Fise Experience, Canet-en-Roussillon, France. Back to the beach. By BdJ

May 07, 2014

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 2011 times

The Fise first kicked off in 1997 at the beach down in Palavas-les-Flots in France. As a fan of the beach I always had a good time there. But things got out of hand. The event grew and the people that showed up to watch had nowhere to go. Getting from one side to the other through the crowd took 30 minutes at least. Safety issues caused the event to move to an open field which simply didn't feel the same until the event was moved to downtown Montpellier where all of a sudden the good vibe was back. But it still is not the beach. One of the Fise Experience stops is held at Canet-en-Roussillon and yes, it's right on the beach in the South of France. The Palavas feeling was back, the only thing missing was "Chez Mark" our favourite fast food/drinking place one street back from the beach in Palavas but Philip's Hacienda restaurant was a good replacement.

FISE events have a lot of things in their own hands nowadays. The course they brought didn't move as much as back in the day and the noise of the metal plates at the bottom of the ramps are gone.

The mobile set-up was more than decent, the sun was there but the only set-back was the strong wind. Things like that can happen at the beach. Also plenty of beach sand made it on the ramps which were being swept off by the crew all day long.

BMX had three classes: Junior (under 16), Amateur and Pro. For the pro class half a dozen riders from the UK flew in and also Channon Balorian from The Netherlands made it down to the French Mediterranean sea. Qualification took place on Saturday and the finals were on the program for Sunday. Luckily the wind died down a bit for Sunday's final which was very welcome as riding in a sandstorm (like on Saturday) is no fun. And you know what? a decent crowd showed up. The timing was right with the May holidays happening at the same time and the loud music attracted the "passers-by" to stop and take a look at the action.

It needs to be said that the level in pro riding is simply amazing. Tricks that were considered "contest highlights" 10 years ago, are now being done mid-run as fillers. With the ramp set-up many transfers were possible and some of the sick moves were taken from one ramp to the next one. The wind sure made things tricky and crashing on the rough asphalt was not something that riders wanted to do. After qualifying in 11th Jack Watts turned his riding up a few notches. The crowd got behind him as he flipped the doubles and span multiple wild looking 540 flairs on the quarterpipe. It shot the Englishman on top of the judging sheets early on in the competition. Every rider had two 45-seconds runs and two attempts to pull a last trick. Most riders' first runs were good, followed by a worse second run. Not everyone pulled the last trick that they had in mind but at least everyone got to try on an empty course. In practice some of these lines were impossible to try out but with a clear course, the stands full of people and an MC screaming his brains out, it was time to give the big tricks a shot.

We got to see many front flips, flipwhips, and 3-double whips. The wind didn't seem to disturb the riders much when they had to ride the course. The grandstands on the beach blocked a bit of the wind, but it still wasn't perfect. When the comp was over, the riders found out what place they got. Here's the list if you didn't check in already.

Results Canet, Pro Park finals:
1.   WATTS Jack   17 ans   Portsmouth   93.30 pts
2.   JUSTICE Tom   25 ans   Grantham   90.00 pts
3.    CROSWELL Josh   18 ans   Portsmouth   87.30 pts
4     CAILLET Istvan   21 ans   St Foy De Peyrolieres   87.00 pts
5.   DEGARDIN Maxime   20 ans   Bordeaux   86.60 pts
6.   MERIGEAU Arnaud   26 ans   Bruges   86.30 pts
7.   CHOSSON Jeremy   23 ans   Clermont-Ferrand   86.00 pts
8.   BALORIAN Channon   23 ans   Rotterdam   83.30 pts
9.   CALLUM Emery   17 ans   Portsmouth   82.60 pts
10.   JEANJEAN Anthony   15 ans   Bassan   81.00 pts
11.   ROBERT Gael   26 ans   Lunel   77.60 pts
12.   MUSCAT Ricky   17 ans   Southwick   77.30 pts

Amateur Park Results:
1.   PANAVILLE Thibaut   18 ans   Chassieu   89.60 pts
2.   HAYWARD Troy   13 ans   Portsmouth   89.30 pts
3.   ROBBE Enzo   17 ans   Béziers   89.00 pts
4.   FERASSE Florian   18 ans   St Jean De Vedas   85.30 pts
5.   CHAZALON Tom   20    St Mathieu De Treviers   84.80 pts
6.   BRIAND Nicolas   20 ans   Montpellier   84.60 pts
7.   MORIEN Quentin   19    St-Clément De Rivière   82.60 pts
8.   ROZIERES Mathieu   20 ans   Lioujas   81.00 pts
9.   CARROT Thomas   16 ans   La Salvetat Sur Agout   80.60 pts

Junior Results Canet (under 16)

1.   ANTONUCCIO Valentin   13 ans   Capestang   96.00 pts
2.   VICTOR Vincent   16 ans   Castries   94.00 pts
3.   CARROT Edouard   13 ans   La Salvetat Sur Agout   92.00 pts
4.   GIGNOUX Basile   15 ans   Viols Le Fort   91.00 pts
5.   OPPLERT Louidgi   13 ans   Baillargues   88.00 pts
6.   FABRE Anthony   15 ans   Perpignan   87.00 pts
7.   GAYRAUD Dorian   14 ans   St Pons   83.00 pts
8.   BÉDUE Maxime   14 ans   Mauguio   82.00 pts

The first stop of the FISE World Tour in Montpellier is coming up shortly. Make sure to not miss this one. It will be Canet, times 25 when the BMX scene gets down to the river from 28-May - 1 June.

-BdJ