The LG Action Sports Tour Amsterdam

Aug 16 2006 / Los Angeles, CA

Dance Valley. You wish you were there                    
 
The LG Action Sports Tour in Amsterdam was a huge success.  Wait……Amsterdam loves action sports!!!!   No, hold on…..What goes well with a 14 hour a day dance party?  The LG Action Sports Tour!!!  This isn’t working.  Okay, I got it. Put in your best techno mix, drop the bass and bob your head up and down.  Now take off your shirt and jump around like a nut until your sweating and showering the room like a human sprinkler.  Now that’s more like it.  We’re missing something.  Call 20 of your closest friends and have them join you in your 200 square foot room.  Now were talking.  If we can just find a place for the halfpipe, we’ve made it. Welcome to the 2006 LG Action Sports Tour in Amsterdam.

PHOTO GALLERY   Photos from LG Action Sprts Tour in Amsterdam.    View Gallery>

Dance Valley is Europe’s largest dance festival with a two-day attendance of roughly 60,000 people.  These people are swarming in and out of large tents and around various stages with different djs working the crowd.  In the middle of this temporary tent town is a fenced area keeping control of a different kind of beast; bikers, skaters and inliners roll about, but to a different beat.  On the first day these helmet wearing, well-padded fellas were rolling around on a large U shaped structure; skateboard vert.  The big Australian guy, Tas Pappas was in charge of the dance floor for most of the party.  He was blasting multiple 540’s and landed not one, but two 720’s. His buddy, a small guy by the name of Jake Brown was staying in the mix until he went on a third run rant. He drops in from the roll in and carves a nice 5-foot high, 540, more than 12 feet across the ramp.  Before he gives up the floor, he gives Tas something to worry about with a double kick flip; very nice moves for second.  Third goes to Danny Mayer with solid runs and big airs in the gusting wind.  Had he pulled a kickflip mctwist in his final run, he could have been standing center stage.  Mathias Ringstrom put together some solid packed runs, but the wind was keeping him tame and he settled for fourth.  

On to the two wheeled freaks. Simon Tabron didn’t look like much of a dancer, but boy could he ride a bike.  He must have done 4 or 5 of those 540 degree spins.  He did it without hands and sometimes while drifting backwards.  At the end he spun around another time with a 900!  He’s good.  Second place went to John Parker.  He lit up the floor with a whip one way and then one the other way.  He sure had a lot of tricks.  Third place went to Zach Shaw, he’s a blaster.  Matt Fairbairn, Eduardo Terreros, Koji Kraft, Jason Branham, Benni Kopp, Mike Mancuso and Tim Eichert followed up.  Highlights include Koji’s double tailwhip and Fairbairns alley oop fives.
 
The guys on little wheels had a dramatic contest.  We saw a little shakeup in the vert inline scene.  Eito Yasutoko spent the finals trying to land a double backflip with a late 360, and was kept out of the top three. His brother, Takeshi took the first place spot with the biggest airs of the weekend and laid out double flat spins. A much earned second and third came from Shane Yost and Mark Englehart.  Spending a bit of time at Woodward paid off big for them.  A couple of the ladies kept up with the men’s pace.  Fabiola da Silva and Ayumi Kawasaki stuck around in the final jam.
 
Those LG guys really know how to throw a party.  You get far more than the usual suspects when they come to town. I couldn’t even follow the action on the street course.  The whole pit was flowing with a large international roster of bikers, skaters and inline skaters.  I hear Daniel Vieira was the MAN on skate street. Tobias Wicke, or was it WickeD ruled the bike street comp with big flip whips, constant flow and footwork.   Mathias Silhan, rookie French pro, was top dog in the inline jam.  The important thing to note about the street arena was that it kept constant pace with the rave tents.  When the gates opened and fur clad bikini dancers swarmed the dance floor, the street skaters and bikers hit the ramps.  The ravers may have lasted longer, but we all know where the best moves went down. I have a feeling that this tour is creating and driving some new talent wherever it stops.   

 

-John Parker