Youth Against Establishment

WITP FINLAND

The 8th stop of Volcom Stone�s Wild In The Park in Europe was a blast. Over 130 kids from all over Finland stood in line to sign in last Saturday at Ponke�s Skatepark in Helsinki. There are a lot of skateparks in the city but this is the only one that close to the harbour, having the � party boats � going to sweden passing in front of it, so you can skate straight after a 10 hour party coming back from Stockholm. With fall knocking at the door and despite a few rain drops in the morning, the weather was perfect the whole afternoon so everyone could chill on the grass around the skatepark, enjoying some hot dogs cooked by Seba and watching their friends skate. The skatepark got divided in 3 areas: First spot was a line of 1 bench and 2 picnic tables, the second one was a long manual pad with a bench at the end, and some banks with gaps constitued the 3rd spot. Fs feeble on the picnic table With over 80 entries in the 15 and under division, the course was on fire at each heat and the 3 zones got assaulted without any retenue. At the end, Jonne Nordlund finished at the 3rd place with a smooth style and some sweet front board shove it out, young Ben Gren won also his ticket to the European champs ending at the 2nd place with a big bag of tricks and a clean style. Jaako Ojanen dominated the category the whole day with hammers such as SS heelflips frontboards as for example, even Simo Makela who was judging despite a serious hungover due to a music festival sneaky mission, was impressed, good job. On the 16 and over category, the level went up a notch and the battle was tight for spots in the finals. Every spot got his delivery of tricks. Ilari Taittonen was killing benches and curbs all day and took the 4th place, while Ronny Turpeinen was cruising on the course with a super smooth style and a big smile into the 3rd place. Miika Virtanen was flying like an eagle and landing his tricks and a couple of hammers everywhere and took the 2nd place while Tito Aiha was the best that day shutting everyone down and locking the spots like in the famous skate video game� and took a well deserved the first place. A best trick was organised on the pole Jam before the prize ceremony, and then the traditional product toss finished up the day with some madness� Sun was still shining when we packed and tried to clean the mess (shame on the kids littering) and then it was still time to finish the day at a park (Helsinki style). Thanks to everyone who came enjoy the day with us and to everyone that helped running this contest Liina Stenvall, Liisa Viitaniemi, Sebastian Wirkkala, Mikko Tervonen, Pate, Peetu Rojas, Amin bisi, Lauri Vassinen, Pauli Waroma, Simo M�kel�, Sebastian Eklund, Sami Helpel�, Ville Vartiainen, Red Bull and Electric for the shades and extra prizes. Results : -15 1. Jaakko Ojanen 2. Benjamin Gren 3. Jonne Nordlund 4. Ron Modig 5. Petteri Myllyaho 16+ 1. Tito Aiha 2. Miikka Virtanen 3. Ronny Turpeinen 4. Ilari Taittonen 5. Toni Nyk�nen Electric Hype of the day : Leo Roive Back to WITP