2008 European Wild In The Parks Championships Results - We were greeted with solid fall weather when we arrived in Amsterdam: heavy and almost non-stop rain… even renting bikes was a bad move. Luckily the skate park is indoor and they serve good coffee.
2008 European Wild In The Parks Championships Results
We were greeted with solid fall weather when we arrived in Amsterdam: heavy and almost non-stop rain… even renting bikes was a bad move. Luckily the skate park is indoor and they serve good coffee. 108 skaters from 17 countries were qualified to the 1st European Wild in the Parks Championships and over 90 made the plane, car, train, bus or boat trip to Amsterdam to compete, a lot of involvement from everyone such as the Czech guys driving overnight to be there or Finish, Estonian and Greeks to come from so far!
Everyone stayed courtesy of Volcom at a youth hostel that was kind of Okay for a backpacker (good breakfast and a bar), good spot to come back with plenty of travel stories, especially if you mix all these skaters together. For example kids playing game of skate at 2 am in their rooms or snoring old guys getting attacked and beaten up by groms... Some took advantage of the few sunrays on Friday afternoon to session the concrete bowl in the city but most of the action happened in the park. This skate park witnesses so many gnarly tricks all year trashed by local rippers, during Amsterdam am, and then this WITP champs was no exception.
It was really good to see that many different kinds of skateboarding styles and talents all together, from Josef Scott (Sweden) hammering the spots with style (huge fs flip over the gap!!) and winning the “Hype of Day” Electric award, to Remy Taveira (France) bs crailsliding the big quarter pipe or even Miikka Virtanen (Finland) with his ridiculously big bs heel flips on the pyramid (he was so close to adding a late shuvit too). Doing a complete trick list would be really long but to make a long story short there was a ton of killers!
But the most incredible thing is the really good quality of skateboarding in the 15 and under category, there was so many talented rippers that could freak out most of the team managers looking for new blood. Unfortunately during the 15 and under final, Dani Leon from Spain slammed really hard and his head hit the ground. Medics had to wait before moving him anywhere and the hype went down for the other skaters to end the contest, these things happen in skateboarding (1st bad injury reported in any WITP in the 5 last years!). Results were taken from the qualification heats for the 16 and over and from the final; and top 5 of each category got submerged by prizes and product (they had to ask people to help them carry their stuff!). For information, as I am writing these lines Dani is out of the hospital in a plane back to Madrid and we wish him a quick and good recovery to see him rip the spots soon!
Eyal Maman from Switzerland and Roope Tonteri from Finland are flying to the US in 10 days to Phoenix, Arizona to compete in the world WITP champ’s. They will skate the different concrete parks over there and make friends with some rattlesnakes in the desert. Fernando Bramsmark from Sweden won the best trick with a clean and smooth bs nosebluntslide on the brand new rainbow ledge. We ended the day with a bbq and for the older ones who still had energy and weren’t lost in some Amsterdam’s streets, we had a couple of drinks at the new Bitterzoet club.
Results:
Over 16
1. Roope Tonterri, Finland 2. Thomas Weber, Germany 3. Woody Hoogendijk, Holland 4. Nelson Mosikili, Holland 5. Dino Brandao, Portugal
Under 16
1. Eyal Maman, Switzerland 2. Alexander Risvad, Denmark 3. Danny Leon, Spain 4. Stijn Delheij, Holland 5. Daan van der Linden, Holland
Hype of the day: Josef Scott, Sweden
Best trick: Fernando Bramsmark, Sweden with a bs nosebluntslide.
Wildcard Amsterdam Am 09:
Nelson Mosikili, Holland Herman Stene, Norway
Many thanks to everyone involved in the contest, the skaters and parents that made the trip, Press, Tacky crew, Elske and Mike from Skate park Amsterdam,Ben the speaker, judges, Volcom crew from every country that travelled to help out, Riky, MC Ben and our friends in the industry that gave tons of prizes: Red Bull , Jart , Electric , Skullcandy and Nixon .
