From the Judges Tower Part 2 “The Tides Have Turned”
A True story by Leigh Ramsdell III

The hardest part of judging is pretty much all of it. You have 20 guys competing against each other, all with different styles and all with a huge bag of tricks. It’s pretty much anyone’s game. Clay Brown even told me the hardest part of judging today’s event was Rob Darden and Diogo Canina because they had similar runs. But they ended up with 3rd and 2nd, which was a huge jump from yesterday. Who won? You’ll have to wait to the end of this little story…or just jump to the bottom and see if you’re really impatient.

Another thing about contests is that not placing well does not necessarily mean you didn’t do great things on your bike. Sometimes things just don’t go as planned. One of the crowd’s favorite, 13-year-old Nicholi Rogatkin, had a few falls but nailed a flip-whip over the box! Did I mention he was 13? He’s frickin’ 13 and does flip-whips! Another standout was Chase Hawk. He’s not known for doing the craziest stunts, but man he can make bike riding look soooo good. His style is something most riders wish they had.
I may have jumped the gun telling you what place Rob and Diogo got because I usually wait until this part of the story for that. So I guess we’ll just talk about fifth and fourth.

In fifth, Mike Spinner definitely had some of the hardest tricks like a 1080 and triple-whips, but not hitting more of the course hurt his score some. Garrett Reynolds does so much stuff back to back that it’s too hard to write notes during his run. I actually have carpel tunnel just trying to keep up. Thanks a lot, Garrett. He ended up with fourth. And the winner—again—was Daniel Dhers, who pretty much showed the Nike 6.0 HB BMX Pro course whose daddy it was. That’s just what happens when you do corked out, no-handed 720s, no-handed 360’s over the big box, and pretty much whatever he wants on any ramp at any time.

This contest format is something that hasn’t really been done before and the riders are now getting into the flow of it. I think you will see place changes like Rob and Diogo did today, hence the title of this story, “The Tides Have Turned.” What will tomorrow bring? I can’t really be sure exactly, but I do know another amazing contest will unfold.