 | | | | | | | | | | | SATURDAY:
On Saturday we went for another dose of Henry's in the morning and then stocked up at the supermarket that was next door. Whilst there, I saw a wee sprig of thyme in Yeti's basket and, very confused, asked:
'What's that for?'
Yeti looked down and absolutely freaked. He later explained that he thought it was one of those huge, tropical caterpillars (in Toronto?!). It was so funny - he jumped about a foot. Fresh herbs - don't do it, kids!
Once at the event, Grant set a load of T-shirts up and began trying to hock his wares whilst I went off to take pics. When I returned later on, he was in a massive huff because two drunk security guards had tried to confiscate all his stuff.
On to the action:
You wouldn't believe how many pros were there. There were 19 groups and 85 registered riders, which I think is the largest pro entry at any BMX contest, ever! As a result, the contest went on forever, but the nice people at Ten Pack had given me an access-all-areas pass, so I happily spent the time running around taking pics. Unfortunately, though, my flash fell out with me (it does this sometimes), so a lot of my pics are under-exposed. Damn technology.
Here's a few highlights from the comp:
Justin Inman tabletopped about five feet out of the tiny vert wall that most people had a job just getting to the top of. Justin also destroyed his bike during his run doing something ridiculous, but was given a loaner by The Blue Falcon and blasted on to the arena with it, doing a full speed wheelie across the whole course. I was stoked. Justin didn't qualify for the finals and was, therefore, robbed.
Chris Doyle got ridiculously tweaked over the Jersey hip and was then doing turndown fakies, about six feet out of the big quarter.
Ryan Nyquist did a flair that was seriously eight feet out of the big quarter.
Jim C did a handplant flair(?!). Brian Foster rode a gold bike. Dave Osato qualifying in the top five after doing his run with a massive hangover and no practice - the man was going for double tailwhips to fufanu for Pete's sake!
Mike pulled the first ever 360 handplant over the spine - SKANDRED! Here's what Grant (Mike's team manager) had to say about Mike's run:
'Mike did Pretty Heavy proud by shredding the course like the rough northern monkey that he is. The 360 handplant over the spine was just the trick cherry on the top of a week of far much more mayhem than you could imagine. In my opinion his best trick had to be where he floored one of a gang of crazed crackheads who were chasing us down the street in downtown Toronto, that was pretty heavy!'
Thank you, Mr Smith.
Whilst there, we also met Stacey and Nina, from the Women of Freestyle team. If you're a girl who rides and you don't know about this lot, you should definitely get in touch - their website is www.wofbmx.com.
Stacey had actually ridden in the amateur contest the day before and had done really well, so she was stoked on that. She did a big ol' 50/50 on the sub-wall which was good. Anyway, when they heard that we were from Scotland they went mental asking about our Rosie, so I gave them some stickers and it turns out that they're both regular Airtight visitors anyway. Treats! I was psyched.
After the contest we went out again, but there were a load of sketchy characters kicking about (even sketchier than Grant and Yeti!), so I sacked it off and went off to bed.
ThursdayFridaySaturday
SundayMondayTuesdayWednesday | | | |
| |
|
|
