Day one of Mongoose Jam UK finished with the competition’s first-ever bowl jam where 19 pros from a field of 24 athletes went head-to-head in the first event of the weekend following the Amateur Contest. An audience packed the standing room only viewing areas of Rush Skatepark. The pros quickly found flowy lines while linking sub-box tricks, big airs and tech tricks over the spine. Riders were judged by a panel of BMX industry veterans including Zak Shaw, Chris Hamer, and Scott Hamlin. Each athlete was given two runs, and the best run counted toward their individual score. The top two scores per team counted toward the day’s final results.
Stand-outs included Ryan Taylor (Team Casey) starting his run with a flair drop-in from the deck, while Kevin Peraza (Team Peraza) did a picture-perfect 450 nose manual over the wedge hip. Gary Spencer (Team Ryan) did a 360 whip to foot jam - bar in, and Pat Casey (Team Casey) managed 180 double whip over the spine finishing off the line with a fakey 360.
This year Pro Freestyle has two stops. One in Heerlen, and one in The Hague. Last year's edition in The Hague was the first event that Dick-Jan Leegwater and Martijn Vroemen put on together. Call it a little FISE if you want where athletes from multiple sports get together for a weekend of riding and having fun. The event in Heerlen happened this past weekend and saw BMX flatland, BMX street, and BMX Park on the schedule. Pros, Ams, Girls and Juniors, sometimes mixed together. Next to BMX there was Skateboarding, Inline and Scooter on the same park/street course which was set up right in the city centre. Outside activities included a drawing contest, a pump track to shred all day, art/photo shows all over town and of course a couple of Afterparties. In short, plenty of activities went down and got the riders together for a good weekend.
Pro Park was the ender on Sunday night. Amateur podium finishers Jari Roggeveen and Giano Vacca joined the straight final on Sunday evening because their final had been rained off. They both
With the official start to the inaugural Mongoose Jam UK at Rush Skatepark in Stroud England, twenty-five amateurs competed for a coveted spot on one of six Mongoose Jam pro teams, captained by Mongoose pros Pat Casey, Greg Illingworth, Tom Isted, Kevin Peraza, Paul Ryan, and Ben Wallace. Each athlete will have the chance to ride in street, park, and bowl and vie for a piece of the $15,000 prize purse. The ams threw down like the pros during the contest. Ollie Palmer took first place and landed himself on Greg Illingworth’s team. With tricks like a foot jam on top of a 7 foot sub box during the bowl comp, it’s no wonder why this kid lead the ams.
Ross Domanski joined defending Mongoose Jam champ, Kevin Peraza and the rest of his team. Ross came out of the gates hard with a gap off a small wedge ramp to curved wall ride – 180 out. Riding at a consistently high level the entire day, Ross placed second in street, park and bowl for an overall second place standing in the comp.
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.