CONTEST REPORT | CARRIERS OPEN 2022

REPORT BY: EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: KEVIN LITTLE, @kevinmlittle.

PHOTOS BY: VICTOR DELGADO, ANDREW CARGILL, @cargilla9000

Carriers Skate Shop has now been open for its fourth straight year and despite some heavy setbacks during that period including a worldwide pandemic, ensuing record high inflation rates and the shop owner Fritz Peitzner sustaining a major head injury, the shop just seems to be getting bigger and better in time. Years prior to opening the shop, Fritz Peitzner had a vision to rejuvenate his local Dallas scene after the the famed skatepark Eisenberg’s decided to close its doors. Without Eisenberg’s presence there was no centralized location for the skating community to gather and also to supply their ongoing need for skates and skate parts. Fritz hoped to change that.

And then he got to work! And I can’t express just how much work he put in but he was able to acquire rental space in prime Plano real estate located within blocks of the old Eisenberg’s Skatepark, and setup the first Carriers Skate Shop location. But opening the shop did come with it’s fair share of adversities. In talking about those formative years of the shop, Fritz had this to say:

My biggest adversities in the start was that I had no credit or credit cards. $1,000 was the only money I had to my name at 29 years old. I was living at my parents. I could only afford a salvaged car after riding my bike around for almost a year. No one believed a skate shop would survive and rollerblading was not popular.

The only thing in my favor was organic growth not because I chose that option but because it was my only option. In the end it would have always been my best option. My mistakes weren’t as expensive and I could not afford many mistakes. I started on my personal Facebook page. Eventually made a Wix website and then had to start out by selling products out of a Honda Element (deals on wheels). The Honda shop lasted a little over a year until I could afford to rent a 120 square foot space which eventually led me to where I am at now.
Fritz Peitzner

And ever since Fritz has done everything in his power to get the shop’s name out there. From teaching skating to the youth in his community to organizing skate tours throughout the greater Texas area and now creating the Carriers Open; the first of hopefully many competitive skatepark contests. And now four years removed from when the doors opened for the first time, Fritz has reaped the benefits of his hard work and is happy to announce the opening of their second Carriers location, with it’s grand opening taking place the weekend of the Carriers Open.

In the months prior to the Carriers Open, Fritz had spoke about creating his own park competition to replace the annual Texas Blade Classic, that had previously been hosted at Alliance Skatepark. Although the T.B.C was a popular event that brought out a ton of competitors and spectators, it was not an ideal working relationship between the park management and the contest organizers so Fritz had the idea of creating something fresh and handled entirely by the blading community, which also meant that he would need to find a new location for hosting the event. Now the DFW area is home to dozens of incredible skateparks but finding the right one to host an event that would rival the Hoedown in scale is easier said than done, however Fritz narrowed his list down and chose the massive Edge Skatepark located in Allen Texas. The Edge Skatepark is most known for it’s famous Hubba style hand-ledges and it’s amazing flow but Fritz felt that it needed something bigger to create even more hype for the event. So with the help of a Eric Hallimen, Chase Harding and Adam Pender, they built the incredible 24 foot long and 4 foot tall Carriers Open rainbow ramp.

In the following six weeks, Fritz started promoting the Carriers Open heavily. If he was going to create an event that would rival the Hoedown than he would need to get more than just the normal crop of regional heavy-hitters to participate. So he started reaching out to some of blading’s most well known professionals and brands to bring the level of competition to it’s highest level possible. Day-by-day, more sponsorships were attained and some of the best skaters of our time were scheduled to be in attendance. With legends such as Franky Morales, Montre Livingston, Nils Jansons, Chad Hornish, Korey Waikiki and Julien Cudot, you knew that the event was going to be a success. But as we all know, Mother Nature has a way of ruining even the best laid plans. When the weekend’s forecast showed rain on the horizon, skaters cringed and reluctantly headed to DFW in hopes that the Blade Gods (or Gawds) would be in our favor. Although the Flight School with Nils and Montre experienced some slight rain the day prior, the weather on the day of the event improved and it looked to be clear skies for the most part. Although it was colder than us Southerners are accustomed to, we all bundled up and considered ourselves fortunate that we avoided being drenched.

The event shaped up to have one of the best turnouts in recent years and skaters from all over the world were in attendance. The Carriers Open was split up between juniors, bladies and open divisions so that all skaters had an opportunity to compete. And the diversity of the skaters was so exciting to see; with skaters as young as six years old rolling alongside icons of the sport, it was beautiful to see Fritz’s masterplan coming to fruition! Memorable moments included seeing youngens like Chevi Marshall skating in his first skate contest despite having just starting to blade earlier this year as well as young bladie Sophia Wright shredding the park with serious consistency and seeing Jett Grob, progeny of X-Games gold medalist Jaren Grob, flying around with the same monstrous energy that his father possesses. The Junior’s contest did not disappoint one bit and showed that the future of blading is full of promise. The women’s open division proved to be a banger as well! Noteworthy moments included seeing Florida’s own Stephany Rodriguez attacking the Hubba ledges with a wide range of tricks as well as Aarin Gates linking lines throughout the park with utter steeze and persistence. The Queen of the day however went to the talented Colombian Daniela Salgado, who killed it all day long and made it look incredibly polished as well. This was hands down the best bladies competition to ever go down in the Lone Star State!

After the juniors and women put on an incredible start to the event, the men had their work cut out for them! The participants all skated their hearts out, pushing themselves way past their comfort levels and laced tricks that many stated they have never done previously before, much less in a competitive atmosphere! The rainbow box was the obstacle that received the lion’s share of attention but skaters such as Nils, Hornish and Cudot made sure to touch as much of the park’s other items to show their wide ranging skill set and diversity. After a very difficult judging process, the finals were narrowed down to Eric Michael, Scott Wells, Andrew Broom, Eric Hallimen, Chad Hornish, Nils Jansons, Mick Casals, Korey Waikiki, Grant Collins, Matt Hughart and Julien Cudot. The finals was extremely competitive with skaters throwing caution to the wind and hucking themselves all over the place in hopes of taking home the fat cash prize waiting at the conclusion of the twenty minute battle royale. After much deliberation from the judges, they awarded the California kid, Korey Waikiki 3rd place, high flying Frenchman Julien Cudot 2nd place and Latvian legend Nils Jansons with 1st place. For a contest in it’s infancy, the Carriers Open proved to be one of the most entertaining competitions I have ever been involved in and I can’t wait to see how big the event gets in the future. Kudos to all the organizers (especially Zach Smith for keeping us on track), sponsors, financial supporters and skaters who helped make the event one for the history books.

Carriers Open 2022 Winners

Men’s Open Division: 1st Nils Jansons – 2nd Julien Cudot – 3rd Korey Waikiki

Women’s Open Division: 1st Danila Salgado – 2nd Aarin Gates – 3rd Korina Calderon

Juniors Open Division: 1st Jett Grob – 2nd Sophia Wright – 3rd Gefferson Cruz

Men’s Open Division: From left to right: 3rd Place, Korey Waikiki, 1st place: Nils Jansons, 2nd place and best trick: Julien Cudot Photo: Andrew Cargill

Women’s Open Division: From left to right: 2nd place: Aarin Gates, Carriers owner Fritz Peitzner, 1st place: Daniela Salgado, 3rd place Korina Calderon Photo: Andrew Cargill