Vans Shop Riot celebrated another historic finals with Bana Skate shop from Portugal crowned champions of Europe for the first time at their local spot in Parque Das Gerações skatepark, Estoril, Portugal. Following epic sessions throughout the day, it was Bana and Titus who took their rightful places in the final. With a fairly even run throughout the final it then led to what can only be described as a one of the heaviest 60 seconds in the history of Vans Shop Riot, with both teams taking to the big rail and going mental. The eventual winners would be Bana as the Ribeiro twins destroyed on the big section with Gustavo landing a bigger flip frontside board on the whistle sending the local crowd nuts and leading to a full pitch invasion.
Vans Shop Riot also played host to the best trick competition on Saturday with three winners splitting prize money of up to €750. Across three park obstacles it was Alexander Risvad, Gustavo Ribeiro and Mickael Germond who would be the individual winners including an arsenal of tricks from a switch frontside tail slide 270 heel flip out to a hippy jump over the bump to bar.
Finally a special mention has to go to Vans supporting artist and all round genius Jon Horner for creating a fantastic and unique exhibition showcasing his artistic touch on all things skateboarding. Jon has supported the series artwork this year and the Vans Rainy Day Activity book went down a storm with the local kids of Cascais who spent hours customising their own in order to win prizes.
Big up to all the competing teams – Burnside (Holland), Lockwood (Belgium), Picnic (Czech Rep), Titus (Germany), Black Sheep (UK), Destroy (Russia), Bana (Portugal), Wall Street (France), Circus Circus (Denmark), Surfhouse (Estonia), Tactic (Spain), Gili’s (Israel), Ministry of Concrete (Greece), and Frisco (Italy).
And finally huge knucks and thanks to Alexis, Kat, Henry, Ben, Danny Wainwright, George and everyone else behind the scenes for putting together another epic event representing the true lifeblood of the European skateboard scene.
