Two thousand BMX riders will swarm Braddon this weekend for ACT Jam 2025, including kamikaze stuntmen from Nitro Circus, who are detouring from their world tour, not to perform but to witness the world’s best “high air.”
Traffic will come to a halt on Elouera Street this Friday and Saturday night (7-8 November) as the road is closed off and the best international BMX riders launch off custom-made street ramps for the very first time.
Last year’s ACT Jam was held at Fitzroy Pavilion at Exhibition Park in Canberra, where one BMX champ flew off a ramp and almost hit the eight-metre-high roof.
“He literally blew the roof off it,” said Tyson Jones-Peni, president of Freestyle ACT BMX Club and co-owner of Canberra’s Back Bone BMX shop, which organises the annual event.
“I would definitely say you’ll be seeing double backflips, long jumps and all sorts of crazy stuff, lots of triple tail-whips,” Tyson said.
When Tyson first started ACT Jam in 2013, it was a modest affair with 300 Australian riders. Today, it’s one of the biggest BMX events in the world and the largest freestyle BMX event in the Southern Hemisphere, even attracting Olympic gold medallists.
“Canberra’s got really good riding facilities and the BMX community in Canberra has been really strong,” Tyson said. “The location, the proximity to all the skate parks. BMX has a rich heritage in Canberra.
“An important part about building the community and the culture and making sure that it keeps going for future generations is to have them build the memories that you can’t erase, being able to sit there with your idol.”
The gravity-defying tricks this weekend will take off from specially-built, three-metre-high wooden quarter-pipes in Braddon, and dirt ramps at UC Canberra Stromlo Forest Park – one of Australia’s best freestyle jump parks.
“They’d be like six meters in the air easily, off the top of the jump,” Tyson said. “That’s off the top of the takeoff, not off the ground, so they’re going to be over ten meters high.”
The Hillfire jumps at UC Canberra Stromlo Forest Park promises “big lines” and “big sends” – basically the sky’s the limit.
“In terms of riders, Canberra’s certainly got some of the world’s best riders,” Tyson said. “I was coaching a girl named Sarah Nicki who is a Canberra local and she’s since had to move to the Gold Coast to be on the Australian Olympic team when she was just 16.
“She was actually the youngest competitor on the world stage at the time. I’ve known her since she was about eight years old.”
The youngest BMX riders at this jam start at four years old and go up to 54, provided your knees hold out (there’s no suspension in a BMX bike).
“This event is made so that the young kids and up-and-comers get to rub shoulders and ride with the best riders in the world,” Tyson said. “I’m not trying to create an event where everyone sits back and watches. It’s for young, local BMX riders. As long as they sign up, they can be literally sitting on the deck or on the starting hill with the world’s best.”
ACT Jam 2025 is on 7-8 November at Elouera Street Braddon from 4pm-10pm and on Sunday 9 November at Stromlo, from 3pm-8pm. Info: backbonebmx.oxm
