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The GR Modern contest was for vampires. It was a nocturnal event and it sucked the life out of me. We all like to ride and do stuff at night, but not ALL night. The idea to have a full-on contest that starts after all the skate sessions, etc. are over, is probably not a good idea. Including the time change, I got to bed at 5 am and it wasn't from partying. I only drove 45 mins to my in-laws. I can't imagine what time the Albe's bus got back to Detroit.
That being said, it was an awesome event. There were a shit-ton of riders from all over the place. Catfish drove up by himself from Dayton and his presence in the building alone was enough to make it a great time. Catfish rules and I'm glad he didn't get really hurt trying to slid that rail on his ass. His hair-extentions were a definite hit as well. He didn't bring his DK Stunt Team rider, Lil' Mad Dog, but he did give him a call:
Mad Dog is a shredder! Flairs, nose-dive 360s and even a backflip over this same spine! Insane. He is so good. That's his dad on the deck right there. Dave Moon didn't bother to ride in the contest, but he did pull this wall-ride early in practice.
It looked like the Kennedy assasination the way that kid's head snapped to the side as Dave grazed his shoulder, scaring the crap out of him and all the skaters on deck. Bob Hammond set this contest up, along with Shane from Modern, then proceeded to tear it up. Yeah Bob.
Jeremy Ball won the last GR Modern event. Part of his winning run then was a 360 from the mini into this quarter.
He knocked himself silly trying it this time when he bonked his head on the rafters and then crashed really hard. He got up and limped out of the building. I hope he's okay. Long Tall Kevin Beachamp has been on a mission lately and he continued his ripping ways in Grand Rapids.
He later intentionally slapped the vent above him in this shot with his hand and had some really scary crashes trying a huge transfer. Brandon Dosch has been progressing like mad and learning all kinds of stuff. He still has the racer speed and style to make huge gaps but the bike control to pull shit like this.
Brandon took the win while Flip documents it all. DAne Wild won best trick with a ridiculous ice pick that went up, over and down a seriously 20 foot long grind box. I should also mention that the intermediate dudes would have won pretty much any contest a few years ago. BMX is out of hand.
I went to the Detroit Autorama on Friday and it was awesome. I learned that my new paint job on my bike isn't really all that new. A few different "Rat Rods" had the same kind of deal going:
. At the GR contest, Jamie Martin was asking all about my bike paint job and telling me how hard it was to do that kind of paint. He called it "Batino" or something like that. He said he works in a paint shop for cars and only a few people can do it well. The way it happened with my bike was basically an accident! I like it though. Maybe I'll start painting hotrods. Ha! They had some sweet m/cs at the Autorama as well.
I want to thank Sean Newton for all the contest pix. Sean does a kick ass job and might very well be my new neighbor, which is kind of a weird, cool, coincidence...
