uploaded 2 days ago. I havent seen this footage before its awesome.
hes a bad ass rider…the only thing that saddens (Sp?) me a little is that after watching all his videos and crap i had him hyped up so so high in my mind…like “he doesn’t fall hes goddly on a uni” but after seeing the video he looks human to me. the wonders of video editing.
i’m in no way trying to discredit his riding ability…hes awesome.
John
Yay, I have been waiting for this stuff.
Xav is really good, it is reassuring to know he doesn’t land all his stuff first try;) You know it all has to be really consistant to do one trick after another in a comp, he only fell a few times too.
I want to see everyone elses now.
Fun video. That “whateveritis” he threw at 2:26 was cooooool.
If you weren’t there, you should also know that the comp was held in debilitating heat. It was an incredible heatwave that first week in Switzerland - temps approaching 40C everyday. All those guys competing, including Xav of course, were amazing just to be riding at all. The blacktop was literally melting! IMO, Xav was pretty much in a class by himself in that comp, the clear winner.
Here’s my best photo of him: http://nhoover.smugmug.com/gallery/1779994/4/88522148
—Nathan
Having done similar competitions, I have learned that many times “less is more”.
His pace seems “rushed” and cost him missed landings.
I’m thinking that he would have won the competition anyway,
if he paced himself slower and landed the tricks on the first try.
He could have even used the stuff that he has solidly with a couple of big tricks.
Additionally, using some showmanship would reduce technical requirements.
Seriously, people fell alot more than him. I did, for sure. It is very difficult not to act rushed whilst there are alot of people watching you, I think he did really well, and the tricks he stuck were hard. There was probably alot of pressure for him to rank so I think he did good.
Soo many memorys…
Mike
Hi, I participated to the event to, and this thing of blacktop melting was really annoying, the pedals stuck on the feet, the tire always carrying gravels…
Everyone felt a lot during this comp. I understand the words of DH that only imagined a street event with very skilled riders.
You can be able to sometimes perform great combos in your backyard, but when you get 3 min in front of the crowd with unknown obstacles it is another history. I saw myself missing a tire grab on a 4 set ! :o The thing i do ten times each moorning during my breakfast !
All the riders were far from the perfect run like it could be seen in some freestyle routines. But i was the first event of this type : the riders are less experienced. In such an event, you cannot prepare a run months before and try to repeat it until you do it perfectly. You couldn’t know before what the area would be.
I think the best way to do is to let oneself being inspired by the obstacles and express the thing you feel like doing. Of course it lets margin to errors and falls.
I have just received some shots of entire routines filmed from the trash Xav does it footplant: Xav, Kevin, Wolfgang, Mathieu and myself. I am doing a little bit of editing and a lot of compression before having them available. The result might be disappointing for those who weren’t there, but yeah… very good souvenirs.
Manuel
Is it possible to download this vid for viewing later?
It was a really hard contest especially this day was extreme hot. Even to stay concentrate on the judging was hard for me. Every rider was completely exhausted after competition. And the environment was bad. As more I have to say respect for the riders!
Yes it was realy very very hot and the street was overheated and parts of the street where on everybodys shoes and wheels and pedals…
Very hard to ride there that day.
We are actually working on the Unicon double DVD and there will be nearly the complete Street event on it (and much more stuff)
www.keepvid.com - works like a charm. All you need is an flv player to play the downloaded file - use Google to find one for your OS.
—Nathan
It’s good to see how the comps go for first place. I can only imagine the pressure feeling. Heat only effects riding after a long amount of time (4 minutes is that not time). The crowd would have to be the worst part, but in a lot of videos i’ve seen xav have a crowd. He’s probably use to that type of thing. It was well done, i would like to see Kevin’s run.
-Shaun Johanneson
Shaun, Kevin’s run was good. He won second place - well deserved I thought. He really put out a lot. I’m sure it will be on the DVDs but it would be great if someone posted a low res copy here too.
—Nathan
Yes, I’ve been waiting for this!
Not only is the crowd a factor, but when your run is timed you rush things, get tired very fast, and it’s hard to think of tricks to do on the fly like that.
Yeah, if anyone has a copy of my run on video, please post it. I myself haven’t watched the whole thing yet, and would love to.
I think it would be good for people to see the difference in styles too. My tricks used more obstacles, but I definitely didn’t land everything first try. In fact I probably only landed like 3 things first try haha. And Shaun, I’m not sure if you were saying the 4 minutes isn’t enough time to affect you for heat? Well try riding as hard as you can for 4 minutes in 98 degree weather with pressure on you to land everything. I will promise you that the heat will affect you. If I misinterpreted what you said, sorry. The crowd was awesome! Nothing can make me ride better than having pressure on me. All in all, that run Xav did was amazing. Technicality, big stuff, creativity, consistency. Just all around amazing. And no, the street riders out there aren’t landing everything first try, we aren’t expecting to in fact. Me, Xav, Shaun, Kelly… we try tricks for a long time before we get them. Although I’m sure the others are faster than me hahaha.
Kevin McMullin
Yea, and alot of people were a little bit hungover eh? cough you cough lucas
Mike
i agree he was way to rushed but he still is a very good rider
that is the trick i am working on now…
wow thats crazy.xav is like my hero now. but he did seem really rushed.