Enjoy The Trick 2010 Summer Jam

- August 7, 2010, Creston Elementary School, Portland OR

When the rain stops in Portland, right around June I guess, momentum starts to build among the Enjoy The Trick crew to organize the annual summer flatland jam. Being new to the scene and Portland in general, this was my first chance to see first hand how a small community of flatland riders in the NW routinely pull off some of the coolest events. The 2010 Summer Jam did not disappoint.

The jam is always more of a BMX gathering than a flatland jam and the great support from Portland’s street riders as well as non-riding spectators make the jam that much better. To top it off this summer, the crew obtained product from adidas, Tips Plus, Primo, Lotek and FlatlandFuel to give away. Even Chris from Brickhouse bikes gave out DVDs and stickers to many grateful recipients. As if that’s not enough, Joe always prints jam shirts for all the riders, flat and street. Come for the jam, leave with a bunch of goods. Not a bad deal.

The weather cooperated nearly the entire day. Overcast, occasionally sunny and a little muggy, but all-in-all a fine day to ride. A few riders showed up a bit early to sweep and prep the area, around 11:30 the bulk of the ETT crew rolled in looking a bit haggard (English James, I’m looking at you). There was a little pre-jam celebrating on Friday night so the boys headed off just as quick as they showed up to eat, rehydrate and grab some groceries for the BBQ.

Riders of all types began trickling in and the jam area was getting worked early with Justin, Anthony, Joe and Chris warming it up. The rest of the flat crew came back from lunch and Patrick, Mark, Brett and even James got in on the action, with Patrick especially hitting it hard, charging his combos with speed. Justin was working hard on his no-handed hithchiker link and Joe and Chris were flowing through the jam area with gliding tricks. Anthony laid down the gauntlet with a few cleanly pulled double decades, to which Mark answered back with a perverted to mega spin to perverted. Nailed. Brett brought out his unbike so that got everyone’s attention with tons of high speed hang five turbines (Jeremy would also later bring his one-wheeler out and OWN the unbike contest with all kinds of no handed turbining variations).

Rue and family rolled in to complete the Seattle delegation. The jam area was getting pretty full. We were starting to wonder where the Eugene crew was when Joe got an ominous text from Jeremy saying that they had stopped at a hospital in Albany, with Cash apparently having “heart attack” like symptoms. Long story short, Cash was OK. Apparently Jeremy’s graphic description of an injury was enough to send Cash into a spin. The doctors would say it was a sudden drop in blood pressure. Sonny showed up first, then, with a bit of surprise, Jeremy and Cash rolled in and promptly got in on the riding. The Eugene flat crew was in full representation and by the looks of it they have been practicing a lot!

By this time the school yard was pretty full with a good group of street riders and flatlanders all doing their thing in the same area. The street guys were killing it with rails, nose manuals and a few lines that were straight up crazy: bunny-hop > barspin > manual > whopper! Another cool thing to see was Plywood Hood Mike Daily coming by on his old school CW doing undertakers. Classic.

Right around mid afternoon, James fired up the BBQ and provided hamburgers and hot dogs to all who wanted, and right around this time we kicked off the bunnyhop contest. We had previously said that all riders could enter, but only flat bikes could be used. We chucked that rule out the window and the street guys went to work easily clearing 24 inches, 30 inches and 36 inches before riders started hitting the bar. Everyone cleared 3 feet, but the bump up to 3 feet 3 inches knocked everyone out. With a slight decrease down to 37.5 inches, the shootout was on and a winner was found with Nick Coughlin clearing the bar cleanly and going home with a pack of goodies.

Next up was to pass out the prize for best slam. Since everyone amazingly stayed upright and no real amounts of blood was shed, the obvious choice was to give the award to Cash for actually spending part of the day in the hospital. Best Trick went to Patrick for cleanly pulling his mega back-packer link (with speed). Hardest rider of the jam was an easy choice, and went to Bret. It happens every weekend at the church lot and it happened at the jam. He hit it hard all day. At one point I looked over and saw him wringing out his sweatband like he’d just dunked it in a bowl of water. Must be those fancy Spry parts.

The siren song of the Lucky Lab was calling so the flatlanders headed over to get their fill of hopped beverages and pizza and reflect on the day. Pints and pitchers flowed in large amounts and went straight to my head. A very kind soul drove me home, but by all reports the party was just getting started. Another story for another day. For me, it was a great end to another great Enjoy The Trick Summer Jam.

We had every kind of rider show up during the day. Flatlanders, street riders (lots of them), old schoolers and regular Portland cyclists wanting to see what NW freestyle is all about.

Quite a few people made long trips just to be there. Thank you Rue (and family), Jeremy, Mark, Sonny, Cash and Chris for making the effort. Apologies if I missed anyone.

Thank you to our sponsors adidas, Tips Plus, Primo, Lotek, FlatlandFuel, Brickhouse Bikes, Spry Bike Co and Goods BMX. We were able to hand out several prize packs and everyone who got one was stoked.

Check back soon for more updates, videos, photos and a full write up.

While you are waiting a few local blogs posted photos from the jam. Shad posted a bunch of photos on the Goods blog. You can check them out here. Jared Souney snapped a nice bunnyhop shot. Mark Rainha took the group shot below and did a write up on the day

Thanks

Photo by Mark Rainha. Thanks Mark.

Finally a very big thank you to all the locals who put so much time and effort into this jam. You know who you are.

The Enjoy the Trick Summer Jam 2010 will be on 08/07/2010 at Creston School in Portland.

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Creston School‎
4701 SE Bush St,
Portland, OR‎ 97206

From noon to 7pm

There will be free water, we’ll be cooking some hot dogs, and a t-shirt for everyone who rides. Well I say that but if a 100 of you show there won’t be enough shirts to go round. After riding we will find a nice bar, get some grub and grab a few beers.

Everyone is welcome.

Enjoy the Trick 2009 - Photo by Jared Souney

2010

2009

2008

2007

The infamous hot dog video. Not a lot of jam footage but the only thing I could find for 2007.

2006

Anthony put together this great video of what’s been going down here this Summer. Nice one Anthony it really captures the good times we have riding here in Portland.

Now go ride.

A little summer footage from Eugene, Mt. Tabor and the Church Lot. Enjoy The Trick

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Creston School‎
4701 SE Bush St,
Portland, OR‎ 97206

From noon to 7pm

There will be free water, we’ll be cooking some hot dogs, and a t-shirt for everyone who rides. Well I say that but if a 100 of you show there won’t be enough shirts to go round. After riding we will find a nice bar, get some grub and grab a few beers.

Everyone is welcome.

Here are the flatland highlights from the Infection 4 Good ol’ Boys video. Riders include Andrew Faris, Cory Strat, Scott Hagnas, Stefan Royer, Eric Stefano, Jamie Mac, and Jason Brown. You can find out more about the Infection videos here.

A big thank you to Scott Hagnas for allowing us to edit his video and post it for free on the web for you all to enjoy.

The rail jam area contains three 12 stair rails in a row surrounded by many trees. The rails are square, made of steel, and perfect for runs and grind combos. You might have seen the set up at the end of Lou Rajsich’s part in the Northwest classic “Blueprint.”

The hill bomb starts at the top of Mt Tabor, twists and turns all the way down to the base of the city and finishes on Hawthorne at Zach’s Shack Hot Dog joint. A mile long hill bomb from the windy roads in the woods to one of the busiest streets in Portland.

Check out the Goods BMX blog for more info and updates.

Team Schralp presents The King of Mt Tabor- July 3rd, 2010

Here are the details:

Date: Saturday, May 8, 2010
Time: 12:00pm – 6:00pm
Location: 6046 W Lake Sammamish Parkway Northeast Redmond, WA 98052-4801

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You can find updates and more info on Global-Flat and Facebook.

Here’s some photos and video from last years jam:

If you are in the area please come out and make this one even better than last year.