Jeddah Waterfront

The unconventional road layouts gave us a multitude of routes to where the FISE Jeddah park was situated – each journey, outbound and return, offered us the spectacle of new streets and sprawling wastelands strewn in rubble. Meandering coach trips saw us lumber round huge installations at the heart of each roundabout, each one more confusing and visually arresting than the previous.

Unfinished buildings next to 6 storey furniture stores sit adjacent to wide open fields packed with mounds of aggregate sometimes host to cricket games and football, played carefree by local kids in the sweltering heat.

“Calm, warm waters of the red sea kiss at the white sands as far as the eye can see, yet no swimmers in sight.”

Hit a 6 and you’ll find the waterfront, which really is a paradise – calm warm waters of the red sea kiss at the white sands as far as the eye can see, yet no swimmers in sight. The promenade littered with ledges, palm trees and more sculptures, all interrupted by awesome looking kids’ playgrounds. Not like the ones full of chalkboards and no swings you get back home, I’m talking legit monkey bars and rope ladders. So sick.

An expanse of pristine beach had been chosen as the loose and ever shifting foundation for the event, named World Action Sports Festival. The flatland arena situated precariously on the water’s edge, much like in Budapest, however the sheer drop would meet you with a shoulder barge to rock before splashing down in the temperate shallows of the sea below.

Its position saw it perfectly suited to sunset sessions, ideal for some iconic imagery at the first event of its kind in Saudi Arabia and also just right to get some links put together without the furnace-like conditions of the day.

The sunset sessions really were the highlight of the week, the cooler air and relaxed atmosphere lent itself to the riders getting things down without having to top up their water and salt levels every 10 minutes.

A rich magenta backdrop intersected by the hard lines of the rigging made for great viewing while some of the world’s top park and flatland riders enjoyed a session amongst enviable surroundings and an energy like no other.

Our interactions were plentiful and one really stands out as being a real triumph of the amazing people you can meet through something as simple as a bike. Nick Bruce’s bike being the centrepiece to our encounter, we got talking to a local gentleman and his family about their love of cycling, how they would do rides along the rural coastline just outside of Jeddah. There seems to be a big road cycling scene and everyone saw the BMX event as an incredible exhibition of what was possible on a bike.

After our rambling conversation, we found out our inquisitive stranger was in fact an Astrophysicist, working at the forefront of our search for exoplanets around other stars. Yowza. Nick, Scott and Myself were invited for dinner, and to talk more about bikes and the great beyond. However, with our schedules so erratic and busy we didn’t get over for grub, but we were still pleased to make a friend on the other side of the world. We are still in touch.