2008 International Volcom Wild In The Parks: Japan Results - 2008 International Volcom Wild In The Parks: Japan Results
2008 International Volcom Wild In The Parks: Japan Results
Wild in the Park was held at Chiba Maps on Sunday, May 18th. We prayed for sunny day for the event due to last year ‘s cancellation under rainy condition. We got the wish and WITP was blessed under perfect sunny day. There were Grom, Open and Special division that kept with hot jam sessions as well as special demo by Volcom pros. All seven Volcom pros Shota Kikuchi, Shuhei Iida, Hiroyuki Matsuo, Hirotoshi Kawabuchi, Akira Ishizawa, Wataru Ganeko and Taito Morimoto got together night before event and cruise night street skate around Chiba for photo shooting.
We got stream of people coming as we open the event place and number of entries exceeded our expectation. We have entry that came as far as from Okinawa (Southern tip of Japan) and Volcom crews were truly stocked to have WITP. Contest was consisting with four minuses heats under jam session and two advances to next heats. Jam sessions were kept flowing from preliminary, semi final to final.
At Grom division (under 14 years old), kids were maximizing their little body and going into section like machine showing high-level session during entire four minuets heats. They were showing air and 5-0 grind at ramp as well as grind and board slid on the bank- to-bank rail. All kids improved level of their skating compare to it used to be. Kensuke Ishimaru who got 1st place showed his perfected styles and skating. He skates hard with passion and he is definitely one of next generation skate kids.
Skaters in Open division seemed to skate relax manners first three minutes but they blast and put last spurt on skating in last one minute attacking sections. Four skaters kept jam session so busy creating almost near collision. It was getting so intense but exciting to watch such jam session. Each skater appeal judges showing well thought routine and making trick surly at each section. Sagawa Kaito who got 1st place showed stylish skating with outstanding level of performance.
Preliminary, semi final and final in Special division became jam session that could not take our eyes off. Skaters at Special division showed perfected speed and tricks with styles. Tomozato Miyazato who got 1st place showed skating with clean styles. His bank-to-bank Backside flip was perfected and made it each time he tried. Makoto Nishikawa who got 2nd place showed skating with speed and style. His Back side Smith was impressive and front side nose blunt represent his skate style.
At the end, there was happening for the best trick contest. Someone dumped rail section that was specially built last year for the 15 minutes best trick. We replaced it right away with built in rail in the park. Eiji Uchi got 1st place despite of limited 15 minutes window. He made perfect Feeble grind at bank-to-bank rail. Congrats Eiji Million thanks for Volcom Family, Murasaki Crews and all the skaters participate WITP.
