VANS LET IT RIDE BOWL contest report. By BdJ

Jun 08, 2009

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 6796 times

The teams had been on the road for 10 days when they headed for Belgium to the Let It Ride finals. With € 10.000,= Euros up for grabs it was up to the riders to rip it up one more time. It was an open contest though so anyone could enter. Some of the ripping locals were too star struck to actually ride in the comp. They should have because home advantage is something positive to have in a Bowl contest. The park kind of looks like SuperPark set up at the X-Games

but the concrete is as forgiving as the wooden constructure in Los Angeles. The surface was grippy though which is nice as long as you keep the rubber side down. Team Pain actually built the park and it's a great investment by the city.

Getting four Vans teams together in one spot plus riders like Stefan Lantschner, Geoff Slattery and others resulted in a good show.

Free (Belgian) Vans Waffles were handed out and everyone could vote for their favourite tour photo and win a pair of Vans at the same time. The start of the program got pushed back a little because people were still thinking about entering the comp or not. In the end 20 riders battled for the 10 final spots. Making finals automatically meant a slice of the € 10K and those riders were: Tobias Wicke, Markus Braumann, Geoff Slattery, Dylan Smith, Ben Hennon, Kevin Kalkoff, Alexandre Valentino, Hannu Cools, Stephan Lantschner and Bas Keep.

Two more prizes were up for grabs. One extra € 250,= Euros for the Pool shark and the other prize was having a FIAT QUBO car to your disposal for one month. While it was raining in other parts of Belgium it was decided to speed up the program and not wait until the rain arrived in Kortrijk.

DJ got the people ready for the finals. A Bowl contest is about riding bowls. Finding new lines, being creative, having flow, style, and speed are important ingredients. Tobias Wicke threw in a lot of tech tricks and rode the spine well to make it to the finals but it stopped at place 10. Belgian Hannu Cools got creative to finish 9th. Alex Valentino was all over the place, did a 360 handplant over the spine and cruised everything in sight to finish 8th right behind Markus Braumann who has so many skills that he sometimes doesn't know what to do with it.

A 540 flair tire tap was one of his moves but he also whipped the hip etc. Baz Keep would have placed much higher if the other guys just didn't ride so well too. Baz knows how to ride bowls and did huge airs out of the deep section. His no-hander sticks out. Baz was going upside down in the satellite, or cradle or however you want to call it. Opposite 360-s, sweet oppo inverts over the hip, 6th for the Brit.

The USA raked up place number 5. Dylan Smith rides fast and as a result of that, he flies high. He'll probably have enough cash to buy a new guitar. 4th place went to Stephan Lantschner, who qualified in seventh. The 5 person jam sessions in the finals suited everyone well and tephan had two killer runs where he hit everything with flow, speed and style. I'd never seen Geoff Slattery (USA) ride in person but it was a treat for sure. He had just arrived in Belgium and was riding the foreign park like it was his own. If you can do that, you are a great bike rider and fully in control.

Riding with Brian Foster in New Jersey might have helped him along the way. Kevin Kalkoff finished 2nd which must be his best finish at a contest in the last few years. You see, Kevin is a great rider and his riding translates better in a bowl than at a park course. This time Kevin felt right at a contest and grabbed the second place check. € 2500,= Euros went to Ben Hennon for first. Ben was so burnt out on riding his bike in the morning. He had not partied but being on the road for almost a month straight riding every single day did result in Hennon not having fun on his bike.

He felt that strange too because he loves riding. But riding so much had been weird for someone who normally works and rides twice a week. Bennon already did (surprisingly) well during qualifying. He had taken a walk and had a talk with himself to get his mind on the right path. He was in Belgium, riding his bike with his friends and he could possibly win some extra cash to keep him away from laying carpets for a few weeks.

It worked for the Brit as he went full throttle all the way to first place. His ender was a no-hander over a section that noone had even jumped all day. Nuts.

Results Let It Ride. 6 - 6 - 2009:
1. Ben Hennon
2. Kevin Kalkoff
3. Geoff Slattery
4. Stephan Lantschner
5. Dylan Smith
6. Sebastian Keep
7. Markus Braumann
8. Alexandre Valentino
9. Hannu Cools
10. Tobias Wicke

Now the two extra prizes went to the following people: Geoff Slattery won the Pool Shark award and Stephan Lantschner will be cruising (or rally racing) in a Fiat Qubo for 31 days. We reckon he will do over 10.000 kilmoters on that thing when he gets his hands on it.

The Best Photo award went to Rutger Pauw with the photo of Tobias Wicke in the ditch doing a Canadian nosepick. The best tour video award went to Team France, filmed and edited by Alex Barett.