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For the past couple years, John Maul has put on a no-entry-fee mini ramp contest on his backyard ramp in Halifax, Massachusetts (the capital of the South Shore riding community). Although typically called Maul's Brawl, the 1996 Brawl was dubbed the Severe Games (or, if you were extreme enough, just the S-Games) in response to ESPN's X-Games, which were going on in Rhode Island over the following week. But since you probably already saw all of that on ESPN2 (or not -- it really doesn't matter), I'm not going to say another thing about it. I will say a few things about Maul's, though.
As usual, the turnout was pretty good, both in terms of riders and spectators. Of course, with no fee to enter or watch, there was really no reason to stay away. I think people were expecting some national riders (who were in the area for those other Games) to show up, but no luck -- not even with John's new bigger, better ramp. There were four classes: Flatlander, Novice, Expert, and Pro. |
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| By the time I got there, the Novice class was winding up. Seeing that some of them were jumping the spine reminded me that I'm not even good enough on ramp to be called a novice...which is why the Flatlander class exists (in addition to give real ramp riders people to laugh at). That class pretty much consisted of John Cote reliving the ERA days, Jesse Hicks sporting a yellow wifebeater and jumping the spine (often scaring people in the process), Jared Souney doing gerator flyouts, and Mark Florek wearing weird glasses and trying his best to hit a manual. When Cote and Jarhead tied, they had an old-school flatland runoff. Although both are formidable old-school dork-trick riders (they both date back to the early days), John still has some in his current routine which helped him edge out the young whipper-snapper. Jared might've benefited from the Golden Egg, but unfortunately it was unavailable (anyone besides Jared and Bonnie who knows what I'm talking about is truly and old-school NE flatlander). |
![[Jeff Johnson photo]](jeff.gif)
Jeff Johnson, tailwhip air to third place. |
| I'm somewhat happy to report that I didn't know many of the Expert class riders: Happy because it shows that new riders are appearing from seemingly out of nowhere; only somewhat happy because (1) it shows that I'm a bit out of touch with the ramp riding scene, and (2) I can't give credit in the 'zine. But that's the problem when you have a flatlander make a 'zine (let's all give thanks for Extra Large and Chain Gang now). The highlight of the class had to be when Keith McElhinney tried a footplant on the railing, slipped, and practically opened his shin up by scraping it on the way down (anyone who knows Keith knows he never wears shin pads, although he's always desperately needed them). It looked like you could see the bone, and everyone gathered around to watch as he cut off the large piece of skin dangling from his shin and stapled it to the ramp. (Watch any upcoming New England riding video for footage of that.) | |
![[Charlie Ronayne photo]](charlie.gif) Pro winner Charlie Ronayne turning down during one of his many great runs. |
![[Rich Daugirda photo]](rich.gif) Flatland-basher Rich Daugirda has many impressive tricks, such as this bar-spin toothpick. |
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Okay, so none of the riders in the Pro class are actual "pros" per se -- since you need to be sponsored by a company with over $50,000 in sales, and nobody had time to screen 5,000 "Rad Racing" t-shirts like Cru Jones did, "pro" here just means "better than expert." With that out of the way, I'll say that this class has a lot of talent. South Shore Posse card-carrying members Jeff Johnson and Tony Long were riding quite well, as was ramp owner/contest organizer J.F. Maul. Continuing the SSP ramp domination, Rich Daugirda and Paul O'Hearn were riding identical yellow Standards with red tires (someone commented that they looked "like candy") and riding impressively -- smooth riding, icepick grinds, good airs, and Rich's almost hitting a topside toothpick were quite memorable. McElhinney had some gauze and bandages around his disgusting leg and kept on riding, going some pretty good no-handers over the spine and g-turn flyouts. But the guy who ruled this class was Team Ugly's Charlie Ronayne. Having a plywood playground must pay off, because he was smooth and technical and throwing in some high airs with variation to boot-after his second run, it was pretty clear that he was going to be tough to beat.
This contest ended by starting to rain on the last rider's last run (the rain held out just long enough), which also ended Maul's Brawl contests. But fear not: even though there won't be any more contests, he'll still have a yearly jam. So we'll expect to see everybody at Maul's Jam in '97. And for God's sake, Keith, get some shin pads. |
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| Flatland | Novice |
| John Cote Jared Souney Mark Florek Jesse Hicks Keith McElhinney |
Burger Dan Covell Weasel John Wasik Jason Gouvan |
Expert | Pro |
| Steve Holloway Mark Rainha Steve Nealand Steve Wight Kyle Clanty |
Charlie Ronayne John Maul Jeff Johnson Rich Daugirda Tony Long |
Dick Maul's Bike Shop
or just to talk to the coolest bike shop in New England, contact:
161 Elm Street
Halifax, MA 02338
(617)293-3665
