John Hughes Slopestyle – BMX contest

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The inaugural John Hughes Slopestyle event featured Urban Downhill racing and a mountain bike slopestyle contest and the most awesome bmx contest that Perth has seen in years. The event was held at the picturesque Edward Millen Reserve in East Victoria Park with a downhill grade that was just enough to keep the riders at a consent speed to hit up the course. The downhill course was a challenging for some and others just ate it all up and wanted more. Starting on the verandah of an old building with a kicker off it was straight into the course and over the John Hughes car jump onto the sea containers and then dropping off before a slight right hand turn, over a coaster jump and then up into the catwalk amongst the trees, riders then took the drop off and hit up a massive wall ride heading towards the large right handed hip and finishing up with the two boosting jumps. It was a rad set up. The mountain bikes all went through with a few riders being taken out from the jumps.
Come the bmx contest the sides of the course were packed, the riders were ready and the radness got rolled out. With 20 riders invited to compete in the bmx contest 2 riders pulled out after practice, so it was 18 riders all wanting to win the share in $1700 prize money, 1st place $1000. Many riders tricked many of the jumps, flips, whips, spins, twists and tweeks, some with or without limbs on the bike, it was straight up insane seeing some of the radness that went down.

Slopestyle

Clockwise from top left – Mike Cernotta takes the winning cheque from the Town of Victoria Park Mayor Trevor Vaughan – Mike Cernotta whips the last hip before hitting the final two jumps on his way to first place pay cheque – Daniel Jamieson throws down over the final hip for a second place – David Pinelli whips it over the John Hughes jump for a 3rd place. (photos Jarrad Lawrence Photography)

The 18 riders got down to the top 8 for the finals, it was going to be a tight contest. Lee Kirkman was stoked to make the finals but just didn’t have enough tricks throughout the course and took out the 8th place. Freestyle Now reserves squad members Brady Thomas was on fire, he was the first rider to make it to the bottom of the course on practice day and was good with the flow but not enough large tricks and took the 7th place. New Zealand shredder Josh De Reus qualified in 2nd place but just lost some of that steam in the finals he was however the only rider to manual the sea container to barspin off. 6th place. Liam Smith was born to ride a set like this one, fast and smooth with style and finesse. Not so much a bit trick rider but he sure can flow that bicycle like no other. Liam took home a 5th place and $50 winnings. Freestyle Now squad member Dylan Schmidt was liking the set up, hitting up tricks over the first few jumps and throwing down some bangers on the last few. Dylan took home the 4th place and $50 for doing so. 3rd place went to another Freestyle Now squad member, David Pinelli. David qualified in 7th and was not to happy with that and made good with some kick ass riding. Fast, smooth and full of tricks, a well deserving 3rd and $200 richer for sure. Daniel Jamieson is somewhat of a westoz bmx legend, riding forever and ever over many many years Daniel took home the 2nd place and $400. His runs were full of flow and tricks like fully clicked turndowns, rocket Xups and nothings. It was good to see Daniel kicking it live. 1st place went to another westoz rider. Mike Cernotta has been riding for years and years. His runs down the course were so crazy. Every jump got some tricks or style in all of his 3 runs. Tricks onto the sea container and off were so rad. He was pumped to win the $1000 for his first place.
The contest was one of the best Perth has seen in a long time. People were still talking about it weeks after the event. A big thanks to John Hughes and the Town of Victoria Park for getting an event like this running. Things are looking like this will all take place again in 2016 on the Anzac day long weekend.

John Hughes Slopestyle – BMX contest – 26th April 2015 – Official results

1st Mike Cernotta – $1000, 2nd Daniel Jamieson – $400, 3rd David Pinelli- $200, 4th Dylan Schmidt – $50, 5th Liam Smith – $50, 6th Josh De Reus, 7th Brady Thomas, 8th Lee Kirkman, 9th Brad Mas, 10th Laurence Bakewell, 11th Jake Anderson, 12th Dempsey Varischetti, 13th Chris Jones, 14th Louis Bolter, 15th Darryn Goodwin, 16th Brody Graham, 17th Chris Gaske, 18th Ryan Aquilina.

More photos can be found on at these facebook feeds – Jarrad Lawrence Photography – 2015 John Hughes Slopestyle and Waxmag‘s album – John Hughes Slopestyle
Check out the facebook – www.facebook.com/johnhughesslopestyle