Albe's Comp Wrap Up...

Also a specail thanks to those who drove a long way for our shindig. Kevin Porter, Steve Crandel, Leland Thurman, Mike Tag, Kerry Sayer, John Heaton, Tony Cardona, Black Matt, Tony Hamlin, Cameron Wood, Nate Moroshan, Micah Kranz, Catfish, ect....

Below is Davey's ramblings for the day along with some photos and the results...enjoy!

--Flip

Where to begin, where to begin... As all of you know the Albes Contest went down this past weekend and anyone who was in attendance or already heard, it was one hell of a good time.  From beer tainted with gold spray paint, to one of the best laid back walls flush up against a quarter that let people produce amazing "trickery", insanity on the sanest level was had by all.  Here's a quick run through of how the day went:

Practice for the am class started around 10:00 in the am leading up to amateur qualifying.  Like most contests now a days the am class killed it.  Kids are doing stuff now that are right behind the pros and it is fun to watch to say the least.  In fact there were some ams who had lines that others didn’t even see.  Here’s a brief highlight of there runs: 360 transfers over flat rails, pedal to 270’s off of the sub, super high airs off the hips, quarter to quarter gaps. Not to mention a flip off of the most laid back launch ramp ever? (which was pulled smooth as butter by the way)  Unfortunately I’m forgetting the rest right now so hopefully pictures and video will describe their riding better than myself.

After amateur qualifying there was pro practice.  While I was told would only be 30 minutes, seemed like it went on forever.  However that was cool because it gave guys to ride more then they needed and the contest still ran in a short period of time.  Ask Flip, Flip's wife Pam and John Smith how they did it, they’re magicians I guess.  When pro qualifying started, stuff went down faster then a skateboarder calls the cops on a bike rider for touching a cement park... but that’s neither here nor there.  Put it this way, the pros that came from all over with the likes of John Heaton who was doing flips to manuals like he was flicking a penny in the air. Tony Hamlin and Cameron Wood jumping clear over the new wooden fence off of a wedge to flat... real street made its way into the contest with those guys. Quinn Semling doing downside whip airs about 6' high that he made look like he was just turning around.  Kevin Porter showing everyone that his part in the system video wasn’t a work of David Copperfield but rather an imaginative and highly technical way of riding.  Brandon Hoerres doing 450’s to icepicks on the sub, yes 450... Tony Cardona downside whipping a quarter to quarter gap that only a handful of people have ever even cleared.  That being said let’s not forget the Michigan pros that no one has ever really heard of either... Matt Carmichael will flair, flip, whip, regular or opposite your face off.  Brandon Dosch is only 15 I believe and has incomparable racing/trails style that can convert into magnificent flips over the hip and turndowns that seem like they are clicked with a precision of a 6 year olds dialed titanium race bike.  Eric Vasquez took a few tries to pull a 540 hurricane while spinning the bars.  If you ask me I think he took a few tries for dramatic effect because the kid can do them in his sleep.  Kris Marcum doing walltaps to peg bonk with the coping underneath the edge of the wallride, you’ll have to see the video to fully understand it because it was hard enough to comprehend in person.  F-its only Michigan native Nate Moroshan came back for the contest as well.  Other than it being great to see that guy again, he let everyone know that basking in the California sunshine only improves your skills on a bike.  Dane Wild does what he wants when he wants... by spinning the bars in any and I mean any trick he’s already doing in the middle of.  Oh and I’m not even going to get into the abilities of Matt Sparks quite yet so hold your horses.  But enough ass kissing, let’s get into pro finals.

Went down like this:
For starters Joe Gall showing Team Young what a boss can do.  Going faster than anyone in the park without pedaling, backwards manuals, 6 foot quarter to quarter fakie transfers to fufanu, and probably the biggest air to table off of the hip the whole weekend.  Tony Cardona doing a footjam 360 to fakie on the coping of a quarter.  Justin Baylis barspining to manual to 180 barspin.  Yeah think about that one for a little bit.  Tony Hamlin doing corner pocket tailwhips on the most mellow bowl corner you’ll ever see.  Quinn Semling walltapping the foam part of the poll first try.  Cameron Wood 180ing over the new wooden fence to flat. This was about a good 5-6 foot drop at least.  He also managed to abubaca the new wallride and pulling the fastest roll back you’ll ever see out of it.  How about Matt Sparks though, hmm? For starters he tailwhipped the biggest hip there that very few, and I mean very few have ever cleared.  Then he decided to double tailwhip it strait to the pedals and then proceed to flip the hip afterwards.  Now after doing the biggest table airs out of the new wallride of the day he went on to tailwhip out of it to end of his run.  But that’s not the end of this story, not by a long shot.  I think being egged on by Stewy when the contest was over and everyone milling around out of no where he double tailwhips out of the same wallride and back into it absolutely perfect first muther frickin’ try.  I hope you read that sentence a couple of times because everyone had to take at least 10 minutes to figure out what just happened when they saw it in person.  After we calmed down I look over to Joe Gall and we both agree that that just won the best trick over a hip contest that awarded the winner with a golden keg of beer courtesy of Team Young.  Everyone else who heard that was in the same agreement. Yes Matt Sparks won a contest on a different ramp before it even started.  That’s how amazing that trick was along with how amazing this kids skills are.  The deal by the way was if the 1st place winner of said contest was under 21 they would get $100 instead, well Joe ended up giving the now empty keg (it was stored in the bus all day) to his newly acquired rider plus that $100.  Again just showing how good Sparks is, and on a personal note how good Joe Galls character is.

Maybe it was the lack of snow around here and abundance of sunshine that made everyone ride amazing.  Maybe it was the beer in the back of the Albes bus that some people got into that produced the laid back jam feel of a great contest.  Maybe it was the tons of prizes and money that an abnormally alot of amateurs and pros received for a contest that was only announced a month ago.  Whatever it was it kept everyone in sheer amazement due to the riding.  Like any good contest it also had everyone smiling and laughing the whole day through.  So to end this amazingly to long of a story I would like to say that Mark Filipowicz along with Todd, John Smith, Mark's wife, and Albes put on an excellent contest.  This has been the first contest Albes has done in 4 or 5 years, and yet everything still ran very smooth.  Either way it definitely will show everyone that while Michigan is "bigger than some, and smaller than others" in terms of a riding scene, it can produce just as good if not better than other places around.  Special thanks goes out to all of the sponsors: Kink, Profile, S&M, Fit Bike Co, FBM, Animal, Etnies, Terrible One, Duffs, Team Young, Modern Skatepark, and of course Albe's.