Alright, so I finally got a chance to upload a bunch of photos from the contest! It was a chaotic last week or so and have been playing catch up since yesterday. After the jump you can check out like 75ish photos from the contest along with a little story from the fun that was had. Also, make sure you check out the REPO on the Dig website that I put together. It’s 18 black and whites that I had.
So last wednesday was the kick off for the trip for me. I made the drive over to Milwaukee to meet up with Jon Wells from Sun Ringle and Jeff Dowhen. That first night was pretty chill. Jon and I went to some pretty decent burger joint where we met Shannon. She’s a “Personal Concierge” which I think translates to prostitute? We still haven’t figured it out. She scared Wells and I so we dipped and made our way over to 4Seasons for a session. To be honest, I haven’t had the chance to ride a ton over the winter. So this was pretty fun to get a session in there.
Thursday morning we woke up, packed the Sun van, and made our way up to Toronto 3 deep in a 15 passenger van. We may or may not have had a few people back out last minute that allowed extra leg room. Bummer.
The drive ended up being about 10 hours with a few stops, and we made it to Toronto about 1 a.m that night. The first night Wells had this plan that we would stay at this Youth Hostel that he stayed at a few years back for fun. It was a pretty cool place. There were supposed to be more girls, but we got there to late and they went to bed. Bummer. Jeff Dowhen had a fact off with some girl from Australia, where she got epicly pissed and then passed out. BOOOM! Oh, and there was shit on the bathroom stall. It was funny.
Friday morning we woke up pretty early and ended up getting some McDonalds and then checked in at the Hilton. Talk about upgrade. After that we pedaled around Toronto for a few hours and snapped a few photos. I had some fun taking pictures at the Space Needle for sure.
Later that night we met up with Flip from Albe’s, Brandon Dosch, Nick Steben, Jeff DuPaul and a few others at their hotel. Heard a few funny stories and then made our way to the Dance Cave.
If you have ever been to a BMX contest that ends up at a bar, you know there will be some wild shit going down. Some how Dosch got us past the 2 hour line and into the club right away, then for the rest of the night it was just alcohol and lasers. BMXers were getting tossed left and right by the time 1 a.m rolled around. It was a good scene. The BMXfu crew knows how to party. Afterwards we met up with the Potoczny brothers and crashed in the hotel.
Saturday rolled around and we ended up getting up pretty early to head on over to the contest. We had been hearing rumors that the ramps were a little sketchy this year, but that’s alright. It seemed like it didn’t stop anyone from getting wild. I think everyone who stayed in our room that rode in the contest, minus Dowhen (LP hang over!), made it into the finals. So, Mike Potoczny and Lil Jon. Afterwards we rode Joyride! That place was so much fun. I left my camera at the hotel because I knew if I brought it, I’d never get any riding in. So we rode for a few hours and had a ton of fun. Check that place out if you get the chance. Afterwards we all collapsed and the room was comatose about 20 minutes after getting back.
Kind of a funny side note. Lil Jon ended up crashing under the table the first night and had his blankets and what not on the floor, and when we came back we saw that the cleaning lady made his bed. How funny is this?
Sunday.. Sunday was finals. The contest itself was NUTS. So many people were throwing down big stuff. Drew Bezanson is NO LIE. That kid seriously is one of the nicest dudes that can literally shoot you in the face with amazement. I couldn’t believe half the stuff he was doing. Here’s a big mix of photos from Saturday and Sunday…
Here’s a big mix of photos that I had taken. There’s a lot of riders from Brandon Dosch, Zack Early, Dennis Enarson, Jeff Dowhen, Brian Hunt, John Rodgers, Mykel Larrin, Steven Moxley, Lil Jon, Aj Anaya and more that I’m blanking names on.
Oh my Drew Bezanson. This kid tore the park up. I couldn’t believe half the stuff he was doing.
Catfish has the shirts again… I think? He’s still got lasers.
The BMXfu cheering section?
I think this guys name is Pierre? He introduced himself as the guy who got stuck doing a three in the spine. He then held the longest tuck no hander of the contest. 30 seconds.
Fat Tony getting targeted…
Bare foot vader?
The stands were filled.
Some black and white scraps. Check out my black and white album over on DigBMX.com
The big bummer was when Zane went down and K.O’ed. It was super scary and the medics on the spot were shit. It was such a bummer seeing them yelling at each other about what to do with him. I’d be pissed and scared waking up to that shit. Then shortly after Lil Jon went down real hard. He ended up shattering his tibia and fibia just above his ankle. His ankle and foot was all cocked over and it was super gross. I think we all shit when we saw it happen. He gave everyone the middle finger on the way out and that was seriously awesome. I was stoked on that.
Later that night Wells picked up Lil Jon at the hotel and brought him back. He got his leg put back into place, but due to him not being a Canarnia, he wasn’t able to get surgery. Major bummer, but they hooked him up with some pills, wrapped his leg tight, and gave him some crutches to work with until he could get back to the U.S and get surgery. Lil Jon definitely had a positive attitude given the situation and I think that was real cool of him. Major respect for that dude. One of the most polite people ever.
Monday morning we packed our bags and dipped out of the hotel. It was super funny that the hotel wouldn’t give us our keys to the van until they checked out the room. Apparently they realized we had 6 or so people staying in the room and figured it was going to be trashed. We proved them wrong and made our way.
The drive back to Milwaukee seemed to go by pretty fast. I then proceeded to monster truck back to Minnesota totally a little over 15 hours of driving in one day.
The trip overall was awesome minus the Lil Jon incident and what not. I had a lot of fun on my first trip to Canada, and really liked Toronto. There is literally 1000 hot girls for every not so good looking one so that was rad. I’d like to thank Jon Wells and Sun Ringle for taking care of the hotel and letting us use the van for the trip. Thanks to Jeff D, the Potoczny brothers, Lil Jon, Micah Kranz, Mykell Larrin, John Rodgers, Catfish and anyone else that was around this trip. It was a damn good time. Hopefully I’ll make it up next year!
Here’s a few more photos I had from a quick photo shoot with Mike Potoczny. If you have seen this guy ride before, you will know it’s damn fun to watch!
Alright. That’s all! Go check out my black and white album over on DigBMX.com
