FATBMX KIDS Goes USA part 13. Kids in action at the Van Doren Invitational! By Philip de Jong

Aug 06, 2014

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 8769 times

Hi, Philip here. Last week I spent a couple of days at the US Open in Huntington Beach. On Sunday at the Van Doren Invitational a couple of young riders got to ride the concrete bowl. Before the finals started about 8 kids rode the bowl. It wasn't a contest but my top three of the young riders are as follows:

1. Bryce Tryon
2. Kaden Stone
3. Max Vu

I saw Bryce for the third time in three weekends. First at Woodward West, then at Stephen Murray's dirt jam and now at the US Open. His dad put some miles on their car the last three weeks as the trips from NorCal take about 6 hours each way. Bryce did a backflip flyout and tailwhips. He also did no-handers on the quarterpipe and one-footed tables. He got a lot of runs in.

Kaden Stone is only 10 years old and was ripping on the course.

After a few attempts he pulled a clean flair on his 16" Sunday bike. So rad doing flairs at that age. The future is bright.

Max Vu's bike got re-welded. To be honest, Max rode much better than his bike looked. He has a funny helmet. I like it. For me Max got third place.

The young riders were so good. It was fun to watch. I would have loved to ride that bowl myself.

It was cool to meet a lot of cool people. I met Steve van Doren, the boss of Vans. He said: "It ain't much if it ain't Dutch" and gave us some goodies. I also saw Catfish again, met with Big Island, Andy Zeiss, Steve Crandall, Sean Methven, Brad McDonald, Mark Losey, Johan Lindstrom, Barry Nobles, Caroline Buchanan, Rob Castle, Joe Rich, Ruben Alcantara, and many pro riders. It was an awesome time at the contest on the beach. After the contest was over we played in the waves for a couple of hours and saw the pro surfers battle for the $100.000 first prize check.

-Philip