BOWL-A-RAMA Bondi

A few weekends ago, Bondi celebrated its 10 year anniversary of hosting BOWL-A-RAMA, an international skateboard competition that takes place in the iconic Bondi Bowl.  Professional skaters from all over the world (mainly Aussies, Americans and Brazilians - and few Danish…) gathered in Bondi for a week of skating and festivities. And not to mention, the headliner in attendance that made BOWL-A-RAMA’s 10^th birthday a massive celebration, was the legendary Tony Hawk.

The official BOWL-A-RAMA competition took place on Saturday, but the week leading up to the event was filled with smaller promotion events, such as art shows and skate-offs. Fans were able to see Tony Hawk exclusively skate one afternoon, while Beach Burrito – a local Bondi hot spot – dubbed as an art gallery another night. The gallery night at Beach Burrito was the kick off event for the week, and the majority of the young pro skaters were there sipping on tequila and catching up with the folks they met at last years’ BOWL-A-RAMA. I met majority of them, but lacked the expertise in sk8r lingo and overall intelligence of the sport… But they were super awesome guys, and this is their personal shout out in my blog! *HEY*

Anywho, the competition part of BOWL-A-RAMA, which is the very reason all these sk8r bois were in town, was a whirlwind event.  Because BOWL is one of our clients, I volunteered to work the VIP/Family & Friends ticket booth for part of the day – the other part of the day, I got to enjoy having an AAA wristband (Access All Areas, if you were confused and instead thought I was wearing a wristband sporting the American car/towing company).  I was able to literally sit inside the bowl rails as if I was someone of distinguished importance – which according to my parents and loved ones, I am very important, but not necessarily that important to the skater community… Well, this AAA wristband also gave me access to meet the one and only Tony Hawk and fulfill my middle school poser child fantasies. [Come on people (especially the dudes), if you could meet any celeb of your childhood, Tony Hawk would be up towards the top - thanks to the Nintendo 64/Playstation video game "Tony Hawk Pro Skater"]...

BOWL-A-RAMA had three main competitions: the Masters competition, the Pros competition, and the Best Trick competition. The Masters competition included all the older skater dudes (typically 40+) who are/were professional skaters - this group contained Mr. Tony Hawk. The Pros competition included a myriad of young skater dudes, with the youngest being only 14! Any of the contestants could enter themselves in the Best Trick competition, in which an extension of the bowl was mounted to provide the skaters with a "higher trick capacity" (NOTE: this is my personal interpretation and lingo - I actually have little to no knowledge of how to provide much insight into the skater world...). 

So I bet by now you are wondering who won BOWL-A-RAMA Bondi... drum roll... The winner of the Masters competition was TONY HAWK (*shocker*). The winner of the Pros competition was Pedro Barros (AKA arguably the most consistent and best skaters in the world at the moment). And the winner of the Best Trick was Josh Borden. 

I highly HIGHLY suggest checking out the highlight reel of the entire day - just click here. It is an awesome video of an even more awesome day!