2016 FISE World Series Montpellier: two world cups on the program!
The FWS Montpellier, taking place on May 4-8 2016, is the first stop of the 2016 FISE World Series international tour. In 2015, the tour went to France, China and Malaysia. Just like each year, the event brings together the best athletes on the planet in BMX, Skateboard, Inline Skate, MTB and Wakeboard. We will soon reveal the next destinations on the 2016 tour, during a press conference on March 31st in La Bellevilloise (Paris), and we can tell you only one thing: it’s going to be a blast!

This year, we have two novelties on the program, and they are quite big: we are talking about two world cups ! First of all, the popular BMX Park contest officially becomes the “UCI Freestyle Park World Cup”. Second, we are happy to introduce a new discipline at the FISE, wakesurfing. A stop of the wakesurf world cup will be taking place during the opening weekend in Grau du Roi Port Camargue onApril 30 and May 1st, 2016.
On top of it all, street art is back for a third year running and will be better than ever, with the participation of many well-known artists.

FISE and UCI: a collaboration that was meant to be
Created in 1997, the FISE has become a staple event on the international extreme sports scene. With relentless courage and persistence, the FISE World Series Montpellier has become one of the biggest extreme sports gatherings in the world The numbers speak for themselves: today, it’s 550 000 spectators, 2000 athletes, broadcast in over 50 countries and 2 million views on videos and 4 days of live TV.

In front on such a success, the UCI and the FISE decided to collaborate so that all BMX Park stops for the 2016 FISE World Series become competitions of the first “UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup”. This means that the winner of the 2016 FWS tour will also be sacred 2016 BMX World Champion.

The stakes are hence doubled for the BMX riders on this 2016 tour. On top of riding for a FISE trophy, they will also be battling for the World Champion title, which will be labelled and recognized by the UCI.

A new discipline makes its first steps into the FISE World Montpellier history: please welcome wakesurfing!

This discipline will ONLY be present in the “opening” weekend in Grau du Roi Port-Camargue 4 days before the Montpellier event. This Gold stop (only professionals competitions, no amateurs) is part of the Wakesurf World Cup, whose finals will be taking place in the USA.

Wakesurfing is a boardsport that started appearing in the 1950s. Just like most boardsports, the discipline was born from young people looking for adrenaline.
This discipline is a variation of surfing. The rider surfs the wave produced by the boat pulling them: they literally surf the wake. Unlike wakeboarding, there are no bindings on the board, and the feet aren’t attached: more freedom of movement but also a more difficult practice. The riders don’t hesitate to attempt tricks that are becoming more and more fascinating and impressive to watch.

The FISE isn’t just a competition: it’s a full-on festival that goes beyond extreme sports culture and the Street Art is a great example of it.
This is why street art artists will be taking over the Lez riverbanks from May 4-8, 2016 to share their passion through live painting, creative workshops for kids and exhibitions. It’s all free and taking place outdoors, during all 5 days of the festival. We are very excited to also announce the collaboration with great artists from Paris and Montpellier like Clash, Shore, Vince and Nekay, as well as other surprise guests.