| on 10-07-2006 05:04
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Published in : , Misc |
By Martina Čermáková
 The last day of this year’s World Cup Skateboarding contest with its finals seemed to have brought a larger audience than its preceding days. The streetstyle tent’s capacity was well equipped to host the fervent masses, but its size also took away from the intimacy and charged atmosphere originally exhibited by the bowl and vertical ramp. This was reflected in the audience, which despite the judges’ pep talk of a great feeling and the best edition in thirteen years, responded with less enthusiasm. To be fair, the hot and humid weather was particularly draining and took a visible toll on both the audience and the riders. Wet t-shirts, half-stripped bodies, and longer breaks between jams echoed the mercury line of the thermometer as well as the steady on-set of fatigue felt by the participants after three straight days of skateboarding.
 The hour-long streetstyle final featured twelve skaters in two heats; each composed of an individual intro run and a five-minute jam. The start list presented some great skaters including the MSC’s 2006 winner Ruben Rodrigues, the eleven year old Ascel Garysberghs, Austen Seaholm, Ronnie Creager, Daniel Vieira, last year’s MSC winner Bastien Salabanzi, and the sixteen-year-old Brazilian Jefferson Santos. By far the biggest crowd roar belonged to Prague’s Tomáš Vintr, who succeeded to climb his way into a well-deserved sixth place in the streetstyle jam. Despite the number of photographers and other individuals that at times blocked the way of the contesting riders, the final smoothly slipped to an end and crossed over into the not-so-well located best trick contest. Here the floor belonged to the French Bastien Salabanzi, who after a disappointing run and some leg pain at the streetstyle jam served a tasty Nosegrind to Backlipslide down the rail.
 In the wake of a rather casual award ceremony when some of the riders had already rolled away their wheel-equipped suitcases and others had gone for a pricy drink by one of the open-air bars, a vast number of people reserved a spot in front of a large screen to watch the World Cup final match. With a half-empty dance-floor of the Global Station tent, handfuls of visitors lounging on the grass in packs of acquaintance and the last two artists finishing off their three-day work on the walls of the Subkultura Art Exhibition and the Graffiti Jam, the atmosphere resembled a calm before the storm. By 10 pm the streetstyle tent was virtually rider-free with deconstruction in progress, making you rethink whether there was in fact a storm nearing, or if the all-familiar feeling of an end would rule and ruin the night. In any case, it is the end that makes you look forward to the next beginning, as with the annual Mystic Sk8 Cup: an event to mark down in your 2007 calendar.
For all results, videos, and photos visit http://www.mysticsk8cup.cz/.
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