In 2009, a group of BMX pros traveled to Iraq to perform the first Bikes Over Baghdad shows at U.S. military bases. Saturday, they returned to the Middle East for their seventh tour. And this time, ESPN.com has the privilege of joining them and documenting their adventures over the next week and a half.
First stop: an undisclosed location in the Persian Gulf. Saturday morning, after nearly 24 hours of travel and pulling a near all-nighter to rebuild and paint the ramps they'll use in Sunday night's show, the riders performed their first show of this tour, a flatland demo and meet-and-greet at 11 a.m. A group of soldiers from the 7th EACCS came straight to the show after landing back at base at 9 a.m., still in their flight suits. By show's end, the six men had been awake nearly 24 hours.
"If these guys are willing to leave their families and come here to perform for us in this heat," says staff Sgt. Ernesto Hubble, who took part in the audience-participation segment of the morning show, "then we can stay up a few more hours to watch them." [See video above.]
In the evening, hundreds of troops gathered in the base's Memorial Plaza for the overseas premiere of the "Bikes Over Baghdad" documentary, which chronicles the first six BOB tours and features several scenes filmed at this base in 2011. When the BOB riders arrived in Iraq for that first tour in 2009, they did so without knowing if their plan to build temporary ramps and perform freestyle shows in the desert would be sustainable. Today, they're one of the most requested military entertainment shows of all time, and their Facebook page is filled with requests to, "come to my base."
While the core group of riders has remained fairly consistent, each tour features a few special guests. The riders on this tour include Brian Kachinsky, Chad Kagy, Mykel Larrin, Morgan Wade, Mike "Rooftop" Escamilla, Jeremiah Smith and Scott Powell; ramp builders Nate Wessel and Ron Kimler and announcer Darryl Nau.
A feature on the tour will run in a December issue of ESPN The Magazine. And over the next five days, we'll be sending daily videos and photos back to the States, so you all can experience the seventh Bikes Over Baghdad tour with us all.
