FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

Finally it was Saturday evening, January 27. The "tjoeketjoeke" was about to go off in skateland Rotterdam. It was going to be crazy with a lot of good riders and Dj's. The organisation was afraid not many riders were going to show up because of letting them know on short notice. But thanks to the promotion on the websites: Fatbmx, soulcycle, skateland, Paul's Boutique, reload and aptraxion the group was big!
There were about 75 riders in the building, which is a lot considering the Dutch scene is small. Skateland opened the door at 8pm, and it got busier the minute. After about an hour and a half we started with the contest. Rotterdam local Jonathan tried to get all the riders together, but because that didn't work he had to use the mic. That worked a lot better. 

Trains and BMX was the contest format for the Tjoeketjoek jam on Saturday in Rotterdam. With DJ Koen Soulcycle, host Surfstad, a Jury of old guys from The Hague and all new youngstar BMX riders from the Netherlands were the ingredients of this jam. Skateland opened their doors for a Saturdaynight jam. Four riders in a team riding thru the park like a train. The teams Rearwheel, KLM and Roffa where rocking in the final.

Team Roffa had a kind of dead wish tricks from the ghetto´s of Rotterdam. While team KLM proved their flying skills by opening with a frontflip (by Nicky) and some real high moves by Daniël Wedemeijer. But the guys really riding like a train were team Rearwheel with Vladdie, Michael, Brendan and Marten.

This time of the year you see some sponsor changes happen. New budgets become available and other budgets get cut.  Being a pro rider in Europe ain't easy. To make things work you have to either go to the bigger comps with a decent pro purse or do a few shows on the side to pay the bills.

In the USA  bike companies are not waiting in line either to sponsor riders.  Even some pros who make top three in the Dew Tour series and X-Games every time are currently without  paying bike sponsors (Chad Kagy - Jamie Bestwick). Call it tough times, call it whatever you want.  If you do have a sponsor you're happy with, make sure you keep them stoked. Good luck out there.

Senad Grosic: Off Haro
Fuzzy Hall: Off Mongoose
Stephen Murray: Off GT
Ben Shenker: Off Haro

Openground bike and skate park in Reno , Nevada had its first ever competition this last weekend. The park is run by flatland rider Gabe Weed and is under full swing after dealing with all the bureacracy that comes with running a skatepark. The competition day was broken into 4 classes : Beginner , Intermediate , Advanced and Pro. The little guys were the most fun to watch giving it their all and getting the crowd behind them. A standout rider of this class was 11 year old Paris who took the boys to school with a crank flip over the jump box and super high carves on the vert wall. The atmosphere at this park is awesome and throughout the day riders were throwing themselves off park obstacles. I even saw one guy rugby tackle one of the roof pillars trying to transfer around it.

2 local bands who's names nobody seemed to know rocked out while the riders did their thing. The first band played hardcore and

Heading out to Brazil, I thought that it was going to be a breeze. Not realizing how tough it would be to get there, this is how it started. I was supposed to fly out to Sao Paulo on Wednesday, but had some visa issues. Therefore I had to fly out the following day. On my lay over, I had my boarding pass ready to go, when the unthinkable happened... I was pulled out for more visa issues! Once again, I had to miss the plane and was told that if I didn't get a visa overnight that I would not make the contest. But to me the impossible some way some how, with the help of Leslie and Jimbo (thanks a lot), I made the impossible possible and was on my way to San Paulo.

Man, what a contest! It gets better by the year which also means that more and more people are putting the Simpel Session on their schedule. Not only to participate but there were tons of people just watching and partying and they weren’t let down on either part.

Simpel Session regular Josh Harrington took the victory in the BMX street final. Josh simply flows the course, and started off with a big boost. The Premium rider did a barspin to fufanu, an ice pick grind to barspin off, nosebonk to barspin out of the mini, a huge no-hander on the quarterpipe, a tailwhip, 270 barspin over the hip, no footed seatgrab to barspin on the box, a massive transfer from the 10 ft. quarter over the mini in a bank and returned to do a tailwhip on the same gap. Josh finished off with a 360 over the box to a jawbreaker. That’s not a name of a new trick but a crash at the end of the jam session resulted in a broken jaw. After collecting the high air and street trophies (and checks) it was straight to the hospital for a check up. Hope all is well Josh.

The BMXinvasion at skate 57 was an awesome time for sure with 125 shredders in the house. I want to thank all the sponsors especially Stephen Catalano who sent down the Monster crew to hand out tasters to everyone at the event. Everyone definitely enjoyed the Monster Energy boost. The first place winner is Craig Mast out of Ohio who was banging out crazy tricks like a front flip over the spine. Craig did an excellent job at riding and props to him on the win. It was also good to see some good friends who I haven't seen in while like the Mullaly crew Casio Perez , Rob Ramos and Jimmy Mac from Bulldog bikes NYC in the house. I would like to thanks all the fans and parents for coming down to support the riders. Everyone was riding really well and some even progressed during the event like Sonny pulling off his first flair on the battleship,way to go step it up. Albert Carlson was my choice for the best trick during the event he pulled off a wicked transfer 180 to flat landing in pure street style riding so BMXinvasion awarded him the Dans Competition gift certificates for his effort. 

BMX Street FINAL results:

1 Josh Harrington USA 485
2 Chase Hawk USA 479
3 Dave Mirra USA 456
4 Sebastian Keep GBR 446
5 Alistair Whitton GBR 442
6 Ben Hennon GBR 439
7 Mark Webb GBR 436
8 Mike Spinner USA 422
9 Danny Hickerson USA 420
10 Alessandro Barbero ITA 418
11 Nicolas Cambon FRA 404
12 Aaron Ross USA 398
13 Corey Martinez USA 398
14 Sergio Layos SPA 397
15 Dave Osato CAN 396

Damn, quarter pipe high air contests are getting popular these days. When you have riders cranking towards a 10 foot quarter pipe at full speed you can expect some serious air time. Riders who gave it a go at the Simpel Session was the Chester posse of Jon Taylor, Owain Clegg and Alistair Whitton who did a couple of trains which did not help the camera scoring system much but their airs were more in the 2-3 meter range where Josh Harrington and Bas Keep were reaching the 4 meter mark. Dave Mirra threw in a flair that was huge and pleased the crowd.

In the end it was Josh Harrington who won it with this air of 4,21 meters. You figure out yourself who many feet that is but it was insane. It's party time now so don't expect a report in the next few hours.

BdJ

We got the Simpel Session qualifying results here for you. Finals start at 4pm today and again you can watch it live on the internet if you are one of the unfortunate ones who could not make it over this year. Before the finals the Red Bull High air will take place. With Josh Harrington, Bas Keep, Ronnie Surridge, Jon Taylor, Alistair Whitton and Joe Rich in the house it should be a good one but Dave Mirra wants to win it with a flair. Don't miss it.