BY LARA MOSES
In the craziest heat of a Saturday morning, driving down the N7 towards where the heat gets hotter doesn’t seem like the best idea. But just after the stench of “the dump”, I entered Zone 7 where for two days, with some friends, loads of sun block and bottles of water (and various other sneaky beverages), my eyes were opened to a new level of extreme, at the Pro X Summer Series 2010.
FMX at the Pro X
Caleb Tennant
On the 6th and 7th of March, riders from BMX, FMX, wakeboarding, skateboarding, supercross and mountain bikes flocked to the most extreme event on the Cape Town calendar. With the success of the event in 2009 held at a makeshift venue at the V&A Waterfont, this year the Pro X moved to permanent ground made for extreme sports at Zone 7, which hosts a variety of trails and courses for riders to choose from.
Saturday showcased the qualifying rounds for Sunday’s finals. We watched as every rider put their all into flipping, dipping and twisting their bikes and boards to unheard or seen of limits. Little boys with big dreams sat in awe in the crowd and cheered the loudest for big boys on little BMX bikes while high flying madness left the crowd slightly nervous with FMX. With such a crazy mash up of various extreme sporting disciplines, showcasing the best in innovative talent, the Pro X got our adrenaline pumping and left our jaws on the ground.
The dusty smell of dirt being lifted from the ground by the Supercross riders, the weird blend of the taste of your own sweat dripping down your face mixed with your drink to cool you down and the awesome flips and tricks being performed right in front of your eyes, all added to the vibe. Each discipline had its own personal soundtrack — in the form of the revving of FMX and Supercross, the live music from the stage metres away from the BMX trial, the grind of skateboards hitting and gliding across the ramp and the splashing and cheers of bikini-wearing models in the wake-boarding pool.
Not all was fun and games. While watching the Supercross final the crowd witnessed two accidents in less than 15 minutes. Many casts and scars are seen (in my opinion shown off) as you move through the crowd. One such person is Caleb Tennant. At 15 years old, Tennant is a Motorcross legend in the making. While practicing at Zone 7 the day before Pro X he fractured both his wrists when he crashed his bike as he cased (short jumped) a double. With both his arms in casts, Tennant smiles, shows his support to his riders and gets some well deserved attention from “concerned” ladies.
As Sunday came around and temperatures hit around 40 degrees everyone in attendance stripped down to their bare essentials or made their way to the wakeboarding pool for a mini pool party with the Loaded models to cool down (which made the event ten times hotter, if you know what I mean) before heading to watch the mindblowing finals.
I definitely gained a lot of respect for these athletes as I became a fan rather than a spectator of this sport. As one rider simply answered when asked what goes into being pro: “A lot of work. A lot of debt.” My hat goes off to those who partake in this crazy world of extreme sport.
Lara Moses is The Soapbox’s contributing editor.
Tags: bmx, pro x, wakeboarding