TXOTX ! 09 DURANGO BASQUE COUNTRY 06/05/2009 The City of Durango located in the heart of the Basque Country got invided by skaters for the 3rd consecutive year last Saturday 2nd of May to celebrate Volcom Stone's Txotx! Miniramp contest. The crowd All local skate legends were there to compete in a typical Basque atmosphere and some of the finest European tranny skaters made the trip to drink some cider and dispute the 8000€ prize money. The ramp was designed to skate fast, the corner a funbox and the facing extentions spicing it up for the competitors and the audience... Ivan fs Feeblegrind Some of the rippers such as Tas, Diego Doural, Ibabe, Emilio Arnanz, Mena, Juanan, Danny Lozano, or canadian Chris Mongenais and Argentinian Gonzalo. Rodriguez blasting massive airs couldn't make the cut to the semi finals with only 12 guys making the cut. Then the final spots were hard to get and the battle was impressive letting some of the best guys down with a"classic" full speed Ferit Batir, Marti Jurasec air control, never ending Danny Leon runs, Manolito flying and competing with Guillaume Mocquin's stylish tricks, and Julien Benoliel with his legendary flow and bs nollies... At the end Alex Giraud from Marseille switch bs tailslided into the 6th spot, never falling JM Roura took the 5th spot, Aaron Sweeney from England FS nollied 360 into the 4th place, legend Ibon Marino finished on the podium at the 3rd place and the brothers in arms Alain Goikoetxea and Ivan Rivado battled it hard for the win getting gnarlier at every run (I would say as always) with Ivan taking the win for the 2nd time. A best trick got held on the box over the corner of the ramp and despite a perfect bs tailslide from Alain G, Guillaume Mocquin took home the 700€ with an incredible fs five-o to fakie...(apparently he wanted to lipslide the whole thing too). The audience got hyped by the skateboarding level (and the free cider) until the prize ceremony where the Txotx! Barrels and checks got distributed and the winner got honoured by the "Txapela" and a "dantzari" (a traditional honour dance)... If you weren't there you missed a good one: sick skateboarding, free tapas, free cider and some heavy rock and roll was playing next door after the comp... Thanks a million to everyone that came, Gaizka Izaguirre, Plateruena, the ayuntamiento de Durango, Oskar, Esteban, Cua, Hierro, Fano and everybody else that helped us throwing this one down. See you next year! TXOTX! Here are the results: Results: 1. IVAN RIVADO 3000 € 2. ALAIN GOIKOETXEA 1600 € 3. IBON MARIΡO 800 € 4. AARON SWEENEY 500 € 5. J.M. ROURA 400 € 6. ALEX GIRAUD 300 € 7. FERIT BATIR 250 € 8. JULIEN BENOLIEL 200 € 9. MANUEL ALVAREZ 150 € 10. DANNY LEON 100 € BEST TRICK ON THE BOX: GUILLAUME MOCQUIN, fs five-o fakie, 700 € Ferit Boneless Alain Eggplant Cider time Guillaume BS smith Ferit FS air FS air GUILLAUME MOQUIN STALEFISH Julien BS Smith Podium