2006 BMX BOK Series, Deventer, The Netherlands. By Jos Wissink

Sep 11, 2006

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 7653 times

A few years ago, we only had a few contests in Europe. The world famous FAT JAM in The Netherlands, the King of Concrete in the UK and the BMX Freestyle Worlds somewhere in Europe. Since that, things have changed dramatically and there is a BMX contest almost every weekend of the year and during the summer time, we can choose from multiple contests and jams each weekend. There are big contests with a fixed time schedule and there are contests like the BMX BOK Series in Deventer: no pressure on the time schedule, just relaxing, chilling and some bmx riding with your bmx buddies.

The qualifiers were scheduled to start around 2.00 PM, but of course not all riders had shown up yet. Approx 3 hrs later Herm and Paul decided to start the qualifiers. The qualifiers were in a jam format, where riders could earn a place in the finals by proving their BMX skills with their best tricks. Riders who qualified earned a really ugly tie, of which 12 were available. During the qualifiers it showed that Daniel Wedemeier and Franky "Kruimel" Elshof had their tricks wired:

Big tailwhips, huge tailtaps on the "Wall of Death", downside whips, and 360-tailwhips over the vulcano were a standard part of their tricklist. Waldemar was one of the youngest rides, but proved his skills and was awarded a place in the finals with his 360 tailtap over the spine.

Virgil is also one of those young new riders and he flowed through the park with airs on the quarter and at the end he tailwhipped his way into the finals.

Some really good riders simply did not make the cut. Riccardo Moes tried his 540 to fakie over the spine, but it did not work out.

Thomas "49 cents" almost made it to the finals. The trick he had to make for a place in the finals was a no footer. He already had the one footer dialled, but could not get the no footer together.
He does not give up easy and therefore he received the incentive prize. If you do not know where Thomas lives, you can simply follow Eastpak banners from Burnside to his house. He is a true Eastpak fan and it shows!

After the qualifiers and the Thomas show, the BBQ was fired up to make sure the riders had enough energy for the finals.

During the finals each rider got two runs to prove they were the true BOK-champion for 2006. Each rider opened his trickbag, but Dany Keizer probably ate too much hamburgers. 12th place for him. Tim Stijnz ended in 11th place, but don't forget this name. He was really close to pulling a bike flip. He has his tricks dialled and we will hear from him again soon.

Lennaert Gols is from Deventer and a Burnside local and it shows. He's got the place dialled. Unfortunately he crashed hard and was received the 2006 BMX BOK worst slam medal.

This year Bas Brouwer from the Pauls Boutique BMX Team could not convince the judges. He riding was solid, but not enough for a top 5 placing.

Virgil from Duivendrecht ended in 5th place. He's young, he's smooth and I loved his turndowns.

Although Maityn from Amsterdam and Tim Frijters from Houten were killing it, the real final took place between Daniel Wedemeier and Dranky Elshof. They were both going for it: big wallrides, walltaps at incredible height, fufanu on the high subbox, super high tailwhip airs.

But at the end Franky topped of his run with a huge backflip and a clean turndown backflip transfer for which he was also awarded winner of the Best Trick contest. After his run Franky started the "Franky show" in which he tried some sort of alley-oop flair from the quarter to the curved bank. Numerous tries followed (sometimes mid run of the other riders), but he could not make it. Maybe next year.

Although not all dutch BMX riders were there, it still was a great session. The whole BOK Series are about having fun and riding with your BMX buddies. We would like to thank Herm and his crew for the organisation. Contests like this are easily accessible for all BMX riders and are the perfect opportunity to meet new BMX friends.

Let's meet again next year!

Text and pics:
Jos Wissink

Results:
1. Franky Elshof (Burnside, Quarter 9), Deventer - 295 pts (Best Trick)
2. Daniel Wedemeier (NKE 6.0, Riders 4 Life), Duivendrecht - 293 pts
3. Tim Frijters, Houten, 275 pts
4. Maityn (NKE 6.0), Amsterdam - 268 pts
5. Virgel (Switchflow), Duivendrecht - 237 pts
6. Bas Brouwer (Vans, Eastpak, KMC, Paul's Boutique) - 233 pts
7. Waldemar Vroegop, Goes - 228 pts
8. Rens Apperlo, Vessem - 218 pts
9. Lennaert Gols, Deventer - 217 pts (Worst Slam)
10. Tim Stijnz, Hattem - 213 pts
11. Dany Keizer, Apeldoorn - 205 pts