What's Good? Josh Turley x Preston Okert '1030D' Part Reading NORA Cup 2023 5 minutes Next Battle of Hastings 2023 - A Wrap

NORA Cup 2023

The Number One Rider Award (NORA) Cup has been an institution of the freestyle BMX world since 1979 when BMX Action Magazine created the concept (where readers vote for their favourite riders). That the platform has lasted over 40 years, while continuing to retain it's prestige is unbelievable. 

Quick tidbit, it's understood that the initial award was for racing only, and was called the Number One Racer Award. With the passage of time and the advent of different forms of riding and thus different categories, the title has shifted from 'racer' to 'rider'. 

An image from BMX Action Magazine from the events inception, how good is that dirt spray! Photo courtesy of BMX Society

Having read Ride BMX in the early 2000s and continuing to pay attention to the awards to this day, it feels like winning the event maintains a significant level of importance, that which works to create its recognised status. While the event is potentially subject to criticism in being insular and faced with a certain level of nepotism, you cannot argue with the winners, most of which are well deserved from most angles. 

Building on the above, for a brief passage of history, Our BMX (formerly Ride BMX) have put togeher a comprehensive article on the birth of the awards and its journey to the present day. To quickly fill in the gap from 1979 to 2023:

"In 1985, Freestylin’ Magazine (BMX Action‘s sister magazine) introduced most popular freestyle rider, team, and bike categories. In 1989, reader’s of Go: The Rider’s Manual were able to vote for NORA Cup, as well. The NORA Cup awards ceased in 1991 when the publisher of both magazines (Wizard Publications) went out of business. In 1997, Snap Magazine resurrected NORA Cup with the number one rider, team, and bike on the race side. In 2000, Ride BMX resurrected the freestyle categories and it continued on with various changes until Ride BMX was shuttered in early 2019. The former employees of Ride created Our BMX and continued the NORA Cup tradition."

Since 2017 (other than 2020 & 2021), the awards have been held in Hastings, England. This year is no different, with the awards tacking on to the Battle of Hastings (BOH), an exciting bookmark to a long weekends worth of insane riding. To read more about the BOH event, take a read of a recent LUXBMX Journal article in which we highlight the LUXBMX crew's journey in 2023. 

Screenshot of Big Salad as TDCU comes to a close. So sick to see this project nominated in 2023

Like the BOH event, the LUXBMX crew have their fingerprints all over NORA Cup 2023, which for a small business operating in humble ol' Brisbane, is a pretty great achievement. To fill you in, out of the 8 categories for rider of the year (i.e. street, trails, transition, flatland, women, readers choice, video and video part), LUXBMX has a nominee in 3 categories. These are:

  • Josh Dove for transition rider of the year (going up against Dennis Enarson, Jason Watts, Kevin Peraza and Pat Casey)
  • Boyd Hilder for readers choice rider of the year (going up against Broc Raiford, Felix Prangenberg, Pat Casey and Miki Fleck)
  • Troy 'Big Salad' Charlesworth and his video 'Tear Da Club Up' (TDCU) for video of the year (going up against 'Domino' - OSS, 'Freak' - Monster, 'Integration' - Vans and 'Magnetar' - Fast & Loose). 

It's worth noting that Boyd has form in this category, having taken out the 2019 NORA Cup in the same category.

Boyd at the 2019 NORA Cup, holding that sexy cup. Photo courtesy of Odyssey BMX

With the savvy operators at Our BMX behind the scenes and with a history of putting on an incredible event, it is guaranteed that the event will be a hype man's dream. With a venue packed full of insatiable bikers looking to rip and tear, a sky high atmosphere compounded after a long weekends worth of biking and partying, the crew will be eager to celebrate the achievements of the best of the best in biking in 2023. For a taste of the chaos, take a peek at the 2022 event. 

Now, to watch the 2023 event, you would need to be tuned in at 9pm on Sunday 10 September - this is of course assuming you are in Hastings. If you're in Australia, with a 9 hour time difference, you would need to check in at 6am on Monday morning, the 11 September. There will be a live stream on Youtube, if you search '2023 NORA Cup livestream', you'll be in business. 

To wrap this thing up, I'll leave the nominee videos for each of the 3 x categories.