2012 FATBMX LOOKBACK: 24th FATJAM was HOT. Heavy Metal edition, without the thunderstorms.

Dec 28, 2012

Written by Bart de Jong

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FATBMX 2012 REVIEW: FAT JAM. 35 degrees it was but a few things made it bearable. 1) Plenty of EZ up tents from the sponsors that provided shade. 2) Water canon by Bob. 3) Free cold drinks from Monster Energy. 4) Free Beer! It was another great edition with a few "firsts" such as the big touring car coach that arrived from Belgium with 45 FATJAM visitors inside. Bikes in the luggage compartment and parents who could have a beer or two because they didn't have to drive. Peter Geys set it all up as he has 90 BMX students at The 900 Shop and filled up the bus in no time.

Another "first" was a live music/ride competition. We had a Vans guitar and Vans package to give away. Timo van Lierop brought his amp and guitar for everyone to session and while the Guitar player took care of the tunes, the rider had to ride the dirt jumps. It was improvising a lot of the times but 9 duos signed up and participated. The comp was kicked off by Coach on the guitar and Philip, Veerle and Boyd de Jong on the dirt jumps. No, they didn't win.

Hakan from Helmond showed up and his skills on the guitar were awesome. Unfortunately his riding partner didn't score as well as Tom van den Boogaard who had teamed up with Timo and both scored well. After some good sessions they were the ones winning the goodies.

The most important "first" was the free beer. How many BMX jams do you go to where they have free beer for everyone? It looked good on the flyer too I have to say. Enough FATJAM event shirts were sold to pay back for the beers so all is good. Thanks to everyone who bought a shirt, I hope the beers tasted good. For people who did not support the cause there was still free beer, but they were laying in the burning sun and were of a different brand. Needless to say, the event shirts (which gave you access to the cold

Bavaria cooler) we gone quick. Thanks to Timo for running that most of the time.

It was good to see that the younger generation has taken over building the jumps and keeping the Sugar Hills in shape. Even in these weather conditions the trails ran better than ever before. That was the main reason for people to still ride in 35 degree heat.

The locals had not only shaped the jumps right, but made sure there was water available for maintenance and enough tools to repair the jump when necessary. The landing of the Killer Jump was moved back a little too with the help of Teun Zwanen's little digger and the new Killer Jump take-off received a nice polyester coating courtesy of Fa. Keunen. Because of everyone pitching in, the place worked well. A big thanks to all.

But half the people come over to hang and chill on the big grass field, talk some trash and have some fun. This year the music of choice was Heavy Metal so like it, or not it got played all day. Around 5pm the Monster Energy BBQ was fired up and riders could grab a burger to fill the belly. It seemed like the riders didn't have enough at this point and Desmond Tessemaker, Dimitris Araouzos, Tom van den Boogaard, Dennis Keunen, Michael van Gelder, Nicky van der Veen, Patrick Harteveld, Geoffrey Tessemaker, and Erik Vlaardingerbroek gathered for an extra session to ride off the beers. Also street rider Boy Janssen joined the dirt session which basically sums up what the FATJAM is about. You do what you want to do and nobody cares. As long as you are having a good time, that's all that matters.

The trash was picked up, the banners were taken down, the EZ-Up's were folded back up. It was time for the evening program. More on that in a different post.

BdJ