October 28-29, 2000
Impact Skatepark, East Providence, RI

John Cote

Matt Stroud

Gabe Kadmiri

Brian Chapman

Presented by Maximum Velocity Stunt Team and Staff Mail Order
Sponsored by Hoffman Bikes, Kink, UGP, Gack, Four Bike Co., Volume, Threshold, Anamal, 2-Hip, Hometown, and Coca-Cola

The last weekend in October had riders from all over New England (and otherwise) in Rhode Island for a two-day contest at Impact Skatepark. Day one was a quiet event with the flatland contest and ramp practice; the next day things got a little more nuts with the streeet/park contest.

Saturday was sunny but VERY windy — not exactly the best conditions for flatlanders, who were often blown off their bikes...or at the very least, severely hampered from pulling everything. Several expected riders weren't there, and the Connecticut posse showed up late, so the classes were pretty small.

Matt Stroud drove all the way up from New Jersey for this contest, but he went home with first place in the Middleweight class, so it was worth it. I somehow took second place despite not hitting a trick in my second run; third was a tie between Jon Kenniston (who took time out from gettin' his science on at MIT) and Matt St. Gelais.

Highlights of the Heavyweight class included...

• Gabe Kadmiri continuing to amaze us with the new school style;
• John Cote going for the bucks to pay for the new house;
• Rich Upjohn's cranks breaking, forcing him to ride sans cranks for his runs, making it more difficult for him to get the speed he needs;
• a quick & clean f-truck by Rich Upjohn;
• Myke Yeager attempting some hitchhiker flip thing;
• Jesse Hicks' long, difficult strings — he'll be in the middle of a string of tricks that seems to last several minutes before you realize that he's still working on the same link (I swear he could do a single string for his entire run if he wanted);
• Brian Chapman's hitchhiker links to opposite-spinning circle-K.