Riot Jam / Gatecrash tour South Africa by Lloyd Ramsay

Apr 10, 2008

Written by Bart de Jong

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Each year in South Africa the Gatecrash tour is held where loads of riders get together and go on a week long road trip. To start it all off the first weekend of the tour was The Riot Jam Am contest. The Riot Store is South Africa's one of only 2 stores in South Africa whose stock is comprised solely of BMX products. Brian Kachinsky was booked to come over for the tour but unfortunately had some trouble with his knee preventing him from riding.

Riot Store employee of the month Devin Toselli went down like a homesick mole on the very first jump of the whole jam. He won a night in hospital and no doubt got to wear one of those creepy gowns. Get better soon Devin.

The comp comprised of 2 days: day 1 was dirt at Giba Gorge and day 2 was park at Hux skatepark. At the end scores from both days were combined to decide the winner. Many local pro's were present and rode but the whole Riot Jam was about giving the Am's a chance to do their thing.

Winner of NASS dirt a few years back, Matt Mcleod was in town and showed me a one-handed table 3 which I liked a lot. Feral child Darren Van Wyk aka D Star did a 360 transfer across the sets which was very impressive. The dirt jumps at Giba were in great condition and more contests are going to be held there in the future. Watch this space.

The next day riders trickled into Hux park after a long day of dirt. I was looking forward to watching street animal Stephen Savage do his thing but his hand was hurt and he rode for a bit after I left. Local Durban rider Chris Barnes hucked a few double whip quarter to bank transfers and then eventually landed one super clean to pedals.

Results... eh who cares, everyone that rode is a winner to me. Prizes were sponsored by DK Bikes and The Riot Store. I have got bills to pay so could not go further on the tour so I have been checking updates here, here: www.gibagorge.co.za or here: www.theriot.co.za

Lloyd Ramsay