Connection Open Air, where I went together with Szczepan Karpiel was an unusual event. Check the relation, photos and short vids in the further part of the relation

Unfortunately we arrived with an almost 2-hour delay

and cause of that we had only one training jump before qualifications, but before hitting the jump we were surprised by a few things we saw there.

The area of an event looked more like construction site with plenty of diggers, trucks, etc. used there as for example:

carousel:

lift for photographers:

and decoration?

Another not typical view was a sponsor range including i.e. Absynth, Jagermeister and “Hip Hop Puschkin” vodka:

That enabled to fill riders area with not just Red Bulls

Another worth mentioning surprise was system for gaining speed by riders. A combination of scooter and hoist.

I haven’t seen anything like that before, looked a little funny, but worked perfectly – props for the idea!

It was freaking hot so everybody was looking for a way to cool off somehow

Let’s get back to the topic – the inrun was built from “Never Flex” and the kicker was additionally covered with snow

Whereas landing was on the best and biggest Bag Jump I’ve seen.

It’s huge, has the safety banks, eliminating the danger of slipping out of the bag after landing and it’s easy to get out of it in each corner

Landings are really soft, doesn’t matter what part of your body touches the bag first. The top of the bag is also great quality and doesn’t “burn” your clothes or skin (like some other air bags) if you slide on it.

As I’ve already mentioned me and Szczepan manged to do only one training jump, followed by a break and after a while – start of qualifications, which I was supposed to open.

I took the place, thought about the trick and grabbed a line. The motor started and everything was perfect till the moment when Never Flex, right before the kicker, due to some irregularity, caught my ski. With the speed that I had there I was unable to do anything, I was launched from the kicker with no control and only managed to notice that I won’t make it to the Air Bag and that I have to prepare for a hard landing from about 4 meters to the ground.

A blessing in disguise – I landed on the ground between the Air Bag vent machine, ladder and wheelbarrow. Just over a dozen centimeters to each side could mean a broken spine…, fortunately it ended with “just” a blackout and back and leg ache. Comp was stopped for a while, inrun repared. After a while I stood up happy to be alive and making a few people amazed that I was able to walk at all.

The impact was strong enough to smash sunglasses, that I had on, into pieces.

I didn’t give up though. After a little warm up I did my second quali jump (rodeo 5 critical), which got me to the 9th place (1 spot behind the finals, even though the sum of 2 quali jumps was counted)

Fortunately, the second TwoTip rider – Szczepan Karpiel got to the finals with his flat 5 japan:

and underflip 5 tail

He got to the finals with 7 other riders:

Pepe Kalensky

Robin Holub

Martinem Horak

Lukas Vaculik

Jirka Volak

Viliam Tomo, Richie Jurecka, and 2 girls: Natalia Slepecka with Petra Jureckova.

For the finals there was a longer snow inrun, the bag was pushed a little further from the kicker, which made it possible for riders to go bigger and try some doubles.

Finally after 2 final jumps the podium looked like that:

Men:

1. Martin Horak: corck 9 jesus (2 tails caught with 2 hands), double corck 12

2. Pepe Kalensky: 10 mute

3. Robin Holub: kangaroo, double corck 12

4. Szczepan Karpiel: kangaroo japan

5. Viliam Tomo: kangaroo

Girls:

1. Natalia Slepecka: 3 nose, 5 mute

2. Petra Jureckova 180 screaming seamen

There was a little confusion with the results, because at first it was said that just one (better) of 2 jumps counts, but at the end it was changed, which was unfair for Szczepan who should get at least 2nd place, but that’s the “spirit” of competitions…

Few more words about the event: It was impossible to get bored there.

A few cyclists who also hit the kicker added variety to the jumps

Riders and audience could try their skills on a professional trampoline

Jump ont0 the Bag from height:

sunbathe:

use the mentioned before “carousel”, eat and drink from multiple “gastro” tents and party to the morning with the sound of life music coming out from 2 scenes. Unfortunately we had to skip that point due to other plans and get back to Poland just after results.

More photos can be found here:

Connection 2010 by Yogurt

Connection 2010 by MATiO

Connection 2010 by Lubomir Hradil

And a few videos showing choosen jumps: Connection 2010 videos (one after another)

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