The Mellowpark is one amazing place and the perfect location for the Rebel Jam. Andy Zeiss and Mike Emde worked together with the Mellowpark crew to pull off their first Rebel Jam. After doing a strong promotion campaign of print advertising, setting up a killer website, printing plenty of leaflets, making buttons, and spreading the word at numerous events, one would expect a huge turn out in both the riders field and spectators. Although there were enough quality riders and enough spectators, the Mellow park wasn't as packed as you would think afer such a strong promotion. This makes you think what needs to be done to get the people there. Are there too many contests that people simply pick their closest event to go to? With the World's in Prague, the Snickers Bowl in Donington, the LG comp in Munich, the BMX Masters in Cologne and the LG contest in Paris going on in June prior to the Rebel Jam, you might think that it was a bit contest overflow for some. But when do you have the chance to see riders like
Ryan Guettler, Van Homan, Ruben Alcantara, Dave Osato, Sergio Layos, Dustin Guenther, Clint Millar, Kye Forte, Axel Juergens, Hannuh Cools and more ride together in a relaxed atmosphere?
The Rebel Jam was just that. By riders, for riders. No count downs for TV, no crazy branding and fair prices on entree fees. Just riding and partying together with the best riders out there should be enough of an excuse for most to visit an event like the Rebel Jam. It wasn't for lack of trying from the organization side, that's for sure. Those who did show up had a good time and that's the most important thing.
Okay, enough of that on to the street contest. Let's start with the ramp set up. It was huge. Both in space available and the height of the ramps. They ordered a regular meal and got the XXL version. Something like that. The ams didn't seem to have a problem with it either. Dutchman
Leroy Widmann carved the curved wall like it was nothing and others did fufanus and blunts on the highest obstacles on the course. The Woodward flight and camp ticket went to local
Tobias Wehlisch who did whips, tables and no-foot-cancans over the hip, and even went for a double whip. Tobi is another stoked teenager that will take a plane to Woodward due to his victory in Berlin. Nice One!
Pro street. Big, bigger, biggest. The last discipline of the contest took place on sunny Sunday afternoon. First place qualifier
Alessandro Barbero already celebrated his qualifying result the night before and could not repeat the next day. Not that he cared about it or did bad, his prelim run was just insane and with the final scoring being different with awards in style, creativity and hard tricks, the Italian went home empty handed.
Bommel rode really well. He’s got the park down as a local rider but he was also working the bar the night before till early in the morning. He made the best of the weekend and pulled his tailwhip tiretap on the box as well as a bar-spin disaster. Bommel’s signature move is the seatpost clamp no-footer and we saw that one on dirt as well as street. Fun, fun, fun.
Tobias Wicke is another Mellowpark local and seeing him ride the park was a treat. Big, tech, burly, he showed it all for the hometown crowd. Berlin had another rider in the finals. The rather unknown rider with the blue bike (Robert Kroenig) simply killed it! Full throttle all the way, from beginning to end. We’ll be hearing more of this guy in the future.
Hannuh Cools found lines no-one else did proving once again his creativity. Want style?
Sergio Layos is the man. It looks like he’s just cruising but he indeed does hard stuff when you consider he does all tricks both ways.
Markus Wilke uses the course in his own way. He rode well and would have placed well with the regular scoring system but missed out on any of the top three price categories.
Van Homan took home quite a few “awardsâ€? he went big, used the course in an original way and also had style doing so. Words won’t describe the transfers he did, you have to watch the videos for that and that footage probably won’t do justice to the distance he traveled. You should have been there to appreciate it.
And that brings us back to the top. If you have the chance to see BMX riders like these, simply go. Do anything you can to get there. Rebel Jam 2006, here we come.
BdJ
For results, check: www.rebeljam.com
Nice one!
The Rebel Jam was just that. By riders, for riders. No count downs for TV, no crazy branding and fair prices on entree fees. Just riding and partying together with the best riders out there should be enough of an excuse for most to visit an event like the Rebel Jam. It wasn't for lack of trying from the organization side, that's for sure. Those who did show up had a good time and that's the most important thing.
Okay, enough of that on to the street contest. Let's start with the ramp set up. It was huge. Both in space available and the height of the ramps. They ordered a regular meal and got the XXL version. Something like that. The ams didn't seem to have a problem with it either. DutchmanLeroy Widmann carved the curved wall like it was nothing and others did fufanus and blunts on the highest obstacles on the course. The Woodward flight and camp ticket went to local Tobias Wehlisch who did whips, tables and no-foot-cancans over the hip, and even went for a double whip. Tobi is another stoked teenager that will take a plane to Woodward due to his victory in Berlin. Nice One!
Pro street. Big, bigger, biggest. The last discipline of the contest took place on sunny Sunday afternoon. First place qualifier Alessandro Barbero already celebrated his qualifying result the night before and could not repeat the next day. Not that he cared about it or did bad, his prelim run was just insane and with the final scoring being different with awards in style, creativity and hard tricks, the Italian went home empty handed. 
Bommel rode really well. He’s got the park down as a local rider but he was also working the bar the night before till early in the morning. He made the best of the weekend and pulled his tailwhip tiretap on the box as well as a bar-spin disaster. Bommel’s signature move is the seatpost clamp no-footer and we saw that one on dirt as well as street. Fun, fun, fun. Tobias Wicke is another Mellowpark local and seeing him ride the park was a treat. Big, tech, burly, he showed it all for the hometown crowd. Berlin had another rider in the finals. The rather unknown rider with the blue bike (Robert Kroenig) simply killed it! Full throttle all the way, from beginning to end. We’ll be hearing more of this guy in the future. 
Hannuh Cools found lines no-one else did proving once again his creativity. Want style? Sergio Layos is the man. It looks like he’s just cruising but he indeed does hard stuff when you consider he does all tricks both ways. 
Markus Wilke uses the course in his own way. He rode well and would have placed well with the regular scoring system but missed out on any of the top three price categories. Van Homan took home quite a few “awardsâ€? he went big, used the course in an original way and also had style doing so. Words won’t describe the transfers he did, you have to watch the videos for that and that footage probably won’t do justice to the distance he traveled. You should have been there to appreciate it. 
And that brings us back to the top. If you have the chance to see BMX riders like these, simply go. Do anything you can to get there. Rebel Jam 2006, here we come.
BdJ
For results, check: www.rebeljam.com
Nice one! 
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.