Rip Curl Cup 2011 is ON…I Think

The swell has already hit West Oz. It’s huge. Freezing. Windy.

SURF FAST.TRAIN HARD.

Andy Irons. July 30th, 2006. Hands down the best surfing ever to go down at Padang.

A recent shot from the "best" day we had some far in 2011. Only 3-4 feet.

Mustafa Jekson exiting a barrel in the 2007 contest. This kid has been getting shots at Padang since he was 3 feet tall. He's as dangerous out there as anyone. Probably even more this year because his life long sponsor, Quiksilver, just dropped him this year. Prediction: Mustofa wins the event and Rip Curl picks him up.

The craziest woman surfing.

You usually have to dodge and weave around the water photogs on any given day at Padang. But not at the Rip Curl Cup. No water photogs are allowed during the event. So leave your water housing at home fellas.

Hopefully there won't be any boats on the reef.

Supermoto: Back It In by Matt Pursley

B A C K I T I N B A B Y
B Y M A T T P U R S L E Y

One of the most spectacular attractions to supermoto is the art of backing it in. It takes some time to master this feat but when executed, it is poetry in motion. The advantage of backing in a supermoto bike is to set the bike up for the turn and scrub off speed. But above all, it’s the rush of sliding on asphalt that is the ultimate thrill.

Backing it in is not always the fastest waythrough a turn, but when it is necessary ithelps to know how to do it smoothly withoutwasting time or losing control. One commonmisconception is that a rider must use the rear brake to initiate the slide. The slide actuallystarts with a combination of front brake,engine braking and the initial lean into the turn. The rear brake is a secondary tool to control speed and the rear wheel. At no time is the rear wheel supposed to lock up or skid due to the rear brake. If the rear locks up, a rider can easily lose control and valuable seconds. Study a pro-level rider and understand that no matter how sideways or flat they get, the rear wheel is always spinning.

There are a few theories when a rider should put their foot out during a slide. Some have to do with rider comfort while others are all about technique. Riders with dirt track backgrounds feel it helps them set up for the turn but I have found that learning to slide with your feet on the pegs offers more control and it is easier to correct mistakes. At a certain point in the turn you will want to put your foot down, ut not until you are just about to hit the apex.

I have demonstrated how I back it in, but each rider will slightly alter their style based on their background. As a rider becomes more accomplished, the bike naturally starts to float into the turns—don’t try to speed up the process by leaning on the rear brake and skidding the bike into the turn as it could spell disaster.

2: Depending on how tight the turn is that you are approaching, you may need to go from fourth or high gear all the way down to second and possibly first. All shifts should be made in one action. The key to supermoto is total clutch control. While motocross racers slip the clutch exiting corners, supermoto and roadracers slip the clutch going into corners to keep the rear wheel from skidding and hopping. The idea is to bang down your gears and control the rear wheel action with the clutch. If you let it out too fast or all the way, the rear wheel chatters. If you slip the clutch in excess, the rear wheel won’t bite the tarmac enough to cause the rear to slide. In this shot I am in first gear while modulating the clutch engagement to control my slide.

3: In the third frame I am deep into my slide but technique still plays a huge part. At this point I have shifted my weight slightly to the inside of the bike and into the turn to maintain control and to start setting up for the oncoming turn. Clutch and brake modulation is still key. As the rear wheel speed starts to slow down and spin down to the engine speed, the clutch still has to be modulated to avoid rear wheel hop until the ratio is one to one. Braking is very important at this point and it ultimately determines whether you are going to hit the apex of the turn or not. If you brake too early you will be forced to stand the bike up before the turn, or if you go in too hot, the bike will float past the apex of the turn and open the door for a pass.

4: The entire idea of the slide is to set the bike up for the turn. As you start to end the slide, the bike should be pointing directly toward the apex of the turn. Notice the rear is hardly backed out at this point. The main reason is the rear wheel speed is catching up to the ground speed. At this time you are looking to firmly plant the rubber on the ground for corner traction. However, you should still be hard on the front brake, trail braking into the apex in order to keep the front suspension loaded for maximum traction. This is also the time I kick out my inside leg. There is a right way and a wrong way to do this. Motocrossers stick their leg straight out with their toes pointing up in the air. The only contact they make with the ground is their heel. Simply take your foot off the peg and put it on the ground with your toes pointing in the direction you want to go, just like a dirt tracker.

5: The final act is changing direction. As you can see, I have shifted my body weight back to the center of the bike. As said before, I trail brake into the turn to keep the front suspension loaded for maximum traction. There is no reason you should ever release the front brake going into a corner unless the front tire breaks traction and starts to skid. If you release the brake too early, the front end wants to stand up and the bike will run deeper into the turn. Remember that if you’re coasting anywhere on the racetrack, you’re doing something wrong— it’s either brakes or gas all the time. Rome wasn’t built in a day so don’t think you’re going to master backing it in overnight—it takes time and patience. Mastering braking, downshifting, clutch control and body position all in one fell swoop is the ticket. If you wish to take clutch control out of the mix, the secret to supermoto is to install a STM slipper clutch.

Moto X FREESTYLE

X Games 17: Moto X Freestyle Final Results

Final results from the Moto X Freestyle competition held at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, Calif. on July 29, 2011.

	Name	Bib No.	Hometown	Score
1.	Nate Adams	7	Glendale, Ariz.	91.00
2.	Adam Jones	26	Minden, Nev.	86.00
3.	Dany Torres	27	Arahal, Spain	83.00
4.	Taka Higashino	21	Osaka, Japan	78.00

Back flip from Taka Higashino (JAPAN)

Dany scored his first X Games medal, a bronze, in his fourth try. He's been killing it on the Red Bull X Fighters circuit this year as well.

Credit to Danny Torres

Adam Jones

Mike Brown, Taddy Blazusiak, and Justin Soule

Taddy scored the gold medal, and Mike Brown the silver to give KTM a 1-2 sweep, and Justin Soule nabbed the bronze

RIDE BMX

2011 Nike HB BMX Pro

After having a solid five days to ride the course and film a video part, the fifteen riders in this year’s Nike BMX Pro got to do a live jam format contest today in front of a packed crowd in Huntington Beach. The riding was top-notch, and a ton of bangers went down, but we can assure you, these photos are still nothing compared to what you’ll see in their videos that we will post this coming week…Consider this gallery a hefty-sized teaser.

ROUND 1 RESULTS NIKE 6.0 BMX PRO
1. Team Enarson
2. Team Wise
3. Team Reynolds
4. Team Phelan:
5. Team Kachinsky

Course overview

Menjemurkan body mereka yang cool tu

Brian Kachinsky - Nose Manual

Kelly Bolton - 180 Flip Flyout

NIKE 6.0 BMX PRO ROUND 1

The riders in this year’s BMX Pro are a mix of X Games gold medalists and BMX video/magazine legends, and the new format allowed each rider to show what they could do. The riders on Team Kachinsky (Brian Kachinky, Sean Sexton, and Corey Martinez) brought true-street lines to the course, and the crowd was treated to a level of riding normally reserved for two-page spreads in magazines.

Team Phelan is the event’s international connection with Jason Phelan from Ireland and Maxime Charveron from France, along with Pennsylvania’s Jeremiah Smith. All three riders are incredibly diverse, and had a mix of air and tech that had the crowd cheering nonstop.

Day one of the Nike 6.0 BMX Pro provided an amazing show for the capacity crowd in Huntington Beach, and produced some of the most progressive riding in BMX. Five teams competed in eight-minute jam sessions, and the teams that mixed tech and big air options scored the most points.

Team Reynolds is headed by four-time X Games Street Gold Medalist Garrett Reynolds, and he brought his tech to the beach in a big way. His teammate Augie Simoncini threw down superman variations all over the course, while Kelly Bolton took tricks upside-down that should not be possible.

Team Wise, headed by Salt Lake City’s Rob Wise, had the crowd shaking its head with tricks from the future. Wise, along with two SoCal teammates (Pat Casey from Placentia and Dakota Roche from Huntington Beach) brought an aerial attack to the beach, with some of the biggest tricks in BMX.

The winning team in Round One of the contest was Team Enarson. Team captain Dennis Enarson handled his business over the box and brought the tech to the ledges in a big way. Teammate Tammy McCarley was basically inventing tricks mid-run. Josh Harrington had mechanical problems in his first run, so he borrowed Enarson’s bike and immediately went to work with a superman-seatgrab-barspin over the box and a huge tooth-hanger down the biggest rail on the course.

Round 2 of the Nike 6.0 BMX Pro goes down on Sunday, and both jam scores will be combined with the team’s video parts to get their final score. Teams have been filming their video parts on the course all week long to get the most creative riding possible captured on film.

Most extreme sport in the world

Skateboarding

Check out these photos from yesterday at X Games 17 in LOS ANGELES. Raven Tershy was on fire and won the Skateboard Park event. We also got tons of the street practice going too. Chris Cole, Ryan Decenzo, Taylor Bingaman, Collin Provost, Pedro Barros, Nick Merlino, and more are all in the gallery.