Quiksilver Bowlriders 2008 Finals Round-Up

Now how do you round up an entire weekend in one sentence? Let me try it out. Ummm, it was awesome! Yeah, that works. That’s when you can really use the cliche American word ‘awesome’. The Quiksilver Bowlrider 2008 final in Malmö, Sweden brought all of the good factors together and made it work. I’ll bring in the results first if you don’t want to read all of my ramblings! Go Denmark!!!

Pro Results
1. Rune Glifberg (DK)
2. Arron Hamoki (USA)
3. Benji Galloway (USA)
4. Andy Scott (UK)
5. Ross McGouran (UK)
6. Mathias Nylen (SWE)

Legends Results
1. Nicky Guerrero (DK)
2. Chris Miller (USA)
3. Pat Ngoho (USA)

Juniors (15 and under) Results
1. Alex Sorgente
2. Love Rydstem
3. Werner Sandoz
4. Fernando Bramsmark
5. Stephan Boussac
6. Filip Nilsson

But let me start from the beginning. My trip up there began in Hamburg, Friday June 12th, at a local train station called ‘Neuwiedenthal’ – never been there before so you don’t need to know it. Funnily enough, while I was waiting for Wolfgang Toth and Gerd Rieger (Bailgun.com) to pick me up, Arne from Boardstein Magazine (well known independent German mag) turned up as well so our car was ready to rumble with some experienced skate travellers.

As Sweden is reknowned for its expensive alcohol, we hit the ferry’s shops to get some cheap booze and ended up taking something like 8 to 10 crates of beer with us (should I mention that we already had other liquor in the car? Hmmm, wasn’t this a skate trip?). With this additional weight, we got the car down a few inches lower and arrived in Malmö at the Stapelbäddsparken skatepark in the early afternoon. Just to make sure you understand, the park itself is big already and with all of the grandstands, tents and things going on, this was one big event for Europe! So once we got in, got our accreditation etc. I started just to understand how many amazing skaters were actually going to be at this event. So we watched a lot of the guys take the park apart and while taking some pictures we somehow (I don’t know how to be honest…) hooked up with Reese Simpson and Ben Schroeder (!!!) and later we all headed to the parking lot where we basically had a pretty funny party with the above mentioned and guys like Jimmy the Greek, Magnus Olson (man, I’m bad at names, please correct that one!) and tons of others. Great way to start the contest. And no, we didn’t hit the ‘Amore’ party with the Nike SB shoe launch – it was hotel, in the room, hit the bed and conk out for me. I don’t remember much but luckily I woke up not completely painted up with markers and ready to go the next day.

We started the day off with Axel from Skateanddestroy.de who lives up in Göteborg, Sweden (to be honest, I didn’t even know he was the guy who runs the website until later that evening!) who showed us a DIY looking park being built in Malmö as well which was halfway finished and looking really fun! Only small transitions, loads of bumps and hips and a pretty large area located in a park right by the beach! These Swedes just do it right. After chilling there for a while we headed back to the park for another full day of insane skating. I may be some skater wimp (I don’t really think so..) but I still don’t understand how these guys just all skate without any pads, doing transfers into 8 foot deep transitions over a 14-foot distance or McTwists in the deep-end of the main bowl…so be it, it is damn gnarly! And Dave Duncan talked the entire weekend, MCing the contest and the statement of the weekend has to be “criss-crossing craziness” which always was spoken when the jam sessions went off and they did go off. Being a lazy bastard, I decided to let the others be media crazy with their cameras, boxing each other out of the way to get the best photo spot while I relaxed with many others in the grandstands enjoying the beverages, exchanging thoughts and shouting our respect out to the skaters. A very good laugh it was indeed! The band Concrete SS is also worth mentioning, they ripped out some good tunes and you always have to love those bands wearing pulled up white socks and masks – nice one!

Back to the parking lot for the second evening and this is when Wolfgang Toth, a legend here in Germany just about, just about went insane. If you don’t know him, he has the most incredible laughing fits and once he gets started he can’t stop. Add some (or a lot) of alcohol and you have a dangerous combination. I think he laughed for 45 minutes straight (I’m not exagerrating here, it was nuts!), rolling on the floor, throwing beer a people and getting beer poured all over himself. By that time we had attracted pretty many people who were all enjoying the “Hamburger” show, sharing drinks and many laughs. Thanks to all of you, it was great again. I stuck Wolfgang in a taxi later and that was about it for the evening.

Sunday, final day. What can I say? We hung out with guys like Christian Hosoi, Pat Ngoho, Benji Galloway, Nicky Guerrero and many, many more. Talked old stories, laughed and enjoyed another day full of great skating. Nicky Guerrero is just plain amazing. He rips like he hasn’t gotten a day older than when I first saw him back in 1986 at an indoor halfpipe contest in Konstanz, Germany, respect! And just to mention two others – they were all great – Arron Hamoki with his wealth of tricks and the blunt to kickflip fakie on the big wall: no words necessary. Mathias Nylen just shredded the place and his several attempts to transfer into the big bowl – insane!

Here’s a list of other sites with loads of pictures, videos and more, enjoy and get there next year: you won’t regret it!

- Tackyworld.com
- Vert.nu