Date: 1997
Medias: aired on MTV .BMX Plus! feb98
The riders were supposed to vote and choose a winner but none of the riders felt like it so they left the decision up to Rick Thorne (who was announcing the event). Thorne went with Brian Foster.
TJ Lavin indian air superman seatgrab.
Brian Foster 360 lookdown.
dirt course
Demos from Trevor Meyer and Andrew Faris.
80-foot-wide halfpipe
The highlight of the weekend was the street contest.
Mark Gonzales
Date: October 16-18 1998
Medias: aired on MTV in November, BMX Plus! february 1999, Ride BMX US february 1999
Everyone gets the same amount of money to show up ($1,450) and the riders who actually ride in the event vote on who should win.
The dirt jumping contest looked like crap on TV because of the wind blowing so hard. Shaun Butler won and walked away with a guitar autographed by Ice T for a trophy.
The course was built down a hill and was more "street" than most contest.
Taj Mihelich did a huge alley-oop wallride and walked away with first place.
Jimmy Levan jumped the back of a semi truck.
Jimmy Levan, www.facebook.com, february 2011: I cleared it and would have been fine, but I got all kicked out sideways and had to jump off. Did the land tuck roll but still blew the hell up and separated my shoulder. My bike bounced off the trailer and nailed someone in the crowd. Ooooops.
Pat Miller landed a perfect 900.
Jay Miron won.
Date: 1999
Medias: MTV, BMX Plus! february 2000, www.ridebmx.com, Ride BMX US #47 february march 2000.
Only five riders were invited for vert and five riders for dirt.
Vert was held on an 18-foot-tall ramp on top of the Hard Rock's parking garage, and dirt was held in T.J. Lavin's new backyard.
The actual contest was mainly a hard trick jam.
Matt Beringer front-flipped the big set, and then tried an out-of-control backflip over the hip. Beringer also tried a 360-front-flip over the big set, and even though he didn't pull it, it got him plenty of air time on TV.
Brian Foster did an awesome 360-lookdown to no-footer.
Fuzzy Hall 360'd the first set and then tried to 720 the next set, but he never pulled the 720.
T.J. pulled all of his big stuff, including a perfect 360-tailwhip.
Then there was "Nasty." When Cory Nastazio went up for his last jump, everyone knew he was going to try a double-backflip. He got around pretty well, but was a little low on the landing causing him to go down hard.
Reuel Erickson was in the crowd and decided to go for a double-flip after the comp, but he ended up landing on his head half-way through flip number two. Nothing fazes Reuel, though, and he still pulled a 720 before everything was done.
When the contest ended, none of the jumpers wanted to pick a winner, so they put all of their names in a hat and pulled out the winner—Matt Beringer. Beringer almost missed the contest because his shoulder was wrecked, so he was stoked. They gave Beringer the trophy, a bunch of people screamed, and then everyone got out of T.J.'s backyard. Like I said, not your typical contest...
TJ Lavin
Mike Aitken on the cover of Ride BMX UK april 2000.
Kevin Robinson won the high air contest going at 15'3''.
For the Sick Trick part of the contest, the riders were doing two airs before trying anything, which meant they weren't very high. Miller went for an under-coping 900. Davies spun a good 540. Simon tried about six 900s, but never completely rode away any of them. John Parker kept going for double-tailwhips but he couldn't make it happen. Kevin Robinson pulled a seven-foot 540, and then started trying to pull a flair.
The riders were supposed to pick a winner when the contest was over, but they backed out, and asked a few of us to decide who won. We figured that the guy who pulled the biggest trick should win, so Kevin's 540 won the title, making him the two-time vert winner, and $6,000 richer.
Kevin Robinson