Fuzzy logic: Former rider designs, builds BMX courses

Kaysville motocross bicycle legend Fuzzy Hall sped down the steep start ramp and hit the first jump on a Dew Tour BMX dirt course like he had thousands of times before, but this time the jump was too short for the speed of the ramp.

Hall overshot the jump and crash-landed on the pavement. The crowd didn't moan because there was no crowd, just friends helping him test the course he'd built for a Dew Tour stop in Denver.

Tim "Fuzzy" Hall is one of the few athletic stars who can remain in their sport after their skills start to fade and earn more money than they ever did in competition. Once a fearsome competitor himself on the Dew Tour and at the X Games and Gravity Games, the 38-year-old now is known more for his prowess designing and building the bump-filled dirt tracks for those same events. He recently finished creating the course for the first stop on this year's Dew Tour in Portland, Ore., and this week he is moving dirt in a parking lot by the Triad Center for the Tour's Salt Lake City stop, which begins Thursday.

Hall is so good at what he does that a dirt course he built in his own Kaysville backyard was immortalized in a Gravity Games video game about fantasy BMX courses. He builds the courses for every Dew Tour BMX dirt contest, and the only way to find out if the tracks he designs have been built correctly is to test them himself by riding them at the same speed, with the same daring level of tricks, as the Tour riders will do.

"The testing is the most dangerous part," he said. "I've wrecked hundreds of times, gotten all kinds of scrapes and bruises testing jumps. I was sore for a week after that Denver crash, my ribs were really beat up."

Hall is considered the 'godfather' of BMX dirt jumping. He was the sport's first big star and invented many of the tricks still used today by the best riders in the world. Though he is ancient by action-sports standards and often sports bruises and road rash by the time the official contest begins, he still sometimes competes in the actual races.

"The Dew Tour is always generous to me with a wild card (invitation to race in events)," he said, "but every year it's harder to get up there, I get embarrassed. Riding has progressed so much in the past few years, it's insane. I'm not willing to do double back flips."

The parking lot across from the Triad Center has been cleared of cars and covered deep with tons of dirt. "It takes 1,200 yards of dirt for just my course," Hall said. "We bring it in by dump trucks, and each truck only holds 15 yards of dirt, so the trucks make a lot of laps. The Salt Lake dirt is awesome to work with; it's got the perfect amount of clay and sand. It packs really good."