Core ingredient

Mike Sciacca

Josh Knepper spent three days building a huge pile of dirt to play

in.

When he was done he had helped create the arena for the Core Tour,

a three-day alternative sports and music festivals held on the north

side of the Huntington Beach Pier last weekend.

Driving a tractor, the 25-year-old heavy equipment operator for

the Core Tore -- and one of its top athletes -- moved 50 yards of

dirt and formed two soft landings for the mountain boarding and BMX

competition arenas.

On Sunday, the final day of competition, the Pasadena resident was

nearly left standing at the top of one of the heaps he created.

Knepper finished second in the first mountain board high jump

event staged at Huntington Beach.

“It was a lot of work but I think it all turned out great,” said

Knepper, motioning to the setup around him, just moments after he

finished second in the mountain board high jump competition.

The high jump competition was the only competition event he

entered, but Knepper later in the day served as master of ceremonies

for the mountain bike free style competition.

He and high jump winner Jereme Leafe were honored with prizes and

interviewed by television crews in front of the mountain boarding

dirt landing heap.

“I put in a lot of sweat but with this environment at the beach

and this great weather, I didn’t have it too bad,” he said.

The 2003 tour marks the first time that mountain board high jump

competition has been held during the Core Tour, a three-stop annual

tour that began at Venice Beach in June before traveling to Jones

Beach, N.Y., in July.

Surf City was the final stop during the 2003 tour which, for the

first time, used a dirt landing instead of a wood landing during the

mountain board competitions.

“I was so busy setting up the dirt landings that I really didn’t

have time to concentrate on my event,” Knepper said. “Fifteen minutes

before the competition is when I did my first practice run.”

The Core Tour’s run in Surf City drew curious crowds that soaked

up the sun and whooped and hollered during some of the more daring

tricks that punctuated the skateboarding, inline skating, BMX and

mountain board competitions involving amateur and professional

athletes.

The dirt landing Knepper built and competed on had athletes in the

mountain board high jump and freestyle events roll in from a 22-foot

drop, traveling at 35 mph, with a 7-foot kicker.

There was a gap of about 25 feet, Knepper said, before competitors

went airborne trying to clear the tape maker.

The first-time mountain board high jump event went down to two

athletes from opposite ends of the country: Knepper and Leafe, a

19-year-old student from Monroe, N.H.

Knepper and Leafe both ranked among the top freestyle mountain

boarders in the world, survived a high jump finals field of seven

competitors.

It was Leafe, who ingested a breakfast of Red Bull and water prior

to the Sunday morning mountain board high jump final, who outlasted

Knepper, to win the title.

Leafe, cleared the tape at 17-foot-6 after Knepper had broke the

tape at the same mark moments earlier.

In hitting 17-foot-6, Leafe, a student at the University of New

Hampshire who said he missed the first few days of the fall term just

to be able to compete in Surf City, established a new world record in

the event.

The previous record had been set in May by Knepper, his 17-foot-4

jump currently listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

“I felt a little nauseous and had some butterflies at the top of

the jump before my final attempt,” said Leafe, who has won all three

high jump events during the 2003 Core Tour. “I just threw my head

back, looked into the sun and took off.

“As I jumped past the tape, I shifted my body out and peeked back

at the tape. When I saw it hadn’t been broke, I was stoked -- and

happy to get the win.”

Leafe’s winning jump earned him $1,000.

“I think core sports, extreme sports, are the fastest growing

sports now,” said Leafe, who first competed in Huntington Beach

during the 2002 Core Tour. “There are the top pros here from all over

and some pretty good amateurs, too.

“Coming here to Huntington Beach, enjoying the surf and sand and

the great weather, is great. I called some of my friends back home to

brag about the weather and the sites around here. I’d have to say

that I think Huntington

is the best stop on the Core Tour. I plan on coming back again

next year.”

* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at

(714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at [email protected].