There was a full crew of
Straitline riders at the first
Jump Ship. Mike Montgomery flew up from San Diego to help test the first Straitline Hydro Gyro, film for a TV show, win best trick and come second in a close battle with Brandon Semenuk. Jack Fogelquist made the drive up from Scotts Valley, Eric Lawrenuk and Casey Groves hopped the ferry over from the main land and even Alan Hepburn took a break from his busy rollerblading vert career to ride some bikes.
A trick Alan picked up over the winter (his summer).
Camp of Champions was on hand with their Air Bag and there was a 20 minute wait for riders of all ages and skill levels to session the bag. It was great to see the progression of the riders over the weekend and it was great to see how many youngsters wanted signatures from the riders who were lining up to ride with them.
Mike flips his bike on dirt (above) and he flips Aaron's road bike onto the bag (below).
The complete Straitline staff was on hand for the event and looked to be enjoying the show. Straitline's all around genius Dennis Paulson even managed to injure himself while learning to back flip into the air bag. Eric Lawrenuk also went down in qualifying and separated his shoulder again. I wish them both a speedy recover so we can get some Straitline A-Line Trains going this summer.
Dennis working on his back flip, put himself out of commission for a couple weeks.
Enough talk, enjoy the pictures and for more Jump Ship news see below ...
Mike wins best trick with a 720 ...
A lot of people came out to see the final.
Separated shoulder, hope Eric is back on his bike soon.
Mike and Casey on the podium.
Casey signing autographs while waiting to hit the air bag.
Mike training for a bike to bike transfer ...
While leaving the venue there was a lot of talk about next year, let's hope this becomes an annual event.
Keep Riding,
Rob Dunnet
P.S. when someone asks you "Do you want to put this gorilla suit on and hit the air bag?" the answer should always be yes!
