| Road to WinterClash 2007 - Dale Travers |
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| Written by Skatebiz | |
| Thursday, 22 March 2007 | |
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2am,My door to my to sleeping cabin is opened and 2 German border patrol officers come in and wake me up and start searching through my stuff..After a few minutes they are satisfied im not carrying anything illegal and leave just as fast..... Catching a train from Zurich to Muehlhausen was about an 9hr trip.Having a sleeping cabin on an overnight trip made the time past a whole lot quicker.Seeing the Muehlhausen train station was a relief after changing trains a few times i still wasn't sure I was in the right place as my first step on to the platform was into snow.Only having 2 mobile numbers to call and not having either of them work for an 1hr or so i was still pretty unsure if i was accually in the right town..then paydirt "Bassti?,"yeah Dale where are you?","at the train station","sweet i'll be there in 10 mins"... In an old warehouse in an industrial estate was where the biggest skatecomp in the world was going to happen.Arriving to the skatepark already filled with kids going off with big spins and crazy grinds and it was only friday morning..The comp started on Saturday.. After many emails i finally got to meet Jojo,the one man who pretty much organised everything for me as well as the main man at getting this comp together..Looking pretty stressed and in need of a good sleep introductory was brief as he had many things to organise.The next day was basically a meet and greet of all skaters from all over the world and industry heads from mags,shops and clothing companies.Having a bar right next to the street coarse was very social as most of the boys came straight from the airport and needed some refreshments.I think Kato was the first one to request a beer. Apparently 600 cases of beer were organised for the event,with 12 bottles a case im sure that would be enough and when i saw Alex Schneider coming through on a forklift with beer stacked 7 ft high i was convinced that the rumours were true.The beer started to flow while we watched the skaters on the coarse and chatted and caught up with old friends while we waited for the BE-MAG dvd showing at 10am...I was excited to see the dvd as i was told it contained at Aussie section and it didn't fail..Mike Choley had been busy with his camera shooting stuff from Austraila,Japan and most of Europe.A very nice effort... Arriving Saturday morning the queue for the competitors was huge,after some sweet talking Jojo hooked me up with a media pass and the comp started around 12.Twenty heats followed with kids gapping off things,spinning to every grind you can think of and basically throwing everything on the line to get a chance to get through to the finals.I was gladly helping out Jero,Stoof and Phillip from Be-Mag with getting shots for live updates and being the "on the coarse flash bitch". Pro event saw names like Brian Aragon,Murda,Erik Bailey,Frankie M just to name a few stepping up and really showing the young guys how it's done with Erik being the first to gap from the spine ramp to the funbox.A clear 15 ft gap sideways which later on he would 540 perfectly.Props have to go out to these professionals.With hardly any warm-up,it's snowing outside these guys put on a show.I lost track of how many spins to grinds and switch-ups Aragon was doing...Finnally it came down to 2 skaters.The Head to Head Battle with 5 mins to show us thier best skating...Stephan Alfano and Chaz Sandz went crazy while it was just as difficult to keep the media off the coarse.Everytime each one set up for a trick,everybody rushed over with thier cameras to capture the moment..Stephan ending the competition at 12:30am with a huge 720 corkscrew from the spine to the funbox about 10 ft high...everyone went nuts..With more poeple on the coarse than off it,that pretty ended the Winterclash 2007 for another year with only the afterclash to go in the huge hall next to the skatepark... Now you get all different nationalities together,alot of beer and limited crowd control,it's a volitile mix and only chaos followed..Most poeple didn't even sleep till the next day.Crazy times.. I'd like to thank all the organisers and great email correpondance to get me to the right place,Jojo,Alex,Bassti and the Be-mag guys for letting me help out through the whole comp.I'd urge any skater from Australia,if your on this side of the world,make plans and get to Winterclash 2008,it'll be even bigger next year. Dale Travers... 
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 16 December 2007 ) |
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