The FISE World Series returns to Montpellier, France for the
largest action sports festival of the year, with over 200,000 fans gathering.
This year Monster Energy swept the podium in the Spine Mini Ramp Contest, with
Monster Energy’s Pat Casey taking the top spot, followed by Argentinian rider
Jose “Maligno” Torres and Monster Army’s Justin Dowell rounding out the podium
in the third spot.
Unfortunately, due to rain the event decided to call off the
finals and base all final results off of the previous night’s qualifying scores.
Out of 90 riders, the top 16 riders would have advanced to Saturday night’s
final, including Monster Energy riders, Kevin Peraza and Alex Nikulin, and
also, Monster Army’s Brian Fox and Jeremy Malott.
However, the qualifying contest did not disappoint and
offered the crowds plenty of big tricks and creative variations. Kevin Peraza
impressed the crowd with his signature style, offering unique tricks like a wallride to tailwhip and a super stylish
footjam one-foot-can drop-in. Alex Nikulin brought the brakeless big tricks,
while keeping it stylish with things like a 360 toboggan, earning the Russian
rider a spot in the final.
Monster Army rider Brian Fox was the life of the party,
dancing on the spine, cheering on fellow riders and of course during his runs
putting down big combos like a corked 720 into flair barspin over toothpick and
unique tricks like a superman seatgrab. Jeremy Malott also qualified into the
top 16 with his first run, with classic mini ramp lines like a backflip to
fakie, fakie to whip combo. It was Monster Army’s Justin Dowell though who
rounded out the podium, with moves like his signature twix and a 360 triple
barspin.
For the second year in a row, Jose “Maligno” Torres finished
second overall in the spine contest. The Argentinian rider was gaining massive
height over the spine ramp with tricks like a 360 doublewhip and 180 barspins.
However, it was the California-native Pat Casey who would take the overall win
with his stylish riding. Perhaps having the home-court advantage, as Pat has a
mini ramp set-up in his backyard, Pat owned the spine contest with stylish
tricks like a double peg into a backflip tailwhip and a massive downside 360
tailwhip. Making the most out of his free coaster, Casey did not disappoint.
