Place: Bournemouth, UK..
Organisation: Seventies
For the second year in a row the Backyard jam is an indoor affair. The series of three is divided over three indoor spots in England. Round one took place at the BIC in Bournemouth. The BIC is an indoor sports center next to the beach. The riding area looked good. It had a 10 feet high quarterpipe and a double jump in it to the surprise of the hardcore street rider. Is this going to be the next X-Games? The 70-s crew had done their homework and riders had asked for a jump box in the survey they returned. What the riders want, they get. Fids was working the street course (literally) as he's a self employed carpenter nowadays. Nate Wessel always jumps in to help out and so does Ryan Corrigan. Basically the course had 2 hips and the 10 feet quarter on one side and a bank to wall on the other. In between it had the double jump, a street spine, a hip with wall and a weird flatbank to steepbank-volcano kind of thing that was hard to just jump but some of the pros thought otherwise. The ramps were painted green and had the Etnies logo all over the place.
Results: 1.Miles Davies 2.Luke Elliot 3.Andy Hall 4.Rick Tribble 5.Steve Artus 6.Liam Eltham 7.Steve Saunders 8.Peter Meakin 8.Mark Love 10.Tom Bridges 11.Georges Pich 12.Daniel Rodger 13.Garry Wells 14.Nicolas Lefeure 15.Edward Mullins16.Peter Meakin 17.Ben Walker 18.Daniel Shearer 19.Merlin Mason 20.Will Herrmann 21.Gavin Shortall 21.Cameron Hardy 23.David Owens 23.Luke Fisher 25.Darryl Twells 26.Curtis Marsalleck 27.Sascha Clanssen 28.Rob Sans 29.Timmy Docherty 30.Tim Wilson 30.Tom Colwell 32.Nicky Black 33.Tom Smith 34.Jason Phelan 35.Chris Davies 35.Georgie Hearne 35.Lee Murphy 35.Daniel Lacey 39.Micheal Miller 40.Tim Stroud 41.Tom Curtain 41.Karl Dean 43.Leon Perkins 44.Dan Southall 45.Andrew Reed 46.Andre Fowkes 47.Lewis Knowles 48.Louis Smith 49.Rob Dalton 50.Patrick Nelson 51.David Theisen 52.Dan Mock 52.Eddy Truett 54.Karl Norfolk 55.Adam Webb 56.David Wilson 57.Paul Bolton 58.Stuart King 58.Axel Loughrey 60.Ryan Elcock 60.Chris Gordan 60.Charlie Johnston 60.Joe Miller 64.Lee Burrell 65.Sam Ward 65.Jamie Dalzell 67.Jack Watts 68.William Lambert 69.Louie Hartley 70.Joaquin David Hernandez 70.Felix Kirch 72.Scott Webb 72.Dave Mould 74.Darren Collis 75.Tom Kelly 76.Mike Saunders 77.Daniel Ellingham 78.Jack Alvis 78.John Blundell 80.Matt Truett 81.Fred Steane 81.Sean Walsh 81.Jake Door 84.Ben Evans 84.Kurt Grossman 86.Matt Burton 87.Adam Quinn 88.Richard Chipperfield 89.Lewis Dalton 90.Nick Bishop 91.David Randle 92.Andy Taylor 93.Luke Reddaway
Gary Young (Dirtbros) is full of energy and uses that to cruise around at full speed doing tailwhips, 360-s both ways and fat-ass table tops. Gary had different lines than anyone else and qualified on spot #1. Garrett Byrnes' style is quite similar to Gary's and he added some big airs on the 10ft quarter. So did Joe Rich, Taj, Miron and Jon Taylor (who did a handplant on the 10 footer as well to qualify 21st). Riders that are ridiculously good but still did not make it were a.o: Sandy Carson, Ben Shenker, Cielencki, Barrett, Mahoney, Martinez, Kimler, Sergio Layos, John Heaton, Joe Rich, Chris Arriaga and Rooftop. That group would make a great final at any comp.
Sunday brought a few changes to the street course. A straight up wall had been added and the hip with wall had been moved next to the double jump. Paul Roberts was on the microphone. He's the best BMX MC. The stands had filled up completely. It was good to see a sold out house for a BMX comp. Spectators came over to watch BMX as they paid 12 quid for a weekend of watching the pros ride. None of them went home disappointed as the riding level gets higher every week.
Here are just a few standouts: Taj's air on the 10 feet quarter. The T-1 rider/owner has been riding The Gute's vert ramp lately and even bought a new fullface. The "training" showed off in the smooth Q-pipe style. Mark Webb had made 720-s over the double look easy until he tried a 720 variation in the final and broke his leg. Not a nice sight and everyone was faced with reality for a moment. Get well soon Mark.
Allan Cooke had paid his own way to England to enter the comp and was having a good time (at least at the bar). His big wallride to barspin did not get the crowd on its feet but 4 years ago it would have been crazy. Just a sign how fast things are developing. Allan scored 16th place. Ben Hennon changed his Felt bike for a Haro which did not slow him down much. Flipwhip transfers and big table tops were some of his contributions to the high level of tricks that were being done in the finals. The Berringer show was on again. Even without Rooftop around he had the crowd going with funny tricks. He ended his run with a fly-out onto some ledge on the wall that was 15 feet high. Only Berringer.......
Dan Sieg has got some serious skills. Tailwhip to fakie over the spine was just one of the tech moves from the Standard rider. Osato simply tells his bike what to do. When he says; 2 full rotations over the spine, the Primate will obey. 360-whip over the crazy volcano; check. Paul Kintner did 360-s in both directions and finished 8th. He was flowing all over the course with plenty of flow. Kye Forte got the crowd going with his tailtap on the wall out of the 10ft quarterpipe. Absolutely insane. Nate Wessel seems to pull tricks that are not from this world. The 90 degree corner jump out of the wall and into the quarterpipe in the final was nuts. You seriously have to pull that bike to land where you want to land on that move. Next time you know Nate is doing the same gap but lands in fakie and pulls it clean. Talking about raising the bar here, nuts.
Revelation of the comp for me was Luke Marchant. He might as well have won. Never heard of the dude either but I'm sure next time I'm flipping through the magazines I'll see his pictures. Let's put it this way, he can do it all. Baz Keep ripped it up doing tricks in both directions and you can't even see what's regular and what's not. Alistair can adapt to any terrain quickly and had no problems with the Backyard Jam course. Mr. Whitton is a well rounded rider and has tricks for every obstacle. His footplant on the wall was sick and the boomerang/tailwhip jump still has me puzzled. I'll grab the remote for the rewind button a few times next time I see the trick on TV.
And then we have Jay Miron, the Canadian Beast. At 30+ he still got what it takes. When Jay starts joking around on his bike he is having a good time. It showed. Big hip transfers to wall ride, huge 540 on the quarter, no-handed flips over the shady volcano and a tech nosewheely 180 to 180 on the wooden double jump. Jay was on and when the Beast is on you better sit back and watch. 2nd place. First went to San Diego's Gary Young. The energizer bunny was fading towards the end of the session when he attempted an icepick on top of the wall at least 8 times before he pulled it. It's probably what did it for the judges who were having a hell of a job having to score all the riders over the weekend.
Jay Miron, www.vitalbmx.com, december 2008: The last Backyard Jam I rode in 2004 was super fun for me. I had just come back after a year-and-a-half of bullshit with injuries. I didn’t know if I’d be able to ride like I used to. I was really bummed that I’d end up retiring without ever having the feeling of laying it on the line again. Then at the contest everything came together. I qualified in the top group of the finals with Alistair [Whitton], Bas Keep, and Gary [Young]. I have absolute respect for all three of those guys, as riders and as people. If I’m in a group with guys I like, it makes me ride way better. The crowd was so into it, and so loud. It was one of the best sessions of my life. The whole way through the finals I was thinking, “This is it. I can retire now with no regrets.” Gary wasn’t even on MacNeil yet but that’s the contest where we got to hang out and become friends. He was riding for MacNeil three weeks later. Actually, now that I think about it, it is probably my favorite session ever.
Results: 1.Gary Young 2.Jay Miron 3.Ali Whitton 4.Bas Keep 5.Luke Marchant 6.Nate Wessel 7.Kye Forte 8.Paul Kintner 9.Dave Osato 10.Taj Mihelich 11.Dan Sieg 12.Garrett Byrnes 13.Matt Beringer 14.Ben Hennon 15.Tony Mortenson 16.Allan Cooke 17.Dave Freimuth 18.Ruben Alcantara 19.Mark Webb 20.Tony Mortenson 21.Jon Taylor 22.Sandy Carson 23.Ben Shenker 23.Mike Escamilla 25.Jim Cielencki 26 Owain Clegg 26 Ryan Barrett 28 Micheal Taylor 29 Gareth Wilson 30 Chris Mahoney 31 Paul Russel 32 Ben Wallace 32 Corey Martinez 32 Ronnie Surridge 35 Josh Elkington 36 Ron Kimler 37 Christian Ziegle 38 James Brooks 39 Tommy Lauque 40 Nate Moroshan 40 Nicolas Cambon 42 Fabien Fracoise 42 Jerome Gautier 44 James Hitchcox 45 Jon Heaton 46 Joe Rich 46 Ross Tanner 48 Sergej Geier 49 Mitch Yeates 50 Phil Aller 51 Glen Wood 52 Will Jackson 53 Daniel Mcgearey 54 Dean Hearne 55 Sergio Layos 56 Paul Jefferies 57 Joe Hobson 58 Aubert Anton 58 Leo Forte 60 Joe Fox 61 Kevin Garwood 62 Gee Simmonds 62 Joe Cox 64 Ben Jukes 65 Chris Arriaga 66 Amos Burke 67 Aaron Bostrom 68 Ben Foakes 69 Ryan Metro 70 Nick Vale 71 Caleb Kilby 72 Lance Mcdermot
Kye Forte on the cover of SOUL 25. Foto: Ricky Adam.
SOUL BMX VIDEO Issue 25