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Sunny Side Up: BMX Vert
BMX Vert Recap
By Mike Vincent
Welcome to the Action Sports US Championships. At this event, many of us find ourselves a little closer to home . . . Sunny San Diego. After the unpredictable weather patterns of Europe, southern California is a perfect place to host a World Tour stop. And just to be sure Mother Nature doesn’t rain on our parade, this event is being held indoors at the ipayOne Center formerly known as the San Diego Sports Arena. With a new Vert ramp in place and some big name bands playing on the concert stage, this weekend rocks.
It’s been a very busy summer for many action sports athletes. So many competitions almost every weekend, and very little time off to nurse any wounds or injuries. With that said, San Diego witnessed some true BMX Vert gladiators this weekend battling it out on the U-ramp. And in most battles, unfortunately there is only one winner.
In case you couldn’t make it to San Diego this weekend to see the radical vertical BMX action, here is what happened…
10th place— Ronnie Surridge—Ronnie traveled all the way from the UK to compete today. Unfortunately, Ronnie ran into a bit of bad luck and had a vicious crash in his first run. Sorry Ronnie, better luck next time.
9th place— Ben Snowden—Although Ben rides Park more than Vert, he really knows what Vert riding is all about. Ben goes pretty high and does tricks back to back. With good style and flow, he seems to make the Vert finals quite often.
8th place— Jason Branham—Jason goes high and considering he’s fairly young, he knows what it takes to keep up with everyone in pro vert: airs at about 12 feet, no handers, 540s, and flairs.
7th place— Koji Kraft—Today was Koji’s 24th birthday. Koji celebrated by going high, doing about three variations in each air, and doing a little dancing. Unfortunately, Koji crashed in his second run, but he didn’t seem too disappointed. Happy birthday.
6th place— John Parker—John is fresh off an injury that happened a few months ago. Even though his hand is still swollen, you couldn’t tell by his riding. High airs, tailwhips, 540s, and a big double tailwhip.
5th place— Jimmy Walker—Jimmy is a veteran Vert rider. He showed San Diego what that means. Tons of style and back-to-back tricks, including: flairs, 540s, and turndown flairs.
4th place— Jay Eggleston—Jay is an original member of the Lip Lords. They were a group of riders from Colorado. Don’t let the name fool you…Jay doesn’t stay very close to the lip of the ramp. He goes super high. With a huge bag of tricks, and airs at 13 feet, it’s no surprise that Jay got 4th place.
3rd place— Mike Mancuso— Mike is a long time Vert rider from North Carolina. He’s got all the big tricks to put him on the podium, but sometimes has a hard time putting it all together. Today was the day Mike showed San Diego what’s up. Mike produced two of the best runs I’ve witnessed from him. Mike also won an extra $500 for winning the Mad-Croc Energy Award. Pulling a perfect tailwhip flair earned that with no problems.
2nd place—Tom Stober—Tom also just got off an injury recently. With a sore back, he still managed to pull off some big maneuvers. Big no handers, lookbacks, superman seat grabs, flairs, and a double tailwhip . . . A recipe for a well deserved silver medal.
1st place— Kevin Robinson—Do you know who Kevin Robinson is? If not, where have you been for the past five years? Kevin used to be a skinny kid that rode bikes. He started lifting weights and stuck with the bikes. He’s got the size to enter a body building contest, but chooses to use his muscles to throw his bike around whichever way he wants. San Diego was glad that he stuck with the bikes. It was a great show and a well-deserved win. Congrats.
Well folks, that wraps up the Action Sports World Tour for 2006. The last stop of the tour will be the season-ending LG Action Sports World Championships in Dallas in October. Expect to see the top athletes for each sport fighting it out to be crowned the LG World Champion. We hope to see you there.
View the official BMX contest results:
»»Prelim Round Results
»»Final Round Results
