FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

August 2006 – Sheffield, home to some of the UK’s most talented riders, hosts one of Europe’s most prestigious BMX competitions as the etnies Backyard Jam 2006 (EBYJ) turns ICE Sheffield into a BMX Mecca on 27th – 29th October 2006. Complete with a street course expertly crafted by Nate Wessell of X Games notoriety, a retail area and more international stars than the World Cup!, the EBYJ is certainly one event NOT to miss this year. Following the mind-blowing riding that was laid down at the etnies Backyard Jam 2005 in Brighton, including the breaking of a UK Record in the SNICKERS ® Highest Bunny Hop contest, the EBYJ 2006 is coming back bigger and better to celebrate its 13th successful year as the UK’s leading core event. The riders list grows year on year and in 2006 it certainly reads like the BMX hall of fame with riders from teams such as etnies, SNICKERS ® and Primo including Ben Hennon (UK), Morgan Wade (US, X Games 2006 Street Silver Medalist), Josh Stricker (US), Aaron Ross (US), Bas Keep (UK), Taj Mihelich (US), Ali Whitton (UK), Gary Young (US), Max Vincent (CAN), Chase Hawk (US) and Matt Beringer (US), to name just a few. 

The Mellowpark had some new obstacles but is still roomy enough to pedal around them to get speed for other ramps. The amateur riders were up on Saturday and had beautiful weather. Pro street was completely re-scheduled for Sunday because some of the riders were having problems with London airports canceling flights (damn terrorists). With 54 entries in Amateur Street it was a long qualifying session. The 16 guys who made it to the final session came from Germany, the UK, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Italy, Hungary and France. Making it in the top three wasn’t easy. Leroy Widmann just missed out and ended on 4th. He did pull a double tailwhip over the box which is an indication of how high the level was in the Am Street class. Local Sprosse wasn’t sure if he was going to ride the contest. He foot wasn’t completely healed yet and he did not have the okay from his doctor. With everyone riding his park, he couldn’t resist and grabbed his bike and showed how to shred the place. He did huge transfers on the jump box and high airs on the quarterpipe. 

Bronx, NY – August 15, 2006 – The tenth anniversary of the premier Pro/Am BMX Freestyle Competition in New York City, The King of New York™, was held on July 29 and for the first time in it’s history was won by someone other than a local New York City rider. Mongoose’s Steve McCann, 23, out of Melbourne, Australia came all the way from Woodward Camp in Central Pennsylvania to absolutely slay the newly redesigned course at Mullaly Park in the Bronx. Steve put on a show for the 2000 plus spectators throughout the day with smooth 720s on the box, 360 whips over the mini-spine, and scorching 95-degree style and flow to match the heat that day. Steve took home a check for $1000 plus a $500 gift certificate for some fresh gear from Azzure Denim clothing company. 

August, 2006 - New York, N.Y - The Dew Action Sports Tour, the pro tour of action sports, makes the third stop of its second season with the Vans® Invitational, August 17-20, at Portland's Rose Quarter. The five-city tour opened in Louisville in June and also includes stops in Denver, San Jose and Orlando. Skateboarder Shaun White, BMX athlete Jamie Bestwick, and FMX competitor Travis Pastrana are among the athletes who will be in Portland to compete for the Dew Cup, awarded at season's end to the athlete with the highest number of points in each of the six combined disciplines of skateboarding, BMX, and freestyle motocross. The Tour's inaugural season champions include Ryan Sheckler (Skateboard Park), Bucky Lasek (Skateboard Vert), Kenny Bartram (Freestyle Motocross), Jamie Bestwick (BMX Vert) and Ryan Guettler (BMX Park and BMX Dirt). Each Dew Cup winner received a portion of the $1 million year-end bonus and returns for the 2006 season.

The 2nd Canadian concrete has even more entries than the first one, and the ams went off even harder. Huge brakeless 3’s over the 6’ spine, ice picking the large sub wall, fakie tailwhipping the quarters, and a few broken bones were the highlights. The 13 and under class was definitely the days highlight, with a 9 year old Matt Hemmingson charging the course faster than almost everyone all day, and airing almost twice his height! Sam Lowe was the undisputed pro best trick winner, with over ice, back to fakie on the wooden subwall wall, add in doing it on a borrowed bike with front brakes, and he nosepicked it too (Canadian style of course). Etnies and Macneil rider, Wade Llajar, was blasting everything in sight, and came really close to pulling a 360 tailwhip bunnyhop drop-in from the sub to the quarter. Big daddy, Ron Mercer, got third with tech moves none of us could describe…peg wheelie to nosepick to downside tailwhip nosepick to revert slider thing?!?!?! We think that was right…not bad for a 39 year old!

You heard it right Cory is on the team! It's been almost 10 years since Cory moved to California and I am proud to say he is officially part of the family. After coming in for Slams, Pitchforks and Rednecks for so long, Cory is no stranger to the building having him on the team seems really natural. Since I first saw him ride at Sheep in '97 he's always been one of my favorite riders. And going on Road Fools with him was hilarious! I've always liked Cory and his riding is more outrageous than ever right now.

Nate Wessel and Tom Stober have formed a company called Team Blowin It. Their first product is a knee pad that goes under the pants. They've taken the good ideas from other pads they liked and put everything together in their first product. They've been working on the pads forever just trying to get them perfect.

Features:
-Kevlar outer cover for durability and to prevent tearing jeans
-3mm foam cover over plastic cap to prevent tearing jeans 

The after party was taken care of by the people who organized the Rebel Jam but right after the contest on Saturday and right before the party that night, wethepeople brought out the cow. That’s right, the “Jump the Cow” contest was on. Steve Crandall and the Props crew were all over it and Steve gave orders to some of his riders to win some beer money for that night. Wethepeople had put up 100 Euros to the rider that was going to clear the highest and they’d brought some cranks and pedals for those participants that would bend theirs. The take off ramp was about a foot high and “Brenda the cow” itself was about 4 ft.

After some warm up rounds over the cow straight to the concrete it was on! A big crowd had gathered to see Danny Hickerson (T-1), Aaron Ross (FBM), Tony Hamlin (FBM) and a couple of German riders clear the cow and the height pole. Before the bar was raised to a ridiculous height, some money (50 Euros) was gathered for the first 360 over the cow. FBM’s Ross took that.

With the qualifiers from Satuaday turning out to be the final results, it could have looked all different if all the riders had another go on Sunday. Would Clint Millar have repeated his perfect qualifying run with a hangover on Sunday? we will never know. It rained all day Sunday so the finals were skipped. What I do know is that Ben Hennon drank so much coffee in the morning because he went so high over the spine it was ridiculous. Nice one!! Made me think of Dave Voelker at the first BS contest in Dallas where he showed who was boss by blasting a big no hander over the spine.

Sergio Layos’ absence was made up for by Daniel Penafied’s presence. The Fly rider from Madrid (actually Sergio’s riding buddy) did the raddest flat spin 360 over the spine I’ve ever seen. As he’s a young rider he of course has all the downside and regular tailwhip variations down also. He couldn’t quite pull his cross footed tailwhip flyout to cross footed landing but if he had the chance to ride on Sunday he probably could have shown everyone.

Day one wasn’t over yet. After the Berlin City Tour it was time for the opening of the photo exhibition at the Mellowpark. The location is superb and the lighting is great. With a DJ and some drinks it was an awesome way to end the first night. The photos were nothing short of amazing and I was very surprised to see my own photos on the wall. Super stoked on that. I went back the next day to take some shots of the photo art show. Enjoy the work of David Ulrich, Kay Clauberg, Ricky Adam, Ryan Guettler, Sandy Carson,