Three Dutch riders were asked to give a dirt demo during the 6/24 hour mtb race at the baggelhuizerplassen (That’s in Assen in province Drenthe, The Netherlands). It was the best thing!Two riders were at the location some days in advanced to help built the dirts and the roll-in. local rider Jeremy Struik and Kona Grassroots rider Kevin Katinas, managed to build the dirts with some other local help in only two days. A five meter double was build, with a second and final dirt of close to four meter.
Roy Groenenwegen, another Grassroots rider arrived on Friday as he had to travel from den Haag, which is on the other side of the country, the south-west and most alive part of the Netherlands. It was a long travel for him, especially when he arrived in Assen and forgot to get out of the train. Getting out is an important an crucial part if you want to arrive at the right spot. So he travelled on to the most North east part of the Netherland, to Groningen, to get on the next train back to Assen. He was amazed to actually find some sort of human life up there in Groningen. So, one hour late from expected, and with me already arrived a few hours earlier, Groen also entered the scene.
From there it was riding to the demo location as fast as possible, as we really wanted a sunset photo shoot, and Groen already got us one hour late. Ok to be honest, I really wanted to shoot some sunsets, and I was really amazed to find the guys so stoked when seeing the sky turning into colors that aren’t that usual.
As a photographer it was so fantastic being there, I most of the time shoot in our local bikepark Heerenveen, and I’ve shot 360 degrees around the park a long time ago. So it was motivating to get out again and to try new settings and new angles in such a nice environment.
So as the Friday evening shoot started, the sun was only one hour from leaving us to hide behind the tree line to wake some other people up more west of us. At the same time the riders started out warming up and doing some mellow tricks like x-up’s and no-footers. The pictures turned out to be great, so they started riding harder and harder, and with every shot the pic’s showed up sicker!
It was also so crazy and scary to see my brother Kevin ripping it so hard. His almost famous green bike is falling apart so bad at the end of the season, but he has to cope with it for at least one more month. He’s frame has cracks, his fork and headset is done for and making terrible sounds, his fork actually broke on the last demo day. His bottom bracket is so messed up that he’s cranks start to rotate as he pulls his feet of. If tried his bike out on the road, which was scary enough with all those squeaking sounds, and he does super flip’s on it.
Jeremy Struik, table.
One footed x-up by Jeremy.
Roy Groenenwegen doing a indian air.
Groen going one-handed nfcc
Kevin Katinas, dump 360
Kevin doing a super flip, missing a pedal during this one, but doesn't show
Kevin, flip over the hip.
Last three of that evening, Kevin.
Jeremy air boxing a dude (forgot his name, let me know), pretty hard as you can see (wasn't planned, believe me on this). Roy and Kevin(purple shirt) on the background drinking a beer.
The bmx dude flowing.
So, that was a blast! Good thing that the real demo was on Saturday with another great evening to enjoy! The next day I arrived close to the start of the demo, putting up gear and seeing the crowed with allot of young kids fired up to give a box or high five’s! There were three demo’s planned for that day, and the riders wanted to give it all at the last demo. So Big three’s, tables, nfcc‘s and one footed x-ups by Jeremy Struik.
Jeremy, Nfcc.
Table, Jeremy.
Kevin showing superman seat-grab’s, dump three, with one being inverted, but he crashed it. He ended with a super flip, he missed the pedals as they were rotating during the flight.
Kevin, crashing a invert three, close call.
Give me five.
Kevin, flip sequence.
super flip, Kevin Katinas.
Roy Groenenwegen showed many different tricks: nac nac, tailwhip, nothing, barspin, nfcc one hander and sick superman‘s. Everyone loved the demo‘s, especially the kids that wanted on photo with the riders and a autograph. Of course.
Superman.
one-handed nfcc.
Then the relaxation started at the Kona stand, eating, drinking and talking, just having a good time. I had already packed up my gear, because everyone was tired and done for that day. Besides, they had to ride one more demo at Sunday. But luckily for me another rider started riding that wasn’t on the demo team. Hinne is a surfer but he loves to ride his mountain bike by doing back flips in a style I only see him doing, it’s great stuff, so I unpacked my gear again. After he started riding, the others also put away their beers and went for a night session.
Hinne doing those lazy flips, amazing.
Love my camera gear.
Chillin during another beautifull sunset.
For me it was the end of the weekend, I missed out on Sunday’s last demo. Although the communication between the riders and the organizer of the 6/24 hour race wasn’t what I would call ideal, the show turned out to be a great success and definitely a great 'learnfull' (is that a real word?) pilot for upcoming dirt demo’s in the Netherlands. I really hope it has fired up the spirits of some kids too leave soccer for what it is and to start riding mountainbikes. Hinne, thanks for driving me back to the train station two times!
http://katinasd.pinkbike.com
Minor point of critique; if you want to really do something to get kids of the couch, build some sustainble stuf, some tables that will survive our miserable weather and are a bit more forgiving to beginners. I happen to see a lot of really pro-level stuff build in .nl lately, but wonder if it will do the 'scene' any good since no-one besides a handfull of (incredible gifted) guys like Kevin can stick them.... my 2c...
Perhaps it's just me becoming a grumpy old man ;-)
I believe those pro level jumps in the Netherlands are really good. For those good riders to get ready for international contests, but also the kids. In crankworxs there are alot of kids riding big stuff, could happen here too.
Kevin started years ago on small jumps, i started out on bigger jumps, the next generation on even bigger jumps.
I guess there need to be much of both. it's also easy for kids to build some small jumps their selfs, builds karakter and isn't that just the way every needs to start out?
Thanks again!
On the grammar and spelling, maybe you could send me an email with what I accualy did do wrong, that would me of more use to me than this critics. You can send the email to d.katinas@live.nl or to my pinkbike mail ofcourse. I will take a serious look at your advise. Thank you, appreciate it.
I think my English is pretty good for a Dutch guy, I don't get English at school at the moment, but I just started a Minor Americanism, which is in English. So I guess my grammer and spelling skills will benefit from that.
Later!
Dennis