Photograph by George Sakkestad
Ryan Nyquist gets some air on the vert ramp during a BMX contest.
By Clarence Cromwell
Ryan Nyquist warms up with a couple of easy passes over the half-pipe ramp, coasting down its curved wall, and up the other side and popping into the air. It's his practice run on the half-pipe, also called the "vert," at the Norcal BMX Freestyle Contest at the San Jose Skate Park. On a final pass, he helicopters, spinning 360 degrees, bike and all, and lands smoothly on the ramp.
It's just another workday, when your job is showing off your tricks for the BMX bike manufacturer Bon Trager. Neither Nyquist nor his partner Chris Bryant have participated in more than three BMX contests. But the pair of 17-year-old Los Gatos High School juniors earn bicycle frames and parts from the company to use in ramp-riding contests, and all they have to do in exchange is win. Bryant started riding for the company early this year, and Nyquist joined him in April. They also both work at Ruth and Ray's Jiffy Market on Los Gatos Boulevard.
But their day jobs aren't quite as dangerous or as exciting.
Bryant suffered four concussions, a broken ankle and countless sprains during his four years of amateur jumping. Both have had their share of crashes, but Nyquist hasn't broken any bones.
"Knock on wood," he says.
The pair, like most riders, appeared unconcerned about danger. On a recent tournament day, the skate park, a warehouse near Tully Road outfitted with plywood ramps, was packed. Riders lined up for the box ramp--basically a takeoff ramp and a landing ramp connected by a level platform. For momentum, a rider has to travel 15 or so feet up a curved ramp against one wall. The trip back down the ramp is what launches him across the warehouse floor and up the six-foot-high takeoff side of the box ramp. Some veterans soar 10 to 15 feet in the air.
The nine-foot-tall half-pipe allows riders to repeat the process infinitely; they zip from side to side and pop into the air at each lip of the half-pipe.
The backflip, called a "loop," is Bryant's trademark move, and he does it both on the half pipe and the box jump. Considering how difficult the trick is to acquire, it's no wonder few other riders try it.
"I learned that in a lake," Bryant explains. "We taped my feet to the pedals and I had my friend fish me out of the water."
Nyquist prefers his helicopter maneuver.
At the tournament Bryant and Nyquist competed among 25 riders in the box jump contest and about 12 riders in the half-pipe contest.
After hitting two perfect loops in the box jump competition, Bryant went home with third place, plus $60 and a new set of tires and pedal cranks for his bike. For completing flawless helicopter whirls and tail-whips, Ryan took first place in the box-jump competition, plus $120 and two sets of tires, a pair of pedal cranks and new shoes.
Just another workday.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, June 5, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved