BMX Direct Ghetto Jam 8 Review

The BMX Direct Ghetto Jam 8 graced Durban’s beachfront park in December with 3 Days of solid BMX action in the awesome park, which had a few extra subs & extensions added to make things a bit more interesting.

Friday saw the Am comp go down and also gave the other competitors, Expert and Pro, some time to get used to the park with new additions.

Saturday saw some fast and good riding come from the Expert riders with a lot of the young guns improving. Gareth Padayachee was one of the standout riders with his huge quarter pipe airs and stylish riding. The Ledge Legends comp kicked off after the Experts were done with Stuart Loudon linking smooth tricks longer than a wallet chain in the 90’s. Brandon Blight was grinding and spinning all over and tied with Stuart for 1st.

All the riders descended on the park to get some more practice time in before the Pro comp on the Sunday. Colin Loudon was sizing up the new walls and transfers, Stuart Loudon and Darren van Wyk were seeing who could get the highest and steeziest on the vert wall. Darren Oatley was throwing the bars all over the place and getting in a few stylish handplants and flairs for the photographers. Malcolm Peters showed up on Saturday and in true Moe style was tricking every curve of the park & making full use of all the extensions.

Sunday was time for the Pros to show the crowd what’s up and they did just that. So much was going down, even with only 4 riders taking part in each heat. Stuart Loudon had plenty of lines and style and at the end of his run he tried a huge nollie bar off a quarter into a smaller one below and it was looking good until his hand slipped off the bar and sent him to the ground. Colin Loudon charged all over and blasted some huge lookback and whip transfers. Chris Barnes was whipping and flairing all over the place while Darren Oatley was so chilled & smooth that you almost didn’t realise how hard he was riding, he got a really clean big wallride bar to flat that got the crowd juiced. Malcolm Peters was on form and pulled off every trick in his big bag of tricks.

The High Hop comp was the last event of Ghetto Jam 8. Chris Peens, Chris Barnes & Blaze Ballantyne quickly separated themselves from the rest. Blaze managed to defend his title and took 1st place.

Pro Results

1st – Malcolm Peters
2nd – Colin Loudon
3rd – Stuart Loudon
4th – Chris Barnes
5th – Darren Oatley

This kick ass BMX event is proudly brought to you by BMX Direct, Monster Energy, Mallaz Customs, United Bike Co, Etnies Footwear, G-Form Protection and Skullcandy.