COMPETITION
A report from
EUROCANA OPEN in Sweden
(19-23 January 1983, Stockholm)
Written by Jani Söderhåll
During the years Sweden built up a
pretty good reputation in the skate-
boarding world, very much depending
on our annual indoor-competition in
January every year and of course,
Summer Camp. The tradition of the
annual indoor competition started in
the years of the skateboarding craze
in Sweden and has since then grown
bigger and better each year. The size
of the comp and everything around it
is so impressive, that no matter how
many times you've been there you
never cease to be amazed.
The competition is held in conjunc
tion with a motorcycle fair and this
brings a lot of people out to see the
comp and the rest of the fair. This year
(as every year before) a new aften-
dance-record was set: 77,727 paying
visitors during the five days of compet-
ition. The first three days are devoted
to training, which is quite important in Per Welinder
Sweden because at this time of year
it's pretty cold outside and there aren't
many indoor halfpipes or any other in-
doors skateboard facilities in Sweden.
Evidence that Sweden and this comp
has a good reputation is the fact that
so many foreigners showed up: 10
English skaters, 8 Danish, 2 Italian, 1
Swiss and 1 from Belgium, and we
should not forget that two Swedish
skaters travelled all the way from U.S.
to compete here, Per Welinder and
Per Hulknekt
Saturday morning started with a
skating session for the Swedish
sports TV which was shown on al
sports program the following week.
After that the real action began with
the qualifying round in freestyle. Free-
stylers from 4 different nations were
ready to show the judges that they
were good enough to be among the
six that would go to the semifinals. Per
Welinder, who had returned to Swe-
den to defend his championship
status, was definitely among the six.
Shane Rouse from England skated Gogo
even better though and with his very
technical routine he captured first only
two points ahead of Welinder.
Stefan Akesson,
and another
Swede that has been training in
California last year is really progress-
ing with a wide range of modern
moves, and could, if everything went
well, win the comp. So could Per
"Hawkneck Holknekt who always
shows up with alot of new moves that
one never thought could be done-
but obviously they can be. Per took
fourth place after Stefans third. Gogo
Spreiter, Switzerland, one of the two
girls in this comp is definitely among
the best female freestylers, if not the
best, in the world. Which she has
showed here by beating many of the
best Swedish freestylers through the
years and placing 5th just ahead of
Martin Willners, author of Swedens
only skateboarmag Uppat Vaggarna.
So these were the six going into the fi-
nals: Shane Rouse, Per Welinder,
Stefan Akesson, Per Holkoekt, Gogo
Stephen Akesson
Spreiter and Martin Willners.
Now over to the halfpipe and the
sad beginning. Hans Göthberg, prob-
ably the best Swedish vertical skater,
fell during a practice session in Hans
"Puttis" Jacobson's halfpipe (built in a
swimming-pool indoors), just a few
days before the comp and had to have
his leg plastered. So did Neil Danns,
who had come over here to prove that
the English vertical skaters are just as
good as the Swedish. However there
were still many really good skaters
there to fulfill the "battle. Among the
Juniors Steve Reid from England was
outstanding and took the lead ahead
of Per Lindberg Martin Korpi and
Rikard Collin. In the senior calss (over
15) the 23 entrants were cut down first
to 16 and then to 8. These eight skat
ers to meet on the following day in
head to head. The real surprise of this
event was Mikael Adolfsson, one of
the juniors who wanted to compete
among the seniors. He really choked
many of us by beating all the seniors.
Mikael won the junior class last year
and has since then improved a lot
passing most of the seniors in both
height and style with his intensive
skating. Other topnames were Hans
"Puttis Jacobsson, Kjell Norin, Mats
Trane, Peter Linnell, Lee Bryan, An-
ders Blomberg, Martin Björck and Pat-
rik Backlund. Unfortunately Mats
Trane couldn't really prove his skating
ability in the second run and he liter-
ally fell from third to tenth place.
Sunday morning, the day of the f-
nals started with Junior halfpipe,
Steve Reid kept his first place and
won without loosing once. Martin
Korpi and Rikard Collin, both compet-
ing for their first time, pulled off some
really good skating and Per Lindberg
had to leave both second and third
place to their favour.
In the semifinals of the freestyle
event Gogo couldn't really keep her
nerves in control and was passed by
Martin Willners placing 5th and Gogo
6th. Per Holknekt performed what I
thought was his best routine ever but
Shane Rouse did not get enough points to pass Ste-
fan Akesson, and get a place among
the three best. Per Welinder deter-
mined to win this time passed Shane
Rouse with only one point! I must say
this was really getting exciting. Could
Welinder manage to do another close
to perfect routine or could Shane with
all his impressing moves take back
the lead and put Welinder on second
place for the first time since 1980 on a
comp in Europe. Stefan skated first
and kep his third place with honour but
without chance to beat either Shane
or Per. Then Shane skated and we all
began to doubt if Per actually could
keep his lead after this. But as soon as
Per started skating at least he was
sure to win, he smiled up like a sun for
each hard trick he managed and fi-
nally even the judges were convinced:
Per had once again won Eurocana
open. But the margin wasn't big, only
five points separated Shane and
In the head to head final for the
seniors the first four rounds went as
expected. But when Patrik Backlund,
performing breathtaking tuckleg-
handplants, was beaten out by Lee
Bryan (England), and when Kjell Norin
gave up while he still had 15 seconds
left against Peter Linnell things started
happening. Lee Bryan was beaten out
in the next round by Peter Linnell, who
now had to meet Puttis. Puttis man-
aged his well trained routine with
handplantstalls, tuckleg hpl, tailslide
revert and lots of other moves and
that was definitely too much for Peter
who ended up third. Mikael Adolfsson
had won all his rounds up till now, but
Puttis' consistency was too much for
him, and he lost their first meeting
Now with one victory each anything
could happen... Mikael concentrated
hard and with some hidden energy he
stretched his handplants a little more
than usual, made higher aerials and
better bone airs than ever before. Put-
tis saw this and realized that he would
not be able to push his routine enough
to beat Mikael, and Mikael emerged
as the winner, proving that seniors
don't necessarily have to be better
than juniors. Many of the skaters now
gathered around av TV to see the
Powell-Peralta video brought to Swe-
den by Shane Rouse, while the
"Ramp-builders" started to dismount
the halfpipe was taken apart into its
smallest parts. Is that maybe a new
world record?
Many thanks to our sponsors:
Eurocana, G&S, Madrid, Tracker and
Pommac
Hans "Puttis Jacobsson
Winter Wrap-up
START
WORLD SNOWBOARDING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Soda Springs, CA. March 26, 27, 1983
The first event of the three was the
slalom. As the preliminary details
slowly passed us by, the event came
closer and closer. I could sense the
anxiety, and looking down the
course I felt the fear. Setting up the
course and riding first Tom Sims
brought the crowd down the moun-
tain. Each rider shot down the course
and soon the event was over. Tom
Sims wins the event and Allen
Armbruster takes a close second.
Andy Codgen screamed into third
place. These riders are true carvers
of the white powder.
The next event was the downhill.
Fear was present but speed became
overwhelming. Chris Carroll won the
event with a blistering run near 60
m.p.h. When the event was over,
Tom Sims, the contest coordinator,
allowed himself an extra run, much
to the crowd's disliking, and he
placed his run with equal value to
the others and took second place. In
spite of all the angles, Cadmen Bear
showed control with a gnarly third
place run.
The last event in the competition
was the halfpipe or the freestyle
event. Two local boys made bigtime
with first and second places. Eddy
Hardgrave and his brother Carrie
wrapped up the event. Again the dis-
organization showed through in the
competition, unfortunately. Three
skiers who obviously knew very little
about snowboarding were judging
this event. As it turned out, Tom
Sims took third place.
RESULTS
RESULTS EUROCANA
OPEN 1983
FREESTYLE
1. Per Welinder
2. Shane Rouse
3. Stefan Akesson
4. Per Holknekt
5. Martin Willners
6. Gogo Spreiter Schweiz
7. Stefan Johansson
8. Peter Wigren
9. Hans Lindgren
10. Richard Elwell England
HALFPIPE JUNIORS
1. Mikael Adolfsson
2. Hans Jacobsson
3. Peter Linnell
4. Lee Bryan England
5. Patrik Backlund
6. Kjell Norin
7. Anders Blomberg
8. Martin Bjorck
9. Bruno Peeters Belgien
10. Mats Trane
HALFPIPE JUNIORS
1. Steve Reid England
2. Martin Korpi
3. Rikard Collin
4. Per Lindberg
5. Stefan Björklund
6. Jörgen Brennicke
ENGLISH INDOOR OPEN
SKATEBOARD
CHAMPIONSHIPS 1983
I think it would be a good thing to in
clude the names of those who entered
the Bradpipe '83 competition at Brad-
ford in the north of England on Feb-
ruary 12/13. The weather was bad
adverse snow conditions at that time
meant that not all the entrants made it
(very few), yet nevertheless a record
turnout was achieved.
The events were U-ramp and high
jump, with rollerskate U-ramp also in-
cluded. Groups A advanced and B in-
termediate. Comp organizers were
lan Emberton with Brian Shaw with
ESA back-up, now in its second year.
Some of the skaters entered in this
comp were fresh from the Eurocana
Open at Alvsjo near Stockholm in
Sweden, days before.
Here at Bradford the practice ses
sions were not going foo smoothly
earlier on Saturday with nervoso
snaking syndrome outbreaks but later
on things reverted to some kind of nor-
mality. All the while the standard was
very high, so were the ollies and ex-
tended inverts. Sundays Bradpipe
comp had every indication of being a
real blazer.
Sunday early morning produced
Are you crazy? I asked one of the
riders. "No, he said, "I'm just having
a good time." We did agree that it's
hard to beat carving a virgin slope
with a few buddies.
Nevertheless many smiles of en-
joyment shined through the ambigu
ous surroundings of the so-called
coordinator. Mother Nature gave us
who long for beauty her gift, and
most riders gave their offer of talent
to the event.
absolute havoc with the drink
machines going haywire and the kit-
chen equipment not, if you see what I
mean. A machine mechanic drafted in
super fast prevented us from dying of
thirst.
At 10 a.m. in waves of six the "B"
group commenced operations; with
As for what's next, well, look for
double flips and gainers, maybe
even some syncronized stunts. I
have no doubt about the inspiration
of riders living on or the realization of
the constant fear we who push, face.
Let's just hope we can keep
shoveling the bull off the slopes.
Congrats to the rightful winners.
Story and photo by Ben Rewis.
BRADPIPE-ENGLISH OPEN
ESA SKATER OF THE YEAR
SERIES 1983
Feb. 12-13, 1983
RESULTS
two runs each they were out to get the A Group Roller
best average score from the judges.
Watching all the time were Yorkshire
TV, who got a nice footage of film, the
Mail, the Times, the Telegraph, Argus
and the Yorkshire Evening Post all got
story to go home with
a
Stevie Reid in the "A" group
achieved his predicted Caballarial
also seen at Stockholm and Dan-Z his
Elguera. The marks (subject to ratifi-
cation) say it all. All eyes are now on
Crystal Palace to see how the series
will go although the top framing is
pretty clear at the moment nothing is
certain until the last marks are
counted in the fall.
1. Andy Peerless
2. Chris Linford
A Group Pipe
1. Neil Danns
2. Lee Bryan
3. Stephen Reid
4. Danny Webster
5. David Philip
6. Sean Goff
7. Thomas Hughes
8. Lucian Hendricks
9. lan Cocking
10. Paul Gartside
This year's sponsors of the Bradpipe A Group High Jump
Comp '83:
1. Paul Gartside
Powell Peralta California
Alpine Action London
Rollinstock Warrington
PTR deck devices, Shiner LTD,
Bristol
B Group Roller
1. Ben Hollingworth
2. Neil McGarvie
3. Stewart Savage
B Group Pipe
1. Paul Tobin
2. Dave Furneau
3. Justin Ashby
4. Marcus
5. Pete Trevor
6. David McGee
7. Julius Brinkworth
8. Pete Rodgers
9. Kevin Moxon
10. Chris Harris
B Group High Jump
2. Paul Price
1. Murray McCormick
3. David Philip
2. Justic Ashby
4. Graeme Stanners
3. Mark Abrook
5. Sean Goff
3. Robert Abel
-Guy Isitt
5. Alan Burr
5. David McGee