Photography by Lars Echterhoff
I arrived at the Abenteuerhalle and immediately ran into a lot of people from all around of Germany whom were helped members of the Skate Association Germany to set up the huge spine ramp. When it was finished a little session to test out the ramp started and we quickly realized that crazy stunts would be on display the next day.
After a short night, Alex Stock and I met with Marcel Fehren, one of the contributing videographers. We went on to check out the best spots for photography and filming. When we reached the ramp there was already a session going on with up to 30 skaters on the ramp.
The competition started at 2pm and riders were given 2 runs each before the last session with the 4 finalists. Frank Romeike, founder of the Skate Association Germany, opened the competition with some nice tricks, followed by the youngest skaters of the day, Mika and Nils Rinas (7 and 9 years old), whom laced some technical grinds and nice rotations.
As well as a different mix of ages, men and women were also mixed in the rider list. A surprising guest star was Mel Szalkai from England who put her very creative skating on display. I had never seen this girl before, but I found her style of skating to be very impressive.
When the runs were finished, the finals commenced. What that meant for me, was sitting on a tall, shaky ladder with a camera in hand. It was so hard to catch every trick because Jo Zenk, Jan Mertens, Dennis Schmidt, and Fedor Simonov laced one hammer after another. I have never seen so many crazy, clean switch-ups in a long time.
The level of tricks was growing continuously so Fedor, Jo and Dennis started to kill the sub box with 540 royales and other combos. Jan laced a massive McTwist, whilst Jo had a very clean 360 over the spin and I can’t even begin to count the crazy rotations Fedor landed.
After each trick, I thought; “This should be the end of the competition!” because of the craziness that unfolded below me. Someone would lay down a trick and someone else would come in and lace a harder one almost immediately.
For me, this has been an awesome end to the skating-year in 2011! Thanks go out to the team of Skate Association Germany which yet again organized the Miniramp Masters Series. I’m looking forward to next year!
-Marco Sichau
Overall Ranking Seniors 2011 (+16 years)
- Jo Zenk
- Fedor Simonov
- Jan Mertens / Dennis Schmidt
- Sascha Winters
- Sidney Hansen
- Oliver Nermerich
- Jovan Schanzenbacher
- Marius Pohl
- Jürgen Eberlein / Stephan Krebs
- Daniel Gourski
Overall Ranking Juniors 2011 (-16 years)
- Domenik Koch
- Tim Günther
- Phil Aznar
- Adriano Landsberg
- Nils Rinas
- Gideo Hagen
- Felix Menrath
- Mika Rinas
- Justin Szewczyk
- Benjamin Brockhaus
Results for final event in Cologne
- Jo Zenk
- Fedor Simonov
- Dennis Schmidt
- Jan Mertens
- Tim Günther
- Oliver Nermerich
- Jovan Schanzenbacher
- Marius Pohl
- Adriano Landsberg
- Daniel Gourski
Links:
Skate Association Germany e. V.
Grindhouse Miniramp Masters
