BMX Nationals

i had a surprisingly amazing weekend!
this was our first BMX national event. total newbies… we had no idea what to expect.
the 5 star is definitely influenced by the fact that we came here with no expectations of my son even transferring to the main races… when in fact he transferred all three days and placed in all three main events! 4^th place, 1^st place and 3^rd place… woo hoo!
ok so a general idea of what is happening here so you won’t be as lost as we were…
since it was 117 degrees in vegas… all events were indoors. thank goodness!
there was a discount for staying in the south point hotel (where all events took place) but we opted to use our marriott points and have 3 nights for free!!!
although i am so glad we didn’t have to pay for our room… i must say it would have been so much better if we had stayed at the resort so the kids (and I) would have a room to go back and rest in… and i would be able to lounge at the pool!
the event is 3 days long… you register for each day individually (no break for doing all 3)…which i think they should to encourage attendance…
day 1 (friday) was $ 25 and sat & sun were $ 45 each.
each day had a 30 min time for each age group to ride the track to get a feel for it… during those 30 min a kid had a chance to ride 2 – 4 times .
there was also a flat dirt area in another room for the kids to just ride their bikes.
each day starts with a qualifying race… my son took 1^st in the qualifying race each day so didn’t have to race again until the mains… which by the way was like 5 – 8 hours later! if i had known this i would have taken him back to our hotel to rest… but i had NO IDEA what the schedule was like…
USA BMX could really use someone who could drastically improve their website…
this website has a live audio feed of the races… but it could be used for so much more!
all the race schedules could/​should be posted to their website… they are still using ONLY paper schedules that are posted physically on the walls…
this is great for the kids to check out… but why not also post pdf’s of these schedules online??? if that was the case we could leave and come back.
so needless to say… the days were very very long! by the time we got to the mains… my boy was exhausted!
merchandising…
well i must say that i am very happy to see that they are not trying to price gouge anyone on the event tees ($ 20) and sweatshirts ($ 35)…not cheap but compared to concert merch… definitely reasonable. got my son a tee day 1 and day 2 decided to buy him a hoodie… unfortunately they had sold out!
So they also need merchandising help (unless is raises the prices!) but they really needed to order more merchandise. i understand they don’t want leftovers… but those could be sold on their website later!
people…
huge variety of peeps attending the event.
all races…
all walks of life…
from all over the country…
but what i must say is that almost everybody was VERY friendly, VERY supportive, and everyone treated each others children with respect. It seems that this national circuit of kids/​parents are like a huge extended family. I really really like this for my children… main reason we got out of little league (lots of douchie, overcompetative dads who were living vicariously through their kids.
In BMX… moms, dads, brothers, sisters are all racing! lovin it! (no this doesn’t mean that i will race!)
admission was FREE for spectators! come check it out when they are in your neighborhood. coming to Chula Vista end of September!