Rookie Jam, Cologne, Germany 2008. By BdJ

Apr 09, 2008

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 9465 times

Going out to ride or going to a contest isn't as easy as it was 15 years ago now that I have a family and two kids it just makes it harder to get things organized. With the wife in France on a school trip, daughter Veerle at her Grandparents it was time for Philip and I to head down to Cologne for the Rookie Jam. Nephew Timo climbed on board too so this was going to be our family trip for the day. You see, the Rookie jam is an event for the kids, the old dogs and everything in between who don't really have the contest experience yet. For most riders in the Rookie class it was their first event. Same for Philip. Philip is 4 years old and has been riding that Z12 for a while. When I showed him a movie of the park he said he wanted to enter the contest. It's nice when they say that at home but being in the actual hall with 130 other riders can be a bit intimidating. But Philip and I started making laps from the bank, over the jump, and back to the bank. I was getting tired of all the riding but Philip wasn't. He was like the energizer bunny and kept going, and going, and going......

47 riders entered the Rookie class and Philip was up as 13th rider. We were in Germany so the only thing he could understand was Lars Dorsch calling his name: "Und jetzt aus die Niederlande 4 jahre alt; Philip de Jong!" He looked at me and I gave him a little push and off he went. And again he was doing his laps but pulled harder on the handlebars with each go. His frontwheel caught some air in the end and he was stoked. Next up was Timo who also cruised around the course doing nacnac cross ups on the quarter and he was happy to get to ride the course on his own.

Practice was chaos as you can imagine with over 100 kids trying to get some runs in. Looking after your son at the same time means that I got no practice in at all. But I'd promised Philip that I would enter the ET class for the 30 years and older old farts. I was up first and managed to survive my first contest in 10 years. That was all that mattered.

Everyone who entered received a bag with goodies that included stickers, T-shirt, key chains, catalogs, bottle of water etc. donated by the sponsors of the Rookie Jam. It turns the boys into happy campers. It was hard to get Philip back into the van as he wanted to ride some more. But with another full class coming up followed by the prize giving it was going to be hours before he could join the 100+ rider chaos session at the skatepark. And we had to drop off Timo, pick up Veerle, get some food, take a bath and go to sleep.

Great family day for sure.

BdJ

Rookies:

1. Felix Prangenberg
2. Maximilian Lankau
3. Jim Hoffmann
4. Nele Biena
5. Nik Kogelbauer
6. Christopher Kogelbauer
7. Tim Giesel
8. Emil Otto
9. Toni Herfs
10. Paul Otto

Prizes:
1st place received: BK shoes, Felt frame, Dickies Shirt
2. BK shoes, Felt forks, Dickies Shirt
3. BK Shoes, Felt handlebars, Dickies Shirt

Amateur:
1. Markus Lange
2. Janek Wentzky
3. Sprosse

4. Dominique Leibin
5. Dirk Völkner
6. Moritz Chechak
7. Felix Dorsch
8. Steven Homburg
9. David Theisen
10. Simon Durand

Prizes:

1. BK Shoes, Utravel Reisegutschein 200€, Felt Frame
2. BK Shoes, Utravel Reisegutschein 100€, Felt Forks
3. BK Shoes, Utravel Reisegutschein 50€ , Felt Bars

E.T.-Class:
1. Andreas Althaus
1. Manni Beyer
1. Bart De Jong
1. Peter Jandt
1. Thomas Köpke
1. Ilja Probst
1. Thierry Tillot
1. Ötzi Turan
1. Jochen Weyer
1. Ulf Wiebel

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