S is for September and Simple Session! More than 100 world-class skateboarders and BMX riders will be back in Tallinn’s old rubber factory – Põhjala turned into action sports heaven on September 23–24. But it wouldn’t be the legendary Simple Session without awesome street jams starting already on Wednesday, the 20th, and unforgettable parties that turn this competition into a festival.
"This year, the list of riders is exceptionally powerful. Simple Session has been one of the world's greatest action sports festivals for years, and it is a great pleasure to welcome so many absolute top skaters and BMX riders here. As a new category, there will also be a women's street BMX competition this year," says Risto Kalmre, one of the creators of the event.
Nate the Great is back with a park design that will challenge the street and transition riders alike. “The 800-square-meter arena designed by legendary Nate Wessel, will be thrilling for street riders, but at the same time, thanks to certain elements, it also sparks an eye for any transition rider as well. A rider who skilfully uses most of the elements and is able to invent unique lines, earns good points from the
Simple Session 22 will be back in Tallinn, Estonia, on June 11–12 with another big summertime festival and an all-around good time! The Simple Session series will host an exciting street-focused contest in Põhjala district – an old rubber factory turned into a cultural hub will serve as a thrilling location for the event. Full festival dates: June 8–13, 2022.
Stoned Street: " Week aback we had this wonderful Simple Session week(end) and Simple Session invited us to make a real street jam with FTL. All planning started a few months back and this is the final turnout. We had a really good day at Tallinn streets. This was so much fun. Easily 200 riders cruising spot to spot. Huge shoutout to everyone! Also, FTL got Merritt BMX in and we invited Skullcandy to sponsor our jam. Hope we can schedule this happening also on 2022. Peace!"
With the Simple Session finally taking place in the Estonian summer, we couldn't resist throwing a real street jam for BMX. We teamed up with Stoned Street and FTL and the event was born! Thank you everyone for coming out! Everyone killed it! Big shout out to Filip Baf for taking the best trick (uprail to oppo whip) and Joe Jarvis for taking the MVP of the jam shutting down every spot.
In March, as Tallinn downtown became empty due to the ongoing events, we managed to film the quiet streets of the usually bustling city center. Follow the BMX rider William Kass among the parks, streets, and buildings of Tallinn’s city center and Old Town.
Making it on the riders list for Simple Session 2019 is already a win. The Park and Street riders have been announced and the talent in both classes is deep. The Saku Arena will be the place to be from 2-3 February 2019 so if you haven't booked your travel yet, today is the day to do it. Look at the list of riders below, we're sure you don't want to miss this crew ride live in Tallinn, Estonia.
BMX PARK
Alex Hiam AUS
Kenneth Tencio CRI
Roomet Säälik EST
Kostya Andreev RUS
Kevin Peraza MEX
Dan Foley USA
Victor Peraza MEX
Irek Rizaev RUS
Jonathan Camacho ECU
Justin Dowell USA
Rim Nakamura JPN
Paul Thölen GER
Andres Lainevool EST
Simple Session has always been a bit special for me personally. After doing a GT Air Show in Tartu, Estonia in 1999 where we inspired Risto and his buddies to start Simple Session, my first time back to the Baltic country was in 2004 for Simple Session number four. 15 years in a row I made it to Tallinn and the event keeps amazing me. It's the first big event of the 2018 calendar and brings people from all over to a country that we normally wouldn't visit, especially not in the wintertime. But that's also part of the beauty of the event. While in the Saku Suurhall, Vapiano or Hollywood, you don't sense it's freezing cold outside. The presence of BMX-ers and skateboarders in town makes Simple Session some sort of annual gathering where everyone catches up and prepares for the new season.
With 60 riders in Street and 44 in Park, this year's qualifying day was long. But when the good riding keeps coming there's no time to fall asleep. Bruno Hoffmann (Street) and Ryan Nyquist (Park) qualified in first. The top 12 in each discipline made it to the finals on Sunday. The actual course had one bigger street section with penty of rails that was used by most of the street riders. The surrounding transitions were used by park riders to go high, blast new tricks and to keep the speed up. In qualifying both park and street had a jam session in a group of 4 with each rider getting two 60 second runs on the course. Never a dull moment in each class with everyone pushing things to the limit for personal satisfaction or to impress the massive crowd in the Saku Suurhall.
Live webcast of Simple Session 18 FINALS on FATBMX this Sunday.
Day 2 in Estonia Augie, Panza and I left our apartment in Tallinn and met up with the Visit Estonia crew then headed into the middle of the country to jump in an ice cold freezing lake!
Last year Pavel pre-qualified for the main event at Simple Session (2017) and had so much fun doing it. Unfortunately this time around he couldn't into the contest itself, but found an opportunity to come down as a caster for the Sunday finals day. We have talked online that if he would come around, we would definitely film together and a year later (the now), we got to film together.
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.