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showed up. There was a vehicle to pick us up from the airport, there was a bus that brought us all to the venue. There was no need for strict security and if you were wondering, everybody in Tallinn speaks English. Pricing is decent (no London, Paris or NYC rip off prices) for everything, hotel, food, transportation which makes it affordable for people to make the trip. The program is the best part. Practice on Friday did not start until 6pm leaving enough room for the hardest party animals out there to go wild on Thursday. Warm up on Friday for gorup one started at 2pm and if you were in group 2, your day started at 5:15pm. The BMX finals on Sunday didn't start before 4pm. If you wanted to sleep in, you could.

A contest can be well organized but if you have an announcer that is annoying, it is no fun. Luckily Catfish was on the MIC who kept us all entertained. His Estonian colleague danced his life away to keep the Estonians up to speed. Next to the class MC-s, there was a huge screen that explained a lot of the program. Riders were announced and their close-up photo would pop up on the big screen together with their national flag, age and sponsors. It was a nice feature. Also the instant replays of the better tricks of the session were shown on the screen instantly. In the meantime the next 4 riders got on the course and this way the program ran very smooth.

In case people didn't know, the judges each had a laptop in front of them where the scores were punched in. Scores had to be made pretty quickly and were shown on the big screen as soon as another group in the jam session was finished. This gave the crowd and the riders an indication on how they did and if they could go search for a Saku or not. The DJ played good music (so important too) and the interviews with the riders that they showed in between were classic.

So who did what? You've possibly seen the whole thing live on the internet through Freecaster.tv, another thing that was great. We'll give you short descriptions of the top 21 down here:

First of all, the riders who made the finals were stoked. The level of riders was high and some of the guys who did not make the cut were: Naran, Hickerson, Luke Towey, Ronnie Napolitan, Ortega, Fenlon, Lantschner, Freimuth, Croft, Lacey, Love, Koenig, Beringer, Cambon, Pim, Hannuh, Lima, Coulomb, Cielencki, Petit, Sexton, Darden, Schwartz and Kachinski. And there were a lot more riders who ripped it up.

Here are the results:

21 Harry Main: Didn't really care too much about his placing in the finals. He made it and then pulled a no-handed 360, a 3-whip over the box and tried a few 720-s over the spine which he normally can do with his eyes closed. His flair 540 tailtap combo requierd a few too many attempts.

20 Brad Simms: Rode better in qualifying and had a bad start with that 540 he wanted to do. Still manualed up the rain and did an over icepick grind.

19 Anthony Watkinson: The fresh DK he was riding got whipped a couple of times. His no-footed cancan to invert over the box was rad but he wanted to a tailwhip to invert on the box really bad which weren't happening. He'll be back!

18 Bruno Hoffmann: A 14 year old in these finals. Bruno did it. His riding is solid but he crashed a few times in the final runs. Still something to be proud of to finish 18th in such a big comp.

16/17: Aaron Ross/ Michal Beran: Different riding styles for sure. Both could have finished a bit higher up if they had pulled all their moves. Ross had a few rad moves and started off by a fakie to backwards peg grind on the ledge. He threw a three-sixty whip over the box in there for good reason. Michal Beran tried multiple tailwhip frontflips over that weird box but never pulled it, not even after Mark Webb gave him some advice.

15 Karl Poynter: Different riding style for sure. It was almost impossible for Karl to get some practice in. His riding style didn't allow that. It was too crowded and Karl needs space. He got all the space he wanted in the finals and did a manual to peg grind to feeble to fakie on the stair section. He qualified in 21st, ended up at 15th place.

14 Anthony Napolitan: Started off with a flip double whip and did a fronty up the Euro gap to tailwhip down. He had some momentum going at first but slowed down a bit towards the end. It was good to see him shred on the course.

13 Mike Miller: The Euro Mikey? Maybe so. Style for miles and he was loving it. 360 lookback over the box, wallride to 180, big 360 over the spine, I'll sut up, you've watched that video plenty of times already.

11/12 Maxime Charveron/Ben Hennon: Joint 11th. Maxime rode with speed and hit all ramps on the course. He even tailwhipped from jersey barrier to jersey barrier and towards the end of the jam session he rode whitout a chain to pull that fakie to frontflip. He will probably have that down next time you see him ride. Ben Hennon had the Kiss Of Death, table 360, barspin to icepick, barspin to wallslap and an over ice on the subbox. So awesome, I could cry.........

10 Jason Phelan: The highest placing European. It was Jason's second Simpel Session and he was loving it. After a huge 360 to flat off the Euro Gap construction he finished off his riding with a bunnyhop tailwhip over the handicap rail. Ace.

9 Chase Hawk: BMX needs characters. BMX needs riders like Chase Hawk. Tallinn will remember Chase either from the big screen interview or the stylish riding on the course. Gotta love it.

8 Morgan Wade: Morgan has seen better days but his invert on the big quarter construction and his one-handed superman whips and nosewheelies to barspins all kicked ass. Don't forget about his double whip, 360 up the Euro gap to tailwhip down, and the bikeflip over the box. 8th place check and on his way to Barcelona for some sunshine and riding for the next Leve's web videos.

7 Kym Grosser: Kym couldn't believe he placed this high. His original riding doesn't usually get scored in the same range as frontflips, 3-double whips and flairs. fact is that Kym has his own style and does tricks that others don't (or can't do). He escaped fromt he Monster BMX Games in Australia and flew down to Tallinn to get 7th. Stoked indeed.

6 Tyler Morrow: The new Vans rider was a welcome guest at the Simpel Session. You'll be hearing more of him in the new Josh Harrington video and contests to come. The throttle is open all the time and he pulls a lot of the things he's got in his mind. 17 years old, from Greenville North Carolina. 6th place.

5 Scotty Cranmer: Wow, he actually rode! Not that much in practice but straight to a triple whip over the box in the finals. Double whip over the spine.......you watch the video. It was live in the Saku Suurhall and people were stoked to see him ride.

4 Colin MacKay: Colin is one solid rider with a huge bag of tricks. For once he did not have to search for lines to show what he's got. In Tallinn the course fit his riding style well. It was diverse, just like Colin's riding.

3 Daniel Dhers: It is good to see the Dew Tour champion come to Europe. The great crowd got to see the park champion in action. Riding in a jam session is a bit different than riding a 60 second run but Daniel has no problem making it work. His 720 flatspin x-up was ridiculous and also his indian tailwhip transfer was awesome.

2: Gary Young: No more Backyard jams and no sight on the next Metro jam. Gary Young knew where to make it count. The course welcomed Gary's riding style and he found more lines than anybody else. He's got the tricks too in case you're wondering.

1 Garrett Reynolds: Can anybody stop him this year? That is the question. When Chase Hawk's 180 over the double jump-box was rad in 2007, Garrett Reynolds pulled a barspin to barspin 180 over the weird step-up jump box. It's progression and this 17 year old kid is teaching everyone.

BdJ