Rampage Qualifiers

The Utah desert morning provided a chilly start for us, but the athletes were already at the day 1 arena as early as 6am digging and sculpting their preferred lines. We made our way up the hill, positioning ourselves to witness local home boy, Bendito (aka Bender, aka Josh) throw his meat off the newest line creation the Bendetonator (the man line), spectators passed rumors that its a 60 foot gapper. As we waited anxiously, we found out through reliable sources that Benditto had a flat rear tire so the line-up changed and Wade Simmons was the first rider to kick off the qualifiers.
As always, Wade threw down a solid show, finishing off with the Mini-Bendinator - a smaller gap built next to the Bendinator - to score a 65 for his run one, hopefully securing himself a spot in the big show with a grade school percentage equivalent "C-". Tension was in the air as the event super powers guided wayward media like cattle to their designated "press pens" for their own safety, though both riders and media disagree with this call, as press make soft cushions for riders that veer off their intended paths.


At the end of round one this is how things were looking.


In round two more hot riding was thrown down to secure a spot in the big show. Zink had everyone on the edge of their Red Bull filled cooler, as he hung for dear life, and eventually sliding off a 31.5 foot cliff as his mom watched in horror.

Bendito after receiving a sore ass from the Bendinator, threw it down on the Scorpion for his second run, losing a pedal, and not quite pulling off his planned back flip on the bottom hit.


Kinrade stomped Super T’s drop in a huge way and carried on to the toilet bowl where he cleaned his amazing technical wall ride drop, and finished off at the bottom with some sweet air on the dirt jump. Both of his runs were solid, and despite his course assassination he was awarded a seemingly unjust 13th position placing him just outside the top 12 bracket for the finals. Rumour has it that Kinrade plans to hire a goon squad to pull a Tanya Harding on an already knee injured Glyn O’Brian (more seriously Glyn is unsure if he’ll feel fit to ride tomorrow). We'll see if the sheleighly swinging squad succeeds tonight allowing Kinrade to rip in the big show.

This is how things are looking for tomorrow morning...


Unfortunately Super T’s 40 foot drop that he cleaned two years ago on his winning run took revenge this year; Tyler broke his foot on landing, removing him from the competition. Shaums March failed to escape unscathed as well, he injured his wrist after an unsuccessful attempt at the Mini-Bendinator. Gareth Dyer was sent packing untreated from the hospital over an insurance issue, during his first run he aired the hip on the rider's right ridge line and washed out on landing injuring his wrist as well.