Vans Jedi Jam, Taupo, NZ
Written by: Colin Mackay
January 30th and 31st – Cory “Nasty” Nastazio and I were lucky enough to attended a Dirt and Park Jam in New Zealand, one of the nicest countries in the world. The event was hosted by top NZ BMXer Jed Mildon in his hometown of Taupo.
Nasty and I landed in Auckland airport and were greeted by a crew and we hopped in the back of a van and headed off to Taupo, it took five and a half hours to get to our destination! We didn’t know that, but driving through a beautiful country like this was a pleasure. We arrived eventually and checked into a cabin near the river that Jed arranged and we went to sleep.
We woke up the next morning to go check the park and jumps. The park was really good, heaps of different trannys and weird stuff to ride. It was a pleasure to watch Jed ride his local park; he knows it off by heart. The jumps needed some love so Nasty spent some time on them getting them dialed, then they were ready to ride. The jumps were a simple set of quads of a fun medium size, that you got speed from a double-stacked shipping container. The containers weren’t to long so you had to start with your cranks backwards, and half crank in and that was a bit weird at first, but everyone got the hang of it. A massive bonus was a scissor lift that took us to the top of the second container, no ghetto ladder or blown out calf’s from walking up a steep roll in.
We started off the day of the dirt contest with an appearance on a local radio station’s morning show at 8am. The show host kept talking to us about racing BMX, and Jed was getting bummed! Sometimes with these interviews, you just go along with it…
20 riders lined up for Pro dirt and 10 were going to the finals that afternoon. There were probably 6 Australians, One American in “Nasty” and the rest were NZ riders… Prelims weren’t easy either, NZ locals sending double flips, front flips first set, and 720’s. Standouts for NZ were Paul Langlands and host Jed Mildon, who made the finals comfortably.
The finals got going with a 4 run, take top 2 scores format. That gave room for some tricks on the line. Aussie shredders Vince Byron, Nic Cooper, the Colonel Clint and Cam Pianta rode really well and represented for sure, even with the announcer heckling them for being Aussies, it was all in good fun. I had a good day and rode consistent all day so I was pumped with a 3rd place finish, I hadn’t really done any moves in 4 months, before breaking my thumb last year. I enjoyed riding for the NZ crowd it was a fun atmosphere and they appreciate it when people take the effort to come to their country. Jed finished second with the biggest score of the day, he tail whipped off the containers into the roll-in, straight into a front flip first set and finished with a giant flip-whip, nuts run for sure! Nasty finished on top, he was looking really good all day. He rode like it was Dew Tour finals, even in prelims! Solid riding, big flip-whip, dialed 360 flips and in the finals on his last run, he was the last rider to go and Jed probably had the comp wrapped up. We didn’t know what Nasty had up his sleeve and he 360 flipped the first set to a massive front flip! Nasty bailed off his bike into the berm and ran away arms up, true Nasty style!
The final day was raining and windy, the rain broke late and Jed decided to skip the park comp and have a team B.I.K.E event. Presently “Down Under” traveler Marcus Tooker joined Cam Pianta, NZ local Seth and myself in a team. There was still a good crowd turn out so it was good to get something going. We gave some tricks a go, but got taken out by the Taupo locals.
It was a great weekend in Taupo and I have to thank Vans and especially Jed for the hard work in organizing the event and making it successful. Jed has plans for something bigger in the future, so keep an eye out for that…
Mackay
