Sydney King of the Skateparks
Text Extracted From Doug Cains Page
The long awaited contest at Fairfield leisure center finally came to pass on the 9th of June 1996. Fairfield's past has been a checked one for BMX, originally bikes were allowed to use the ramps until one day the council in their wisdom decided that there would be no bikes. This has been the case for several years, and now after a mountain of red tape bikes are now allowed to ride Australia's best mini ramp again. To celebrate this momentous achievement the man behind it all, Michael Daily, hosted a contest.
Elvis is Dead.
The contest consisted of Vert, Mini and Flat held in the format we all know and love so dearly. Everyone was to get two runs, with the vert getting a Jam session. The weather was great, the turn-out good with riders from Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia making the long journey to Sydney (Australia is a VERY big place).
Mini
The mini ramp was praised by all, with it's nice size spine, hip, rail, channel, and extension (what more do you need?). This was the first time most people had ridden the ramp, but after a little while everyone sorted out there favorite lines and ripped.
Beginner started the trend of trying tricks for the first time with Robert Smith pulling a 360 and a bar-spin over the spine deserving his 1st place.
The Expert class was the biggest with 13 entrants, Andrew Gregory pulled smooth ice pick grinds, tooth picks and assorted other techno tricks to get 1st place. Jasonzoomed around get some BIG air with a nice touch of old school style. Tim rode well with a broken knee ligament. Doug Cain tried a hand plant across the channel in the spine. Michael Christy rode big, pulling a peg stall on the 4' rail and doing a 360 over the platform section of the spine.
The pro mini was the last event of the day, and as the sun set behind the heated swimming pool at Fairfield, they went off.Michael Daily was smooth with back to back technical tricks, big airs and a 540 across the channel, a few sketches led to third place. Raddo wowed the crown with a double tailwhip on the extension and came sooo close to riding away, big 360's over the spine and bar-spins got him second.Jason Dack almost made a truck driver over the spine Clint Miller looked like he felt at home on the spine, big 360's and a tail-whip over it with plenty of tooth picks, ice picks and tail-whip nose picks thrown in for good measure. An ice -pick on the rail and then to Finnish up a stalled Canadian on the same rail! He was stoked and the crowd went wild. Definitely trick of the day.
Vert
Unfortunately the beginners and experts seemed a little shy when it came to vert, one beginner braved the big Fairfield half pipe after riding from Newcastle (200Km away...?) to compete. Expert looked better with two entries, Leo Theunissen went railing height to snatch 1st, while Doug Cain did lip height variations and pulled two clean 540 to get second.
The pros had a jam format for there runs with no time limit. This seemed to work well for everyone except for Raddo who didn't seem to know he was even supposed to ride. After only two runs packed full of bar-spins, no footed switch handers and a distinct lack of air, he won. The other pros did there thing with Jamie Mahan going high and smooth for second and Reece Jordan dusting off his shiny Skyway Street beat to get third. Grant also went high with a lot of style and Rob managed to front wheel hang a step through to very bent seat post!
Flat
Simon O'Brien
More Photos
Doug Cain Beginers Flat
Reese Jordan Expert Flat
Damian
Josh Goudy
Tailwhip over Spine
If your browser has trouble seting out the table below click here
to read the text version.
RESULTS
| | Flat | Mini | Vert |
Beginner | 1 | Dave Willin (13.5) | Robert Smith (13.5) | Shane Mainas (25) |
| 2 | Chris (11) | Kai Cummins (13) | - |
| 3 | Doug Cain (10.5) | Steve Longbottom (12.5) | - |
Expert | 1 | Chris (16) | Andrew Gregory (17) | Leo (40) |
| 2 | Reece Jordan (15.5) | Kenny Raggett (15.75) | Doug Cain (39) |
| 3 | Ben (14) | Colin Mackay (15.5) | - |
Pro | 1 | Simon O'Brien (17) | Clint Miller (82) | Rado (25) |
| 2 | Josh (15) | Rado (77) | Jamie Mahan (23) |
| 3 | Clint Miller (14.5) | Mike Daily (73) | Reece Jordan (21.3) |
Back To 
Page