Van Doren Invitational Archives – Page 2 of 4

Van Doren Invitational 2016 – More Practice Highlights

July 29, 2016

Things are really starting to heat up at the Van Doren Invitational with things officially kicking off today. Here’s a video Ride BMX dropped giving you a look at some of the action that has been going down so far. You know when some of the most stylish riders and most dialed ramp riders in the world all get together for a big session, things are going to get crazy. We can’t wait to see what goes down in the actual contest!

“The Van Doren Invitational is a contest unlike any other.. Seldom are the worlds best bowl/transition riders summoned to compete in a contest that stresses the importance of general “course flow” and style, as equally or even more important than tricks. They switched up the bowl design for this year, but everyone seems to be adjusting well. Peep these highlights from the last two days on practice on the course. Riding from (in order of appearance) Larry Edgar, Dennis Enarsson, Dylan Stark, Matty Cranmer, Jason Watts, Gary Young, Matt Cordova, Alex Hiam, Corey Walsh, Daniel Sandoval, Scotty Cranmer, Kevin Peraza, Kevin Kalkoff, Chad Kerley, Tom Dugan, Dakota Roche, Dan Foley, Sergio Layos, Pat Casey, Clint Reynolds, Greg Illingworth, Kris Fox, Chris Doyle, and more.” – Ride BMX
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Scotty Cranmer – Vans US Open: Day 4

July 28, 2016

Scotty Cranmer dropped the 4th video from his trip out to California for the Van Doren Invitational. This video starts out with some practice on the course, followed up by a session at the Vans HB park for BMX Day, then Big Boy wraps things up with an explosion. Check it!

“Day 4 of our California trip once again starts at practice for the bowl event. but this time we are all starting to dial in our runs for friday’s qualifier. After flowing around the concrete bowl on the beach we drove over to the Vans Huntington Beach Skatepark! This park is amazing and today happened to be the BMX day of the week so we got the camera out ingot to work! Big Boy started out with a Flair Challenge and took a spill in the bowl and realized just how hot concrete in California gets! Matty did some technical tricks like 360 to foot jam and he tried to nose manual around the whole bowl! after 30 trys i finally landed the flair to tail tap then decided to get a little crazy and play around with the cement wall next to the bowl! First attempt i actually fell over the wall onto the train tracks.. then I learned my lesson and finally landed on the wall to tail whip in! Matty did a crazy suicide gap over the vans sign! Then I did a trick that i have been wanting to do since I first saw the park being built, I did a 360 tail tap to tail whip down it! Big Boy then filmed a little kid grind the biggest rail at the park so we decided to try and talk Big Boy into it! After 10 minutes Big Boy broke down and said he would do flair to oppo flair on the concrete bowl!! With pretty much the whole skatepark watching Big Boy dropped in and blew everyone’s mind! and we end off the night with a potential world record attempt that will go down tomorrow!”
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Jason Watts Mic’d Up at the Van Doren Invitational

July 28, 2016

Have you ever wondered what’s really going on during practice at a BMX contest? Ride BMX strapped a microphone on Jason Watts for a practice session at the Van Doren Invitational that gives you a look at what it’s like. This has a TON of laughs and riding, followed up with a not some fun crash that took Jason out for the day. Take a peek!

“If you remember the first ever Bullshittin’ video, Jason Watts simply stated “I don’t do interviews; I just ride my bike” when I stuck the camera in his face. Maybe he didn’t know what I was trying to make at the time or maybe he’s changed his mind, but Jason let me strap a mic to him on the second day of practice at the Van Doren Invitational. It was supposed to be a nice stroll around the park, but a night out with his best friend Jack Daniels had Jason giggling, talking shit, and ruining people’s lines all session long…until he had to be strapped on a backboard.”

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Scotty Cranmer – Vans US Open 2016: Day 3

July 27, 2016

Scotty Cranmer keeping his promise of putting out a video every day from his trip out to California for the Van Doren Invitational. This starts out at practice for the contest, followed up by a session at Sheep Hills, along with some fun and a Matthias Dandois demo. Take a peek!

“Day 3 of the California trip and we start off once again at the concrete bowl on the beach for the Vans BMX competition! Practice was insane and there were a few crazy collisions so i decided to wait until tomorrow for the divided heat practices to ride. After practice we took a trip to the legendary Southern California dirt jump spot called Sheep Hills and we got to ride with some really cool locals! Big Boy derailed and crashed into the back of a landing! Then me and Matty dropped a few big moves on this perfect dirt jump! I did a double tail whip and a back flip no hander and matty did some awesome 360 variations! Then we wrapped up the session with Big Boy attempting a flair challenge on dirt and he failed 3 times and broke his butt on 1 of them! It was so much fun! After that we all took a ride to the beach to watch the Vans BMX video Illustrated in which i have a part in! It was set up next to the pier and there were a ton of people hanging out and watching! This trip is so much fun! and it’s only day 3! ”
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Van Doren Invitational 2016 – First Practice Highlights

July 27, 2016

The Van Doren Invitational is getting rolling and it’s safe to say we’ll be seeing a bunch of footage from the event over the course of the next few days. Here’s a fresh batch of footage that surfaced from the first and second practice that went down already. As expected, this is bringing out the style and we’re more than okay with that! Hit play and enjoy the goodness.

“That title is a bit of a lie because this is actually Monday and Tuesday’s practice, but really, the practice session on Monday was super mellow while everyone was beginning to sort out the bowl and try to get a run in. Tuesday warmed up a bit, but I think everyone on deck knows that they have two more days of practice, so there’s no need to stress. So here’s two minutes of randomness I grabbed in between filming that course preview you caught yesterday and a Mic’d up with Jason Watts that you’ll see later.” – Ride BMX

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Van Doren Invitational 2016 – BMX Preview

July 27, 2016

There has already been a steady flow of BMX videos popping up from some of the fun being had out in Huntington Beach, California leading up to the Van Doren Invitational, but here’s a little preview with some footage from last years contest. You already know plenty of wild riding will be going down on the course, so get ready!

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Perspective on the Future of BMX Contests and Nitro World Games

December 9, 2015

Generally, we try and stay away from heavily opinionated posts on the site, since we feel our opinion is just one voice of many, many BMX riders around the world and everyone has a different perspective on this sport of ours. But, today we are seeing a lot of discussion about the future of BMX contests after seeing the plan for the Nitro World Games, which is ultimately looking for a new way to expose BMX, moto-x, skateboarding and a few other action sports to the masses in hopes of pumping the industries full of energy and revived life that many feel is struggling to get the attention of the masses anymore. So, we’re going to toss out our perspective and then we’re hoping to get a lot of discussion going in the comments whether it be here, Facebook or really anywhere we can get riders to discuss their ideas or dreams of where to take this thing we call BMX next.

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Vans US Open – Flatland BMX Jam

August 6, 2015

Here’s a rad one we spotted over on Flat Matters from a demo that Matthias Dandois, Gabe Weed and Stevie Churchill did during the Van Doren Invitational last weekend! Check out some dialed flatland riding, and some crazy clips of Stevie Churchill doing truck drivers and bunnyhop tailwhips on flat. Looks like they had a huge crowd of people and they were stoked!

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