportation. It's a bit of a bike ride, especially when it's freezing outside. The busses got you covered and if we missed one, we could always count on Bert, our private driver in times of need. The Simple Session event goes together with a World Cup Skateboarding contest. The same course is used but the two contests are completely split up. Either BMX or Skateboard practice, qualifying or finals are done, so no time is needed to wait on the skateboarders to finish their thing making the day extra long. It works well that way, especially on Finals day when the BMX contest didn't start until 18:30hr. Not sure if the bars ever close, but most people got back to the hotel just in time to hit up some breakfast and then go to bed. All together it's a bit non-stop, but it's all good.

Friday had practice, Saturday had qualifying and Sunday had finals. With over 100 riders in the pro class it was a long day on Saturday. From 14:30hr till almost 23:00hr. My advice is to get back to a maximum of 80 riders it will shorten up the qualifying process a bit and maybe the crowd stays around till the end that way on Saturday. But what can you do? Pretty much every rider wants to come over and ride the contest. When big names sign up, it's hard to say no. It's hard to draw the line. I was stoked to see new faces in Tallinn. It was great to watch riders who were there to have fun. AJ Anaya and Kevin Peraza come to mind but there were plenty of them. Also it was cool to see street riders and park riders enjoy the course all together. If you rode street, you stuck to the rail/ledge section. If you prefered the box, you hit the big curve and pedaled your ass off (the box was big). For a judge this is a hard task because how do you compare the two (street/park) and make sure everyone is happy? In the end some street and park riders met up again in the 24-man finals and layed down a big show.

I've got so give props to the MC's of the event too. Darryll Nau and Catfish know how to rock the show. Nothing more annoying than a bad MC but Darryll and Catfish did a great job keeping the program going. They got the crowd on their feet during finals plenty of times. The riding was insane. Lines, tricks, grinds, style, flow, everything was there. Last rider up in the finals was Drew Bezanson. The way he started off his final run was nothing short of amazing. It shows that he thinks out of the box. He'd seen that Nescafe chair lift next to the course and got on top of it with his bike when he got introduced. He waved to the crowd while going up and then bomb dropped into a quarter, kept the speed and he was off! Pleasure to watch and first place to the Canadian for the third year in a row at the Simple Session.

The night that followed was an all-nighter. Straight to the airport from the party. Time was needed to recover. Glad I got this report out of the way. Don't miss the next Simple Session, you won't regret it.

BdJ