One of the highlights, if not THE highlight of the contest was Chase Hawk’s riding in the final. The Texan tore the course apart with style, flow and lines that were from an other planet. The good thing here was that he pulled everything clean and that includes all of his 180-s (and rollbacks), a 360 wallride that was nuts and a 270 alley oop onto a bank that was simply ridiculous. Well deserved 2nd place and in this starter field that’s an accomplishment. 
Because in third place is no other than Dave Mirra who stepped it up in the finals and unpacked banger after banger for bronze. Here’s a little rundown of his banger tricks and words don’t do it justice. Downside tailwhip on the quarterpipe, a double whip on the qp straight to whip over the box and a whip over the hip. As Catfish stated: “That’s 4 whips for you in 10 seconds!” He continued with showing a whip-flair, 360-whip, a turndown flair for the Estonians plus a flipwhip. He definitely didn’t hold back and everyone who saw him ride (for the first time ever) loved it. 
Bas Keep finished in 4th and started off well in the jam session. The Brit did huge transfers and a giant tailwhip among other things. The next Great Britain rider was Alistair Whitton who has good style, lots of speed and utilizes the course to the max. Ali has a full bag of tricks too and with a banger or two he could have made it to the top three but 5th isn’t anything to be ashamed of. England’s Ben Hennon only has one throttle position and that’s wide open. Although he thinks he’s got a little broken bone in his foot, he went for double whips over the box with a little superman style and also flipwhipped onto the mini. He considered his riding as “Just chilling” but in fact it was really good. 
Next Brit (7th) was Mark Webb who can flair out of anything. His flatspins are something else too. He pulled a flip to manual that was sick and rode with raditude. He pulled an incredible run of tricks when time was already up and the scores had been made. 
The audience could actually follow the standings as the judges’ scores were shown on a giant screen after each group. Man, they were organized at the Simpel Session and the place was sold out on Sunday. People were curious to see Mike Spinner ride but the lack of a decent box jump on the course was a reason for Mike to not unleash the 720-whip, 360-triple whip or the 1080 that he wants to do when the moment is right. Still enough whipping was going on in his riding and it looks very effortless when he spins his Black Pearl around. The 720’s he does look like regular 360-s. Mike did nollie 450-s, 450-whips, a 540 turn down, 540 whip on the big quarter and more Spinneroonies that we hope to see more of now that he has a passport and can travel. X-Air in New Zealand is up next for Spinner’s international travel. 
Danny Hickerson and Alessandro Barbero completed the top 10 in Tallinn and were both stoked on the competition like pretty much everyone else. “The Best contest Ever!" were Catfish’s words. He was so stoked on it that he left for a tattoo shop to get the Estonian flag tattood on his body. 
If you want to ride the comp next year you better sign up quick. We have a feeling that everyone wants to go. If you are too late to enter there is always a nice seat in the stands where you can chill with the Estonian ladies and there are plenty of them. I’ll wrap it up in famous Schwarzenegger words: “I’ll be back”
BdJ
BMX Street FINAL results:
1 Josh Harrington USA 485
2 Chase Hawk USA 479
3 Dave Mirra USA 456
4 Sebastian Keep GBR 446
5 Alistair Whitton GBR 442
6 Ben Hennon GBR 439
7 Mark Webb GBR 436
8 Mike Spinner USA 422
9 Danny Hickerson USA 420
10 Alessandro Barbero ITA 418
11 Nicolas Cambon FRA 404
12 Aaron Ross USA 398
13 Corey Martinez USA 398
14 Sergio Layos SPA 397
15 Dave Osato CAN 396
16 Martyn Cooper GBR 381
17 Mike Miller GBR 375
18 Senad Grosic AUT 367
19 Mark König GER 347
20 Bjorn Mager GER 346
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.