Today was the first real day of practice for the Jump Ship event in Victoria's inner harbour. While a few of the guys have been here for the past day or so, most riders arrived today and got their first chance to check out the course and get some practice time in. Jump Ship is basically a dirt jump contest, it just happens to be on a barge in Victoria Harbour. And while initial plans were to have the barge anchored a ways out in the water, logistics made it very difficult, so the barge is anchored at one of the main docks, right across from the docks of the events main sponsor, Harbour Air. This is also a better place for spectators, and there is a beer garden with bleachers only about 30 feet from the barge. As a bonus they had a projector with the hockey game playing, that's a winning situation.
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| Graham Agassiz checks out the wind from the top of the roll in. Wind played a big part in practice today as riders spent a lot of time waiting for it to die just enough to take a run. |
The course starts with a step down off of the the start tower, that's almost a requirement now at dirt jump comps, and then goes into two doubles, wooden lips with dirt landings. The biggest issue with having a dirt jump contest on a barge is that there's very little room. If you get a little squirrely and end up off line, there really isn't anywhere to go. Only a few feet from the side of the landing is the side of the barge. After the two jumps there are a pair of quarters at the far end of the barge, the line gaps right to left between them. This was a bit of an awkward spot for a few people today, with more than a couple of riders going almost to flat on the landing. After the gap there is a small roller followed by another jump, and then another small quarter. It's possible to transfer from the last quarter across to the landing of the step down, Brandon was the only one I saw actually try it though...
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| Jordy Lunn has come up with a lot of great jump events over the years, from the Ice Cream Jam to Peanut Butter Knife Fight and others, they've all been fun and interesting. Jordy, nothing... |
Jump Ship is an FMB World Tour Silver event, and there are a lot of riders here hoping for FMB points. After the FISE event in Montpellier last weekend Sam Pilgrim has a pretty good lead on the series, but there are a few riders here that might challenge him in the next few events.
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| Brandon Semenuk. This will be Brandons first event of the 2011 FMB World Tour, and he's here to get some points on the board before heading to 26 Trix in Austria next week. |
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| Anthony Messere with a nice flat 360. Anthony has been doing well this year with a 2nd place finish at Ranch Style and 3rd at the Teva Games. Not bad for a kid... |
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| Mike Montgomery won the best trick at Ranchstyle this year and he just won the Teva Games slopestyle. With a second place finish at Crankworx last year he is definitely a contender at any contest he enters right now. |
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| Mitch Chubey, gapping between the quarters at Jump Ship in Victoria, BC |
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| Jamie Goldman, throwing a little style into it as he gaps the quarter to quarter at the end of the barge. The trick here is to be smooth enough to keep your speed up so you can make it over the next jump that you can see on the far right. Anthony was the only one that I saw really trick it today |
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| Anthony Messere with a tailwhip in front of the Empress Hotel |
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| It's always great to see the local talent out with the big boys, Scott 'Wink' Grant with a nice looking 360 table on the 2nd double... |
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| Tyler McCaul whipping on the barge... |
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| Anthony's flat 360 from a different angle, this guy has got a bit of boost! |
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| Another local rider, Luke Fulton, with nice looking stretched out tailwhip on the second double on the barge. I'm pretty stoked about this shot! |
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| The course ends with this little quarter, and a few of the riders were working on tricking it when it was too windy to jump the bigger stuff. A few people thought about transferring from it across to the landing of the step down, Semenuk actually tried it, but washed on the landing. |
The rider list as it stands right now. Qualifying is tomorrow...
1: Brandon Semenuk
2: Tyler McCaul
3: Eric Lawrenuk
4: Geoff Gullevich
5: Sam Dueck
6: Mitch Chubey
7: Anthony Messere
8: Jamie Goldman
9: Casey Groves
10: Andrew Taylor
11: Graham Aggasiz
12: Luke Fulton
13: Jarrett Moore
14: Christian Wright
15: Jack Fogelquist
16: Mike Montgomery
17: Kurt Sorge
18: Reece Wallace
19: Evan Mccurrie
20: Justin Wyper
21: Scott Grant
22: Jordie Lunn
23: Mark Matthews
24. Alan Hepburn
