World Cup Skateboarding: 2009 Bowlriders Cup Highlights

2009 Bowlriders Cup Highlights

The 2009 Bowlriders Cup was an action packed 3 day weekend full of Florida sunshine, hard core concrete skating at world class pools and parks, and daily barbeques for all! Looking back at Florida's deep history in skateboarding's roots, I recall seeing many skaters like Bruce Walker in the pages of Skateboarder magazine shredding the many Florida skateparks in the mid 70's. As a matter of fact I heard the first skatepark in the world was here in Daytona, I think it was called the Rainbow Wave. In the late 70's Floridian Alan Gelfand would blow minds worldwide with the invention of the Ollie. In 1984 Floridian Mike McGill invented the Mctwist, Monte Nolder perfected the backside smith grind, and for decades Florida's golden boy Rodney Mullen would invent and perfect many of the street moves performed today. Florida is still thriving more than ever with many amazing new parks being built every year. After realizing the success and good vibes of the last 6 years of the Oregon Trifecta, this year The Florida Bowlriders cup went with the 3 parks in 3 days Trifecta style format, adding more stops to the WCS bowl points series and attracting new riders. It was tons of fun and a huge success!

Stop #1 was in Jacksonville at the legendary Kona Skatepark. Thanks to Marty Ramos and his family they have kept the park open for 31 years which I believe is a World record! I was stoked to be back at Kona, I have so many fun memories of past trips there, (one was just a few years ago at a cross country race on Duane Peters 40th birthday, with Hackett, Olson, Navarette, Buck Smith and many others!). Seeing Kona local Buck Smith ripping every inch of his home park is amazing display of Raw Power and Speed mixed with Gnar style and he is very fun to watch. It was no surprise that he rolled away with 1st place in the Masters division in the recently (a few years ago) reconstructed kidney pool. Glen Charnowski skated strong for 2nd, and after seeing Lester Kasai ripping hard for 3rd, it took me back some years, knowing that he competed here at Kona in the NSA pro comps back in the early 80's, it reminded me those good ol' days when skating was soulful and prize money was in the hundreds. This too was the same 'good ol' days' vibe I got out of watching skaters in 2009 rip the pools and parks of Florida for 3 fun filled days. Kevin Kowalski had a great year last year after getting in the top 3 at every Oregon Trifecta stop, and was the winner at the Etnies pool comp at GVR, the last bowl comp in 2008. What I am getting at is that he has been on a roll and he kept that roll going at Kona with another #1 finish. Congrats Kevin! Nolan Monroe was blasting some head high airs for a close second and Morgan Burgess landed some 540s for 3rd. Julie Kindstrand was also on a roll all of 2008 dominating the ladies bowl division, and also captured the #1 spot at Kona. Nora Vasconcellos finished 2nd and Brooke Crawford ended up in 3rd. In the Open Am division Steven Pinieros 540'd his way to the top, while Jordan Price flew into 2nd and Keith Baldassare 3rd. Stevens younger brother, Juan Piniero put some great runs together to take 1st in the Groms, with Alex Sorgente in 2nd and Clay Kreiner 3rd. I can guarantee you will see alot more of these two Piniero brothers at future bowl comps, I definitely took notice. Thanks to RedBull for the cool drinks, and big tent/ VIP zone helping everyone find some much appreciated shade. After the comp the skaters were treated to a barbeque of great food including salmon and shrimp. Thanks to Marty Ramos, and his wonderful family and crew, day #1 was a big success!

Stop #2 was held 1 1/2 hours drive south, just south of Daytona at the just finished, (the grand opening was just the weekend before the comp) New Smyrna Beach skatepark. It was built by Team Pain and crew and features a really fun clover pool, that had fun hips a lots of speedy lines. Once again Buck Smith was a site to see as he already looked like the hot local ruler but had to settle for 2nd as Glen Charnowski's solid consistent style and deep bag of tricks took the win in the Masters Division. With strong runs filled with classic moves, Kurt Baker powered his way onto the podium for 3rd. Benji Galloway (who was missing at stop #1) battled it out in the final jam session and took the win from Kevin Kowalski who finished 2nd, while Steve Reeves flowed his way into 3rd. Julie won the Ladies, with Brooke in 2nd and Nora 3rd. Mike 'The Darkness' Barnes got his flow going and won the Open Am division, with Jordan Price 2nd and Steve Piniero 3rd. In the Grom division Alex Sorgente won with Clay Kreiner 2nd and Juan finished in 3rd. Thanks again to Marty and his crew for feeding the skaters with another barbeque! Also thanks to Jamey Prescott for setting up the Skullcandy carnival wheel and hooking up everyone who contributed $1 dollar a spin with lots of fresh Skullcandy headphones, necklaces, bandanas, beach balls and gear. He raised several hundred dollars and gave it all to Mike Rogers's fund, Grind for Life which helps people battling with cancer. Afterwards Tim Johnson invited us to witness the Mardi Gras style craziness of Bike week in Daytona Beach and we kept it going with an after hours party at his pad. After seeing the sun shining outside our beachfront hotel window on the surf and sand, I would have loved to just hang out in Daytona at the beach all day. That would have to wait until Monday, because we packed up the car instead and headed south for more concrete surfing.

Stop #3 was another 1 1/2 hour drive south down the coast to the Cocoa Beach skatepark, which has a cradle section that flows into a deep bowl and snakerun, all with pool coping, that flows into a wide open 5'-6' deep, metal coping zone with fun hips. This allowed for longer than usual runs which was an advantage for the locals who knew the lines or anyone who had lots of endurance for the long runs. Buck Smith decided not to show up, so Glen Charnowski finally got his win and also walked away with the 2009 Overall trophy for the Masters division. Paul Ohara got 2nd and Lester finished 3rd which put Lester 2nd in the Overall and Josh Nelson 3rd in the Overall. Benji is a contest machine and had a wide variety of moves and long runs to win once again. Tim Johnson finished in 2nd and was skating strong with huge stylish airs and transfer lines. His 'go for broke' style was exciting to watch all 3 days. Nolan Monroe finished in 3rd. Kevin Kowalski was awarded the #1 Overall for the Pros with Tim Johnson 2nd and Mason Huggins 3rd making a Bacon team Overall podium sweep. Julie won the girls again and Erin Wolfkeil finished 2nd and Marlee Miller finished 3rd. For the Girls Overall awards it was Julie 1st, Nora 2nd and Erin 3rd. In the Open Ams Steven Piniero and his deep end attack along with backside melon 540 and big transfers gave him the win and also the Open Am Overall trophy. Jordan Price was also ripping hard all weekend to grab 2nd in the comp and 2nd Overall, and Mike 'The Darkness' Barnes took 3rd in the comp and 3rd in the Overall. After another barbeque to feed everyone we finally left the park around 11pm and headed over to Chili Peppers for the after party which included more good free food (shrimp pasta and chicken fajitas), drinks, live music and Mike Rogers even had his footage from the Bondi comp looking good on the TV's. After sleeping in late (finally) on Monday we drove back to Daytona for a Skullcandy Spring Break kickoff party at the Ocean Deck for free food and drinks and a fun party on the sand. Marty says they are building a new pool at the legendary Stonedge skatepark in Daytona for stop #3 in 2010. Daytona is a fun town especially in March so mark down Florida Bowlriders Cup on your calendars for 2010. I can guarantee you will have a great time and the limited amount of entries will fill up fast, so if you want to enter sign up as soon as you can! Check www.bowlriderscup.com for more info, results, photos, stories, and updates, etc...

Once again a good time was had by all, and on behalf of World Cup Skateboarding I would like to thank Marty Ramos and his family and crew as well as head judge Lenny Byrd and all of the judges who helped out for all of their hard work in making all 3 days and all 3 events a huge success and for helping to keep the Florida skate scene alive for over 3 decades. That is a lot of years of dedication, showing their passion and love for skateboarding. The whole crew was a pleasure to work with including the scorekeepers Christine Kirk and Cassidy Ramos. The DJ BC was 'on it' keepin' it Rockin' all 3 days and nights! Also a big Thanks to Reggie Barnes and Eastern Skateboard Supply for their contributions to the event and for helping to keep the skate scene on the East coast thriving for all of these years. Thanks to RedBull for giving all of the skaters wings, refreshing cool drinks and the big VIP tent for shade. A big thanks to my good friend Jamey and Skullcandy for hooking up all of the skaters, their friends and fans with candy for your ears, fun prizes, and their contributions in making the concrete events more exciting and fun. Also thanks for smoothing out the all bumps in my life on the road with a rental car, hotel room, good food , good drinks, good friends and good times. Look for event highlights on Skullcandy TV. Also Thanks to FuelTV for covering all of the action, keep an eye out for highlights in a few weeks on FuelTV's Weekly Update. We sprang ahead on Saturday night, so spring is officially here with more daylight in the evenings, so get out there and skate hard! As always, enjoy the ride, D.D.