Bondi Bowlarama 2010

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It's Bowlarama time again and a late flight from Perth meant I arrived in Bondi Thursday morning to find a few crew including Bucky Lasek mopping the bowl in preparation for the days warm up session. Always good to see one of the worlds best skaters happy to get stuck in! Lance Mountain, Cab and a fair few others were in town so I kicked back and watched a few people figuring out their lines. Grosso, Pedro Barros, Bob Burnquist and Juergen Howarth all showed up at some point so things were already looking good.

Thursday night was the annual 'Love and Guts' Art show featuring some superb artwork from Cab, Chet Childress, Lance Mountain, Grosso and a stack of others. It's a great chance to pick up a bargain with some amazing hot rod art from Cab as usual. Sadly due to my room getting broken into I missed it as I was busy dealing with the Police, next year I'm definitely going to make this one.

Friday morning I swung back past the bowl to find a few more faces in town including Aussies RJ Barbaro, Mick Mulhall and the OMA crew of Adrian Jones, Scott Spring and Danny Van. Things started to heat up and there was some intense stuff going down including doubles runs from Sergie Ventura and Pedro Barros. Sadly Sergie took a nasty slam toward the end of the day that left him with ten stitches in his head and unable to skate the comp.

Tony Hawks new game was being launched further down the beach with a game of skate and there was also a Vans signing at the legendary Crab Shack. There's always plenty going on around Bowlarama week so even if you don't want to sit by the bowl and watch the sessions you can amuse yourself pretty easily. Sadly the place I was staying at had a return visit from their friendly neighbourhood thieves so I missed the Friday night's entertainment as well!

SATURDAY
So Saturday is comp day and there's a noticeable shift in the air as the stands have gone up and the bowl is displaying its fresh new sponsor logos. Always good to see Vans supporting this event, Steve Van Doren is a top guy and it's great that a company with such a long history of supporting skating put their money into Bowlarama. The Syndey skate crew were in full attendance along with a fair amount of curious bystanders and various skate faces. I spotted Harry Clark, Brass, Jake Duncombe, Cons and many others lurking in the crowd over the course of the day.

MASTERS HEATS
First up were the Masters Heats, a great chance to watch some legendary figures prove that you're never too old to get your shred on. Regular faces Pat Nghoho, Lester Kasai and Cab were joined by Lance Mountain, Jeff Grosso and a strong Aussie contingent including Johnny Grey, Danny Van, Adrian Jones, Mick Mulhall, Wedge Francis and Johnny Bogaert. Ex Alva rider and all round skate legend Dave Duncan jumped in for a roll too sporting a nice new bowlscum sticker on his deck!

PRO HEATS
Next up was the pro heats and with so many amazing skaters in town this was always going to be a tough one. The Masters division had raised the age limit to 40 this year which saw Jamie, owner of local skate shop Crabshack stuck up against Juergen Howarth and last years 3rd placed Nathan "Jimmy' Beck! With Cardone, Lasek, Wellington winner Pedro Barros, Omar, Burnquist and Rune all going off it must have been a tough call for the judges to separate.

Following Sergie's slam the day before Renton Miller took a real hard one which knocked him out cold, having had a helmet on he survived better than Sergie but it took him out of the running for the finals. Chris Senn also snaked Otavio Netto which left the Brazilian very much worse for wear, shame because his one foot frontside grinds are well worth seeing not too mention those big floating ollies out the deep.

MASTERS FINALS
Pro heats over the Masters final began with Mick Mulhall going hard and pushing Cab to his limits. Nghoho was showing his usual fluid lines with some nice board slides around the square corner while Lance and Grosso were throwing up all kinds of invert variations.

At the end of the day Cab just grabbed the title from Mick Mulhall with Pat Nghoho taking third.

PRO FINALS
Pro finals were up next and the intensity ramped up several notches with some sick stuff going off. Bucky just has way too many tricks and was obviously keen to retain the title from last year but 14 year old Brazilian wonder kid Pedro Barros was unstoppable chucking up a few crowd pleasing 540's and smooth lines that saw him killing every part of the bowl. Bob Burnquist throw down his usual insane switch stuff which you have to see to believe while Brian Patch surprised me by being incredibly consistent and smooth. Ex Perth local RJ Barbaro was going hard and had some sick stalefish air's on the far wall, good to see the Aussies holding their own against a line up of top US pro's.

At the end of the day the judges called it as Pedro Barros 1st, Bucky 2nd and Bob 3rd. It was then just left to head to the Beach Road Hotel for prize giving and a few beers. Another eventful Bowlarama draws to a close but even getting my stuff stolen didn't dampen an amazing few days watching some of the worlds best skaters ripping Bondi apart. Highly recommended and I'll be back next year. For now enjoy the pictures and soak up the atmosphere that is Bondi Bowlarama, huge props to Chad and all the crew for pulling it together.