DATE: 29-30th May
LOCATION: San Jose, CA
WORDS AND PHOTOS: Kyle Emery Peck
After watching a series of web videos displaying the progression in construction of the first ever all wooden double contest, starring Nor Cal legend Ryan Nyquist, the spirit behind his eyes persuaded me to get a media pass and shoot some photos of the 2 day event. On the first day, I ended up getting down to San Jose pretty early, and mostly watched practice. The bigger name guys were getting through the 8 pack of doubles almost every try, and there were also a bunch of locals committed to getting through the large, intimidating doubles. One local ironically named Endo tagged the landing from the roll in and got knocked out on his first run. It ended a lot of peoples spirit in competing in the contest. As the sun got lower in the sky i took a few snaps of the brave “warriors” catching air and whipping it out.
That night I ended up crashing in the basement of sjbmx.com blogger Beerman’s parent’s house. There were no windows and no lights on in the morning so I had absolutely no idea what time it was, but when we all got up, we had started at a more than decent hour. The qualifying didn’t start till 3 or something, so I rode a little street plaza style park a couple blocks away for a bit. When I returned for the qualifying round, I remember MC Grotbags on the mic announcing the riders in each group, and a bunch had decided not to enter. I think it was partly due to Endo crashing the day before, and sight of other people getting wrecked. By the time finals got around, I was running around trying to get pictures from different angles of each colossal jump. Finals ended up going rather fast, some highlights of the day included Joel Husely getting completely kicked out back flipping the first double and bringing it back to hit the rest of the pack. I also witnessed a first, a cliffhanger on the last double. It took the dude a few tries to get it all the way extended but he got it, and I snatched a picture of it. I also saw a few new tricks from Anthony Napolitlan. He cranked out a vicious 360 triple tailwhip, and 360 indian. The winner TJ Ellis, rode well all day, his highlights included boosty front flips, nothings to tailwhip, and backflip no foot can can.
All in all I’m happy I went, I saw a bunch of new tricks that I didn’t know were even possible, and no one was taken out too hard, except for Endo. I think this contest really humbled a lot of riders. The jumps were really made for ‘warriors’. -Kyle Emery Peck
