To say the least, the jumps at the Showdown were massive. Andrew Taylor and Greg Watts were out building these jumps the week before the event. Talking with AT after the event he said, "I could not have had the course ready without Greg Watts, that kid helped me out so much!"
So big thanks goes out to Greg Watts!
The day before the competition, it had to rain. The jumps were built in the Cow Palace parking lot. AT and Greg had to cover up the drains, so no dirt would get in there. As a result, the rain had nowhere to go. The morning of the competition the course was a disaster. Mud was everywhere! I got to the jumps at 8am and AT and Greg were out there with the tractor and shovels dealing with the mess already. Within minutes of my arrival I see this crazy white Toyota truck come ripping though the parking lot! It was Jamie Goldman. The three of them made things happen. Greg said, "This sucks cuz we just had this course running perfect, and now the morning of the comp it's in needs to be rebuilt!" The guys had to move all the dirt/mud from the transitions, open the drains for the water, go get fresh dirt for the transitions, and pack it all down. As time went on more riders showed up and started working. To my amazement the Showdown was on schedule.
The course was open for practice! All the riders had to first man up and get down the 14ft vertical drop by 20ft out step down, into the 35 foot double, followed by two more large dirt jumps! "It is going to separate the men from the boys really quick to trick the 35 footer," said Pat McCaul, Cam and Tyler's dad. Since Greg and AT have ridden the jumps a bit during the week after building them, they had some stuff dialed early on in practice, which got the other riders pumped.
All the riders started killing it. It was amazing to see some of the younger riders, who have never hit this size stuff just pin it! Here is a picture of Aptos rider Cob boosting it!
Then followed by Aptos legend Cam McCaul T-whipping it! The list goes on. So many riders going big! Here are a couple of other killer shots from the 35 foot double.
The contest went down like this! The riders had a Jam sesh for 1 hour. The judges picked the top 16 riders to move on from the Jam. In the finals, the #1 qualifier went against the 16th qualifier for a one run "showdown", loser is out. The 2nd against 15th qualifier and so on. After the hour Jam was over the judges came to the list of sixteen contenders in the Showdown!
Here is the list:
1. Tyler McCaul
2. Cam McCaul
3. Brian Miller
4. Eric Lawrenuk
5. Greg Watts
6. Mike Montgomery
7. Paul Bass
8. Ryan Howard
9. Jamie Goldman
10. Mitch Chubey
11. Geoff Gullevich
12. Jodie Lunn
13. Christian Wright
14. Jack Fogelquist
15. Logan Peat
16. Jacob Hyde
Some photos of qualifications and finals. I have included some photos from
photographer Long Nyugen. After all the action, The final Showdowns of the day proved the victors! Congrats to all the riders. The jumps were massive and you all slayed it!
The winners are:
1st- Cam McCaul $1000
2nd- Jamie Goldman $750
3rd- Brian Miller $500
4th- Jordi Lunn $250
5th- Tyler McCaul $100
6th- Eric Lawrenuk $100
Here is a video Jack Fogelquist put together from the comp. The first part of the video is Jack's week before the Showdown, riding around Aptos. This video happens to be the third part in a series of
"Fogelsodes", so check his profile for more!
Big thanks goes out to Andrew Taylor for putting this event on. The jumps were massive and very innovative for the sport. I believe it is the future of slopestyle/dirt jumping competitions. So much airtime and the tricks are insane when being pulled on a 35 foot double! Thanks AT!
Big shout out to the sponsors!
Adidas
Marin Bikes
RideSFO
Gamut
SDG
X-Fusion
Skullcandy
Happy Trails,
Justin Brantley 
