Brawlin'at the Belmar - my first BMX Pro-Am dirt jumping tournament

Over the weekend I had the chance to watch America rise to the challenge. I wasn’t watching the Olympics, or the news on Iraq and/or Afghanistan. I wasn’t at a movie. I was watching a BMX competition – Brawlin’ at the Belmar.

I’ll say it again, I was watching teens and young men on bicycles competing on a short dirt track. In fact it wasn’t a track but a jump, landing hill, and turnaround wall specially built behind the Belmar here in Binghamton just for this event. To be more accurate it was a dirt ramp setup by Dave King – a master ramp builder in the sport - specifically for a Pro-Am dirt jumping tournament. And it was a great experience.

Now it’s taking me a bit of time to get the video of the event done, my editing skill are not the greatest and I have 200 video clips to work through, but I will have one soon. Even so the event was a wonderful display of America just enjoying itself.

The event was sponsored by Red Bull, FBM Bikes, and the Belmar Bar. This was not the first year this event has been held here, but it was the first time I went to it. And there were roughly 200 plus people there at any moment from 12pm until night fell some 9 hours later. That was just the crowd on Saturday, with part of the event being held previously Friday.

Now I should mention that I am not a fan of BMX (never seen it before). I also knew nothing about the sport beyond the thought that it was something that kids did before some Monster Truck event. Such are the thoughts of a 40 yr old from the Bronx. I was wrong on multiple counts.

The competition involved both amateurs and professionals with a total of some 30 riders or more in all. There were riders there from as far as Chicago and Long Island that I am aware of. There was even one rider that had been at the X-games this year. And the age ranges were from one young Black kid (Boogie was his nickname if I recall correctly) of 10 to a 32 year old.

Now I would be remiss if I did not mention that I was amazed by some of the jumps and tricks that were being done. I am quite sure that I’d have killed myself if I tried to do any of it. Yet all the riders were out giving their all for the crowd. There were riders jumping up some 20+ feet into the air, and others getting almost as much height while doing flips or 180 and 360 degree turns.

Now I had to ask a couple of the riders about this sport.

One rider I spoke to was Dan Psimer from Cleveland, Ohio. He’s 25 years old and first started riding bikes in competition in the NBL. The NBL is the National Bike League as I learned. Dan was 13 then, and he never looked back. His mother supported him in his endeavors and now he is a professional with big plans. I can’t discuss some of his plans for the future, but I can say that his love of the sport has gotten him to look to the entrepreneurial aspects as well as competition.

As someone who never had seen this type of event I have to say it was unique and fun. And the crowd was filled with spectators of all ages. A large amount of the crowd were very familiar with the professionals, and local amateurs as well.

Once I have my video, or videos, done I will go into more detail on the event. But I will say this, given the opportunity of watching another event like this or watching Olympic bicycling, or the Tour De France, I would gladly go all American and watch the BMX competition.