Ranchstyle Slopestyle Greg Watts wins!

May 7, 2011 at 19:25

by Ian Hylands

Event Report by Devon Balet

The 2011 Ranchstyle Pro Slopestyle is now in the books. This year brought taller landings, bigger jumps, a massive wooden judging tower and big name riders. With the Ranchstyle Mountain Bike Festival being a silver event for the Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour, the event drew riders from all over the US and beyond. This year's Pro Slopestyle contest saw the most riders in the history of the event, not to mention an extensive list of world class riders. With names like Greg Watts, Tyler McCaul, Mike Montgomery, Kelly McGarry and so many more, the 2011 contest blew the past year's contests out of the water!

The riders were given an hour long jam to layout their best tricks and smoothest runs. Greg Watts stayed true to his "double or nothing" riding, and riders like Mike Montgomery sent floaty flat 360s and a laid out superman backflip. Tyler McCaul sized up the big double line and sent a series of massive tailwhips with a double tailwhip off the Geax sender. Kiwi Kelly McGarry blew away the crowd with his power packed run after several straight air runs. The big story of the day though was young gun Anthony Messere. He came out riding like a seasoned pro sending huge tricks on every feature. His riding made such an impact he earned the second place finish below Greg Watts. Kelly McGarry nabbed the number three spot with Mike Montgomery and Tyler McCaul rounding out the top five.

Grassroots Cycles' Ranchstyle event started off as a small grassroots event and has grown into one of the most progressive freeride events in the US. This was the first stop in North America for the FMB World Tour, and the boys at Grassroots Cycles showed the world how to put on a world class event...

Results

1. Greg Watts
2. Anthony Messere
3. Kelly McGarry
4. Mike Montgomery
5. Tyler McCaul

Ranchstyle 2011 Pro Slopestyle Highlights

by ShelbySmith

Views: 20,324 Faves: 208 Comments: 12

Greg Watts brought out his bag a tricks and proved he has what it takes to take home the gold.

Anthony Messere rode like a seasoned pro and earned second place.

Kelly McGarry broke out with a top to bottom trick fest.

Mike Montgomery is on fire with this huge superman back flip.

Mid double tailwhip, Tyler McCaul was just having fun in the sun.

Ranchstyle Pro Slopestyle podium.

The end of another amazing day at The Ranch.

The 2011 Ranchstyle Slopestyle is an FMB Silver Event

Author Info:

IanHylands

Member since Jun 23, 2008
588 articles

Report

Must Read This Week

Kona Founders Buy Brand Back from Kent Outdoors
65382 views

Rider List Announced & (Terrifying) Course Updates Teased for Red Bull Hardline Wales 2024
46731 views

Video: Welcome to Pinkbike's 2024 Value MTB Field Test
44847 views

Vlad Dascalu Gets 17 Month Suspension for Anti-Doping Whereabouts Rule Violations
38624 views

Bike Check: Marco Osborne's Transition Spire
33097 views

First Ride: Roval's Control SL Team Wheels Use Carbon Spokes & Weigh 1190 Grams
29462 views

YT Industries Releases Retro-Inspired Jeffsy Uncaged 13
28738 views

Patent Reveals How E*thirteen's Anti-Pedal Kickback Sidekick Hub Works
27305 views

PB Newsletter Signup

94 Comments

46 2

home-team (May 7, 2011 at 19:43)

Anthony Messere is the future of mountain biking ...

macdonaldr (May 7, 2011 at 19:49)

ya he totally shreds

tlrst (May 7, 2011 at 19:52)

he's wonderchild

148 6

Devinallan000x (May 7, 2011 at 19:54)

Thumbs up if you think pinkbike needs a ipod app.

65 9

jaketinnelly (May 7, 2011 at 20:00)

And and Android one!!!

D1rtJumper (May 7, 2011 at 20:45)

Im scared of what Anthony is going to be when hes older....

brundle (May 7, 2011 at 20:55)

no one is going to be able to keep up to anthony's skill level in the next year or two

OliScale (May 8, 2011 at 2:21)

isnt he like 16? thats ridiculous how good he is for his age

game (May 8, 2011 at 4:23)

I dunno about the future of mtn biking, but hes definetly the future of bmx'ing on a mtn bike. Holy fuck has he got skills, gonna be crazy when hes bigger and stronger.

kapecbiker (May 8, 2011 at 5:05)

any vids?

joeljsh (May 8, 2011 at 7:57)

yeah he has lots of him riding bmx, but i have been at the park the same day that he has, and the whole day all he does is snake people, mouth off and be cocky as shit, plus as soon ashe beggins getting showed up by another ride he gets pissed and usually just leaves

brundle (May 8, 2011 at 10:55)

hes 15 and hes got alot of videos just got to videos and type in his name

ButtonPusher (May 8, 2011 at 13:30)

Anthony seems to have just come from nowhere in the past couple of months..! Talk about making a name for yourself quickly...

brandonf (May 8, 2011 at 13:41)

Talk about being butthurt to the max joeljsh. Hes better than you will ever be. Get over it

greaseball (May 8, 2011 at 16:32)

this kid is crazy... same age as I am, and winning big comps like this...

brundle (May 8, 2011 at 20:51)

ive been watching him over the years getting better and better and each video that has been made of him just shocks me!! Deffinitly pays off going to whistler every year and riding with the big boys! Cant wait for my turn

Atrak (May 8, 2011 at 21:10)

Brandon Seinauk will easily keep him honest. But honestly, there are lots of other people that will keep him reined in as well..

19 0

jaketinnelly (May 7, 2011 at 20:02)

YEAAAAAAHHHHH Kelly. Congrats man...NZ is proud!!!

tom-cuthbert (May 7, 2011 at 21:31)

w00t

chainsawnz (May 8, 2011 at 3:30)

YEAH McMASSIVE!!

trickland FL (May 8, 2011 at 9:50)

poop!

webbrider12 (May 7, 2011 at 19:46)

No. Anthony is the next Semenuk

13 18

qwertyabc123 (May 7, 2011 at 20:39) (Below Threshold)

no one will ever be as good as semenuk

2 14

mhopper (May 8, 2011 at 1:38) (Below Threshold)

Anthony landed a flip double whip which Semenuks never even tried. Pilgrim is better than Semenuk anyway

joe-dmr (May 8, 2011 at 2:18)

pilgrim is nowhere near semenuk, though they are of similar skill at dj's, i still think semenuk has the edge though, pilgrim will never ever go bigger, semenuk has won rampage, pilgrim wont ever do that, not in his dreams. semenuk is much better as he can do most pilgrim can do on the jumps, but will absolutly wipe the floor with him in slopestyle/freeride/downhill. look at the kokanee crankworks, i didnt see pilgrim 360 the monster drop, he came 11th, semenuk beat him though he crashed! with all respect to pilgrim he is a great rider, he just won viena air king with 3 great runs, but he cant touch semenuk

mhopper (May 8, 2011 at 2:26)

If you think back to last years Chatel Mountain style Pilgrim came 5th on a 4 inch travel bike. He's not afraid of going big

webbe (May 8, 2011 at 2:56)

Don't think it's a very fair argument, Semenuk grew up in Whistler whilst Pilgrim grew up in Colchester (not reknowned for being the world's greatest mountainbike park). Of course Semenuk is going to be better at downhill and big mountain style riding, but given the chance I'm sure Pilgrim will pick it up, was it just me who saw him 3 the roadgap at Crankworx Colorado? It isn't so much a question of ability, but more oppertunity.

joe-dmr (May 8, 2011 at 5:49)

i agree, semenuk grw up in whistler which gives him a much bigger opertunity, and im sure given the oppertunity and resources sam could grow in the genre but for the sake of comment "Pilgrim is better than Semenuk anyway" i dissagree, as brandon can do nearly all sam can on djs but still be at the top in other genres aswell

amacdonald (May 8, 2011 at 9:45)

Semenuk may not have the biggest banger tricks, but he always mixes up sending it and tech stuffthat he does with so much flow and style noone can touch him.

trickland FL (May 8, 2011 at 9:53)

No debate! Semenuk destoyes all!

webbrider12 (May 8, 2011 at 13:31)

and Semenuk is 20, and Anthony is only 15, by the time he's his age, he will defiantly be one of the worlds best riders for sure!

ButtonPusher (May 8, 2011 at 13:33)

Semenuk is such a well rounded rider..! His section in NWD10 is a perfect illustration of this... Sure there are some riders that are better at certain aspects of his riding, (better DJ'ers, better DH'ers), but you'll never find anyone that can put all the different styles of riding together like him..!

amacdonald (May 8, 2011 at 17:01)

to me Semenuk defines the term freerider

Atrak (May 8, 2011 at 21:17)

Messere has a bright career ahead of him, but all rounders like Vanderham, Semenuak, and Strait have my respect.. able to get top 5 at any one event regardless of style.

joe-dmr (May 9, 2011 at 7:45)

ButtonPusher, thats exactly my point, well said

jeffrupert (May 9, 2011 at 11:29)

@button pusher, i get wut ur saying and i completely agree but better dirt riders? only 2 people who can think of that might be a bit better are cam mccaul and mike montgomery, but then again speaking of cam mcaul, hes another one of those amazing well rounded riders

ButtonPusher (May 9, 2011 at 11:52)

Well it's definitely a matter of opinion, who may be better at DJ. Some would say Greg Watts, or Sam Pilgram, but it's disputable at best. There are people landing DJ tricks that he hasn't done. Yeah, Cam would be another great example of a well-rounded rider..!

joe-dmr (May 9, 2011 at 13:08)

yeh cmcaul would be a good second, but i havent seen mike do any big mountain, but he kills on DJs, bringing new tricks and always sendin it

joe-dmr (May 9, 2011 at 13:09)

ide probs put my top 3 all round riders as, 1. semenuk 2.mccaul 3.lacondegue

jeffrupert (May 9, 2011 at 15:56)

personally id switch mccaul and semenuk around and darren berrecloth 3rd

Silverrider (May 9, 2011 at 16:48)

Dont forget Cam Zink! I think he proved to be a well rounded rider last year.

jeffrupert (May 10, 2011 at 5:19)

this is true too

joe-dmr (May 11, 2011 at 6:48)

yeh yeh, agree with all these, its hard to say a top top three, there all so good

Krcrap (May 8, 2011 at 0:06)

Sweet competition for sure and congrats to the podium Pros! There was also some sick riding in the Open class. Some kid named Eric Johnson came out of nowhere and turned some heads scoring second in his first competition! Word is he learned 6 banger tricks in 15 minutes on the first practice day. Sick style and a fun guy! Definitely keep an eye out for this one, he is a ripper.

zaprowsdower (May 10, 2011 at 21:24)

Josh Bender, the legend. Stumbled up to my group after the jump jam, piss ass drunk mumbled something and then proceeded to demand that I tell him where his microphone was. Haa amazing.

hayden (May 8, 2011 at 1:12)

Looks like a sick contest! Congrats to Watts and all other riders. On a side note, notice all the grammatical errors in the paragraphs written? At less proof read the work before posting it.

devonbalet (May 8, 2011 at 10:37)

Everyone one is a critic, especially when all they do is observe.

DirtBag81611 (May 8, 2011 at 20:36)

Sick photos devon!

Knife-in-the-dark (May 8, 2011 at 21:00)

Me fail English? That's unpossible.

JokerMachine (May 8, 2011 at 23:11)

The f*ck is that supposed to mean, devon?

This is supposed to be a pretty big and influential site. Advertisers pay big money to get their ads featured on the site, and it's run like a business - and you're basically saying "Grammatical errors, who cares, everyone's a critic"

No shit, everyone's a critic - especially when you write articles for one of the biggest mountain biking websites in North America (and the world in general).

IanHylands (May 8, 2011 at 23:50)

And I proof read it, edited it and posted it, not Devon, so blame me as well. Posts like this are written, submitted, proof read, edited and posted usually in less than 10 minutes. And while there may be a few small grammatical errors please keep in mind that the people writing a lot of these posts are photographers on incredibly tight deadlines, not writers with time to edit. Feature stories have days and sometimes weeks to be written, proof read, edited, re-read and finally published. Not so for news releases at events. The quality of content on Pinkbike has improved considerably in the past few years and even months and we're constantly working on improving it more. One thing we don't have is a text or copy editor. Especially one on call 24 hours a day. So if there is a problem, thank you very much for letting us know, but there is no need to be all aggro about it. I agree with Devon, it's easy to complain when you have nothing better to do than sit around and look at your computer, perhaps you'd like to volunteer your services to edit event reports. You'll have about 5 minutes from the time you receive an email or SMS message to read it edit it, edit it, and then submit it as final text. And it will show up at any time of day or night. If anyone feels up to it please let me know.

JokerMachine (May 9, 2011 at 0:45)

I'm not aggro about the problem, I'm more aggro at the way devon responded to a pretty soft criticism. Someone very gently said "there are errors in this article, you guys should proofread more" and devon's response was, for all intents and purposes "fuсk you"

I'd be happy to work for Pinkbike as an editor or contributor. I fail to see why I'm being asked to volunteer my services, though, when I'm pretty sure the people writing the articles aren't doing it out of a sense of charity. I don't know about "on call 24 hours a day", but seeing as I live in Russia, I would be available in the nighttime hours, when most Americans and Candians are asleep.

One more thing - you wrote that posts like this are written and submitted in the space of 10 minutes... is there really any reason behind this? Proofreading takes 15-20 minutes, would it really kill you guys to take 30 minutes to submit a post, as opposed to 10 minutes? Maybe I'm just missing something - are you guys constantly racing other sites in order to be the first to post something up about a given event?

IanHylands (May 9, 2011 at 9:02)

I agree. However I also understand Devon's response as I was asking him to submit content as quickly as possible, while he was trying to download photos, video and other content, and even just get cleaned up after the event. And as I'm the one that took his words and added them to the story I take full responsibility for any errors. I use spell check, and a grammar check, and I have an education that included written English for communications, and I still didn't catch some of them. The reason is as you guessed at, it is pretty much a race to get content out. However that should not be at the expense of quality. However we don't have the budget for a separate editor or writer for small events, and often times the content is provided by the event organizer or someone working for them, perhaps not out of a sense of charity, but more often than not out of a love of the sport and dedication to the event they are working on. In a proper media center with high speed internet and dedicated journalists creating the written content while photogs are downloading and preparing images it is still sometimes a struggle. It is entirely a different situation when you are a one person team responsible for everything, working out of a tent at an event site with only a cel phone for communication someone such as myself asking for content immediately. We are working hard to improve the quality of the content on this site, and as such I am always open to criticism and comments on how we can do so, feedback is important. If there is something wrong with a post please let us know politely and we will make an effort to correct it, your opinion and comments are important and we do try to read them. Personal messages work better than publicly slamming someone for making an error, that usually avoids this type of argument and or discussion in the comments of a post.

ebxtreme FL (May 9, 2011 at 10:11)

Ian, I'm sure I speak for the masses when I say that we'd rather see content posted up quickly (with some minor errors) than you guys have to sit on it for a day or two while you await copy editing. Honestly, if you don't post up stuff like event info. quickly, someone else will.....as you know. This stuff is time sensitive and has a limited shelf life. Cheers, EB

IanHylands (May 9, 2011 at 10:17)

Thanks, and we know that and do work to correct any errors as quickly as possible as well. It's not like print where once it's done it's done, this stuff gets corrected and updated as we go, sometimes a post will change 3 or 4 times in the first few hours. Usually we add photos and video and then let you know with a comment on the home page...

JokerMachine (May 9, 2011 at 10:56)

All right, I see where you're coming from, Ian. Hopefully the hatchet is buried, now.

DirtBag81611 (May 16, 2011 at 16:58)

pretty funny guys..yo jokermachine, kinda calling the kettle black

direct quote "At less proof read the work before posting it."

don't you mean "least"

too funny

JokerMachine (May 16, 2011 at 20:05)

It wasn't me who said that, jacktard. You can't tell the difference between a Canadian flag, and a Russian one?

nennarv (May 8, 2011 at 7:34)

How hilarious was Bender?

zorba73 (May 8, 2011 at 8:54)

Bender 'I'm so amped right now I could rip the fender off a Volkswagen'

Knife-in-the-dark (May 8, 2011 at 21:02)

Bender was one of the most entertaining aspects of the event. He was hammered.

SirWonky (May 7, 2011 at 20:19)

Watts has got that deep "bag O' tricks" to be a real contender for the FMB title this year. He just has to beat, Pilgrim, Semenuk, Stoderstrom, McCaul & Yanni

trickland FL (May 8, 2011 at 9:54)

...and Zinc! remember?

Da-Moose FL (May 7, 2011 at 20:23)

Greg Watts is so hot right now!

tohellandback (May 7, 2011 at 20:21)

Way to go Mcgazza!

icarpent7 (May 7, 2011 at 20:41)

trust me alden danny met him in person and he was a dick in all the vids he is in he is always in a bad mood i am jsut saying guys

Supertank (May 7, 2011 at 22:45)

Yeah good work Kelly !!!

pablothemexican (May 7, 2011 at 22:51)

yeahhh anthony rep surrey

lil50 (May 7, 2011 at 20:06)

WhooHoooo To All The Guys!!!

Contour (May 7, 2011 at 20:18)

Nice work!

sagetthegreat (May 7, 2011 at 19:54)

Messere is killing it this year

carterwills (May 7, 2011 at 20:25)

where was mike montgomery?

bikerofestacada (May 7, 2011 at 20:39)

i was thinkin the same, he must have crashed or had a bum run

carterwills (May 7, 2011 at 20:43)

ya i was expecting to see him on the podium! he was so good in Best Trick

devonbalet (May 8, 2011 at 10:38)

Read the report? Or results? Mike was forth on the podium.

carterwills (May 8, 2011 at 11:26)

they only had the top 3 guys when i commented on it

djbrandt (May 7, 2011 at 20:58)

mike had solid runs but crashed bot and still got 4th

roberthavill FL (May 7, 2011 at 23:03)

GO MCGAZZA

mtrans (May 8, 2011 at 0:29)

the logo says freeride moutain bike ..

mvonhollen (May 8, 2011 at 8:01)

Anthony must be stoked as hell with an extra 2500 dolla in his pocket.

webbrider12 (May 8, 2011 at 13:45)

Anothony.....im speechless

onemanarmy FL (May 10, 2011 at 20:03)

Santa Cruz in the house. Stoked to see young McCaul doing well too.

liam-wallace (May 7, 2011 at 20:21)

Yeah Anthony!

campofchampions (May 8, 2011 at 16:18)

Way to go guys! Ken

i-ride-on-dirt FL (May 8, 2011 at 17:41)

video?

IanHylands (May 8, 2011 at 17:51)

We should have a highlight video tonight and a full event video sometime later this week...

i-ride-on-dirt FL (May 8, 2011 at 17:55)

awsome Thanks!

corbinselfe (May 7, 2011 at 19:43)

wow anthonys jesus

icarpent7 (May 8, 2011 at 11:15)

whatever

Below threshold threads are hidden

3 32

icarpent7 (May 7, 2011 at 19:49)

no no no Semenuk is a dick that is good at biking

11 0

Asundean (May 7, 2011 at 20:35)

Ian you're gay. Semenuk is a nice guy, rode the whistler DJs with him and talked to him. Pretty cool guy.

ship-it-fed-ex (May 7, 2011 at 22:03)

Semenuk isnt a dick at all hes a rad guy that kills it on a constant basis!

trickland FL (May 8, 2011 at 9:55)

...not a dick!

ButtonPusher (May 8, 2011 at 21:14)

icarpent7, out of curiosity, why do you call him a dick..? you know him or something..? or did you just see him in an airport once and are upset that he didn't wouldn't talk about bikes for an hour with you..?