Vans European Downtown Showdown docked! 50’000 Euro Prize Money ***9 Teams***5’000 Spectators

On Saturday, 14th August, Hamburg’s Red Light District hosted the biggest skateboard event the German harbour city has ever seen. Over 5’000 people visited the Spielbudenplatz throughout the day, witnessing nine of Europe’s best Skateboard teams battle it out against each other. €14’000 out of the €50’000 prize purse went to the days winning team: Element Europe. It wasn’t just the skaters having fun as the weather held out throughout the day, a thronging crowd of spectators and a high level of skateboarding were key ingredients for the success of this unique event.

Vans brought to life the creative concepts of four of the earlier selected skateboard brands and their idea for the ultimate obstacle - each inspired by Hamburg’s naughty and nautical past and present. The designs by Cliché, Element Europe, Death Skateboards and Antiz were realised by famous ramp builder Andreas “Schützi” Schützenberger of IOU Ramps and installed on the Reeperbahn to be skated for one day only.

First up

The format of the competition meant that skaters had 30 minutes training before a one hour jam for each obstacle. First up was Cliché: a ramp and rail creation inspired by the area pole dancers and featuring graphics of a girl performing the famous dance move known as the helicopter. Skater Phil Zwijsen from Belgium impressed the judges by stomping the majority of his tricks and eventually taking home first place for this obstacle. But that was just the beginning for Phil as he continued to hold on to his nerve and produce some stylish skating convincing the judges and going home with the Anchor award for the “Best AM”.

Oil Spill

Next up on the competition schedule was Element’s “Oil Spill” obstacle, fitting in nicely with Hamburg’s seafaring heritage and adding an environmental theme to proceedings. Once again, Phil Zwijsen skated this one with creative vigor and was justly rewarded with €1600 for his efforts.

Obstacle

Third on the list was Death Skateboards Obstacle which Team Manager Dan Cates christened the 'The Spot Pirate' as the team pillaged some of their favorite skate spots from around the Europe and turned them into something new. Barcelona, Valencia, Gran Canaria, Liverpool and St. Albans were all part of this amazing amalgamation. After an hour of fierce battle, it was Frenchman Sam Partaix who was crowned the conqueror of the Death Skateboards obstacle. Throughout the day, Sam consistently demonstrated that he can skate a huge variety of spots and was therefore awarded the prize of “Best Pro”. From steep banks to transitions to pole jams…Sam kept pulling out amazing manouveres from his seemingly bottomless bag of tricks.

Antiz

By 5pm the teams arrived at the fourth and final obstacle of the day: Antiz. When asked about the idea behind the design, Hugo Liard said the following: "There's gonna be a mythical sea monster of gargantuan size in the middle of Hamburg coming from great depths..." It was non other than Guillaume Mocquin from France who tamed the kraken and won the 1st prize accordingly. It was also Guillaume who received the Monster Energy ‘Most Pirate Skater of the Day’ Award, bagging him a further €1000 for his boundless energy.

Well worth a mention, as he was a real pleasure to watch was the UK’s Ross McGouran who received €800 for second place. Ross’s mix of speed, power and board-control is second to none. Especially when it comes to taming transitions.

The highest amounts of prize money go out to the overall Team performance which ended as follows:

1. Element Europe 2. Antiz 3. Blind Europe

After the prize giving ceremony, it was time to celebrate with skate legends John Cardiel and Tony Alva at the Monster Energy Afterparty at the Prinzenbar where the festivities kept on until the sun started to rise once again at the Kiez in Hamburg.

As there seems to be strong public interest in wanting to skates these custom made obstacles Vans will be donating all four to the new Mellowpark in Berlin. The ramps are on their way to their new home and more information will be released once they are ready to skate.