Brawlin at the Belmar 2009 - pro competition

To give all my readers a feel of what was seen by those at the 3rd Annual Brawlin at the Belmar BMX Dirt Jump Competition, I decided to fix a camera just on the ramp and capture every jump of the pros. This way you get to hear the reactioon of the crowd and see exactly what the pros did.

The feild of pros was no small group. They included X-Games champions, the winner of the 2008 Belmar competition (Chris Doyle who I interviewed), a local Central New York pro, and a couple of guys from as far as Australia. And the competition was firce. They were all going for the win, and the enjoyment of the crowd.

You really could tell they were all experts as there were many great trick jumps, lots of air off the ramp, and very few crashes or failed jumps. Considering the degree of difficulty, I really was impressed by several of the BMX pros. Though I think that age and experience really too the stage as the older bikers seemed to have the edge.

The following video is basically uneditied. It's the first couple of competition runs for the pros. Out of this group 5 finalists were picked, and they had 4 runs each. I will have a video of that as well.

Pros in the competition include in order:

Adam Rich, Mike Potasney, Ryan Worth, Garrett Williams, Tom Arkiss, Tom Dylan, David Kaye, Chris Doyle, Ben Hill, Tim Rose (Australia), Kye Ashworth (Australia), Chip Slaterly, Pete Schmidt, Brian Foster, Chris Childs



I also plan to make a video of the very best jumps by the pros from the competition. Just give me a bit of time to edit through all the video I took.

Brawlin at the Belmar 2009 - Chris Doyle interview

The first in my series of videos about the 3rd annual Brawlin at the Belmar BMX Dirt Jump Competition held at the Belmar Bar in Binghamton New York is an interview I was able to get before the pro competition with Chris Doyle.

Chris Doyle is a 16 year veteran pro of BMX, a stunt biker, and the 2008 winner of the Belmar competition. He is from Pittsburgh PA, and a really pleasant guy. In addition he is one of the featured riders/actors in an upcoming film of BMX called Xcelerate (I may have misspelled the title) by director Eric Bugbee [more on the movie soon].

The video contains a couple of teaser practice jumps, photos of Chris Doyle in mid-air, and my interview with him.

Brawlin at the Belmar 2009 BMX Dirt Challenge

Well the 3rd annual Brawlin' at the Belmar BMX contest has just finished and I had a blast. The crowd was huge, and the event just keeps getting bigger each year.

This year there were more photographers, more people, and a film crew. In fact there was one phtographer from Japan. And the film crew was shooting scenes from the upcoming BMX movie Xcelerate (Director Eric Bugbee).

I have a lot of video to go through of all the pros competing. I expect to have that up in a day or so.

In addition I was able to get a quick interview with last years winner Chris Doyle. I also have some information about the Xcelerate film, and may have a chance to get more information on the in development independant film to you exclusively.

More details and video soon. I just wanted to let everyone know what a great time the event was. Plus the pros are still doing trick jumps, and the crowd is out to party all night at the Belmar Bar in Binghamton New York.

BMX Pro-Am dirt jumping video from Brawlin' at the Belmar

Yes I finally got it done. Long over due but finished at last. What might that be?

Back in August I reviewed my time at the Brawlin' at the Belmar BMX Pro-Am dirt jumping tournament.

I mentioned in that post

"Now it’s taking me a bit of time to get the video of the event done, my editing skill are not the greatest and I have 200 video clips to work through...

The event was sponsored by Red Bull, FBM Bikes, and the Belmar Bar...

there were roughly 200 plus people there at any moment from 12pm until night fell some 9 hours later. That was just the crowd on Saturday, with part of the event being held previously Friday."

The place was packed during the event. Riders from across the northeast and out to the mid-west all arrived for the competition. And they came to compete.

I had well over 200 video clips and photos. Though each jump was relatively short in combination, with editing involved, and my less than stellar editing abilities I had more than a day of work once I got to it. Still I made my best effort on the situation.

So without much further ado I present my video of the professional jumps from the event. There were some 15 or more professionals. Each had a dozen jumps by the end of the day. And I have put together some of the best ones, in my opinion.

When you critique the video, please be somewhat kind.

Brawlin'at the Belmar - my first BMX Pro-Am dirt jumping tournament

Over the weekend I had the chance to watch America rise to the challenge. I wasn’t watching the Olympics, or the news on Iraq and/or Afghanistan. I wasn’t at a movie. I was watching a BMX competition – Brawlin’ at the Belmar.

I’ll say it again, I was watching teens and young men on bicycles competing on a short dirt track. In fact it wasn’t a track but a jump, landing hill, and turnaround wall specially built behind the Belmar here in Binghamton just for this event. To be more accurate it was a dirt ramp setup by Dave King – a master ramp builder in the sport - specifically for a Pro-Am dirt jumping tournament. And it was a great experience.

Now it’s taking me a bit of time to get the video of the event done, my editing skill are not the greatest and I have 200 video clips to work through, but I will have one soon. Even so the event was a wonderful display of America just enjoying itself.

The event was sponsored by Red Bull, FBM Bikes, and the Belmar Bar. This was not the first year this event has been held here, but it was the first time I went to it. And there were roughly 200 plus people there at any moment from 12pm until night fell some 9 hours later. That was just the crowd on Saturday, with part of the event being held previously Friday.

Now I should mention that I am not a fan of BMX (never seen it before). I also knew nothing about the sport beyond the thought that it was something that kids did before some Monster Truck event. Such are the thoughts of a 40 yr old from the Bronx. I was wrong on multiple counts.

The competition involved both amateurs and professionals with a total of some 30 riders or more in all. There were riders there from as far as Chicago and Long Island that I am aware of. There was even one rider that had been at the X-games this year. And the age ranges were from one young Black kid (Boogie was his nickname if I recall correctly) of 10 to a 32 year old.

Now I would be remiss if I did not mention that I was amazed by some of the jumps and tricks that were being done. I am quite sure that I’d have killed myself if I tried to do any of it. Yet all the riders were out giving their all for the crowd. There were riders jumping up some 20+ feet into the air, and others getting almost as much height while doing flips or 180 and 360 degree turns.

Now I had to ask a couple of the riders about this sport.

One rider I spoke to was Dan Psimer from Cleveland, Ohio. He’s 25 years old and first started riding bikes in competition in the NBL. The NBL is the National Bike League as I learned. Dan was 13 then, and he never looked back. His mother supported him in his endeavors and now he is a professional with big plans. I can’t discuss some of his plans for the future, but I can say that his love of the sport has gotten him to look to the entrepreneurial aspects as well as competition.

As someone who never had seen this type of event I have to say it was unique and fun. And the crowd was filled with spectators of all ages. A large amount of the crowd were very familiar with the professionals, and local amateurs as well.

Once I have my video, or videos, done I will go into more detail on the event. But I will say this, given the opportunity of watching another event like this or watching Olympic bicycling, or the Tour De France, I would gladly go all American and watch the BMX competition.