Deegan pushes through sand to capture victory
By Erick Hilton

Deegan captures Sand Dunes aerial assasination

In what is perhaps the most unusually place to hold a motocross event, the Santa Ana River Bed was perfect for the first ever Freestyle Motocross “Dunes” event. It was a perfect concept, bring the Freestyle Motocross stars back to the roots that helped shape this sport, the sandy dunes of Southern California. In Anaheim though? All of the competitors mounted paddle tires and proceeded to fly over the gnarliest jumps many of them have seen since becoming a freestyle star. Mickey Dymond constructed a freestyle park consisting of two 65 foot doubles, a huge 90 footer and a 50 foot step up jump in the river bed that flushes much of the water waste out of Orange County and sits between the Anaheim Pond and the Big “A” off the 57 freeway.

Nineteen athletes came out to brave the heat exhaustion, the silky sand and the massive jumps to entertain the hot, rough crowd of about 6,000. The Red Bull/ JBL/ Fuse event was more like a survival test to the athletes as many of them hadn’t seen sand this deep before and were timid flying high and pulling tricks. Each athlete was given two laps around the course that was laid out like a mini race- track so the athletes could stay on the gas and make it over the frightful jumps. Lap times might have been a better way to judge the athletes since many of them were only able to complete two tricks at the most!

Even old dogs can't help but play in the sand! Mickey Dymond prepares the soft sand for a launch.

It not for the fearless Metal Militia crew, the event may have been washed away. Brian Deegan qualified first for the main as one could easily tell that he was the only competitor comfortable jumping in the sand over massive mounds. Deegan charged around the course pulling off insane one handed seat grabs, cordovas, candy bars and cliff hangers to lit up the crowd and take the $5,000 first place prize. Fellow Militia member, Adam Pierce put aside the fear and came back in the final to capture second place. Pierce completed a lazy boy, a no-footed can, superman seat grab and landed a no-hander on the step up to dominant second place. Jeremy Carter used moves like the heel clicker, stale fish and bar hop to earn third place from the judges. Freestyle regulars Trevor Vines, Kris Rourke and Arenacross racer Jeff Willow also made the finals and kept the event interesting with their lunatic antics.

And after the freestyle guys pulled their last tricks, daredevil stuntman Seth Enslow made an appearance as he wound up his CR 250 and leaped over 175 feet onto the massive sand landing constructed. Seth hadn’t jumped since last February as he is in negotiations for a World Record leap with many TV producers.