Battle Of Hastings report by BdJ. Who said BMX was dead? By BdJ

Sep 18, 2016

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 2746 times

44 of the best BMX pro riders made it to Hastings last weekend for the Battle Of Hastings event put on by The Source BMX. To see the venue of the event was already worth the trip to the coast city in England. The way they've turned an old bath house on the beach into a BMX skatepark with pro shop is incredible and it's a good thing it's clocated in Hastings where many big BMX events have happened in the past. It felt good to be back to say the least. The event itself was more or less a team contest. 11 teams of 4 riders were chosen and had three ways to score points. Friday was used for two riders of the team to film an edit in the Plaza section of the park. With no access to the public the riders had 60 minutes to film the clips which were then judged by a team of judges for the first results. Dan Lacey and Bruno Hoffmann killed it in this one and shot to the top of the leaderboard.

Saturday had the actual contest where all four riders rode in a session and were scored individually. With all scores added, the

new ranking was announced. As you've probably seen on the live feed and numerous videos that have already popped up, the riding was off the hook. It was a mix of park/bowl riding and street riding and the sold out crowd (500 people max each day) checked the riding from the balcony.

The last day had the Best Trick contest first for one rider of the team. With some time on the clock a new or crazy trick anywhere on the course was needed and obviously this went bananas. Van Homan was the 'lucky one' to represent his team and crashed so much on an alley oop double footplant from bowl to bowl that it was amazing to see that he was still walking afterwards. The brewski's worked to ease the pain. Jordan Goodwin won the Best trick with an uprail to 540 off and bumped up his team in the ranking.

When the results of Best Trick got added to the team scores, four crews had made it to the final. Up for grabs were €2000 for fourth, €3000 for third, €4000 for second and €6000 for the team that would win. By this time the vibe had become electric.

Dan Paley, Jordan Goodwin and Alex Donacchi were on Kriss Kyle's team and finished 4th out of 11. They picked up the €2k and partied the night away. Kriss took care of the pool riding while Jordan and Alex spent most time on the street section at The Source. Dan Paley dealt with a bum-knee but never gave up and put his best effort in. 4th was where it ended up with team Kriss Kyle.

Dan Lacey picked a great team with riders such as Bruno Hoffmann, Chase Hawk and Mark Love joining him. After they'd picked up the win in the Park-video section, the bowl riding of Mark Love and Chase Hawk moved the team into the final spot where it made 'the podium' by getting third place. The combo of street and bowl riders worked out for Lacey who literally lives across the street from the park and had some 'home advantage' over the first time visitors.

San Diegan Gary Young brought Chad Kerley, Travis Hughes and Jason Watts (AUS) with him to England. Also this team spready the knowledge over the park and street sections. At 17 years olf Travis is ripping and Chad Kerley needs no introduction either. Gary Young warmed up towards the end and is someone that can ride any sort of terrain but loves riding bowls. Jason Watts sure brought some flavour to the group and the stoke was high for the team when they were handed the second place check.

First place: Team Larry Edgar. Not only Larry got the crowd going with his big airs, Tom Dugan impressed everyone present with the riding he brought to England. The people on the balcony could practically touch Tom when he aired out of the bowl corners. His manual across the platform all the way around was insane too. Add some big 180-s and a truckload of style and you see where this is going, to the top. Broc Raiford took care of the street riding together with Justin Spriet. Both of them however hit the bowl section too showing their overall riding skills. The €6000 Euros and a big trophy were well deserved.

Marc and Rich Moore of The Source have put Hastings back on the BMX calendar. With the help of a solid crew this event turned out to be a banger. With only 500 spaces available for the crowd, you should not sleep with the tickets become available for next year's edition. That's right, the date has been marked for the 2017 edition of the Battle Of Hastings: 9-10 september 2017. Don't miss out on that one.

BdJ