SMASH RUTJA AIRFIELD 2018
SMASH is an annual motorcycle festival in Estonia at the abandoned Rutja airfield that is popular among the Finns, Estonians and Balts. As part of the event, there are many contests and a stunt riding tournament. We were primarily interested in the stunts and the show by the famous Finnish team StuntFreaks. All participants arrived the day before the opening, set up their tents and parked their vans along the perimeter. By the way, not far from there you can explore some beaches at the Gulf of Finland!
This year all the strongest Finns, led by Joona Vatanen, Lithuanians and the Russian rider Foma Kalinin got together in Rutja. SMASH is the largest spot we have ever seen. Such a platform is perfect for the Finnish riding style: high-speed, with a lot of slides, long stoppie rolls, wide drifts, powers and smoke.
As usual, Joona Vatanen won. Everyone expected highchair power circles from him — a first in competitive stunt riding — and he did them, though without jumping into the highchair. He also added a power eight, a new and most complex element that requires the ability to exit a fast circle into a straight line. The rest of the program remained unchanged, apart from the long highchair stoppie 270 that was replaced by a fast 180 kangaroo without a roll. He probably decided to make his freestyle even faster, as these rolls can take some time. It was a controversial decision, especially since he is the only one who does a 270+ highchair stoppie in competition, so this is definitely a top-quality stunt.
It was interesting to watch the performance of Foma Kalinin, because it was his first appearance on the Finnish stage. Foma tried to show the fastest and most dynamic stunts, so as not to get lost in one part of the airfield only. As a result, stoppie 270 with exit, kangaroo 360, unicycle and coasters helped him take second place.
Third place went to Niko Säkkinen, who has improved his riding a lot in recent years: he has gotten better at stoppies and drifts. At the very beginning of the final race he got into a wobble and hit his hand, but kept his composure and finished the program at a high level.
Here's a compilation of the best stunts and fails of the participants:
During practice sessions it was fun to watch guys riding motards. Arttu Stenberg from the Stuntfreaks team was amazing riding his new KTM 450. We have never seen such drift and control on a supermoto!
There were so many contests at this festival that it was impossible to see every single one. But here are a few that we could film:
Hopefully we will make it to the SMASH festival again next year but more prepared, bringing our tents and wood-fired grill with us!