Features

NASS: The BMX Worlds

Even Better Than We Expected

Words: Seb Hejna
Photos: Credited

NASS has always been a big stop on the BMX contest circuit, so when it was announced that the 2016 IBMXFF BMX World Championships would take place at the festival, the hype became tangible. It had been almost 28 years since the World Champs had taken place on UK soil, the last time was way back in 1988. The biggest names from all over the world had gathered to battle it out and claim the title of 2016 IBMXFF BMX World Champion. Park, Dirt, Vert and Flatland; the stage was set and the best BMX athletes came from all over the globe to compete.

“It’s been almost 28 years but our ‘Worlds’ are returning to English soil with a bang. I was there in 1988 and I’ll be there again, high-fiving the progression and rocking the love! We are going to see the best riding, inspired by the best music. This is THE Event to plan your year around. See you there!” – Mat Hoffman

Pro Park

This is the pinnacle of competitive freestyle BMX. The very best riders doing the gnarliest of tricks on the biggest of ramps. The rider list alone is enough to blow your hair back. It’s the best of the best, featuring the likes of Logan Martin, Mark Webb, Alex Coleborn, Kevin Peraza and Daniel Sandoval. Over the course of two days these guys battled it out through qualifying and narrowed the playing field from the initial eighty four riders down to twenty for the finals competition.

I wonder how high Tom would go if he wasn’t weighed down by 10kg of hair? Photo: Adam Lievesley

Both the qualifiers and finals were absolutely epic. This course took no prisoners and the riders had to throw everything they had at it if they wanted to get close to becoming the 2016 Pro Park World Champion. This course really separated the men from the boys, and although everyone rode well, it was the big guns that really stood out on the day. So often these days we’re used to seeing the same tricks, done by the same people, pretty much over the same ramps. But this course was different, it meant stepping completely out of your comfort zone. All the lines were big, only the step-up seemed to be safe ground, every transfer on the course meant a full blown throttle open peddle if you had any hope in landing where you intended. It was incredible, sometimes jaw droopingly heart stopping scary to to witness and if I’m honest I was relieved when we got to the end that everyone came away unscathed.

Logan Martin with a pretty wild 450 whip transfer - Or at least I guess that's the closest you can call it. Photo: Adam Lievesley

Tom rode incredible the whole weekend. Double flips and super flips on request. Photo: Michael Drummond

There's not many people throwing downside whip flairs in the world. And there's only one in the world that dare throw it across the biggest transfer at NASS, his name was Nick Bruce. Photo: Michael Drummond.

This photo has got round a bit. Credit to Michael Drummond for taking it. And credit to Daniel Sandoval for the lesson in inverts.

It’s difficult to put into words the action that the park course saw over the weekend, you had to see it to believe it. But take our word for it, do believe the hype, it was big, it was scary and all those who rode it deserve medals in my opinion. Full Results HERE.

Logan Martin
Mark Webb
Alex Coleborn

Pro Dirt

Again, the dirt had been stepped up a level to what we’ve seen in the past, but they made a good judgment call on the build, by doing the opposite to the park, and not making anything too big. Although The Worlds historically have had some huge courses, it has also historically been plagued by bad weather, and this year was no exception. Although for the most part it stayed dry, the wind was kicking up a storm anytime dirt was scheduled to run, and if the jumps had of been any bigger, I doubt the comp would’ve happened, so it was a good call making them manageable in the threat of tricky conditions.

Full stretch superman seatgrab from Kevin Paraza. Photo: Michael Drummond

Even with the windy conditions the riders once again threw down the moves, and things got heavy pretty quickly. With the wind came inevitable over shooting and coming up short depending which way the gust took you.

Mike ‘Hucker’ Clark’s back wheel was a casualty of the windy conditions but luckily Mike, as always, came away smiling. Photo: Michael Drummond

There were so many trick combos getting done, they were actually coming faster than I could scream them down the microphone, decades and 360 downside whips look confusingly similar when you have a mic in your hand, or maybe that’s just me? I was getting overly excited. The step up / step down made an interesting feature and suited the conditions of the weekend, it helped keep a steady pace. Overall I’d say the dirt was a success with the only downside being Joe Embrey taking a nasty slam and breaking his leg – Get Well Soon bro!
Full Results HERE.

Nick Bruce
Leandro Moreira
Daniel Sandoval

Nick Bruce showing he has it all. Photo: Adam Lievesley

Kevin Peraza with a simple move by his standards. Photo: Michael Drummond

Declan Brooks - Straight down the lens. Photo: Michael Drummond

Pro Vert

It was good to see Vert return once again to NASS and perfect that this year it was for the world championships and I have to say, it frightened the life out of me the whole weekend. The ramp stood 14 feet tall, it’s an absolute monster, and even at that height it was windy, treacherous conditions for an MC (LOL). Now take into consideration that the likes of Douglas Olivieria (one of the highlights for me) was airing a good 10feet above that, the conditions up there must have been crazy, and they were millimetre perfect on every run front and back wheels kissing the coping on exit and entry. It was more than impressive, it was down right mind blowing. Popular with the kids or not, Vert should be respected and should always have a place in every BMXers life, if only to watch in ore, these men are giants and they are riding giants. It was good to see Simon Tabron returning and huge respect to Declan Brooks, other than flatland he hit every discipline possible on a BMX at NASS and bossed it throughout, he’s one of the UK’s best in my opinion.
Full Results HERE.

Vince Byron
Simon Tabron
Douglas Oliveria

Oh, and he can party too. Photo: Michael Drummond

Declan way up there un fazed by his new vert territory. Photo: Adam Lievesley

Douglas Olivieria boosted and stopped time in mid air, I'm convinced of it. Photo: Michael Drummond

There it is again. Nuff said. Photo: Michael Drummond.

Hoffman and Friends

The Godfather of BMX. Photo: Michael Drummond

If the Vert comp wasn’t enough to fill your boots with, we were also graced a demo from Mat Hoffman and friends, including his long time show buddy, the legendary Dennis McCoy, it had actually been pretty much 30years to the day since they did their first demo together, and they sill completely bossed it. It was an honour to have been present to spectate, still both stoked to ride and to be friends, BMX really cements these relationships, something I’m sure we can all relate to.

Pro Flatland

It quite simply wouldn’t have been The Worlds without having Flatland there, and it really added to the atmosphere of the weekend. The finals brought all sorts of people together to watch what is basically a form of magic as far as I’m concerned. From Hoffman and DMC to Webbie and party goers recovering from the night before, people sat down in the sun with a beer in hand and watched in amazement. I would say flatland is probably at its most diverse at the moment, with a lot of different styles of riding happening and many riders taking their flatland riding to the streets, the obvious being Matthias Dandois, and this weekend worked out pretty well for him, he scooped the win and picked up his medal from Dennis McCoy, Dennis won the flatland when The Worlds was last in the UK, all the way back in 1988.

Girls Comp

Another reason NASS was great this year was the inclusion on the Girls Comp. The female contingent of BMX has been rapidly expanding in recent years but because it’s so small in comparison to the male scene, they struggle to get time in these larger staged events. But NASS and The Worlds decided to give them a slot, and it was awesome. Izzy Burrell took the win confirming she’s as good as we said in the First Look a few weeks ago.

Izzy Burrell
Gillian Walker
Val Ward
Emma Finnegan
Georgia Wheaty
Sasha Pardoe
Moz Chudley

Izzy Burrell was not intimidated by the size of The Worlds course. Photo: Adam Lievesley

Ride Specials

Ride UK got involved with NASS by taking a few pros around the site for a Rebel Street session out the view of security and also an Access All Areas pass with Jordan Aleppo, where he got side of stage for the Stormzy set and hung out with Big Narstie, the results were hilarious, you’ll be able to see them soon at Ride UK. We also challenged a few riders to dip into our ‘Bag of Tricks’ to see if they could complete the challenge for £50 most were successful and bagged the riders a bit of beer money, again, we’ll feature some of these soon on the site.

JAYDOG Fakie Champion

Finally of course, we have the legendary Jaydog. Although not able to defend his title against Catfish this year, he did have a couple of contenders, who of course failed miserably against the mighty Jaydog. Well done Jaydog, you’re still everyones champion.

Number 1 – JAYDOG. Photo: Michael Drummond

Overall, NASS was even better than we expected, and we had high expectations. It was a weekend of legends, both old and new.

The course lived up to the hype and the riders adapted amazingly well to the scale of it. They managed to cater for all disciplines of freestyle BMX and on both professional and amateur levels, and a long list of the best pros made the journey. The weather behaved itself, the music was awesome, and nothing seemed to be compromised. I’ll stand by my opinions again, I think NASS does a good job of catering for an amazing competition in tricky conditions and in uncertain times for our industry. I for one will be back again next year, I advise you to do the same and come and enjoy the fun. Get you early bird tickets HERE.