2016 Madera Best Trick Jam Recap
On Friday April 15th, 2016, a handful of BMX bike riders hit the ramps of The Skate House Skate Park in Chatsworth, CA. The intent of this jam was to not only promote BMX riding among the local kids and riders, but for the local BMX riders to push themselves to learn new tricks. The idea of a jam is to take away the organizational aspect of normal big contests and give the contest more of a humbled feel of simply just riding and taking turns with your fellow riders and friends. There is less nervousness among the contest riders and an overall more fun feel to the contest when a jam format is introduced. The jam started at 7 pm. For two hours all of the riders just hung out and rode at their own pace. Once 9pm hit, the best trick jam began.
I originally wanted to have two separate riding classes for the jam, a Pro class and an Amateur class. When we started the jam, it just felt right to let everyone ride together no matter what the personal level of riding was for each person. The first obstacle was the box jump. It started off slow with a few spins and flips. But over time riders were throwing really cool combos and started going big. With 25 minutes of riding timed per obstacle, the riders felt no hesitation to start going off and pulling some crazy tricks out of their bags. We ended up seeing back flip no handers, double tail whips, front flips, you name it. It was easy to tell that no matter what the riding level was, everyone was really pushing themselves.
The next obstacle was the smaller hubba ledge. This was going to be an opportunity for everyone to bust out some new grind variations. A couple of us put some fresh wax on the ledge and we were good to go. A ton of grind combos went down on the small hubba. Barspins in and out of grinds, manual to grind combos, 360 and 180 spins in and out of grinds, it was going off. The small hubba was a really good spot for the younger riders to learn new things without the consequences of falling from too high. This made for a really good session on this obstacle! The A frame handrail was the next best trick obstacle. What made this obstacle cool was that you are able to grind up and down both sides of this rail. Imagine a triangle with no bottom. That is basically what this rail was. One side of the rail is about 10 feet long as opposed to the other side is 6 feet long approximately. Four pegged riders were really having a blast on this rail... I saw crooked grinds going down. I even saw a predator grind go down (pegs to hop over switch pegs). Needless to say, this rail was destroyed by everyone. So many good tricks went down.
The large hubba ledge was up next. This hubba is massive. I would say it is at least two and a half times bigger than the smaller hubba. Anything that you want to do on this, you need to be committed to what you are doing. There were only a handful of riders trying this obstacle. Some young riders were still making their mark on it though which was awesome to see! The best trick on this was an X up manual across and down on it, which is insane. Everyone seemed to get what they wanted on the big hubba. There were some big crashes which is always terrifying. Crashing means you are progressing though is what I always say. You learn from your mistakes, capitalize, and land your trick. A few riders were trying tricks over and over. The struggle is real when you can’t land something. I love watching people persevere and finally land the trick they have been trying forever. It’s and amazing feeling to land something you have been trying fifty times in a row. The final obstacle was the big handrail. This rail is has a stair set on one side and a wedge on the other. I would say it is equivalent to a 10 or 12 stair. There were only a couple riders trying to get buck on this rail. There was one rider that stuck out from the rest. He was taking crash after crash trying to do a 180 barspin over the rail to flat! He finally stuck it towards the end of the jam taking the win for the Pro rail!
Overall the jam was a complete success and we will be throwing it every year from now on during the month of April. I just want to thank all of the sponsors for supporting the jam. Everyone who was at the jam went home with something from the sponsors, which was awesome! Thank you to Madera BMX, Trouble-North Co., Deco BMX, and MPEG for the support. Keep riding and stay motivated!