3rd Lair BMX

This was the 5th anniversary for us at the Fair. This year was a great success!

We once again had 6 shows a day for 12 days. A total of 72 demos. Who would of thought?
20 years ago that “action sports” would be so big?

The next two shows featured Tony Mortenson and his traveling band of B.M.X. stars.  These guys go off so crazy big. I was the MC for the B.M.X. shows and was front and center for the madness. They were straight up taking this stuff to another level.

Too many highlights to mention, but a couple stood out for me. Dustin Griess and Darrin Treanor did back to back, back flip tail whips, and the crowds fell over. I think everyone there watching was simply stunned.

I always have been a skateboarder and watching these guys bail hard is a trip. They get tangled in their bikes and man it’s crazy.

All in all I had a great time working with all the bikers this year. Their shows were awesome.  Good guys.

Dates: 08/25/2005 – 09/05/2005
Location: Fair Grounds (Across from 4H Building), St. Paul, MN
People: Jonah Lidberg, Eric Holley, Tony Mortenson, Dustin Griess, Landon Anderson, Josh Nendza

Coverage: The 3rd Lair Minnesota State Fair Bike Demos were insane this year. There were two shows each day of the fair (Aug 25 – Sept 5). Each year the level of riding increases so much and these shows get so crazy. This year the riders included Tony Mortenson, Josh Nendza, Jonah Lidberg, Eric Holley, Dustin Griess, and Landon Anderson. There were also rider appearances of Jay Schlie, Darrin Treanor, Phil Book, Chris Dachel, Seth Peterson, Ben Polaschek, and Dustin Johnson.

Riding Highlights: Big things that went down include Landon‘s turndowns on the spine and his tailwhip to icepick on the sub and Benny‘s icepicks, wall taps, and downside footplants on the wall behind the sub. Dachel and Benny were both Ruben wall riding the big wall. Dachel was doing downside whip to disasters, and almost had a huge manual up a quarter to wall tap. Tony was busting out 720′s and huge backflips. He was also throwing out big 540 transfers from the 6′ quarter to the vert wall. Josh was doing his huge airs, wall rides, and smooth style as always, only with no brakes and four pegs. Phil was incredibly high up on the wall doing wall taps. Jay did a straight 180 clearing the box and rolled out fakie. Darrin and Dustin were throwing out all the trains you could imagine… cancan/indian air trains, 3whip trains on spine and box, turndown flip trains, they both even threw down a flip whip train in the last 2 shows! Darrin threw out an opposite 360 downside whip, wall rides, and was airing up and above the vert wall. Dustin was also throwing out downside footplants on the wall, one handed heel clickers, huge cancan whips from spine to box straight into flairs on the 8′ quarter, and even a flip whip straight into a flair. Jonah was doing 180 tailwhip nosepicks to fakie on the spine, 360 nosepicks on the spine, and 540 nosepicks on the box lip. Dustin Johnson was doing these sick canadian nosepicks on the sub and his back wheel would hit the wall behind the sub… Seth was coming so close to landing bike flips during the show- He was also hand planting over Eric, and also doing switch footed tailwhip airs! Eric Holley was a nut at these shows… double trucks, truck transfers, tuck no handers, barspin to tire grabs, bunny hop barspin over the rail, tons of tech grind to 180 type things, barspin to double peg on the sub, turndowns on the spine, bunny hop whips, and much more!

Each show was seriously amazing to watch, and it is definetly recommended to see a show next year if you missed out this year.

More info at: http://www.mnbmx.com/static.php?page=cov20050825statefair