The Gathering

The Seahawks may be going to the Super Bowl, but the most amazing display in sports of the month of January defiantly was “The Gathering” in Renton Washington this past weekend January 27-28th.Day 1


Eric Hatch, Jonathan “The Digital Daredevil” Lomber, and myself, Kyle Thomas, loaded up my Jeep with 3 bikes, 3 people, and tons of camera gear and computers. As soon as my classes were over in the morning, the Jeep left the University of Idaho in Moscow Idaho. We put the pedal to the metal with our final destination being Renton Washington. After a few wrong turns and me realizing you can’t drive in Seattle traffic like it is rural North Dakota; we ended up at the Wide Open Sports Area for the 2nd annual “The Gathering” presented by GoHuckYourself.com.

We grabbed our passes and headed inside to see bikes everywhere, huge dirt jumps, a roll in that looked like it belonged on the North Shore, Vendors of all sorts, people everywhere, and a bunch of riders hitting every line on the track.

After mingling with some friends we made our way over to the Transition Bicycles booth. Both Kyle Young and Kevin Menard were there displaying some of the 06 line-up, backing up a large contingent of riders, being one of the main local sponsors of the event, and doing some judging. Jonathan and I decide to set up camp on the side of the dirt spine and let the camera’s do their magic.


The amateur and expert divisions were amazing. Numerous riders were doing 360’s, back flips, no foot cans and suicide no handers. There was even a rider attempting front flips and another rider attempted the motocross trick the mccmetz off the main drop in, much to the amazement of the pro division.

Then the pros started riding. What started off as a few dropping in turned into corked flips off the drop in, huge 360’s, back flips in the rafters, and tail whips over everything.



By the time the final rolled around everyone was tired from an amazing day of riding, and went back up for 2 more runs. The course was assaulted for the last time with back flips, tail whips, and huge 360’s. At the end of the competition Darren Berrecloth turned out to be the man on top taking the gold overall, with Greg Watts taking top honors in the best trick.


We ended the night with Kyle and Kevin from Transition and their factory rider JS Therrien at Sharis restaurant eating some good greasy food and just talking about the insanity that we had witnessed and what we hoped was in store for tomorrow. All in all it turned out to be an amazing day of riding and filming, but it was nearly 2 am by the time we got back to the hotel and crashed for the rest of the night.

Final Scores Day 1 (dirt jumping)


Beginner Finals


Landon Holt - 78.75
Trevor louviere – 77.5
Andy Grant – 77.25
Justing Wyper – 75.75
Kyle Young – 74.25
Josh Maurer – 73.75
Luciano Worl – 73.0
Cameron Hoefer – 69.75
Jeffery barring – 69.5

Expert Finals


Alex Reveles – 83.75
Tyler McCaul – 82.75
Carl Buchanan – 82.75
John Kanavaros – 81.75
Ryan Howard – 79.75
Scot Matual – 79.5
Levi Dalton – 78
Kyle Sculln – 77.5
Lars Sternberg – 75.5

Pro Finals


Darren Berrecloth – 92.9
Paul Basagotia – 91
Jamie Goldman – 90.25
Greg Watts – 88
Sam Miller – 85.125
Cam McCaul – 80.5
Robbie Wright – 77.375
Reuel Erickson – 77.25
Evan Holmgren – 74.5
Phil Sundbaum – 55.75

Day 2


The day was started off bright and early with hopes of dirt jumping in the morning. Mother Nature decided not to allow us that pleasure and continued to dump rain all over Renton. Instead of going back to sleep, we decide go grab some grub at the Hilton restaurant. After a nice hearty meal, we headed upstairs and hung out with the guys from Frideswag.com, and some of their riders. After a good hour of just hanging out and talking about the last days events, we moved over to Skate Barn West and viewed the venue for the day’s park contest.

I quickly figured out that wet tires and smooth surfaces don’t mix well and ended up on my backside before I even crossed the park. That started a day which was going to be filled with some of the most spectacular crashes and tricks I have ever witnessed.

The event was launched with the beginner and expert qualifying. Some of these kids were absolutely amazing to watch and will definatly be in the pro classes in the years to follow. The expert qualifying was filled with huge tricks, along with some very original lines. The field was narrowed to 10 riders by the judges and I can say it was definatly not an easy decision deciding who had the opportunity to advance.

The beginner and expert finals were run while the pros took a short break from their qualifying runs. Jay Hoots and “Hacksaw” Jim Severt took turns commentating and getting the crowd into the action and poking fun at the riders insisting some were sponsored by places such as myspace.com. The finals had an amazing display of talent with Cory Tipton winning the beginner class and Michael “Peanut” Stephenson winning the expert class. Expect big things from these two riders in the near future.


The pros took over the park with their final runs that included Aaron Chase and Robbie Wright both missing stalls and falling over a railing to flat at the entrance to the venue. Travis Erickson attempted a few front flips and actually over rotated one. Andrew Carpenter landed a 540 over the spine and attempted a 720 over the big box. Aaron Chase did a cork flip over one of the many transfer lines on the course. Andy Sundbaum rode out a double tail whip. Eric Porter pulled out a flair. Phil Sundbaum had one of the most amazing displays of the night with a back flip crank stall on one of the rafters that was so insane we had to watch the video again to verify that what we had seen was what actually happened.


At the end of the night Seattle area rider Phil Sundbaum took home the top honors. The scores were so close at the end of the night that any one of the finalist could have walked away with the win.


Final Scores Day 2 (Park)


Beginner


Cory Tipton – 70
Ryan Meier – 68.5
Julian Hennessy – 68.25
Lucian Worl – 67.5
Norm Griswold – 67.5
Brad Tibbs – 67.25
Brian Wallace – 67
Landon Holt – 66.5
Mike Pigot – 65.5

Expert


Michael “Peanut” Stephenson – 67
Sean Masai – 66.25
Stene Maines – 66
Chris Fitzgerald – 65.75
Travis Selin – 65.25
Brandon Semenuk – 65
Patrick Hennessy – 64.5
Shaun Wilson – 64
Will Oleksuik – 63.75
Aaron Nocktrab – 63.5

Pro


Phil Sundbaum 84.25
Aaron Chase – 81.5
Andy Sundbaum – 81
Andrew Carpenter – 80
Jamie Goldman – 79.8
Robbie Wright – 79
Eric Porter – 78.75
Sam Miller – 75.25
Travis Erickson – 75.25
Lee Gilmore – 73.5

This turned out to be one of the most fun weekends I have ever had. I would personally like to thank everyone for putting The Gathering together, especially AJ Johnson and Matt Caldwell from GoHuckYourself.com and GHY bikes in Renton Washington. Steve Cominski the outside sales rep for Haro, Serfas, and Manitou, also deserves a huge thanks for promoting the event. Jay Hoots and Hacksaw made amazing commentators, and the bands that played did a great job of keeping the crowd pumped up and in support of the riders. Anyone who helped dig on Thursday night in preparation for the dirt comp also needs a huge thank you, along with the rest of the sponsors of the event mainly the new Gravity team, FSA, Transition bicycles, and Diamondback for giving away a complete assault bike to the overall beginner rider who showed the most effort and progression over the weekend which turned out to be Luciano Worl. I want to personally thank AJ’s girlfriend for getting me the rider lists and helping me with all the information I needed. Check out GoHuckYourself.com for more pictures and updates along with some more contests including a trail jam at the Softies dirt jumps in Seattle on May 7th.

See y’all in Renton next year.

All photos provided by www.digitaldaredevil.com