NASS 2016 MTB Dirt New Date After Being Cancelled.

posted by Cliff Barbeary on Tue, 07/19/2016 - 11:14

We have had the pleasure of attending NASS for the last 3 years with a round of the series and every year the Music lineup and Extreme Sports events are off the hook.

This year was a bit of a bummer for us at Dirt Wars UK, Not due to the festival lineups but due to the really strong winds that hit the Bath and West Showground through out the weekend.

At the festival Dirt Wars gets certain times to run the comp as there are also BMX World Championships being held on the course through out the weekend. The time sets we had this year were not in keeping with mother nature and everytime the MTB riders took to the course the winds started gusting up to 28mph and this was constant throughout our time slots.

Friday saw the riders get out on the course and get in a bit of practice but even then the riders were getting blown all over the place.  Tom Isted (who also rode in the BMX World Championships) flipped the first jump in practice but when going for a tailwhip over the second jump the crosswind stopped the rotation of his bike sending him down onto the hard packed floor like a sack of spuds. This ended practice as all the riders and comp organisers decided it had got too dangerous and we would wait till the saturday and run a bit of practice before quallys.

Saturday was no different. The riders all gathered at the jumps and a few rode through to check wind speed and direction. This proved to be an accident waiting to happen as the riders were getting blown out mid air and landing really badly. The riders and organisers decided that Sunday would be a straight final and all riders would get 2 runs with the best run counting.
After partying the Saturday night away to the likes of Jurassic 5 and various other acts that help make NASS such an awesome weekend Sunday morning arrived and so did the wind and rain. The riders gathered at the jumps and a few dropped in and went through only to get blown side ways in the 22mph winds. We waited for the winds to drop but there was no chance and we had to call it a day.
The Rider Representative, Dirt wars organisers and Nass organisers all got together and decided to hold another round in September at Holdshott Trails in Hampshire for a NASS Replacement round under the NASS and DirtWars names. This round will carry the NASS prize purse (Thank you NASS/Vision Nine) and will also carry the full FMB Bronze round points. The date for this will be posted on www.dirtwarsuk.com on the 25th of July with full details of the round. Nobody can be blamed for the bad weather and we have to take our riders saftey into consideration at all times.
We would like to thank NASS for such an awesome weekend. If you haven't ever been to a NASS Festival then you really are missing out, every year the team go above and beyond to bring you an awesome weekend of top music acts and extreme sports from around the globe. Get over to www.nassfestival.com and check it out. See you there next year.......