../events/2002 Backyard jam round 1

Sources: www.backyardjam.com, Soul magazine #19, Ride BMX UK #59, Ride BMX UK "Cassette" video, ...
If you want to add any info, please contact buissonrouge@23mag.com.
Event: 2002 Backyard jam round 1.
Date: , 2002.
Place: Telford International Center, UK.
Organisation: Seventies
www.backyardjam.com: The first of the re-launched Backyard Jams sponsored by Etnies, Activision and Primo kicked off at Telford and things went pretty well with some amazing riding going down over the weekend. The Telford Jam had easily the biggest line up of riders ever seen in the UK with 32 riders making the trip from the US and Canada, plus 19 Europeans and all the top Brits. Etnies brought over Ruben Alcantara, Joe Rich, Garret Byrnes, Edwin Delarosa, John Heaton, Josh Stricker and Aaron Benkhe, and they hooked up with a line up of riders too long to list here.
STREET
www.backyardjam.com: It was standing room only to watch pro street on Sunday and the riders were all enjoying the new course built by Brent Oswald in Canada and shipped over for the Jam. The format for street was 5 riders on the course for 10 minutes followed by a run each for best trick. Fifteen riders progressed to the finals and the top five shared $5,000.

Ruben finished his run with a massive transfer from the hipped quarter to the deck of the sub-box. The ramp builder reckons it was 25 feet, but it looked a lot bigger. Whatever, it was huge. The fact Ruben didn't win says something about how good the Beast rode. He went big over everything, 360ing and tailwhipping the drive way. Ruben grabbed second and Hoffman/Etnies rider Baz Keep collected third, followed by Kye Forte and Kink’s Chris Arriaga. Considering how many overseas pros made the trip over, the UK riders showed up big time. Boyley, Chris Mahoney and James Brooks placed top ten with Bas and Kye.
soul
Northern John

PRO STREET:
1st - Jay Miron (96.25)
2nd - Ruben Alcantara (96.00)
3rd - Bas Keep (93.25)
4th - Kye Forte (92.75)
5th - Chris Arriaga (92.00)
6th - Gary Young (91.25)
7th - Richard Ball (89.00)
8th - Marcus Wilke (85.75)
9th - Chris Mahoney (84.5)
10th - James Brooks (84.25)
11th - Ben Manuel (83.75)
12th - Van Homan (82.75)
13th - Bryan Wizmerski (82.00)
14th - John Heaton (81.75)
15th - Dan Price (78.00)

AMATEUR STREET:
1st - Eddie Tongue (90.5)
2nd - David Owens (90.00)
3rd - Josh Elkington (90.00)
4th - Matt Beyers (89.75)
5th - Neil Randall (88.00)
6th - Ben Hennon (87.00)
FLATLAND
www.backyardjam.com: Pro flatland was on Sunday and the rider line up was littered with riders from Europe and the US. Again it was the UK riders that took honours with Effraim Catlow collecting first prize of $850 and James White and Phil Dolan getting second and third.
For a lot of the amateur riders it was their first big contest, but the standard of riding was high and everyone seemed to be grinning for the whole weekend. Especially the 12 street and 6 flatland winners who shared a big stash of products from Etnies, Activision, Lord, Dig, Ride and Seventies.
PRO FLATLAND:
1st - Effraim Catlow (96.00)
2nd - James White (95.67)
3rd - Phil Dolan (95.17)
4th - Chad Degroot (94.50)
5th - Christophe Dassie (94.00)
6th - Armen Batoumeni (93.67)
7th - Sam Foakes (93.33)
8th - Aaron Benkhe (92.17)
9th - James Needham (91.67)
=10th - Amos Burke (89.67)
=10th - Brian Tunney

AMATEUR FLATLAND:
1st - Dino Jeffers
2nd - Darnel Margetts
3rd - Paul Hallahand
4th - Tristan
5th - Martin Clark
6th - Tom Marsh12th - Lee Musselwhite (87.67)
VERT
www.backyardjam.com: On the half pipe, Mat Hoffman rode two demos per day with his arm in a cast after chipping a bone in his wrist the week before. The Condor’s lefty autographs may have been a bit goofy but his riding was as smooth as ever. He pulled all his trademark tricks in crazy back-to-back combinations. Mat was joined over the weekend by a bunch of good riders including Eduardo and Miron for the last demo on Saturday. After not riding vert for six months Jay should have been rusty, but didn’t show it and his 540 tailwhip was awesome to see, as were the massive flairs that the Spanish Fly has got super dialled.