Maximum Velocity and Staff presents Impact Skatepark Tuffman Bike Contest Round II June 9-10, 2001 Another contest at my favorite place for a contest: Impact skatpark in East Providence, RI. It's not too far of a drive for me to get there, and the parking lot is nice for flatland. The flatland part of the contest was held on Saturday, with Park to be held on Sunday. There was the typical small but loyal turnout, and the contest ran rather smoothly ... with the exception of the informal game of "BIKE" (like "HORSE") played to break the Lightweight class tie. Dave DeBuono came down from New York for the contest and rode in the Middleweight class. Here's a 15 year old kid (Upjohn quote #1: "I turned expert when you were born") competing against two guys who have been riding over 17 years each. It doesn't sound like the fairest matchup, but the number years someone has been riding isn't always a factor Ñ compare Gabe Kadmiri to me, for example. But surprisingly, Jon Kenniston and I actually ended up hitting some stuff in our runs, but since I had slipped each judge twenty bucks and a classic issue of Radazine, they gave me first place... Heavyweight flatland was uncharacteristic: riders were just not hitting stuff they should. (When have we ever seen Spike mess up an undertaker?) Everyone's second run pretty much sucked, so it was the first runs that eventually decided the placement. Brian Chapman's first run was amazing, hitting practically everything he tried (including some of his hardest stuff like one-handed juggler strings and a fire hydrant to spastic hitchhiker/undertaker thing). As a sidenote, big thanks go out to contest organizer Geoff Carlton for always including flatland, even though it's not as big (and, I assume, lucrative as a skatepark contest). On Sunday, Park was scheduled to start at 10 AM. Yeah right ... I figured the contest would start late and it would take a while to plow through all the entrants. Add on multiple practice sessions in between, and I figured showing up around 2:00 would allow me to sleep late, work in the garden a bit in the morning, and still catch the Middleweight class finals and the Heavyweight runs. Well, Geoff was running a pretty tight ship, and when I arrived the Heavyweights had just started. (So I apologize to the Lightweight and Middleweight riders for lack of coverage here...) There weren't any Big National Names at the contest, but the locals were ripping shit up. Brian Chapman was a judge for the Heavyweight class, and he took some notes during judging. So, in short, here are a couple highlights: * Josh Kirtland Ñ rode non-stop with lots of energy, lots of original lines (like a transfer from rhythm landing to box landing) and technical lip tricks on the mini, no-hander lander on second half of rhythm * Jay Sousa Ñ bar spin to x-up over the spine, flipped the box, tailwhip on the roll-in, manual on the mini's sub box * John Saxton Ñ tailwhips, sub box fufanu, double peg stalls over the spine, toothpick on sub to toothpick on the mini * Shawn Pawluch Ñ BIG inverted airs on the small quarter, incredibly high suicide no-hander to bar spin to hard crash, bar spin to no-footed can-can through the rhythm * Dan Mancini Ñ long pedal grind on the quarter, Suicide no-handers and no-footed can-cans When Rich Upjohn showed up to check out the contest, he had just missed the entire Park contest. (Upjohn quote #2: "How did it start at 10:00? Street riders don't wake up early!") So let that be a lesson to everyone: next Tuffman contest, get there on time!