Aitken Wins First Pro Championship

Mike Aitken won his first professional BMX contest Sunday, hitting all four of his jumps in the final and closing with a 360 turndown tailwhip that clinched the title of Pro Dirt Finals at the Panasonic ShockWave Beach Games in Huntington Beach.

Aitken, 17, from Sandy, Utah, scored 854 points, 11 points ahead of Chicago’s Scott Wirch, who took a commanding lead in the King of the Dirt Series, with his second, second-place finish of the weekend.

The victory came as a total surprise to Aitken, who was amazed he had finally beaten some of the world’s best.

“I was just hoping to finish at least fourth,” Aitken said. “I never beat guys like Lavin and Nasty.”

TJ Lavin of Las Vegas, the defending champion of the King of the Dirt Series, won the qualifying round, but fell on his first two jumps, injuring his shoulder. He came back with two of the contest’s best jumps, but the damage was done, and Lavin, the defending X Games gold medalist, finished ninth.

Cory “Nasty” Nastazio of Huntington Beach, had four clean jumps, never scoring less than 90 out of 100 points, but despite two back flips in the final round, he couldn’t catch Aitken, finishing third with 841 points.

“This win really means a lot to me,” Aitken said. “But, I’m not sure I deserved to win. These other guys had some amazing stuff.”

Aitken took home $1,500 for the victory. The final stop of the King of the Dirt Series is in two weeks in Virginia Beach.

Notes

Tim “Fuzzy” Hall of Salt Lake City was so sure that he didn’t get one of the 10 spots in the finals of the Pro Dirt competition, that he autographed his jersey and gave it to a young fan in the crowd for a souvenir. Moments later Hall learned he had earned the final qualifying position, so he tracked down the spectator and retrieved his jersey for the remainder of the competition. Hall finished 10th with 727 points. . . . In the Big Sky event, Lavin, Hall, Steve McCann of Australia and Josh Stricker of Huntington Beach, shared a $2,000 cash prize, when each jumped a height of 19 feet, 6 inches. The jumping bar needed to be rebuilt for the riders to attempt higher elevations, so the contest was called a draw. . . . In the skateboarding street finals, Huntington Beach’s Kurtis Colaminiko finished third in the amateur event, qualifying him for the pro event later in the day. Colaminiko, 15, stunned the crowd with a third-place finish in the pro event, behind Brazil’s Rodrigo Texiera and San Diego’s Caine Gayle. . . . San Clemente 11-year-old Ryan Sheckler, finished second in the amateur event, behind 18-year-old PJ Ladd of Rockland, Mass.