What an amazing weekend! Huge thanks to everyone who put in the effort to make this happen for the South Island skate scene. Shout out to Jack at Duckewe and the team at Tyan Haus for their efforts.
The event brought skaters from around the country, from Northland to Dunedin and everywhere in between, for a weekend of epic skateboarding and music. The skateboard event was hosted by George Read and John Routledge — they kept the crowd hyped and the energy flowing all day long!
I managed to capture the Women’s Ramp Finals, Men’s Best Trick (on the 8ft section of the mini ramp), Men’s Street Best Trick and Men’s Ramp Finals between judging and skating some of the different competitions myself. I wish I could have got it all! The ramp was too good not to join in the fun! From the get-go, the judging was going to be hard as everyone was sending it.
This year — the 3rd at Rolling Meadows — brought the most girl skaters to the event. Let’s hope for more in 2024!
Krysta Ashwell took home top honours in the Women’s, taking out both Street and Ramp with some wicked can openers, bigspins and kickflips. Keep it up, Krysta! Rose and Poppy showed their commitment levels, weren’t afraid to slam, and took 2nd place in Ramp and Street, respectively. Elly and Anna placed 3rd in Street and Ramp — they weren’t worried about skating in front of the crowd and hopefully inspiring other women in the process.
The Men’s Street comp was a tough one to judge. It was super tight and a tough one to call! The top four were ripping, which made our lives super tricky. Shout out to Sean Ritchie and Neil Lyon, who judged all comps throughout the two days.
Josh Stewart threw down in the Men’s Street finals with some hefty moves, hard flipping the driveway gap, back 180’ing to flat and consistent fakie frontside tailslides and fakie frontside crooked grinds down the Hubba. He landed back-to-back tricks, which landed him the top spot and $500 to party with!
Martin Novoa from Argentina brought the tech moves with a double flip over the driveway. He then tre flip tail grabbed and backed it up straight away with a hard flip backside tailslide fakie on the top ledge, which set him up for 2nd place.
Josh Bamford is an all-round machine, partying hard and skating even harder — backside crooked grinds on the handrail and gapping over to nosegrind and lipslide on the Hubba were some of his highlights.
The Men’s ramp final saw ex-rider for UK brand Death Skateboards, turned international DJ Rob Smith (AKA Dogger) take out first place. Rob got into Christchurch Airport at about 3 pm after flying in from Melbourne, where he had been DJing the night before. Rob grabbed a beer and busted out some big moves early with tailblocks, airs to tail, and Miller flips, all going down easily. He even busted out the 540 Miller flip! Rob took the $500 top prize, proceeded to the Tyan Haus stage behind the ramp, got behind the decks with MC DRS, and gave the crowd another hour of power. Thanks for coming, Rob! See you next year!
Canterbury’s own Josh Bamford came in second with some fun, flowy skating. Five-0 fakies in and out of the deeper end easily and bust out a boneless into the 8ft section from the deck. Josh went into switch mode and tore it up in the 5 and 8ft. He’s always a pleasure to watch and skate with!
In 3rd, we saw last year’s winner, Tim Cunneen. Tim barely fell off his board and stayed consistent throughout the jam, hitting every inch of the ramp that was available. This led to his 3rd place finish and extra beer tokens for the night!
The best trick jams took place on day two, and each event had high levels of skating yet again (even after a huge night for some of the crew).
Poppy took out the Women’s 5ft Ramp Best Trick with a half Cab rock, and Rose ollied from the 5ft flat bottom to the 8ft flat bottom, taking out the 8ft Best Trick. Rose also won Best Trick in the Women’s Street with a fakie frontside shuv. We know she wanted the fakie heel — that’s coming next time!
The Men’s 5ft best trick saw Corbyn Williams take home top honours with a nollie bigspin nosepick 270 out. He even did it twice as he wasn’t happy with the first one! The Men’s 8ft had Stu Roper on a mad one, half Cabbing into the 8ft ramp from the deck and adding an extra bit of vert to the ramp with a hurricane up top. Shame they had no Wakachangi for you.
Martin Novoa took out both Street Best Trick comps, one with a nollie double heel off the 5ft flat bottom to the 8ft bottom and the Street Rail Jam with a nollie heel frontside lipslide on the flat bar. Martin has been travelling the country and destroying everything in his path. Thanks for coming through.
Honourable mention goes to Corbyn Williams, who won the Will Smithies Biggest Send award for the weekend! He fully went in on all the features with tech moves and a relaxed style! Shoutout to the Chilla, you rip man!
The calibre of skating improves each year as the competition grows and attracts more of the NZ scene, even bringing in an Aussie import. Everyone destroyed each obstacle, and hammers went down with massive backup and cheers from the festival-goers wanting to switch up their day to see the onslaught of skating. I wish I could have filmed it all myself, but I couldn’t miss out on the fun either. If you love skateboarding and good music, this event is not to be missed and needs to be added to your calendar!
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