THE EUROPEAN 2009 WITP CHAMPIONSHIPS, FULL REPORT 06/10/2009 Click on image above to play movie!!! After stopping in almost every European country this spring and summer, Volcom Stone’s Wild In the Parks celebrated its annual European Champs last weekend in Malmö, Sweden. Around 120 skaters, parents and media made the trip and stayed with us for free to attend the contest on Saturday…Don’t know if there is any scientific limit number of skaters together in the same hostel to get things to turn wrong but we got lucky and there hasn’t been any major issue reported. In Sweden, the laws are strict and people are well policed, even a Youth Hostel looks like an Ikea showroom, but when kids from Spain, Finland, France, Czech and even Canada invade it, breakfast staff consider themselves lucky if there is no food fight with anchovies… Totally rebuilt, the street course of Bryggeriet skatepark is really fun to skate, with plenty of obstacles to hit, and can hold a big amount of people at the same time despite its size. The 3 zones we used for the contest consisted on a set of stairs, with a rail and 2 hubbas on the sides, a manual pad with curbs giving plenty of combo options and a double bank with some down rails. Nothing was really too “gnar”, therefore promoting technical and inventive tricks, and all the crazy transitions all around the park added some fun to the thing. Billy bs noseblunt slide BS lipslide The park was already full by noon and the warm-ups were already impressive…every part of the course got quickly assaulted while our always-hyped Canadian MC -who was discovering Scandinavia for the first time- was teasing the crowd. The 15 and under division impressed their elders, for sure there is an up and coming generation of talents in Europe; here are a few highlights (can’t mentioned it all): Nassim Guammaz from Holland, shredding the course with style and ease all day, winning the 15- Hype of The Day Electric Prize and finishing at the 8th place, August Aalstad sw fs heelflipping the stairs into the 7th place, Andrew Jerde from Spain fs boardslide 270 out on the rail and gap to lipslide on the manual island ending at the 5th spot; Danish Alexander Risvad switch big heel on the stairs into the 4th place; Jakub Jiruska from Czech masterizing the 3 spots and earning the 250€ and tons of other prizes of the 3rd place, Notis Aggelis all the way from Greece landed all his tricks in the final and skated really strong won the 500€ of the 2nd place; while Jaakko Ojanen from Finland was showing his impressive bag of tricks all day, being super tech, with some five o late flip on the ledges, nosegrind up nollie flip out to nose manual on the pad…he killed every spot and won the contest, got 1000 euros richer and needed 2 people to help him carry his prizes… BS smith Crooks On the 16 and over division, the battle was fierce and the judges had to be focus every sec not to miss any trick. The action was so intense that zone number 1 got destroyed during the first minute of the second qualifying heat, with everyone landing his tricks back to back… Axel Cruysberghs was leading the qualifications heats with hammers in every spot such as gap late shuvit on the manual island, or impossible lipslide down the rail but twisted his ankle and couldn’t skate the final. Other bangers that day features Younness Amrani switch bs lip shuvit out on the rail, Adrien Bulard switch back tail, the Finnish mafia going big, plenty of laserflips into the flat, a bigspin heel boardslide down the rail and somebody else doing it switch… Nassim FS 180 In the end, local Fernando Bramsmark had his buddies supporting him and finished at the 5th place, winning also the Electric Hype of the Day prize, landing an improbable gap body varial on the last second of the comp. The Czech crew made the trip by car (12 hours drive) and partied 2 nights in a row but Martin Pek and Maxim Habanec took respectively 4th and 3rd place with some nollie tail 270 out on the rail (with style) and other tech combos on every spot…good job! Billy Hogendijk skated good in the 15- category, but his big brother Woody placed serious hammers in every zone such as some big 540 flips and took home the 750€ of the 2nd place plus tons of other prizes. Taking the win is Norwegian ripper Steffen Austerheim, destroying the course with style and control, shutting down each of the 3 zones and earning himself 2000€ and a cart full of prizes… The day ended with a bowl session organized by the skatepark, with local bands Balance and Harda Tida playing on the pool coping while our staff grilled more than 600 hot dogs for everyone. The new Flip flick “Extremely Sorry” was then shown and closed that epic day of skateboarding. Steffen Austerheim won the 2009 European WITP finals in the 16 and over category! Steffen kick flip backlip TOP 3, 16 and over, Maxim Habanec, Woody Hogendijk and Steffen Austerheim. TOP 3, 15 and under category, Notis Aggelis, Jaakko Ojanen and Jakub Jiruška Nassim Guammaz Hype of the day in 15 and under category Fernando Bramsmark won hype of the day in the 16 and over category Everyone went home stoked and no damages are to be reported at the Electric after party… Thanks to everyone that came to enjoy the day with us, to John and the Bryggeriet skatepark crew, to Erik and the city of Malmö, to David and Erik from Scanaction, Henrik, Sebastian and Frederik for the BBQ, Armando, Maarten, Hans, Jimmy, Chris Pfanner and Fabian Verhaeghe for judging and everyone else that helped us during that day. Thanks as well to our friends in the industry for helping us with prizes: Bryggeriet skatepark , Electric , Aerial7, Jart , and Vans See you all next year for another good WITP season. Results: 16+ 1. Steffen Austerheim, NOR 2000 Euros 2. Woody Hogendijk, NL 750 Euros 3. Maxim Habanec, Czech Republic 500 Euros 4. Martin Pek, Czech Republic 5. Fernando Bramsmark, SWE Electric Hype of the day: Fernando Bramsmark 100 Euros 15- 1. Jaakko Ojanen, FIN 1000 Euros 2. Notis Aggelis, Greece 500 Euros 3. Jakub Jiruška, Czech Republic 250 Euros 4. Alexander Risvad, Denmark 5. Andrew Verde, Spain Electric Hype of the day: Nassim Guammaz 100 Euros