Images and story by Peter Bender (translated and edited by Oliver Nermerich)
I was looking forward to this contest like a small kid for the whole week. Saturday morning I started my trip from my hometown (Bad Kreuznach) to head towards Essen (the place that was home to the famous Skate-Factory) in the so-called Ruhrpott area. The weather was a beast creating a felt temperature of 40 degrees. For some of the competitors it was definitely a hard job. But they did a hell of a good job despite all the heat and humidity.
Eugen Enin – suffering from the heat
Maik Lojewski (organizer) has selected 4 different spots for the contest. The meeting spot was the university in Essen. The competitors had the chance to warm up at the legendary university curbs. The big show definitely started at the second spot which is a nice handicap rail on the right side located in a park. Dave Mutschall (from Berlin), Jo Zenk (from Muenster) and Eugen Enin (from Borken) destroyed this rail with some ass kicking switch ups. I stopped counting the number of switch-ups since this became way too confusing for my eyes. Ignition Team rider Dave Mutschall definitely stood out here by hammering out a Kindgrind to 360 Kindgrind.
Grindhouse Team riders like Alex Rudolf (from Nürnberg) and Daniel Prell (from Augsburg) also left their mark on the rail by lacing trick after trick with unique steeze, it was time to give the rail a rest and time to move forward to the next spot.
The final spot was a nice kink rail with rails on both sides. Timmy van Rixtel (from Eindhoven) attracted the viewers attention with a perfect sweaty and even surpassed this trick later with a super smooth truespin miszou through the kink and when he got down from it he slightly collided with a BMW. Crazy situation. Eugen Enin who was still on fire came up with a style top-soul to 540 gap from the kink. Dave Mutschall landed a clean fishbrain to backslide true makio which got props from all the skaters watching the show and sorrounding the kink rail. Daniel Prell was trying a half cab frontside unity to top soul over and over again, but couldn’t land it. Instead he fell hard. But that’s something that describes Daniel the best. Even when he falls, he gets up again and try something else or even something more intense. That’s what he did in Essen. He did a perfect top soul hop the kink top soul. Over and out.
The whole day was a blast: Great spots, great weather, no problems with the cops and a big reunion of Rollers from all over Germany. Thanks to Maik Lojewski and Grindhouse for organizing this event.
Results of the Real Street Essen:
1. Daniel Prell
2. Eugen Enin
3. Timmy van Rixtel
4. Alex Rudolph
5. Daniel Gourski
Best trick:
Timmy van Rixtel
The judges (from left to right): Sebastian Hofer, Maik Lojewski and Raymond Rehse
TImmy van Rixtel taking his price for the Best Trick which was a true miszou through the whole kink
29 year old Daniel Prell taking first place in Essen. Congratulations!
