Goldman is the Pro Overall champ at the Gathering!

Jan 30, 2006
by Tyler Maine  
Santa Cruz Syndicate’s Jamie Goldman was on fire at The Gathering, a dirt jump and skatepark competition held January 27th-28th. This comp drew all the top jumpers in the nation to the rainy town of Renton, Washington for this early season spectacular. Goldman (Santa Cruz, SRAM, Rock Shox) tops the dirt jump podium in third position, and fifth in skatepark, the only rider to podium in both events, and wins the overall with his performances.This event was even better than last year and spectators packed the stadium on Friday night to watch the dirt jump competition. The Syndicate’s Kirt Voreis was in attendance as a guest judge (as he is recovering from ankle surgery). Goldman’s performance on the dirt jumps was sensational. It was so good that Voreis placed him in first, but the runs that Darren Berrecloth and Paul Basagoitia laid down had the judging consensus placing them first and second respectively in a tight points battle, with Goldman third.

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You know that if he wasn't healing Kirt would have been giving the kids a run for their money in Renton


Vories had a lot to say about the dirt comp. “The bleachers were filled with about 500 people who paid $15.00 a pop for both nights to be there, which is pretty unbelievable in the mountain bike world for a dirt jump/skatepark comp. A few BMX’ers showed up. Legend Leigh Ramsdell came out and was thoroughly impressed. Ruel Erickson throwing down a decade over the second set had a good outing, but wasn’t strong enough for the mountain bike contingent. Finals actually happened in the practice before the finals. Some of the stuff getting thrown down in hopes to pull off a new trick for the final was sick. Those guys were going insane! The energy in the arena was off the hook!

Judging was really tight. It was hard to come up with a clear-cut winner. Jamie was getting everything and trying as hard as he could to win it, pedaling between the jumps, getting the job done. In the end, the Claw came out victorious. With his years of dirt jump experience he knew that tricking every jump, no matter what the trick, was the way to the top.

The dream tricks didn’t prevail this night. It was all the stylish tricks: 360’s, x-ups, cans, that were taken higher and more stylish which brought it to a new level.”

Goldman says, “ In the practice before finals me, McCaul and Chase were on top of the roll in and we were trying to figure out who was going to 3 off of it first. It helped that Ben Boyco had already done it and we were just thinking about it. I did it first out of us three, then Aaron did it, then Cam. Later on Cam and I started thinking about flipping off of it, so Cam pioneered that one. Once he did that it was like opening up a can of worms. Next up was Paul and he just flipped off it right away without even thinking about it, then I flipped off of it. We just started throwing it down. It was pretty sick. It was going off!

In my qualifier I did a 3 off the step down, no foot can on the first jump, x-up, then tail whip, then back flip on the spine. Mc Caul crashed really hard on the flip off the box in his first run of finals and that was super scary because I was right after him and I was already a bit jittery because I only flipped off that thing a couple of times and seeing him crash right before me was was kinda sketchy. In my final run I did a flip off the step down, flip on the first jump, 3, tail whip, went around the berm then flipped the spine. The Claw had the sickest run. It was a huge 3-table off the drop, then Indian air which I didn’t even think he could clear after doing the 3, but he muscled into it, then he got a tail whip straight to the pedals off the big jump on the next set, then he 3’d off the scaffolding, went around the satellite dish then opposite 3’d the spine. That was super sick!”

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PRO DIRT FINALS Top Five:


Darren Berrecloth
Paul Basagoitia
Jamie Goldman
Greg Watts
Sam Miller


The skatepark comp was held Saturday night. Voreis says, “The four man jam sessions moved things along efficiently. The six-minute format allows the rider to take a break while another rider takes a line. This gives them a chance to perfect their line and look for a possible new line while others are search for theirs. The riders end up completing four or more runs each in a six-minute jam session.”

Goldman, who placed fifth, preferred the format over a single run saying, “I was stoked about how the jam session went. It made you get super psyched about what other guys were doing and made you want to try other stuff. It was like the dirt jump comp going off, how crazy it was! I flipped the spine and did a flip, 1-footed x-up on the spine, things I had never done before. I never flipped a spine until this comp,”

Voreis on Goldman’s performance: “It’s amazing how a few practice runs before the final he wasn’t feeling dialed and once the final came, he just got in the zone and got the job done. His performance was on par with the top performances of the night. I spoke with Jamie after the comp and told him that I haven’t seen this much heart in a performance since I was nineteen!” In fact, the hard charging Goldman had the crowd fired up and announcer Jim “Hacksaw” Severt working the crowd screaming, “Here’s GOLDMAN doing a 1-footed x-up back flip IN YOUR FACE, and you are gonna like it!!” And they did!!

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PRO PARK FINALS Top Five:


Phil Sundbaum (3-whipped a box)
Aaron Chase (barrel rolled the transfer)
Ryan Sundbaum (landed a double tail whip)
Andrew Carpenter (landed a brakeless 720)
Jamie Goldman (flip, 1-ft. x-up on the spine)

THANKS TO GOLDMAN’S SPONSORS:

Santa Cruz Bicycles
SRAM
RockShox
Truvativ
Avid
DT Swiss
Kenda
Push
Crank Brothers
Chris King
WTB
Clif Bar
Troy Lee Designs
Spy
5Ten
SixSixOne

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