2004 Goodtimes/Bestrick Contest

On Saturday May 1st, history was made with 17 girls showing up to enter the Jamie Bestwick Goodtimes contest at the Flow Skatepark in Columbus Ohio.

The girls started arriving on Thursday night. Several of them were at the park on Friday to practice. I myself made it into town on Friday night and had just enough time to stop by the park before it closed. All of the girls stayed at the same hotel which was right next to the park. As with most bmx contests, the hotel was a total zoo and they cops were there early shutting the party down. I cant seem to remember Friday night, but we probably just hung out and partied, then got some sleep for the next morning. Thank goodness for bmx contests that don't start at 9am.. The armature class started at 2pm I believe, so it gave everyone plenty of time to sleep in and recover from the previous nights party. The requirement for this contest was 10 girls to make a class.. 18 girls had RSVP'd to me that they were coming, at the start of the contest 17 had arrived, it was an awesome turnout that blew away many peoples expectations. The girls were divided into 3 groups, and the groups were placed in between the men's groups.

Fuel TV came out and had us all line up and say our names and where we were from, and they interviewed some of the riders. Then the contest started. Each rider had their name called and were allowed one run. After they got through each rider, they then had a 5 minute jam format for each group A discussion broke out before finals about how many girls should be taken to finals. it was a toss up between 5 riders and 10 riders with people on each side. In the end they decided to take 10 riders. They rode in 2 groups of 5, the same format as prelims.

Prelim Results

1.Stacey Mulligan = 373
2.Nina Buitrago = 372
3.Cory Coffey = 356
4.Jill Toller = 346
5.Sam Lyons = 344
6.Marianne Delfino = 342
7.Kari Bennett = 339
8.Heather Roller = 333
9.Anita Hodgin = 327
10.Christine Lisnock = 319
10.Stephine Brown = 319
11.Tiffany Bontorno = 309
12.Kim Klisiak = 301
13.Erin Brown = 294
14.Martha Sternberg = 291
14.Adrianne Franscini = 291
15.Frances Boyer = 288

Kris10 from Michigan showed up, unfortunately she missed being able to ride in the contest, but it was good to see her, and she topped the total of girl riders present out at 18.

Its amazing how much a contest wears you out, everyone was pretty tired. Most of the girls were only hanging around in order to wait for the contest results, some went back to the hotel, a bunch were outside with a man named Armin, he is making a bmx documentary, and the girls were having a grand old time being interviewed by each other. Awards finally came around and out of 10 riders, 4 missed the awards. Sam was at the hotel sleeping, Anita was getting food, Christine was back at the hotel, and Marianne was still giving interviews. I found everyone and made sure they got their stuff.

1st thru 5th place got a special prizes, 6th thru 10 all got a prize package. The top 3 took home new helmets, being worn on Styrofoam dummy heads wearing makeup. 1st also took home a trip to woodward camp and fly bikes frame. I'm not sure what other prizes went out since I didn't think to ask, but I'm sure everyone went home very well off. My camera battery died rite as the top 3 were sitting down holding their heads with helmets, if anyone has a pic of that please send it to me.

Final Results are as follows.

1st - Cory Coffey 361 points
2nd - Nina Buitrago 360 points
3rd - Stacy Mulligan 353 points
4th - Jill Toller 335 points
5th - Marianne Delfino 332 points
6th - Kari Bennet 331 points
7th - Christine Lisnock 330 points
8th - Heather Roller 323 points
9th - Anita Hodgin 322 points
10th - Sam Lyons 317 points

They finished the mens final results, and started a video premier. The video was a skatepark tour, the best part was Nina and Stacey riding, and a clip of Nina fighting a little kid for a snow board that was thrown out as a giveaway, Nina flipped a coin with the kid and the kid won.

Everyone headed back to the hotel which was mad chaos. My group was Sam Schlappi (wof photographer) my friend Josh, Sam Lyons, Kurt Hartman, Kris10, and Jason Suchan. We were probably the only people in the whole hotel that weren't drunk, we ordered pizza and were all sitting in one room (we had 2 between us). Sam Schlappi decided to walk between the two rooms, which were next to each other, the cop was psycho and evicted both our rooms, b/c we walked out of the room. It was dumb. So all of us ended up piled in Marianne's room (thank you so much Marianne!). We all went to bed at that point, since we couldn't leave the room or do anything. Next morning, eventually everyone woke up, and headed to the contest. I was hoping to get some filming done, but pro practice was going on, and next thing the contest was starting. And then I was heading home since I had to work at 6am the following morning.

Its really hard to explain a contest like this with out being there, I'm already on my 4th rewrite of this story, and finding myself unable to express what all happened and what it was like. You've got 17 riders, from different parts of the country, each bringing a unique style of riding and unique personally together. And its just amazing to watch, I really think that all the people their watching were blown away, they didn't expect to see such a large group of girls, and weren't expecting to see the talent that they possess. Typically when you watch a men's beginner class, most of them will be able to do the same types of tricks, the cool thing about the girls is that each girl has taken a different route on what tricks they have chosen to learn. You go from Anita, who's used to riding concrete parks doing huge hips and flowing, to Nina throwing down handrails, to Cory with her backflips. Its just amazing, show up at the next contest and see for yourself.

Click here to see all the girls that entered

Stacey Mulligan - You gotta love Stacey, she always brings a positive vibe, and is the first to encourage and support everyone. During her final run she took herself out and had to spend a while with an ice pack on her ankle. She had big x-ups over the box, tailtaps, transfer from a quarter to a double peg on a sub above a slant wall/wedge
Nina Buitrago - Had 'the trick' of the women's class, double peg stall on a huge sub. It was one of those tricks that takes a few tries to pull and the entire park, and everything going on just stops to wait and watch it be pulled. Nina also double pegged a handrail, smith grind across a grind box, manuals, one handers, tailtaps,
Cory Coffey - The girl who needs no introduction, came out in her final run with the crowd pleasing backflip. During prelims people were taking bets on if she would do one. She also had huge airs, transfers, hips and double peg stall on a sub.
Jill Toller - This was at Jills local skatepark, so she has this place down. Xups over hips, flowing thru everything, especially the quarter - spine - quarter section, tricks over the spine, double peg grinds on the quarters
Sam Lyons - Sam is always the girl that all the other girls look forward to meeting the most (if you read the guestbook and come to the chatroom, you know why). Its nearly impossible to have a conversation with Sam with out a women's time of month coming into the conversation, or some other totally bizarre topic no one else would think or dare to bring up. As for riding, Sam is the QUEEN of rollbacks and fakies. 270 over a hip to fakie out.
Marianne Delfino - Marianne comes from the very most south part of Florida (actually an island), where she only has a few tiny junkie skateparks to ride, this was her first time at a big major park, and she made the most of it. one handers, transfers, xups, xups in transfers, and lots more stuffs
Kari Bennett - This was my first time meeting Kari, shes really quiet so I didn't talk to her to much. She had xups, double pegs, feebles.
Heather Roller - I haven't seen Heather since the Emerald Nation trip.. She was in my group in prelims so I didn't see as much of her riding as I would have liked to, but she had grinds and jumping.
Anita Hodgin - Straight outta Colorado, all her home parks are concrete, and you can see it when she rides, lots of transfers and hips. Anita also had the most stylish one hander airs and one hander feebles at the contest, she also did a feeble down the side of the box jump that I thought was really cool, she also went to do a transfer and took out a camera guy.
Christine Lisnock - This was my first time talking to and meeting Christine, her mom actually came out from New Jersey to the contest, its always great to see family support. She had lots of jumping transferring, and was really intent on one of the wall rides.
Stephanie Brown - When I started writing this, I realized Erin and Stephanie have the same last name, they arn't related in case your wondering. Stephanie was jumping the boxes and rhythm, and I'm sure more stuff that I'm forgetting.
Tiffany Bontorno - Tiffany was the youngest rider at 10 years old. She's a top ranked racer, and travels the country for that. I expect we'll be seeing more of her.
Kim Klisiak - I have nothing to say about myself. I did flatland tricks in the middle of my run.
Erin Brown - Erin rode in the same group as me, so I didn't really get to watch her ride. She's from Indiana though, so hopefully I can get together with her to ride this summer. She had the most kickass earrings.
Martha Sternberg - Martha has only been riding for a few months, she worked on jumping the box, and using the whole park.
Adrianne franscini - Adrianne rules, I've talked to her on the phone several times, but it was my first time meeting her, I wish she lived closer so we could hang out. Very fun person.
Francie Boyer - Francie is a unique case.. Adrianne picked her up on the way to Ohio, borrowed her a bike, and her first every day riding was the day before the contest. She was doing awesome jumping the box for her second day, and now has a bike on order.

***Please Note -- I'm sure I forgot some tricks that people did, and or may have got a few incorrect. Send in corrections if you see any needed.

Special thanx to Sam Schlappi for taking the riding photos.