Cody Gessel Teva Games 2011

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So it all started last week on Wednesday after noon. had you told me I was going to Teva I would have called you a liar. Practice was on Thursday and I had no real intentions on going. Well, Wednesday night at about midnight I decided to skip work and go. I packed up and left early Thursday morning. I got there on Thursday evening with a few hours of practice left. But do to high winds I only got a few runs in. Luckily the course was pretty simple and had a fun flow to it. Curto from Geax Tires was awesome enough to let me stay in the Geax manor with a whole bunch of other people. Thanks man! The place was super nice and we enjoyed a super good meal Thursday night. Then Friday morning was time to get a little more serious, I haven’t been spending much time doing tricks lately since I’ve been off the bike a bit with a few injuries. I started trying to get a few tricks back and just be original. By the time qualifiers were supposed to get started I had my run all planned out. My Fezzari 801 was riding awesome!  My first run I screwed up just a little bit and had to straight air one jump, which hurt me a little. I had no idea where I was standing so my 2nd run I decided to switch it up and try a little bit harder run. Well…I made another small mistake off the first double but still managed to save the rest of the run. After a long wait and a little bit of confusion I found myself with 17th place, the last spot in the finals. I was super stoked! Unfortunately my brake was having troubles and kept slowly losing power throughout the day. Luckily it held just enough for me to brake in the one section I needed it. My first run I put together really solid and I was really happy with it. My 2nd run I had a harder run planned but crashed on the first double and that was it. 2nd run everyone really stepped up their game and I ended up coming out of finals with 14th place. I was really happy and stoked on my own and everyone else riding. So that left the high jump/best trick contest left. There was $750 up for grabs to whoever threw down. I started out with one of the first tricks of the night and did a flip table. I almost crashed but it was good enough for a little of the money. Knowing I had nothing else to offer I decided to go for the hundred dollar prize of knocking over the high jump pole. Right off the lip I ditched my bike and tried to grab on to the pole. I ended just slamming into it and getting flung off onto my head. It was pretty funny but definitely a stupid idea, haha. (see the video here) So with that I decided to call it a day and beat up and tired it was time to end the day. I woke up the next morning and decided to drive home and spend the rest of the weekend in Utah. I’m super stoked I decided to go and thanks to everyone that helped me out! Fezzari bikes, Demon dirt, VP components, Spank Components, and Division 26!

Photo by Dave Wright Photography

Trying to Take Down the Pole