FMX Insider No.9: Kia World Extreme Games

Welcome to our brand new weekly web-exclusive column, Transmoto‘s FMX Insider. Penned each week by South Australian rider, Ben Heidrich, the FMX Insider will present the story-behind-the-stories of the Aussie and international freestyle motocross scenes. 

There is nothing cooler than traveling to another county with your mates and riding dirt bikes in front of massive crowds… All in the name of work!

A few weeks ago, Australian Ramp Design (ARD) along with Cameron Sturtridge, plus a handful of freestyle motocross riders ventured across the seas to Shanghai, China for the Kia World Extreme Games. Crowds of over 71,600 witnessed the world’s best BMX, skate and inline athletes competing. They showed their skills on the vert ramp, mini-mega ramp, climbing wall and also the street course. This year the competition also hosted the very first FMX competition on the dialed ARD FMX set-up.

The event has been running for nine years and was originally hosted by ESPN, however this year SportFive took over the event. Having been only a demonstration in previous years, the FMX side of things was run as a full competition with a blend of qualifying rounds and demonstrations over the four days.

Sturtridge, the sport co-ordinator for FMX, together with the ARD crew and Australian actions sports film-maker, Ash Will, spent a total of 16 days in Shanghai. Amongst the arsenal of Australian riders were Joel Brown, Michael ‘Chucky’ Norris, Pat Bowden and Tom Robinson. Also traveling to the event was New Zealand’s Callum Shaw, America’s Jeff Griffin and French riders, Maxime Gregoire and Fred Wasner.

“It was Tom Robinson’s first overseas trip so he was stoked about that and rode super well!” said Sturtridge.

Prior to the event, Brown and Chucky were flown over for the ‘Stunt on the Bund’; the Bund being an iconic location in Shanghai. The demonstration was used as a launch for the arrival of the World Extreme Games. With the Chinese ARD/DHZ collaborate truck set up on the Bund and Shanghai’s central business district in the backdrop; the setting was nothing short of epic.

“It’s the first time something like that has been done,” Sturtridge continued. “Its pretty amazing that we were given the opportunity.”

The four day event accumulated into a final on Saturday, May 3, finishing up with a complete Australian podium – Chucky first, Pat Bowden second and Joel Brown third. Robinson just missed out on a medal, qualifying last and riding his way up to fourth place. Robinson, stoked to be riding the event said, “It was the coolest feeling when I was flying through the air and I could hear the crowd below. It gave me goose bumps.”

Aussie Adrenalin’s Ash Will grabbed some sweet footage of the guys riding the event and also captured them kicking back, riding the streets of Shanghai! Be sure to check it out…

Sturtridge spoke about his role for the event. “It’s a pretty amazing opportunity to take a bunch of Aussie lads overseas,” he said. “As a former rider, now stepping into this management role and taking care of the guys; it’s a really cool opportunity ARD has given me. I’m traveling the world with friends. It is tops, mate!”

The guys are looking forward to heading over to the World Extreme Games again next year.