Competitions

One more time Karramba hosted an awesome weekend at the end of May for the inline, skate, mtb and bmx riders in the summer town Palanga, Lithuania. This year riders from Latvia, Russia, United Kingdom and Denmark visited us, which counted in total more than 200 registered participants. We were glad to host the rollerblading community from Latvia Therolling.lv, good old friends PARBMX and mtb bikes team from S-Pot. After 6 years of living, Karramba is slowly growing into an international extreme sport festival. Because of the strong network of friends, who were raised in a small seaside town on the western part of the country and who share a common passion to ride, Karramba is build around the value of friendship which keeps this event growing year after year.

Today at the Korea Chuncheon World Leisure Cup Action Sport Championships the weather was HOT. The temperatures also got turned up a notch in the international inline park contest, where Sven Boekhorst, Worapoj Boonnim (Note), Brian Aragon, Yuto Goto and more battled it out for the top three spots.

Koreans, like the Japanese and pretty much most of Asia these days, love their technology. At any big event in Korea you will notice that a lot of people like to shoot and record pretty much anything with their cameras, whether their camera is a professional DSLR with a massive elongated lens, or just a simple smartphone.

There is always a sense of trepidation and apprehension when embarking on trips to foreign skate events. The language factor, the foreign food, the cultural differences, plus the fact that new experiences await after a few hours on a plane. This was definitely the case when we left Hong Kong on our midnight flight to Korea for the Korea 2012 Chuncheon World Leisure Cup Action Sports Championships (what a great simple name, yeah?).

My girlfriend asked me out for a dance on Sunday night. A rare occasion that I was supposed to enjoy immensely. Of course I did, but I also felt quite rusty at the same time, shaking her and myself around in the club, slightly comatose after only two beers, trying to keep my back straight, while still shaking hips James Brown style. So what happened?

Marnix Haak, known from Supermossels, Aorta and The Breakfastclub, and his bike-buddy and fellow skater Robbert Snijder are organizing an innovative skate and bike contest. It will take place at the 25th of August in Amsterdam. Sweet Milk Joop got the chance to have a little chat with the boys to fill you in about the details.

It's been a few weeks now since the real Street Berlin contest went down. Daniel Prell was one of the many people who attended the event and he's given us his view on the skating, the people and the atmosphere from the weekend. Be-mag videographer Karsten Boysen pieced together five minutes of the event for your viewing pleasure.

Osimo is a small village of Ancona wich is a nice city on the Adriatic sea is in the center of Italy on the east side and is half an hour far from Nicola Fiorenza's home. Nico use to organize two jam at year, one in the winter and one in the summer, the Nicola Fiorenza' s blading jam summer edition is part of the Italian Blading Connection (IBC) wich is the Italian Championship.

If there is one thing a Polish skater should do on the first weekend of June, it is to visit Lublin. This date has become an annual time for a huge gathering of skaters from all over the country, to celebrate one of the major national events: East Side Jam. Being one of the few real street competitions left, it is truly an unique experience, especially for all the younger skaters who don't remember the I.M.Y.T.A. days. The jam session format brings a wonderful atmosphere and unlike in skateparks all eyes are on the same obstacle, so that mizou you struggled to land and finally did will get the crowd cheering as much as harder tricks from more experienced skaters.

It was awesome to see so much interest in this year's Victorian Titles among what is a swelling scene in Oz, with people from every single state both in attendance as well as registered competitors, and have everyone catch up with one another over the weekend and meet and roll with fresh and familiar faces from all over the country.

On Saturday June 2nd the Italian Blader Connection and the World Rolling Series held the Sicily Street Competition in Paterno, which is a small village near Catania, Italy. I arrived in Catania by taking a bus, then a ship, and then another bus from Rome. When I arrived there that morning, I ran into a little problem; there was no way to get to Paterno! No buses or trains went there on the weekend so I asked a taxi driver how much it would cost to get there. He told me 50€ but since the normal bus and train fares were 2,70€ I decided I would try to find another way.

If there is one thing I’m starting to realize in rollerblading, it’s that thirty is quickly becoming the new twenty. Last weekend in Bellevue, Washington, rollerbladers from all around the northwest US and southwest CA came out for the fourth installment of the Beat the Chump 4 contest, the Seattle-area park competition with a unique run-based format. Skaters take turns doing lines through the compact park until they stop, or fall. It’s a nice break from the common Jam Session format, which often proves dangerous in Bellevue Indoor.

Our Be-Mag staff videographer Karsten Boysen invaded this year's FISE event stop in Montpellier, France. The new downhill "slopestyle" course was introduced for the first time combined with an intense inofficial rail contest, and partying for four days. Here you can get a small glimpse of what went down in the Rollerblading division at Europe's biggest Extreme Sports Event.

First and foremost please let me apologize for prolonging the viewing of this edit. It wasn't until today that I was contacted by both Blake Taylor and Ian Copp and notified that the sentences you are about to read are what is taking the official drop so long to happen. I guess deep down I have written nothing because there is not much to be said. I tried typing this ridiculously long drawn out descriptive read that would cover every aspect of the event and all things leading up to it and after. But truth be told, there is no amount of descriptive words that can explain what an incredible event Pow Wow actually is.

Into its fourth year, the Sevilla Roll Session got off to a pretty wet start with some quite heavy rain. Luckily the rainclouds passed and allowed the Plaza de Armas skate park to dry out. There were three competition categories: Junior, Am, and Pro – each having a bowl and street section.

At this year's FISE 2012 in Montpellier, France inline skaters are in for a treat. No longer will they have to share the same course with other action sports, they will have a unique opportunity to ride a new blade specific course similar to slopestyle skiing and snowboarding. Take a sneak peek at the obstacles that some of the world's best pros will tear up this weekend.

When your with a group of guys as diverse as the ones I had the pleasure of spending the week with, it’s not just the stories you create that stick with you, but the one’s you hear as well. The 2012 Asian X Games showcase everything that is right in the world of Rollerblading, entwined with fake Scotch and a podium payout that park skating hasn’t seen in a while.

After six years of running the Panhandle Pow-Wow, Blake Taylor has figured out how to run things smoothly. I've seen him stress over previous Pow-Wow events, but this year it really went off without a hitch. His only complaint all weekend was: "We really need a water sponsor."

This years best trick at the Panhandle Pow Wow goes to... Mark Wojda! Mark pulled out a huge 540 and took the prize. Congratulations Mark!

Things are getting started here at Pop-Wow VI. We filmed a little 'test run' of some of the new boxes built for the contest, and the park is currently filling up.