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The Bricks Open An event like THE BRICKS OPEN in Duisburg Germany doesn´t need roaring publicity by Lukas Suess
T h e re i s n o h i g h e r, fa s t e r, o r bigger a t the Br icks . They jus t cut their ow n p a t h o f p u s h i n g t h e s por t in a different way. Thinking w ha t a re a l l y n i c e wa ke b o a rd c o n t e s t should look like, the Duisbur g folk s put som e o l d s c h o o l s t re e t s t yl e s k a t eb oa rd feel ing int o it . A l rea dy t h e l a s t ye a r ’s p re m i e re m a d e t h e wa ke scene sit up a nd wa t ch . No wonder t he li s t o f 4 0 p a r t i c i p a n t s h a d to be closed 20 minutes after its online a ppe a r a nc e . The already clean designed feature course at the Bricks got worked over just for the event. It began with a crossways pipe, followed by a flat-rail with a dragon tail on the left and an incline with a pipe-extension on the right. Next was a newly designed fence by UNIT Parktech and a combination of UNIT Skatecurb and UNIT Techseries rail. The following elbow-pipe was placed right in the cable corner, which made it a bit tricky and not many riders made it all the way to the end. After that there was the choice of a kicker-to-A-frame to the left or the step-down rail to the right. A flat zone and a right and left kicker marked the exit of the course. It was a well packed lap of just less than a minute and getting real close to the action anywhere around the lake was just perfect for hundreds of spectators. In a pre-round the field of 40 melted down to 20, who then started in head to head mode in round 1. Winning two out of three runs advanced riders to round 2. The next head to head battle took the best five right into the Überfinal. The judges had already brought to the attention of the riders, that they would appreciate creativity, different lines and style. Red Bull Teamrider, Dominik Gührs, showed a packed and solid run, but surprisingly he fell on the exit KGB, which opened the chance for local hero, Niko Kasper, to climb the podium. Two well qualified speakers took the crowd through the thrilling Überfinal. At the end Alex Aulbach from Munich took the highly coveted “Überring”, a heavy seal ring carrying the “The Bricks Open” logo. Bene Tremmel took second and local Niko got third.
N.Schneier © C.Lehnert
Afterwards the riders were full of praise for the thrilling format and the creative setup. Dominik Gührs took it lightly when he missed the podium: “One whole day of playin´ in the feature garden for the practice session was worth the trip to Duisburg. Thanks to the crew at The Bricks for the fun sessions!”
© C.Lehnert
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A.Aulbach © L.Suess
M.Toeller © F.Suess
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Blake Bishop Photos : Adam Skalleberg
What makes a WAKE PARK cool? Good vibes, unique rails, and perfect kickers. What makes a Wakeboard tricks look cool? When someone adds their own style to a trick and makes it look completely different than how everyone else is doing it. What makes a Wakeboard Boat cool? Loud speakers. What makes Winch session cool? Getting what you wanted first go. What makes a video edit cool? When someone puts time into showing off something completely unique such as rails that no one has seen before or winch spots that no one has hit before and not just going to a Wakepark and leaving the camera on the tripod and taking some laps. What makes a photo cool? Something unique no one has seen before or seen much of. What make a Music Cool ? Funky beats. What Makes a Rider Cool? Keeping it real and being themselves and not copying other rider’s style. What makes a board cool ? Board with lots of flex and fast on rails. What makes a Girlfriend Cool ? Pulling me on my cable and going to contests with me. What makes a Huge Fall Cool? If you don’t break anything but get a sick clip. What’s the most important thing in order to progress? Having fun every time you go out and shred and trying something new.
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Name: Blake Mize Bishop Birthdate: 2/28/1998 Hometown: Atlanta, Ga Sponsors: Slingshot Wakeboards, LKI Brand, Valdosta Wake Compound, Trash Wax, Buywake.com, Ambush Board Co. Wake Park: Valdosta Wake Compound / Btown Compound Stance: Regular
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Hand Plant ZACK N OVA K Rider : Zach Novak / Photo : Tim Spanagel
Before attempting a hand plant, you should find yourself an obstacle that will be easy to learn this trick on. A kicker for instance is smooth, not going to hurt your hand and also has an incline that will make it more effortless. Start underneath the cable and take a progressive edge to the obstacle you will be hitting. Before hitting the obstacle, let off your edge so your board flattens on the water but be sure to maintain your speed. When you hit the obstacle, and get about half way up is when you’re going to initiate the hand plant. You need to pop your board up and forward while moving your weight back (almost as if your were slipping out). When moving your weight back you will drop your back hand to catch yourself. A good way to practice is to board slide up the kicker or rail and drag your back hand, while adding more pressure to it each time until you are comfortable to go for it. Once you figure out the hand plant, you can then make it more interesting by doing it on more difficult obstacles and adding spins out of the trick; similar to the pole jam in the photo! Best of Luck! Cheers!
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2016 W WA WAKEPARK
WORLD CHAM P IONSHIP S photos : Phil Sirech
ANDREW PASTURA
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2016 / JH6 CVi^dcVa 8]Vbe^dc 7dVi (rd EaVXZ B6A>7J G^YZg :meZg^ZcXZ 7dVi 2015 / JH6 CVi^dcVa 8]Vbe^dc ( rd EaVXZ 7dVi >iVa^Vc CVi^dcVa 8]Vbe^dc 7dVi 2014 : 'cY EaVXZ LdgaY 8]Vbe^dch]^e 8VWaZ >iVa^Vc 8je 8]Vbe^dc 8VWaZ 2013 LdgaY 8]Vbe^dc 8VWaZ 2012 Gjhh^Vc CVi^dcVa 8]Vbe^dc 8VWaZ
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Max Sitnikov by Phil Sirech / Photo : “Blackboard production”
Max Sitnikov is a 10 year old Russian r ider. He’s the winner of t h e U S Na t iona l cont es t division super g rom in 2016 . L ike all the r ider s of the Unleashed Team Max ime excels i n t wo discipl ines , b ot h ca b l e a nd b oa t . We h a ve fo ll owed t h is Liq uid Force Super Grom r ider for the las t three yea r s now a s a Tea m R ider . =dl Y^Y ndj \Zi hiVgiZY lV`ZWdVgY^c\4 My whole family wakeboards. My mom, my brother, even my little sister all participate. We love spending time together and it’s great that we enjoy the same thing. 9d ndj Yd Vcn di]Zg WdVgY hedgih4 I love snowboarding and we spend all winter in the mountains. I also surf. We live near Santa Monica beach and try to surf as much as we can. L]Vi Yd ndj a^`Z i]Z bdhi VWdji lV`ZWdVgY^c\4 L]Vi Yd ndj Y^ha^`Z4 I love having fun with my friends and family. I love riding doubles with my little sister. And sometimes I like doing silly things on the obstacles. I don’t like when someone is pushing me to try new tricks. I hate falling and then having to come back to the dock to start again. CVbZ V ig^X` ndj ldjaY a^`Z id Yd dcZ YVn4 I think I can do double backflip soon so I am working on it now. L]^X] Yd ndj egZ[Zg! gV^ah dg `^X`Zgh4 I like both! But rails are always different at different parks so it’s so much fun to try them all.
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>[ ndj XdjaY ]VkZ V hZhh^dc l^i] VcndcZ! l]d ldjaY ^i WZ4 I love riding with my friends who are pro-riders like Angelika Schriber, Austin Hair, and Steffen Vollert. I really like Dominik Guhrs and hope to ride with him one day. IZaa jh V W^i VWdji ndjg ]dbZ hedih4 My hope spot is Wake Island Watersports complex in Sacramento, California and Velocity Park which is located nearby. Wake Island is super friendly and I love all the guys that hang out there. The owner Noel is absolutely cool! The park has beautiful blue water and many fun obstacles. Velocity is more advanced and has some signature features like Kaesen’s rail. 9d ndj ValVnh g^YZ VadcZ4 I love riding doubles! It always pushes me to ride better and try new stuff. 6cn h]dji djih 4 Come ride with me!!!!
Are you single? Or are you in a serious relationship? Single. Where has wakeskating taken you, travel-wise? Wakeskating has taken me to so many places I probably never would have been. Parts of Asia, around America, Canada once plus plenty of beautiful places in Europe which I am very thankful for. I see that you travel a lot to the US, would you ever want to move there permanently? I really enjoy the time I get to spend in the US and seeing all the friends I’ve made over there, so living stateside would be awesome but getting a visa for that, I hear is a struggle. As I’m getting older money is more of the issue so work is becoming a bit more important which means staying at home more often than traveling. I’m not complaining, I’ve done more traveling and seen so much already compared to a lot of people which I’m lucky to have done. Is there somewhere you haven’t yet traveled to that you really want to visit? There’s so many places in the world to visit. It would be nice to go back to the Philippines and Bali looks amazing. Plenty more in Europe to explore, it would be fun to do some more wakeskating in France and Spain etc with all those guys out there. I like going to the different cities and states in America where things are different to home and more diverse. I noticed you been getting a lot of tattoos lately. I thought your mom didn’t want you to get any. Haha my mum is pretty chill about them but my dad… not a fan. Tattoos have become more of an interest to me lately as most of my friends at home have them. Art is cool. Are there any tricks you can’t do? Too many. What are you going to start working on next? My consistency isn’t all that and I suck at flip tricks down drops. What do you think about the Wakeskate Tour? It’s cool, helps progression and grow the sport. Getting to see a lot of Wakeskaters hanging out and riding together is pretty rare so it’s always a good time.
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I JUST WANT TO KEEP ENJOYING IT. I REALLY WANTED TO JUST WAKESKATE AND NOT HAVE TO WORK BUT THAT DOESN’T SEEM TO BE POSSIBLE IF YOU DON’T ALREADY HAVE THE BIG TIME SPONSORS...
Who is the next kid coming up from U.K. that people should pay attention to? James Harrington kills it. Big bag of tricks and flows around the cable with style. Also Will Bradley who never really wakeskates much as real life takes over but he’s got one of the best styles in wakeskating. What do you want to accomplish in wakeskating? What do you want your legacy to be? I don’t know man, I just want to keep enjoying it. I really wanted to just wakeskate and not have to work but that doesn’t seem to be possible if you don’t already have the big time sponsors but even those companies don’t seem to be that interested in the sport. They seem to just be content with the skaters they already have and don’t care for new talent. Which isn’t helping when it comes to getting more people into wakeskating and the growth of the sport. It seems that wake skating has been sitting in the same spot for a while now. I just want to see wakeskating go somewhere and become something big. Skateboarding has blasted the last few years and it’s awesome to see, people are seeing it as something gnarly and progressive rather than a kid’s sport. Wakeskating is going stale like forgotten about fish. If you’re getting paid to do a sport you should be pushing yourself to push the progression! There’s kids like Clem going mental on a wakeskate. He’s landed so many new tricks and put out that many videos on Instagram this year. He’s Wakeskater of the year! Why aren’t the energy drink companies fighting over him..? What do you want to tell the kids out there who dream of being a pro wakeskater some day? Watch skateboard videos and be creative, use lock-ins. What’s the plan for 2017? Winch more and put out a full part. Film some more with Kid for the Istudiomo video. Anybody you’d like to thank? Mum & dad, Southern, O’Neill UK. Unleashed - Phil and Edgar for the interview/article. Cheers! 72
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bobby grant by phil Sirech / Photo : Daniel Grant
Bobby Grant is a legend a t Thai Wake Par k. You won’ t ma ke it pa s t t h e t h e s t a r t ing dock wit h out Bob by’s a p proval, but lucky for us he’s a fan of the Slingshot S uper Grom! At jus t 9 year s of age, the future is br ight for Bobby a nd t h e spor t of wa keb oa rding . How did you get started wakeboarding? I grew up at the cable and always lived near Thai Wakepark. Do you do any other board sports? I wakeskate a bit and also skateboard. What do you like the most about wakeboarding? I just like to chill with my friends and at Thai Wakepark there are many things to do besides riding, I can skateboard and do loads of other stuff. Wake boarding is more about just the riding. I spend a lot of time at school but when I’m not studying or riding, I usually skate or play football. What do you dislike? Front edges, or crashing on the Red Bull rail at Thai Wakepark. Name a trick you would like to do one day? I want to try rewinds, after that I don’t know. Which do you prefer, rails or kickers? I think rails, there is so much more to do on them. If you could have a session with anyone, who would it be? I love riding with Daniel, but I can do
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that anyway. Probably Oli Derome, James Windsor and Jeff McGee. Tell us a bit about Your Home Spots? Thai Wakepark is like home. I have so many friends there, love the food and there’s loads of stuff to do there too. I live ten minutes from the cable, so I always go there when I can. Do you always ride alone? I ride doubles with Victor Salmon, Fame, and pretty much anyone who’s around at the cable. We just have fun and film stuff when we can. Any shout out ? My sponsors, Slingshot (Jeff McGee), LKI (Jason Daniel) and Thai Wakepark (Aum and Miki).