Always The Sun

May 01, 2007 @ 5:15 PM

Etnies European Open Rome, Stadio Die Marmi, Oct. 6-8 2006

It’s incredible what the sun is capable of. Especially during autumn. You just don’t expect her to be where you are (at least if you’re from northern Europe)—so once she’s there, you could probably be lying in the gutter, pockets empty, homeless, with a broken leg and crappy pants, and you’d still be in a good mood, in one way or the other. Even more if someone tells you that it’s raining in Capetown, while you’re baking in 28°C, surrounded by Mussolini’s naked men of the Stadio Dei Marmi in Rome.

To solicit something you probably know: “All roads lead to Rome.” In this special case, the road to Rome was named ‘Etnies European Open’ – a road that is, in fact, in a better condition than most of the roads in Rome. Anything that hasn’t been said twice yet? Oh, the sun was shining. Massively. And that kept most of the folks in attendance from going bonkers over not enough food in the catering area, bad flatground on the course, public transportation workers on strike, the crazy-ass way Italians pilot their cars, strange breakfast in the hotel, Italy’s no smoking policy (it’s a miracle that the Italians manage to obey that rule—it seems to be the only properly working thing there), and the Italian version of laissez-faire, which makes the French look like Germans.

Sunshine, man, can’t beat it. So good.

The ramps were pretty good though. A nice IOU-Ramps potpourri of the 2006 Etnies events, partly set up in new combinations. And as always, Ruedi, O.B. Nice, Money, Cash, and their team of professionals were able to improvise on almost every little problem there was. The only thing that really could have endangered the proceedings was rain, but that just didn’t happen. It was sunnier than…sunny.
Apart from that there was nothing new, really. Friday saw the pre-qualifications. Skateboarders from all over Europe got acquainted with the ramps, the spots around the Stadio Dei Marmi (there were plenty, and nice ones, too), the fact that everyone and their sister was allowed to skate the course during practise sessions, as long as they paid five Euros admission at the entrance, the naked statues lining the premises (the only clothed one being the ice hockey player), the Moretti beer, and, of course, the scorching sun. When all was said and done, everyone piled into the shuttle bus, and a little over an hour later, the bus arrived at the ‘Rouge et Noir’ Hotel. Whoever was unfortunate enough not to get a spot on the bus needed a little longer to get there, but in the end all of them reunited on the hotel’s terrace for beers and talks anyway, both of which lasted until well after midnight.

Saturday saw a shuttle bus ride of only 15 minutes, the qualifications in street and vert, and, who would have thought, amazing weather, also known as one hot sun. Sascha Müller ended up being the unfortunate kid of the day, after a backside tailslide gone wrong sent him face first into the vertramp’s flatground with a sickening thud, splitting his chin open. Five stitches later, Sascha was able to skate the finals on Sunday.
Right next to the contest site was Rome’s huge soccer stadium, and that one was to see Italy play Ukraine that evening, so all the skateboarding had to be over and finished by five pm. Magically, the skateboarding Saturday ended exactly on point. A bunch of bravehearts decided to get tickets to the match, while the rest struggled to get back to the hotel. Unfortunately, there was no shuttle bus back to the crib. The “official” party turned out to be a lot of Etnies banners in front of a club that didn’t know it was hosting a contest party, and didn’t want skateboarders inside either.

Now, guess what? Sunday lived up to its name, and after a round of blinding semifinals, the ladies stepped up to see who was the one to take glory and money home. They put on quite a show for the audience, and when all was said and done, Ianire Elloriaga had done it again. Flygirl has probably more won more watches this year than she has fingers. Evelien Bouilliart came in second, and Kristina Westad from Norway settled for third.
The gents fought a pretty hot battle and there was no one on the premises who envied the judges for their job, because the finalists were all pretty … uh … close to each other. No homo, though. Oh well, maybe one or two, but who cares, right? Kilian Heuberger amazed with crazy creativity all weekend and took home the gold, followed by Ross McGouran who stated: “I’ll take it, but I don’t agree with it.” Maxime Genin from France got third with tons of pop, style, and contemporary trickery.
Ross’s statement probably referred to the fourth place of Rachid Addou from the Netherlands, as it’s pretty safe to say that Rachid got burned. That kid just skated too amazing, he had a well rounded run, a move for every obstacle, style, height, and everything else you need to place in the upper regions of the top three. But that’s how life (and competition) goes. Every once in a while, especially as a newby on the comp-scene, you get burned. Sad, but true.
In the vert finals, Terrence Bougdour spun himself to victory. Mathias Ringström, who has been absent from the European contest scene for quite some time now, took second place and amazed everyone in attendance with tweaks that just didn’t seem doable. Frontside stalefish nosebones with a completely stretched-out front leg? Beautiful, but it just doesn’t seem right. Jussi Korrhonen came in third.
An Etnies competition wouldn’t be complete without a best trick section, so that happened as well – in street, and vert. And they went at it like a pack of hungry wolves. Giorgio Zattoni threw him self into super-clean varial McTwists, but Mathias Ringtröm took the cake with a clean backside 360° kickflip. On the street course, you could see little smoketrails rising up from the tall ledge, as Philipp Schuster nailed stuff like a fs tailside to fs noseslide, and Tomas Vintr locked into a perfect kickflip bs smith grind, but in the end it was Jo Lorenz who thanked the audience with a “Roma, mi amore!”, and a nollie kickflip bs 5-0 to victory.

There it was: another weekend in a perfect atmosphere. Just don’t think about what it would have been like without that ton of sun… STOOOOOOOPaaah. Uno applauso—thank you Etnies.

“It’s good, it’s hot, it’s October, and I’m from London, so I’m sweating…more than a paedophile in a playground.” (Ross McGouran)

“It’s SHIT! Nah, I’m kidding. It’s all good, great weather. The only thing that bothers me is all those kids on the course—what are they thinking? At a competition on this level, you can’t let the public skate, that’s dangerous. The floor sucks, but the contest rules.” (Alex Mizurov)

“Great weather, it’s almost too much sun. I’m very happy to be here!” (Chris Pfanner)

“All chill, nice and warm, the riders are going off—there’s no stopping for little Axel, Philipp will most likely win the overall, and the best thing about this weekend are the spots you can find right next to the premises. Grab a filmer, a photog, and go.” (Kilian Heuberger)

“Better than expected. I actually made the cut, I never would have thought that. Right now, I’m a little tipsy, because I don’t know how to get back to the hotel.” (Patrick Streiter)

“Amazing. So good. Best day of my life. I had a better skate on the vertramp, actually. But the street course is nice, too. Good ramps, plenty of space.” (Rodney Clarke)

“Flatground bad, ramps okay, and the food is good—in the city. Good weather, lots of fun.” (Philipp Schuster)

“It’s unbelievable how bad public transportation is. From here to the hotel takes us almost two hours. If we’re lucky. We’re fucked. But the sun is shining, and that’s all that counts.” (Tom Brandelik)

“So good.” (Ricardo Fonseca)

“The floor is a little too soft, but the ramps are good. Nice weekend!” (Georges Agonkuin)

“It’s good man! The weather is perfect, a lot of good friends are here—can’t be bad, can’t be bad.” (Tomas Vintr)

“They’re robbing me every time … I mean, I’m not the best skater, but I missed only one trick.” (Chris Aström)

“It’s alright. Very nice, I’m happy to be here. The sun lets the melons grow. There’s some healthy melons growing in Rome.” (Andi Welther)

“It’s good, the weather is beautiful, and I’m chilling with my friends—it doesn’t get any better than that. What more could I want?” (Mack McKelton)

“Typically Italian—nice on the outside, rotten on the inside. Nuff said. Nah, it was great. Grande! Tutto bene!” (Schützi)

“Nice, it was fun! Great pasta! And now, we’re gonna drink some!” (Ruedi Matter)

“The organization was a little chaotic, we were a little late here and there, Italy is just on a different time scale. But whatever, it was a nice weekend.” (Oli Buergin)

“Sunny, very nice, I fucked up, but I don’t care.” (Yoni Ettinger)

“We’re in… Uh… Fuckin’… Italy. Rome!” (Leander Geelhoed)

Results:

STREET
1. Kilian Heuberger (GER)
2. Ross McGouran (UK)
3. Maxime Genin (FRA)

VERT
1. Terrence Bougdour (FRA)
2. Matthias Ringstrom (USA)
3. Jussi Korhonen (FIN)

GIRLS
1. Ianire Elorriaga (SPA)
2. Evelien Bouilliart (BEL)
3. Kristina Westad (NOR)

Best Trick Street
Jo Lorenz, Nollie Kickflip Backside 5-0

Best Trick Vert
Mathias Ringström, Backside 360° Kickflip

Overall Results
Street
Philipp Schuster, AUT

Vert
Terrence Bougdour, FRA

Girls
Ianire Elorriaga, ESP