A little background information on how we got a Freestyle Contest in conjunction with a Street event. Maybe this is an idea for others to follow.
I organized a little Freestyle Jam Session at the beginning of August in Cologne. The German Boardstein Skate Mag was invited to shoot some photos and write a report about the current state of Flatland Freestyle Skateboarding in Germany.
At this session the word spread about an upcoming Street and “Old School” contest, which was supported by the Boardstein Skate Mag. The guys from the Mag and the contest organizers agreed to run a Freestyle contest on Sunday as part of the Old School contest. I sent some mailings and made a few phone calls to invite some guys from Berlin as well. It’s a small FS network that we have at the moment in Germany, but hopefully more people will see that there are others out there who are skating freestyle. I am waiting for the upcoming article in the Boardstein Mag.
The contest was held outdoors on a smooth asphalt surface, on the Street course. We had enough space between the ramps to do Freestyle. On Saturday they had the Street qualifications and unfortunately it started to rain in the evening, so the Street finals were rained out. A part of the area was covered by a big tree. That part of the surface remained dry so that the few Freestylers that showed up had a cool jam session with the Street skaters, “battling it out” with some technical stationary and slow moving stuff.
It was so cool and the little crowd was totally into it. I was very tired after the session.
Everyone headed back to the hotel and we planned to meet later at a Mexican restaurant. At dinner we shared memories from the past, and made plans for the future of Freestyle and the new WFSA. The FS scene in Berlin is pretty strong. There are about 8 skaters that have regular Freestyle sessions on weekends at a place called “Kudamm”. It’s a big place to skate where we do demo sessions for the crowd, accepting occasional donations like street performers.
The Freestyle contest started early Sunday afternoon. The weather wasn’t perfect, but at least it didn’t rain. The seven entrants were given 2 two-minute runs. My impression was that most of the crowd had never seen Freestyle before, and they seemed to enjoy it. After the contest people came up to me and told me that they were amazed what you can do on a skateboard, without a ramp. It made me feel good, and gave me added momentum to follow the WFSA Freestyle Mission for the remaining of this year. I’m hopeful for 2002, but freestyle still has a long way to go before we will be able to hold large events.
Paderborn BBQ 2001 Contest results
7th: Monika Pasekel (the only German female FS- skater as far as I know)
6th: Nenad, Ice Man
5th: Ullrich Schoenborn
4th: Pierre Geisler
3rd: Boris Schwemin
2nd: Starsky Kleinhans
1st: YoYo Schulz
Monika, the only female skater put on a nice show with wheelies, including her noteworthy knee-wheelie. Keep on going Monika!!
Nenad skated injured but still put on a cool show. He might have been preoccupied with the tenderness of his injury so his runs weren’t as consistent as they could have been.
Ullrich skated some near flawless runs while going for some really nice kickflips and shove-it stuff. His cross-footed nose wheelies and nose wheelie space-walks were great to watch. Style points there! He also did lots of two footed 360’s that got the crowd going. I started skating with him 25 yrs ago, and got him stoked again on FS a few years back. We now have regular sessions once a week.
Pierre did some really cool tech stuff, but his consistency was missing during his runs. If he can stay on his board and keep flowing he will be on top in the future. Some of his tricks remind me of Rodney’s current Street/FS stuff. He showed us lots of different shove-it variations, to wheelie, to shove-it combinations.
Boris usually skates 100% consistent, but he had some bails during his runs just to prove he’s human. He skates on a street deck with rock hard trucks. He pulled off a really nice handstand kickflip, one wheel wheelies, and some hot 50/50 stuff.
Starsky is old school!! He put on a straw hat, sunglasses, and a Hawaiian style shirt. Then he skated to the Beach Boys. He has a really nice smooth style as he surfed the asphalt on 93A wheels. I guess the judges liked his show, especially the Berlin Street stunt where he jumped over a bike at the end. He had a few misses here and there, but I believe everyone had some problems with the cooler temperatures that week.
YOYO, well, what can I say? A perfect second run with a variety of footwork and flip tricks earned him the top spot. Lots of one footed 360’s at the end of his runs made the crowd go wild!
A big thank you goes to Boardstein Mag and Slider Skateshop for giving us the opportunity to be a part of this event. Also, thumbs up for all the participating Freestylers, especially for film guy/skater, Bernhard, who showed the true Spirit & Fun that goes to the heart of Freestyle.
See you next year!
