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WEEKENDER: FISE Edmonton 2018

FISE Edmonton 2018. Enter Canada… Maple, Mounties and arguably the most cherished national dish of all, Poutine. For those not in the know, poutine is essentially chips with cheese and gravy. But it’s a far cry from anything you’ll find in a chip shop in the North of England. It’s the Rolls-Royce of chips and gravy.

Words, photos & video by Scott Connor

2018 saw the third time a FISE World Series event would be held in Edmonton. However, this time around, the park had been relocated to an all-new downtown location. The event had been located on the outskirts of the city for 2016 & 2017, which proved to be unnecessarily awkward to get to. So the new location at Louise McKinney Riverfront Park was a much-welcomed change.

Friday was scheduled for the battle that is qualifiers. But only five riders managed to get their runs completed before the heavens opened and course officials had to scramble to cover the ramps with tarps. No more riding would take place on Friday, meaning that both qualifications and semi-finals would have to take place on Saturday.

Jack Clark - Barrel roll invert transfer

Saturday was an early start with the first group kicking off the qualifying heats at 10am. With about 50 riders competing in the qualifying heats, it took several hours to thin the herd, and allow the judges to select the 24 riders who’d ride again later that afternoon in the semi-final heats.

“Dennis Enarson was definitely the fan favourite (including most of the riders competing against him too)”

This is where the level of riding gets taken up a notch and big tricks are pulled out. Big transfers, rotations exceeding 540 degrees and triple whips are standard fare – par for the course. Dennis Enarson was definitely the fan favourite (including most of the riders competing against him too) and he qualified with a well deserved 3rd place.

See below for a short video interview with Dennis.

The young American, Jake Leiva proved the biggest surprise during semi-finals – pulling a flawless first run, shaking up the pack and qualifying for 1st place moving into Sunday’s Finals competition. Gotta love it when an underdog comes out on top!

Finals kicked off at 4pm on Sunday and conditions were perfect. Blue skies, scorching heat and a massive crowd hyped-up on BMX. Twelve of the best park riders on the planet were introduced to the crowd and TV cameras then started to send it. Gnarly crashes brought gasps from the spectators, judges and riders alike. Alex Nikulin, Kostya Andreev, and Jake Leiva all went down hard. Nick Bruce and a couple of others suffered from blown-out tires and bike malfunctions (most likely from going so damn high) and this resulted in a bit of a shake up in the pecking order.

“Twelve of the best park riders on the planet were introduced to the crowd and TV cameras then started to send it…”

After the dust had settled, the podium was populated by Dennis Enarson (3rd), Marin Rantes (2nd) and Logan Martin (1st). Logan had a stellar run scoring a whopping 95 points, one of the highest we’ve seen yet in the FISE World Series.

Congrats to the podium finishers and we will see you all again at the next stop…