The BMX Scene is Alive and Well in Brisbane
As a young BMX rider growing up in the eastern region of Brisbane, BMX jams were something that gave us reason to venture out, meet new people and ride a park set up that we probably hadn’t already. I can still remember heading to my first Tempered Filthy Drains challenge, rocking up to a drain in the back of Coopers Plains with hundreds of riders shredding the DIY pallet-built ramps and thinking just how sick the power of BMX is. The older I got, the importance of BMX jams just became more and more apparent to me, and before I knew it we were building DIY ramps from pallets and getting the local dudes together to ride what we had made. Fast forward 15 years and nothing has really changed.. BMX jams are still sick, pallets can build anything and meeting new BMX riders still makes me smile.
When team rider Meezy got some motivation to host a jam at his local park in Woodridge, I couldn’t help but get excited like I was 13 again. Meezy had basically organised everything, so on Saturday the 18th we all headed down to Woodridge to build some DIY ramps, set up some shade, and have a BBQ cooking for the 3pm start.
A good flyout jump box is a hit at every BMX jam, so this was the first thing we got to work building. Pallets started getting torn apart and before we knew it we had the lander sorted. With more riders showing up and Phoenix bringing sheets of plywood, we pieced together the wall ride, and when the clock struck 3pm the park was full of riders and spectators alike. This moment when a jam is kicking off is always a special one, sitting back and looking at what a bunch of BMX riders have created for hundreds of riders and the greater public.
Like all good BMX jams, there were heaps of giveaways and a free sausage sizzle and drinks for everyone there on the day! As the afternoon rolled on Meezy hosted plenty of mini comps, including best trick on the fly-out box, wallride, and a bunny hop comp over the high jump bar! For those who aren’t aware, a BMX jam has no real winner, it’s more like everyone has a chance to “win” by having a good time! But I guess the real winner is every spectator that gets to witness the true mayhem that can unfold.
- Dave Dilliwaard Nothings the make-shift box
Some highlights here for me were watching Dave Dillewaard put a demo on over the box, Clint Millar doing his thing in the bowl and D street and Pat Johns manualing up the rail in a train. With so many in attendance, it was hard to capture all the craziness that was going down, but know that if you come to these events you will see some wild riding!
Meezy also had a surprise at the end of the day for one lucky rider. Throughout the jam he’d been keeping his eye on a few guys to see who was having the most fun shredding, and by the end of the jam, Meezy gifted his old bike to one deserving rider! It’s kind acts like this that people might not realise comes directly from the riders, with no benefit other than seeing another kid on a bike, and we think that's rad! FUCK YEAH MEEZY.
With so much crazy stuff going on it can be hard to capture, but we have 10+ minutes of raw clips playing over on the LUXBMX YouTube channel from the day.
If Saturday wasn’t enough for you and that BMX itch still needed scratching, then you were lucky! Jon Mackellar, Harrison Fuller and Josh Blight are three people that live, breathe and bleed BMX. When I heard Jon was building a DIY at an abandoned warehouse it got me excited for what was about to come. Jon doesn’t usually do things in halves and in less than a couple of weeks he had a fully-fledged skatepark ready for his version of Metro Jam.
With the date set for some time in March and a bunch of sponsors hopping on board (including LUXBMX), we knew it was going to be an epic weekend.. until the abandoned warehouse wasn’t so abandoned anymore. With a few moments' notice, the date was flipped to Sunday the 19th, and like usual Jon and the team put on an epic display of hospitality, ramps and riding for the afternoon! A highlight for me here was seeing Jon land another 900 on the quarter he built, 3rd try, as clean as it could have been. Riding these setups is always really fun and knowing that it was going to be torn down that night made the session a little more impactful. I didn’t manage to capture everything that went down, however, I was able to get some good footage of the dudes shredding the ramps and enjoying the time out of the sun at the time-sensitive park for the afternoon.
Speaking of BMX Jams, LUX have been thinking about hosting something at the new Redbank Plains Skatepark for some time, and we’ve settled on a date! Come down to Redbank Plains skatepark on the 1st of April for heaps of BMX, giveaways and good times. This will be the first official ‘Redback Classic Jam’ hosted by LUXBMX so you won’t want to miss out! More on the Redback Classic coming soon!
Finally, for anyone out there that is interested in hosting Jams at their local park, LUXBMX loves supporting jams and if you or your friends want to rep your local scene and get something happening, let us know and we’ll be stoked to help you out in anyway we can!
