Tony Hawk's Boom Boom Huck Jam
October 5th, 2003 @ Rose Garden in Portland, OR
By Robin Steeley
When asked what the name means, event founder and world renowned pro skater Tony Hawk replies "We HUCK ourselves into the air, it's a JAM format (not a competition), and sometimes we fall down and go BOOM"
Activision presents Tony Hawk's Boom Boom Huck Jam, an arena tour that features extreme sports, music, and total chaos. It is the first national arena tour to features skateboarders, BMXers and Motocross riders. The jam features skateboarding stars such as Andy Macdonald, Lincoln Ueda, Bob Burnquist, and Tony Hawk himself as well as BMX greats Dave Mirra, Mat Hoffman, and Kevin Robinson. Last but certainly not least is the death defying Moto X Freestyle riders with celebrity riders Carey Hart, and Dustin Miller. Last year's Jam sold out in Portland so this year it will be running a two day bill at the Rose Garden.
Its highlight is the elaborate ramp system, outstanding choreography, anarchist music, and professional riders, all of this going on at the same time. This year's set design is set up to look like an actual street and includes the awe inspiring "Loop of Death" and also the "30 Foot Fall". In the past all of this was ridden to the tune of punk/alternative bands such as Social Distortion, and Good Charlotte. Although Punk music and Extreme sports go hand in hand they wanted to try out a different approach this year, and it came by the way of the Anarchy Orchestra, an innovative instrumental band that seems to punctuate the action, everything choreographed perfectly in tune to the music.
The orchestra plays tripped out instrumental versions of classic punk and skater tunes, including a mixture of Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, The Ramones, and the Dead Kennedy's all in one song. They also play a broad range of more current music, such as White Stripes, Foo Fighters, and Queens of the Stone Age. Overall it's a spectacle and the synergy between the riders and the band is insane, they seem to feed off each other and it all blends seamlessly into the choreography.
Overall it was a death defying melee as skaters, moto-X and BMX riders went at once, with the massive half pipe encircled by the motocross track, and riders launching over the skate ramp as some of the best skaters known in the sport (Hawk and Hoffman) pull off synchronized 720's.
- Adrenaline rush at its best, I can't wait for next year.
