Dub X Monster Energy Jam Rotterdam, Netherlands. By Philip Tregunna

Aug 01, 2013

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 5393 times

On Saturday the 27th of July the DUB X Monster Energy series hits the streets of Rotterdam. This is the highlight of the year for Dutch street riding, so everyone was pretty bummed out when it started pouring down all morning. Regardless we loaded up the car and hit the road. The meeting spot had been moved to the Grafisch Lyceum, which provided some sheltered ledges. Roughly 100 bikers from the Netherlands, Belgium, UK and Germany crowded the pavement eager to session whatever they could get their pegs on.

The weather gods must love street jams, because soon the sun came trough and it turned out to be a gloriously sunny day. Roy Van Kempen (WAOJ) was our spot guide for the day and just as everyone was getting bored with the ledges he moved us on to the next spot. A nice bank/wall setup proved to be a bigger challenge and Mark Vos set the tone quickly by gapping the whole thing.

This was the only spot where we got moved on by the cops, but luckily Rotterdam has a lot to offer. During the day we had a nice mixture of rails, banks, steps, ledges and even a pretty funky wooden wave setup. By now the group had grown to roughly 200 bikers, dominating the streets as we moved from spot to spot. The sunshine, good company and chilled backdrop of water and boats made it a perfect mix.

The level of riding was very high throughout the day with various riders absolutely killing it with a good mixture of tech and big balls tricks. Ermiyas van Diemen was one of the few to take on a steep handrail and attacked it with a clean toothpick, taking out a part of a lamppost on his way out. Mr. moustache Diogo Santos was really on top of his game and nailed a backward crooked grind down the same rail (successfully avoiding the pole Ermiyas smashed into minutes before) and a dubs to x-up dubs. He rightly got recognised as the cleanest rider of the day.

Visiting pro's Peter Sawyer and Dan Lacey pulled some amazing stuff on pretty much every obstacle that came their way and took spot number 2 and 3. There's just too much to mention though. Other riders deserving a shout out are young'uns Ermiyas and Joeri Veul, Emile for throwing some of the biggest 180 bars Rotterdam has seen, Mark Vos for gapping the wave, Roy Van Kempen, Rok Simsic, Belgian shredder Bênoit Van De Geuchte and others

who I'm probably forgetting right now.

As we've come to expect, the Rotterdam Dub Jam was a great event and the city turned out to be a perfect host town. The positive reactions of the locals just added to the chilled vibe. The official Dub X Monster edit is going to be a banger, but for now you'll have to make do with some photo's of the day. Enjoy!

Philip Tregunna