Vibrations Urbaines as experienced by Leigh Ramsdell

Nov 19, 2009

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 5269 times

It has been along time since I have been to a contest in Europe. The one thing that I remember is that they are some of the most fun events that I have been to. The Urbaines-Vibrations contest in Pessac, France was indeed a great time. What makes these events so awesome? The formula is simple; great riding + an awesome course + a loud crowd + good organizing + random naked dudes running around + beer + a fantastic vibe = one hell of a good time. That’s exactly what we got at this event. The first thing to go on was dirt, which was rained out the second day so qualifying was counted as the finals. The jumps consisted of a step down style roll-in and then three sets. Simple, yet fun. It looked like everyone got comfortable with the jumps right away. The top three guys went like this; Josh Perry got third with a tailwhip drop at the start into some smooth combos like a barspin to tuck no-hander and a barspin to tailwhip.

Ben Hennon has a powerful style and one of the best 360 tire grabs I have ever seen. The winner was France’s Patrick Guimez who mixed great style and hard tricks. He did flipwhips, nac-nac euros and much more for a well deserved win!

For park there was over 50 people who entered and at any given time it seemed like all of them were practicing on the course at once. Despite the craziness during practice everyone seemed right at home once the place was all theirs during the run. Here’s a quick run down for the top five in Pro Park; In fifth was Karl Poynter. You don’t usually expect to see someone like Karl in a park contest but he did some amazing, original lines that no one else could do. JB Peytavit is a wild man and real fun to watch.

He’s not afraid to go big and even did a flip fakie that put a big old smile on my face (also triple whip). Maxime Charveron qualified in the lower half but came back to get in the top three with smooth riding and big tricks. The next two guys battled it out for first and second. It was real close. Ondra Slez did huge box moves and blasted ever where with flairwhip, truck drive drop in from the huge wall ride... He got second so that means first place went to Mickael Beran with front flip no hander, double whip... He had some hot moves on the sub/quarter ramp and everywhere else on the course.

The contest was over the great vibe was still around. I was happy to be able to see another contest in Europe and have such a great time! Thanks Urbaines-Vibrations!

Leigh Ramsdell