| I caught up briefly with Kelly "McGazza" McGarry and Tom Hey, the guys building the course for the Teva Slopestyle and Best Trick at this year's Queenstown Bike Festival. It's the inaugural event this year and it's going to be huge. There's $10,000 in prize money up for grabs and there are going to be some heavy-hitters competing judging by the names on "The List" so far. Representing NZ will be rippers like local boy Conor MacFarlane, McGazza himself, Luke McCombie, Phil McLean, Elmo Cotter and a host of others. It sounds like there will also be some hot international talent in attendance as well, with Benny Phillips (the winner of the Best Trick at Crankworx last year) and Sam Dueck amongst others on "The List".
The slopestyle is going to be insane - I can't wait to shoot it. I'll be doing daily reports and photos for Pink Bike throughout the Queenstown Bike Festival so we should have some great pix of the slopestyle (as well as the rest of the madness) for you to salivate over. Stay tuned! - Patrick Fallon |
What’s your background with bikes and building?Tom: I’ve been involved in building around 6 or 7 Crankworx slopestyle courses, working with John Cowan and a bunch of other filming projects, like Red Bull Hell Barge and a few others. I basically got into it through John Cowan. I was working on the Whistler Bike Park trail crew and I just met him through that.
We were going to do a road-trip down the west coast and he wanted some people to help him dig in Vegas and San Diego. So we went and did that and he was stoked cause we worked hard and knew what we were doing. One thing kind of led to another. It was me and another guy for a while, but he got tired of all the traveling. Then I kind of got burnt out on it too.
McGazza: Hucking!
How did you guys get involved with the Teva Slopestyle?Tom: Geoff (the organizer of the Queenstown Bike Festival including the Teva Slopestyle) just came to us and asked us if we thought the (Ballarat Street) car-park could hold a slopestyle and we said yes.
McGazza: It worked good cause I rode for Teva.
Tom: Geoff kind of organized the Teva sponsorship, I think Teva actually came to him.
McGazza: It worked out perfect cause I wanted to get a slopestyle going here in the next few years from all the stuff I’ve seen competing overseas and it worked out perfect that Geoff wasorganizing one and Teva wanted to be involved.
And what can you tell us about the course for the slopestyle?Tom: Yeah, basically there will be a few kind of staples from Crankworx courses, a few standard features in slopestyle now like fruit-bowls (a mellow bowl-shaped step-up platform with a lip at the end that riders can trick into and trick out-of), drops with a lip on them and wooden kickers with dirt landings. Because of the weather and also the wooden lips are easier to manage and predictable.
And I guess the wooden ramps are going to work well for you in this case because you can have the kickers built before-hand and just move them into the car-park when you’re ready, rather than dirt that you have to shape. It’s a two-level car-park, is that right?Tom: Yeah, so we’ve got a free landing pretty much, for some of the features. That free landing was kind of gifted to us and now we’ve just got to figure out how to use it best.
What’s the start ramp?Tom: The start ramp will be a big scaffolding tower, about 7 metres.
Do you guys have a handle on who’s coming? I see from the list Conor MacFarlane, Elmo Cotter and Phil McLean are all coming.McGazza: All the NZ big-hitters are coming.
Paul Langlands is coming, he’s going to switch over and ride a mountain bike (Paul rides BMX normally). And maybe Jed Mildon (the only guy in the world to pull off a triple back-flip). : Benny Phillips is coming from Australia.
Tom: This year, because it’s the first year, we didn't want to invite too many of the big names from the States. We just wanted to get the first year done and then see what happens in the future.
McGazza: The plan is to grow the event. There was a little bit of talk about some of the guys from the States coming, but we don’t want to say anything about that just yet…
It’s just cool to be a part of a New Zealand first!
Tom: I think that car-park’s going to get pretty full on the 5th of April!
Have you done any building in the car-park yet?McGazza: No, we’re not allowed in there yet.
When does the dirt go in?Tom: The dirt goes in on Saturday.
And you’re allowed the top level of the car-park earlier?Tom: Yeah, I think we’re allowed the top layer for longer.
And you’re happy with how the build’s going so far?Tom: Just having everything there on-hand is good. It’s all going well, Placemakers, the organizers and Teva have all been awesome.
Nice – thanks for you time gentlemen! See you at the slopestyle on the 5th of April!Tom and McGazza: Cheers.
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/How-to-Build-a-Kicker-2012.html
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