Thursday, Feb 10, 2005

There's been quite a few new names added to the Pro Pre-Registration list in the last week or so, and we've been pretty relaxed with the updates, but now that were just under 3 weeks 'til the contest I'll run through a few of them...

It's good to see that Ten Pack/Terrible One Canadian rider Matt Beyers will be back in action. He's had a bit of a tough year and a half recovering from surgeries related to his monster fufanu on the 8' fence that went horribly wrong at the first Vancouver Metro in 2003. Matt's a very powerful rider, so he's definitely one to keep your eyes on. Steve Schwartz is another great rider that always stands out, so it'll be good to have him back for his 3rd Toronto Metro as well. I added Bruce Crisman to the list earlier in the week, so it'll be good to see him out again with both his super-tech style, and blasting anything that he'd like. Adam Banton is back for his second Toronto contest, and we've got another couple riders, Mitch Yates and Josh Elkingto making it over from the UK for their first Metro.

Last last week Zack from Kink called and signed up most of the team. We're excited to have Danny Hickerson come up for his first Metro, and to have Jim Cielencki back, as I believe there's a few rails with his name on them out on the course. Jim has been to every single Metro/contest we've ever done – a bit of trivia there for ya. Jim is having a contest in Buffalo, NY on the Thursday before the Metro, and I'm sure there's lots of people coming up from the Northeast that have to drive through Buffalo to get to Toronto, so you should make sure you're there. I'll post more about that as soon as I get all the official info from Jim, hopefully in the next few days. Other Kink guys coming are New York City's chief scavenger Vinnie Sammon, as Rob Tibbs. Ten Pack/Kink rider Karl Engstrom who recently transplanted from Ontario to BC will make it back home for yet another Metro.

The MacNeil team is expecting most of it's guys to be there, with confirmations so far from Alistair Whitton, John Heaton, Dave Freimuth, Gary Young, Tony Mortenson and Josh Nendza. The team is just coming off an Australia tour, and a clean-sweep at the X-Air contest in New Zealand.

Other Ten Pack riders that will be in Toronto are the ridiculously smooth Dustin Guenther (who's all over the internet nowadays), and his roommate Dave Osato. As always, we welcome back Germany's Tobias Wicke, Dave's WeThePeople teammate to remind us what bike control is. Federal's Canadian rider Max Vincent has been turning a lot of heads over the last couple years with some innovative tricks, proof-positive in his section in the Federal video.

We're sure the Pro list will fill up in the next week, as we're waiting for a few teams to get back to us, so we'll keep you up to date as we get in the confirmations.

You can check out all the Pro Entries so far here, or by clicking on the button to the left...