33,3% of the score so it's not just a jumping contest but it requires some quarterpipe skills as well. 12 riders were lined up for the first qualification day. 12 will ride in qualification round number two and on Thursday the best 12 riders from the prelims will ride at the finals. 
With Brian Blyther on the MIC the program kicked off at 20:00hr with some rider warm up runs. It was a head to head system so one against one. Two runs each and both runs count. The judges will then show with a giant board which rider advances to the next round. Interesting indeed and the crowd can actually follow the contest very well that way. 
After round one the following riders did not make the cut: Erik Soto, Dan Norvell, Alfredo Mancuso, Michael "Hucker" Clark, Cory Walters (judges almost got attacked by his fans, they were not stoked on his early elimination), and Lance Harness. It was off to the showers for these guys. 
The riders who made it to round two had qualified for the finals on Thursday but still a contest was finished because the OC Fair crowd wanted to see some more flips and whips. Sean Logan went head to head against Alistair Whitton. Ricky Moseley vs 14 year old Australian triple whipper Pat Casey, and Tony Campos rode against Diogo Canina in round two. Sean Logan had two solid runs that included 360-X-ups, 720-s, a tailwhip and a 540 on the quarterpipe. A bit sketchy at times making it through the sets but he held on.
Alistair did a great first run but sketched out during the end of run two which cost him the transfer into the three man final. He'll be back for the finals on Thursday though. Ricky Moseley knows how to work the crowd. His double whip over the second set was huge. He also did an opposite 360 tailwhip and made sure the judges knew it was opposite but we already noticed that Rick. Pat Casey bu
mped out Hucker in round one which should tell you enough. Pat is a tailwhip monster and did a double whip on the first set, a giant slo-mo whip over the second and a tailwhip on the quarterpipe. He knew he had to mix things up for round two and did a no-footed cancan on the first set, a 360 over set two and sketched out after that. The 14 year old Australian missed the podium but gets another chance on Thursday. Tony Campos had no chance against Diogo Canina in the final bracket. The way Diogo laid down with flipwhips, double whips, opposite 3-s, 360 lookbacks and giant inverts it was impossible for Tony to keep up.
The crowd got hyped one more time for the finals in which Ricky Moseley got third ($500), Sean Logan got second ($750) and Diogo Canina ($1000) came out as the big winn
er. Not only did the podium riders receive checks, but the Big Air Triples qualification round was giving out Gold, Silver and Bronze medals as well. Makes for a good picture I guess. BdJ
Pics by: Mike de Wit
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.