Cam Jam 3

Saturday the 31st of January 2009 the third annual Hillside Dirt Jam went down at my house in Wamboin, Australia.  After doing this event for three years now, I must say it is getting less and less stressful each year but the workload still stays the same.

This year the event was to raise money for the Children’s Hospital Foundation which is a charity group who helps out the five major Children’s Hospitals in Australia. With the turn out in 2008 being huge, I knew this year would have to be bigger and better and I was not let down. The crowd was absolutely massive and the level of riding was out of control. With huge names like Nate Berkheimer, Anthony Napolitan, Mike Hucker Clark, TJ Ellis, Jaie Toohey  and Dane
Searls, what more can you expect besides crazy riding and crazy tricks.

As the sun went down after three hours of practice, all the guys were warmed up and ready to go for the jam. There was no wind, it was a hot night and the crowd was huge. The guys had one hour to ride in jam format and then they were to write down who they thought took home the three first place finishes for Best Style, Best Trick and the King of the Hill.

In between runs I decided to sit down near the last two jumps and check out the action for a little while. Within the space of five minutes I witnessed TJ Ellis throw down a flip whip on a 40 foot long and low to a front flip on the big booter at the end. Hucker  double flipped the biggest jump ever. He spun so slow I could not even believe at what I was seeing. Followed by that run he 360’d the 40 footer and then opposite trucked the 30 foot booter at the end. Jaie Toohey is a kid on a mission, he was doing up-side down dipped 360's mid rhythm, off axis flips on the 40 footer and then triple whipping the last set. Just watching those guys alone the crowd was going nuts. If anyone out there has ever ridden my jumps they would know how gnarly that stuff was.

 

The ‘07 and ‘08 back-to-back King of the Hill winner Dane Searls was seen throwing down the biggest 360 whips to tables on the last set. It looked like it was all in slow motion he was going that high but a crash on the last set that split his chin wide open took him out of the jam.

After the Jam finished the guys from Ramp Fest, the new kick ass indoor park in Melbourne, threw in $1000 bucks for the guys and held a Best Trick contest on the last set. Last year we had the Best Trick contest as part of the Jam but this year we held it separate and just on the second jump of the
section.

The crowd all shuffled to the top of the hill to witness some stuff go down. After 15 minutes of double backflips, 360 double tailwhips, dipped 360's and nearly 180 degree whip outs thrown down by the trail bosses we called it an end and had the crowd vote on who they thought was the Best Trick winner. After you heard the roar of people yelling from the other side of Wamboin, it was clear that TJ Ellis took home best trick with a 360 double whip and a double back mid-rhythm. By then the other votes had been tallied and it was back-to-back wins of best style by Josh Stead.  Anyone who knows Josh knows that, as Corey Nastazio said, is "a freak of nature". Congrats to those two boys.

 

Now it was time for the King of the Hill winner, Dane Searls to hand over his title as the riders all voted on Mike Hucker Clark the Winner of the 2009 Hillside Dirt Jam.

The event was followed with a sweet after party and it was good to see all the faces that I had not seen before in my backyard to support an awesome BMX event and also to raise money for the Australian Children’s Hospital Foundation! I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped out with the event. All my neighbors for their support and working all weekend to make the event a success, all the Sponsors of the event - thanks so much and without your
support the event would not go down. Thanks to all the riders for coming out and throwing down and to everyone for the generous donations! Cheers!