The European capital of skateboarding, the proving ground for AMs, Barcelona, once again blessed us with sunshine and a perfect temp for the qualifiers of the Nike SB Barcelona AM
on Friday afternoon.
Many of the skaters who had travelled into Barcelona, got in the mood for the heat rounds
with a classic ‘Hill Bomb’ from the top of the city down to the newly opened Barcelona Box
creative space situated on Barceloneta Beach.
Stadium bleachers and screens set up around The Skate Agora skatepark in Badalona down
the coast, added to the intense session atmosphere as the 120 registered skaters from across the globe threw down for the biggest AM skate event on the continent.
With only 20 skaters advancing through to the semis to meet the 20 pre-qualified riders, 3
man, 3 minute heats flew through in a blaze of fierce skating.
15 made the cut for the Saturday finals that saw a bunch of big hitters missing the grade in the insanely tough field.
Getting through with some man size lines, was Londoner Casper Brooker alongside Norwegian child prodigy Jonas Carlson, who showed the flow maturity of a skater a decade his senior. The top three from the semis were Didrick Galasso with trademark relaxed effortless cool, Mads Christensen solid and textbook as ever and going through in the top spot big man Alexander Risvad showing super consistency throughout the day.
For those that didn’t qualify there was consolation in the fact that they could let loose in town and take in the launch of the Marcel Veldman’s solo exhibition ‘Definitely Not the New Fluff Exhibition’ – skateboarding in its purest form.
Finals start today at 18.00 at Skate Agora straight after the SLS qualifiers with the 15 finalists vying for part of the €10K prize purse. The overall winner will also leave with a ‘ticket to fly’ pass getting them an invite to the Nike SB Berlin Open at the end of July.
