FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

The weather forecast wasn´t too good for this weekend and I ended up looking towards the sky every two minutes the days before. We built up everything between pouring rain and the hot sun. The day of the event started pretty good. A lot of German pro riders showed up and I was really happy about everything. We started a really relaxing day with bikeriding, hanging around, having some drinks and so on. We wanted to start the comp around 3 o´clock but we decided to wait for Nathan Penonzek because he was on the way.. 

You Don't want to know how often I made an attempt to writing the Pro Dirt report from the Rebel Jam. Again and again something else crossed my mind or something else came up where I got distracted. I apologize to those who have been waiting but I believe we're still faster than a lot of them out there. It's been a week since things were looking great at the Mellowpark. The weather was beautiful and everyone was having a good time. The vibe was chill and the riding with everyone there was awesome. Let's throw in a few names who entered the dirt contest and you'll be able to imagine what went off. Guettler, Young, Forte (all three of them), Cools (both of them), MacKay, BB, Guimez, Paulsen, Caro and Miller, just to name a few. Going into a straight final the riders were being judges on Style, Creativity and Hard Tricks. There were three awards in each category and place 4 - 10 got 50 Euros each. Actually, first place for Style, Creative and Hard Tricks was 1000 Euros, 800 for second and 500 for third. Quite good for a mellow contest like the Rebel Jam. 

Bronx, NY – August 15, 2006 – The tenth anniversary of the premier Pro/Am BMX Freestyle Competition in New York City, The King of New York™, was held on July 29 and for the first time in it’s history was won by someone other than a local New York City rider. Mongoose’s Steve McCann, 23, out of Melbourne, Australia came all the way from Woodward Camp in Central Pennsylvania to absolutely slay the newly redesigned course at Mullaly Park in the Bronx. Steve put on a show for the 2000 plus spectators throughout the day with smooth 720s on the box, 360 whips over the mini-spine, and scorching 95-degree style and flow to match the heat that day. Steve took home a check for $1000 plus a $500 gift certificate for some fresh gear from Azzure Denim clothing company. 

The Mellowpark had some new obstacles but is still roomy enough to pedal around them to get speed for other ramps. The amateur riders were up on Saturday and had beautiful weather. Pro street was completely re-scheduled for Sunday because some of the riders were having problems with London airports canceling flights (damn terrorists). With 54 entries in Amateur Street it was a long qualifying session. The 16 guys who made it to the final session came from Germany, the UK, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Italy, Hungary and France. Making it in the top three wasn’t easy. Leroy Widmann just missed out and ended on 4th. He did pull a double tailwhip over the box which is an indication of how high the level was in the Am Street class. Local Sprosse wasn’t sure if he was going to ride the contest. He foot wasn’t completely healed yet and he did not have the okay from his doctor. With everyone riding his park, he couldn’t resist and grabbed his bike and showed how to shred the place. He did huge transfers on the jump box and high airs on the quarterpipe. 

The 2nd Canadian concrete has even more entries than the first one, and the ams went off even harder. Huge brakeless 3’s over the 6’ spine, ice picking the large sub wall, fakie tailwhipping the quarters, and a few broken bones were the highlights. The 13 and under class was definitely the days highlight, with a 9 year old Matt Hemmingson charging the course faster than almost everyone all day, and airing almost twice his height! Sam Lowe was the undisputed pro best trick winner, with over ice, back to fakie on the wooden subwall wall, add in doing it on a borrowed bike with front brakes, and he nosepicked it too (Canadian style of course). Etnies and Macneil rider, Wade Llajar, was blasting everything in sight, and came really close to pulling a 360 tailwhip bunnyhop drop-in from the sub to the quarter. Big daddy, Ron Mercer, got third with tech moves none of us could describe…peg wheelie to nosepick to downside tailwhip nosepick to revert slider thing?!?!?! We think that was right…not bad for a 39 year old!

The after party was taken care of by the people who organized the Rebel Jam but right after the contest on Saturday and right before the party that night, wethepeople brought out the cow. That’s right, the “Jump the Cow” contest was on. Steve Crandall and the Props crew were all over it and Steve gave orders to some of his riders to win some beer money for that night. Wethepeople had put up 100 Euros to the rider that was going to clear the highest and they’d brought some cranks and pedals for those participants that would bend theirs. The take off ramp was about a foot high and “Brenda the cow” itself was about 4 ft.

After some warm up rounds over the cow straight to the concrete it was on! A big crowd had gathered to see Danny Hickerson (T-1), Aaron Ross (FBM), Tony Hamlin (FBM) and a couple of German riders clear the cow and the height pole. Before the bar was raised to a ridiculous height, some money (50 Euros) was gathered for the first 360 over the cow. FBM’s Ross took that.

With the qualifiers from Satuaday turning out to be the final results, it could have looked all different if all the riders had another go on Sunday. Would Clint Millar have repeated his perfect qualifying run with a hangover on Sunday? we will never know. It rained all day Sunday so the finals were skipped. What I do know is that Ben Hennon drank so much coffee in the morning because he went so high over the spine it was ridiculous. Nice one!! Made me think of Dave Voelker at the first BS contest in Dallas where he showed who was boss by blasting a big no hander over the spine.

Sergio Layos’ absence was made up for by Daniel Penafied’s presence. The Fly rider from Madrid (actually Sergio’s riding buddy) did the raddest flat spin 360 over the spine I’ve ever seen. As he’s a young rider he of course has all the downside and regular tailwhip variations down also. He couldn’t quite pull his cross footed tailwhip flyout to cross footed landing but if he had the chance to ride on Sunday he probably could have shown everyone.

The Berlin City tour on Friday night was something a lot of people looked forward to. How often do you go to a contest and all you see it the airport/rental car, the venue and the hotel bar. Not at the Rebel Jam. For the second time in a row the city tour busses stopped at the Mellowpark to show the riders and media what Berlin has to offer. The city has got so much history that it would be an interesting lesson for everyone who hopped on the bus. 

The Rebel Jam started off with the Amateur Mini contest on Friday afternoon. It was the same mini with spine and sub box as last year so no changes there. The riders field was pretty international and there were a lot more riders than last year which was good to see. It seemed like people had heard about the comp and didn’t want to miss it this year. It is always tough to decide who belongs to ride in the “no-pro” class. It there are three classes (expert - master - pro) it is easier to split up the group of amateurs. It has never been any different that the better riders could have ridden a class higher than they entered. With last year’s prize being a trip to Woodward and this year’s am winner getting a customized Rebel Jam/wethepeople frame-fork-bar set, it makes it even harder to decide who belongs where. As long as there is no 150 page IBMXFF freestyle rule book anybody can do whatever they want.

Tailwhips have become a standard trick for everyone to learn and that includes the am-mini class riders.

Well, here for another year again….X-Games XII is in town and the 405 freeway in L.A. is jammed. This year the Games were divided over 3 locations, which two of them were going to have some BMX history. My first stop on this (obviously) sunny Friday afternoon after a nice long week was to pick up the freshly pressed Media Pass at the Home Depot Center…this was the stadium where BMX Street, The Mega Ramp, Rally Racing, Skate Street and Super Moto was held… excited already, as little Subaru’s where drifting by at a ridiculous speed, while I make my way out to the Staples Center, which is where the 100ft + wide vert ramp was located, right next to the Freestyle Moto X area….and this is where it all went down this very night..