BMX Street Style 2021 – Photos & Recap

Following up the Monster BMX Triple Challenge in Houston two months ago, we found ourselves back in the Lonestar State once again for the third annual Monster BMX Street Style event this past weekend in Arlington. While the COVID restrictions have eased up in Texas, social distancing and mask wearing were still encouraged and limited occupancy was in effect. But with the addition of a live feed, we still had a full house, virtually.

Some quick clarification, this event is called “street style” for a reason. To be fair, yes, the transitions far outnumber the grindables. It’s not exactly a street contest, but it’s not a traditional park contest, either. With ramps and rails scattered on narrow trailers, butted up against massive shipping containers, and arranged across a downward sloped concrete parking lot—let’s agree to call the Kevin Peraza designed and @bostromdesigns built course “raw park”.  

The three run, best overall impression format gave the 23 riders a chance to throw a little more caution to the wind as opposed to the traditional best run counts format, which typically causes riders to hold back and play it safe for that flawless run. Like I said, this is raw park. And I think the best example of that was when Tom Dugan dropped in (before the announcer was even done introducing him) and sent a 360 off a hip over the width of a flatbed trailer to flat. The impact made Tom’s wheel slide up in the dropouts to point where his chain was falling off. Tom only weighs as much as two of my camera bags, so I think the takeaway there is to never have Tom tighten a wheel for you.

Without a doubt the biggest highlight for me (and undoubtedly many other people in attendance) was getting the opportunity to meet Julian Molina and watch him ride. Witnessing firsthand how he gets speed, handles bails, and does 360s, whips, flips, and crooked grinds—all with one leg, it’s simply astonishing. This was Julian’s first traditional contest and he rolled away with 13^th in the finals—safe to say we’ll be looking forward to seeing more of him at events in the future.

Before I go any further, I have to give a shout-out to the GOAT, Garrett Reynolds, who crashed during qualifying and hit his head. Fortunately, he’s alright, but seeing one of the most consistent and winningest riders of all time slam that hard… it was as if lighting struck the course when he fell.

Everyone turned it up for the finals, and while a lot of the specifics are a blur now, here are a few more highlights I can remember. Landon Gideon… man, can this Texas local ride! He was tarring it up all day, but come finals he gave everything a few more cranks and was straight boosting, with awesome style, consistency, and wild looking Scott Yoquelet-esque nacnacs in the middle of 360s. Reed Stark dissected the course with a discerning street eye and truly blazed his own path. He went to work on the grind options on the edge of a shipping container—gap bottom side ice, gap smith going in the opposite direction, feeble to pull off to feeble down the side of a wedge, and then he won Best Trick when he gapped to the ledge on top of the container with a double peg to 180 onto the narrow truck bed landing. He took a bunch of scary crashes in the process so it was extra awesome to see him pull it. Larry Edgar came flying in right after the Best Trick buzzer with a no-hander the distance of a super stretch limo. He literally held the no-hander fully-extended for three frames of a photo sequence. Prior to Best Trick, Larry earned his third place podium spot by pedaling full speed and sending 15 foot flair transfers over flat-bed trucks, and he ended a qualifying run with a no-hander to flat off a container and then upped the ante with a 360 during finals. Pat Casey 180 double whipped the box, and then Matt Ray hit backward with a 540 barspin! And then there was the Kevin Peraza show—where style meets tech and it all just looks effortless and perfect. He really tied it all together during finals and took the top spot.

I feel like everyone in attendance would agree when I say it felt really good to back at an event. Hopefully we’re truly nearing the end of the COVID tunnel and with that we can get back to some sense of normalcy—and some more BMX events! Props to Monster Energy and all the people who make the BMX Triple events possible.

All photos by Jeff Zielinski.