Rotterdam Grand Prix of Skateboarding 2009 Article at Skatepark of Tampa

Rotterdam Grand Prix of Skateboarding 2009

Posted on Monday, July 20, 2009 by Rob

By Rob Meronek

This cave on the right was my frigid office for two days. Sketchy working conditions create some of the best memories of these crazy events we do. Can't wait to return to the cave next year
They had those same pissers as Amsterdam, except they make portable versions of them. That one probably drains right into the ocean there
That's Thomas Vintr from Prague 360 flipping into the bank while the jumbotron thing shows a quarter second delay
Rob Maatman is one of my favorite Euros right now, not just because of the extra cool first name. This frontside nosegrind at the top of the downhill course was finished up with a bigspin back boardslide at the bottom of the hill on the rail
This is Nassim Guammaz, a Netherlands local kickflipping down the four and a half stair. He didn't make the cut in the Qualifiers, but on the night before the Contest, we got to see ripping footage of him in a video premiere at the bar. It was cool to see so many people we've only seen in Contests here having video parts and making it happen in their scene
Look at that crew on the sidelines. Aaron Suski, Jerry Hsu, Kenny Anderson aka The Perfect Man, Dylan Rieder, possibly the future Perfect Man, Jake Johnson, and Alex Mizurov. Thanks for taking a tour break and coming to the skateboard shindig
Somehow Lutzka got directly associated with this type of hat, therefore Phil Zwijsen from Belgium is referred to as the Euro Lutzka. I bet K-Swiss is much more accepted here than it is in the US and A
They call them "toilets" here, not "bathrooms." When I ask where the bathroom is, I wonder if they think that's why I haven't showered for so long
Our old pal Adrien Bulard here is still on "no speeka Engrish" status. You didn't know they got gingers in France, huh? Me niether. That's a frontside nosegrind between blunts, not the skateboard trick kind
Adrien Bulard pulled the king of fatties to flatty for the weekend, at least until Douwe Macare switch flipped it in Best Trick. This is 360 flip off the bump to flat
That's Niels van der Zeeuw closing in on a frontside nosegrind on the tall hubba
After Bastian cab flipped the big gap into the bank, he cab double flipped it. Then he went back in his cave or where ever he's been. Rothmeyer had an idea I agree with: Invite Bastien to the Maloof Money Cup next year
While all that ripping skating was going down outside in the cold winds, you could retreat inside to get a damn good meal and still watch the Contest on TV. A first class skateboard shindig
Did the caterers skate? Obviously not if "half pipe" is still in their vocabulary, but they made a good effort. The 360 soup was tight
Jake Johnson skated Vans Downtown Showdown and Tampa Am in 2007, but I don't remember that because he wasn't on the radar yet from a major video part. After this weekend, I remember every single thing Jake did and also got to meet him. I think he's taller than Tony Hawk
They put more stuff on their hot dogs than we put on pizza here. Thanks Marco for treating us to the best hot dogs in Rotterdam
Leander Geelhoed is another Rotterdam local we've become friends with over the years through AmsterDamn Am. See you there, Leander. That's a BS180NG
Simo Makela is bringing this nollie flip into the big gap to bank from Finland
Aaron Suski was here with the whole Emerica team on tour. That's a 360 flip
Collin Provost snaps these frontside flips to lip far above that low rail
Curren Caples 360 flipped the big gap into the bank and more on Saturday which got him the Golden Ticket to the Finals on Sunday and $1,200 for 10th place
After Kenny Anderson made everything on this bank look flawless, it was called The Perfect Man Bank all weekend. That's a nosebonk into it
Collin Provost hard flipped into that big giant step up
Right after the Contest, there was the photography show from the Photo Contest on a boat. Johathon Mehring ended up winning $5,000
A few of the photos from the Photo Contest. In the top photo, Jonathon's is the 4th one to the right that you can't really see. It's a frontside flip on a log ship
Remco Staak, Netherland ripper - frontside nosegrind
Max Kruglov is from Russia - salad grind
A small sample of the weird food going on. That's watermelon with candy wedged between. It's available for all you can eat at the Contest
It's now about 2am in Barcelona where we arrived a few hours ago. Everyone is out having drinks with the DC team while I'm stuck uploading party photos from two nights ago. That's Kenny Hughes with Misha Cracker before and after he noticed his Element shirt
It costs one Euro to go to the bathroom in this Rotterdam club that the after parties were at every night
Just when I was about over the weird techno show, Marco shows up with beer coins. I guess I'll stick around a bit
Girls love tights here. Printed ones, hot pink ones, leather ones, etc. I'm not a fan of this style
Alex Mizurov and Georges Agonkouin who was hurt and couldn't skate this weekend
There seemed to be a lot of little kids rolling in the club. This mom made sure her and her son matched it up with the camo kit
I thought I had some serious hip hop history after a quarter century of being into it, but this guy was before my time. He was the DJ at the party Saturday night in the side room. This is DJ Kool Herc who apparently originated hip hop music
If you aren't rolling with a girl, at least rep one on your shirt
Oh, all that partying was just Saturday night. We still have all of Sunday at the Contest to go. DJ Wade has not put a drink down since
Trophies were being hand crafted on Sunday as the Contest went on
That's the Erasmusbrug bridge behind the tightest pants in the Contest, Peter Molek. In 2005, planes flew under that bridge for the Red Bull Air Race. I wonder if Red Bull Sarah knows that
Neil Smith is from London and was a crowd favorite with stuff like this switch noseblunt slide
Jake Johnson 360 flipping under the backdrop of the Erasmusbrug bridge
Rob Maatman - bigspin boardslide
Ricardo Paterno is another one of my Euro favorites. He also had a ripping part in that video we saw at the bar Friday night. That's a kickflip nose manual
The camera guy kept getting trippy on the jumbotron thing. Made me want to get some mushrooms from Amsterdam
You know what Jake Johnson is going to do out of this backside nosegrind
Tim Zom blew it out on this big rail into the bank. This back smith was one of many tricks he did that put him in first for the Contest and Best Trick
Ever seen flat spots that bad? Curren Caples was powersliding on purpose to create that. The surface on this course seemed to be flat spotting everyone's wheels
These big ol' women had nothing to do with the Contest. They got nekkid as Schaefer was reading the results and tackled him. Ew
I wonder what this curious kid was discussing with the streakers
Congrats Tim Zom. See you all in Amsterdam next weekend. Thanks to everyone who came to the Contest and thanks to everyone that had us out to help run it

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