COMPETITION
SWEDEN
ACROUS
AQ
Hans Gothberg frontside footpiant
COMPETING IN SWEDEN
It's right in the middle of Winter,
and even though the snow lays
thick on the ground, it's time for
Sweden's first skateboard contest
this year.
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A new attendance record is set
every year the contest is held. This
year over 63,000 people visited
the contest which is held in con-
junction with a motorcycle exhibi-
fon i
The contest lasted for five
days with the first three devoted
just to training. Three different
contests
were held, slalom, free-
style and vertical
25.000 people gathered for the
qualifying rounds which started
with slalom A 55 meter-long imeg-
ular slalom course was set, and
since the surface was more than a
bit slippery, more than one com
petitor had to break because of
bod skids
The qualifying round for juniors
(under 15) was very fight with only
65/100 seconds between the best
and the worst, and only 3/100
separating first and second place
Mats Forsberg won the qualifying
round, setting a time of 7.06 sec-
onds. When it came time for the
seniors (over 15) first run it looked
like someone had tumed the
speedswitch up a
p a bit. Nearly all
the seniors made a
better i
rruns
made what I thought was a nearly
perfect run of 6.37 and Jonas
Wistrom and Linus Ericsson ted
for second with 6.57
Upon completion of the slalom
runs, the action was moved over
to the huge Hollywood ramp
where the vertical riding was to
take place. The three training days
were a preview that some really
hot vertical riding was about fo
take place! As usual, the juniors
started off with a one-minute run
each. Andre Horvath looked real
hot, doing slid'n'roll, fakie olie, and
a fakie flip (Elgario). Tomas Sjoberg
did his favorite moves, the Miller
flip and Indy Air.
Unfortunately, a few of the others
had problems with their nerves
and
d didn't make it to the finals
Among this group were Anders
Dahlqvist and Mikael Adolfsson
who both showed a lot of well-per-
formed moves in the training runs
Ready for the finals were Andre
Horvath, Tomas Sjoberg (os
expected). Emrik Larsson, Anders
Blomberg and finally. Torsten
Larsson. After seeing the juniors
Author Jan Soderhall, winning his division
ICB
the audience wondered if the
seniors could possibly do any
better and yes, they could! All
of them were performing aerials
and variels, handplants and foot-
plants and many o
other extraordi
nary tricks. I would have found it
impossible to judge, but here's
who the judges chose
se Tony
Jansson, doing a l lot of nice aerials
Mats Trane with his American-
influenced style: Martin Carboo
showing dramatic improvement
since his last contest Hans Puffis
Jacobsson, also greatly improved
who looked very stylish doing his
aerial axe-stalls, layback varials
backside laybacks and other
tricks and Hans Gothberg who
captured first-place, as he has in
The ramp
so many contests, doing every
trick as high as possible-An
drecht handplants, handplant
varials, frontside footplants and
backside tail-slides
The last contest of the day was
freestyle which was held on a
stage specially built for this seg-
ment Among the juniors, Joran
Thell took the lead with a two-min-
ute program which included a
double 180 kickflip, 360 Kickflip.
540
shove i it and more. Since
Joran won every freestyle contest
held in Sweden, in 1980, he was
the favorite.
Competition was very close in
the senior class. As a result of their
seven month stay with Steve Rocco
Per Welinder and Hans Lindgren
Handplant, Hans Jacobsson
showed real good skating Stefan
Spang and Martin Wilners also
displayed improved skating styles
but the lead was taken by Per
Holine Surprisingly, he was a few
points ahead of Per Wolnder.
Sunday started with freestyle.
and, of course, Joran Thell kept
first place. But the senior class
showed a lot of changes: Por
Welnder made an incredible run
Including a handstand kickflip, 360
shove-to-one-foot, 540 shove it.
Rocco-k-spin, double 180 railip
and many, many other moves. His
incredible run easily gave him first-
place, accompanied by as much
applause and screaming as the
crowd could manage. Per Holknekt
moved to second place with only
Nicke Hallgren, 360 shove it
Martin Carbol puls an hdy air dir tre
blew people's minds Martin
Corboo ended up third, and Mats
Trane and Tony Joneson placed
fourth and fith respectively
06 points coming between that
and third place which was taken
by Stefan Spang
Vertical riding in the junior class
onded up with Andre Horvath
taking
first and Tomas Sjoberg
retaining second
It was time for the seniors to
give it their all And so did the
spectators Hundreds of people
stood there screaming and clop
ping not believing the show they
were witnessing
Hans Gothberg made a smooth
and calm run, managing to keep
first place (despite Hans Jacob-
son's offempts to knock him out).
Gothberg's almost perfect run
included a recently leamed Indy
air into handplant, which really
GOLDEN
SKATE
Only one final event was left
slalomi Today's course was a lot
harder than Saturday's and this
made it a more difficult competi
tion. The Junior's was probably
even tougher than in the qualifying
run Favorite Per Frylund advanced
from third to first place and won
with
a margin of only 3/100 over
Mats Fonberg
I made quite a good run in the
senior class and easily managed
to keep my lead the telephone
threat I was subject to on Saturday
evening didnt world Both Jonds
Wikstrom and Linus Ericsson broke)
Elisabeth Lovgren, women's alalum
Photography by Martin Skeppholm
alowing Hans Zetterberg to place
second
After five days of heavy compe-
tition it was finally over. Everyone
travelled home longing for the
next contest, tentatively scheduled
for the beginning of April.
Oh, I'd ke the winter to be
shorter
RESULTS:
SLALOM JUNIORS
1 Per Fryckund
2. Mats Forsberg
-Jan Sodderhal
14.241
14.27
3. Henrik Wadsten
14.80
FREESTYLE JUNIORS
1 Joran Tho
2352
2. Peter Wigran
209,6
3. Niclas Folkesson
1983
VERTICAL RIDING JUNIORS
1 Andre Horvath
655
2. Tomas Sjoberg
518
3. Anders Blomberg
480
SLALOM SENIORS
1. Jan Soderhal
13.08
2. Hans Zetterberg
13.58
3. Richard Ohman
1418
FREESTYLE SENIORS
1 Per Wollndor
3253
2 Per Holknekt
2889
3. Stefan Spong
288,3
VERTICAL RIDING SENIORS
1 Hans Gothberg
774
2. Hans Jacobsson
754
3. Martin Carboo
694
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