Rotterdam World Cup Of Skateboarding.

January 14, 2008 @ 11:47 AM

This is how it should be. The Rotterdam event of 2005 was the talk of the skateboarding world for the remainder of that year, and with a seed break in 2006 the question was: could they repeat the feat?
No problems. Rotterdam is a heel of a city for an event like this. To put it in context: the Rotterdam is about more than a skateboard contest. There is a photography contest with a brick of banknotes up for the winner (you think contest skaters are competitive? The photographers fought and bitched and cheated the whole weekend away). There was a tearful, beerful 20 year anniversary shindig for Deathbox (now Flip) which saw a reunion of almost the entire original team, from Davy Van Laere to Alex Moul. For skaters of a certain age, it was like being handed back a lost moment. By happy coincidence, the Rotterdam carnival was on the same weekend, meaning that every bar, fast food joint and disco was rammed with saucy looking black sorts in sequinned hotpants. Plus, its in Holland.

That’s four aces in your hand and a gun under the table: you can’t lose.
The venue was a perfect size and easy to find, with the crowd high up above the action; the course was a good mix of design and danger, and the rider turnout was stronger than any other event this year. Sorry, but it was.

So who was good? Anthony Shultz and his friend Shuriken Shannon (pushing Flex O’ Connor for Best Name Ever) were both on it all weekend, Anthony back noseblunted the mega mega ski jump roll in thing after about 20 pushes but didn’t make the cut. David Loy frontside ollied off that thing into the small bank after three terrible slams- it was basically 1 push to 20 foot drop, anyone bigger couldn’t have tried it twice. Flips young ams were all outstanding: Axel you know I’ve rated since Kortrijk, Curren Caples was doing alley oop lien airs padless on vert and David Gonzales is the next wave- fakie 360flip noseblunts and frontside flip noseblunts on the quarter. The former he was doing without striking the tail, just by wagging the board as it cleared the lip. He also front boarded the huge rail every time, and I had him down to place higher. Dominik Dietrich was a shoo- in for his final place, he’s just better at power skating than everybody else this side of the pond, with the possible exception of Forstner. Slovakian rail chomper Andrej Leskoviansky had a good contest, its always difficult being the ‘whos that guy?’ guy in the final 10, but he crooked the biggie with ease. Bryan Herman showed no comeback problems after his leg break, hardflip the long stairs for fun.

Runaway no doubt winner for everybody was Arto Saari, though. Back if he was ever away, nobody could touch him for that fusion of strength and grace, he’s in a different league. Backtailed the whole high flat ledge everyone else avoided, frontboard the treacherous sheer wooden hubba, straight into the top spot deservedly.
Vert was held about half a mile from the stadium (why?) and the winds meant that people were getting blown around dangerously up there. I think the ramp was the same one as the Lausanne Grand Prix and seemed to be riding a little slowly, but Rune still filpped over that corner chasm thing with only inches to spare. This year, if Rune turned up everybody else was playing for second place and so it proved here again. Sandro Diaz is a grafter but Rune has the force with him these days.
A good vert contest but not the best I’ve seen this year. That would have been Bulgaria or Copenhagen.

So what else to know? Slap’s Joe Brook won the photo contest with a lovely Kenny Reed snap (is there any other kind?), Rotterdam is one of the best cities in the world for skating, its way cheaper than Amsterdam to stay in, and this is the best contest in the world right now: Copenhagen, Basel, Munster, Tampa take note.