European Championships
Policka, Czech Republic, August 7-9, 2009
[August 17 2009, by Emrik Larsson]

"It all started with slalom skateboarding, back in the days", says Robert Thiele, born in the then called Czechoslovakia, but nowadays living in Germany. During the iron curtain days the Czechs built their own wooden decks, got wheels smuggled in from the west, and were able to skate. Ramp and street skateboards were hard to find, so due to the lack of equipment, slalom and high jump became the two biggest forms of skateboarding in the 80's. Some 20 years later, slalom has resurfaced and a lot of the old Czech skaters like Thiele, Dalibor Danhel and others have returned to skateboarding. Not only competing themselves but also helping a new generation of slalom skateboarders. The small town of Policka (app. 200 km from Prague) has a long tradition of hosting slalom competitions, and actually had a European championship back in 1990. Over 70 skaters arrived from all over Europe, and even though missing some slalom-experts, the event was a huge success. The friendly Czechs arranged a very well organized competition and had thought of everything during the weekend.



Friday started with Super Giant slalom, on a steep hill 10 km outside of the city. A race out in the countryside, close to cowbells and local farmers, was a perfect start. Czech veteran Petr Janoušek won the AM section with a strong run, followed by Robert Thiele, third place by Viktor Hadestrand from Sweden. The course had huge offsets which made it hard for some of the Pros (and Ams like myself) to figure out the perfect line. The only American participating, Martin Reaves, said the course was one of the fastest he had ever ridden, but managed to find the perfect speed and took top honors, almost a second and a half before runner up Fabian Björnstjerna from Sweden. Third place went to Swedish Pro rookie Viking Hadestrand, who really showed no fear at all cruising down the mountain. In the women section Sandrine Fereirra from France found enough speed in her second run to win. After the race everyone had a great beer-time, but even though the price for a large beer must be the lowest in Europe (not even 1 euro for 50 cl.) most of the riders went to bed early.



Saturday had two races: Special and Hybrid. The Special slalom was held on the Policka square, an old traditional race, single lane, at some points going upwards, not downhill. A lot of the skaters thought this to be more of a "joke-contest", but almost everyone tried the course (and the results did count for the overall title). Dominic Kowalski, Germany, even though always complaining about too many flat races, became "the fountain king" for the third time in a row. Robert Thiele won the AM-section (and a lot of Ams muttered: " why isn't he in the pro-section"). Joyce Wheeldrake from Canada joined the small female race crowd and also raced around the fountain, but was beaten by Fereirra.

The 2nd Saturday race was more of a blast, dual lane Hybrid (even though the course looked like a Special to me). Up until then the organisation and the races had run smoothly, but suddenly, protests were made against wrong timing, wrong cone-count etc. At these times you wish the sport had tighter regulations about everything (following the ISSA rules). Well, after a lot of debate, Robert Thiele, once again won the AM section. Second place to French rider Christopher Dupont and third place to the focused and talented Gustavs Gailitis from Latvia. In the women section Sandrine Ferreira beat Latvia's Lienite Skaraine.
The king of fast tracks: Latvia's Janis Kuzmins managed to beat Sweden's Mika Hadestrand by an inch in the Pro section. Third place to D. Kowalski. The setting, right in the middle of the small city, was perfect. Saturday was also party day. The skate-party was held outdoors with heavy rock, lot's of drunk and happy Czechs, plus some of the skaters guzzling down a beer or two. Faces in the crowd included the German crew, Sam Gordon, Louis Selby and Paul Price from the UK, Kaj Partaj from Sweden and of course Joyce Wheeldrake.



Last day of competition, had one of the original forms of Slalom racing. Flat, 50 cones, straight, dual lane. Me myself and I managed to crawl into the top five, but Gustavs Gailitis had found some more of that Latvian speed, beat me, and went into third place in the AMs. Fellow Latvian (there were 13 of them in competition!!!) Ainars Jarmacenko pumped himself into the final but, once again, Robert Thiele won it all.
The Pro racing was really tight and there wasn't many 100s of a second separating the top racers. Viking Hadestrand had a fantastic winning streak beating both the Dom. Kowalski, and fellow Swede Fabian Björnstjärna to take one of the final spots. The other place taken by (who else?) Janis Kuzmins. They fought a heavy battle, but due to more consistent racing Kuzmins won. Third place to F. Björnstjärna. In the women section Lienite Skaraine beat Sandrine Ferreira.



It was also fun to watch so many Junior skaters race. There seems to be (at least in Latvia and the Czech Republic), many up and coming stars.
Both Dominic Kowalski and Janis Kuzmins had the same amount of points, so they split the title for overall winner Pro section. Third place to Swede Fabian Björnstjärna. Overall winner in the Am section: Robert Thiele. Women: Sandrine Ferreira.

Three days of slalom racing came to an end. The weather was perfect, the courses ok, the organization very good, and all in all, very happy times in Policka with lots of laughter. The Czechs promised to have a contest next year as well, so hopefully we'll see more of good racing and good beer in 2010.

For complete results, please visit the forum topic:
European Championships 2009 - Policka

ISSA World Ranking - Final standings 2008
[March 1, 2009 By Hans Koraeus]
The final standings, including all results up to Dec 31, 2008 are now available.

World Ranking PRO (4 year) [Pro only, top 20 riders]
(Rolling 4 years, counting results from 2005 - 2008)
1 Jason Mitchell, USA 10815
2 Luca Giammarco, ITA 10581
3 Ramón Königshausen, SUI 10421
4 Chris Barker, USA 10050
5 Dominik Kowalski, GER 9734
6 Janis Kuzmins, LAT 9618
7 David Pirnack, USA 9344
8 Richy Carrasco, USA 9286
9 Chris Hart, SUI 8940
10 Maurus Strobel, SUI 8814
11 Gary Fluitt, USA 8541
12 Christoph Baumann, GER 8435
13 Greg Fadell, USA 8428
14 George Pappas, USA 8034
15 Jonathan Harms, USA 7920
16 Paul Price, GBR 7906
17 Keith Hollien, USA 7815
18 Vincent Berruchon, FRA 7753
19 Claude Regnier, CAN 7607
20 Michael Dong, USA 7549


Season 2008 PRO [Pro only, top 20 riders]
(Counting only results of 2008)
1 Dominik Kowalski, GER 4600
2 Jason Mitchell, USA 4220
3 Ramón Königshausen, SUI 4192
4 Martin Reeves, USA 4165
5 George Pappas, USA 4082
6 Janis Kuzmins, LAT 3966
7 Greg Fadell, USA 3890
8 Mikael Hadestrand, SWE 3613
9 Joe McLaren, USA 3490
10 David Pirnack, USA 3464
11 Henrik Wadsten, SWE 3408
12 Hans Göthberg, SWE 3399
13 Christoph Baumann, GER 3320
14 Chris Barker, USA 3320
15 Richy Carrasco, USA 3315
16 Zak Maytum, USA 3204
17 Paul Price, GBR 3172
18 Jonathan Harms, USA 3160
19 Fabian Björnstjerna, SWE 3101
20 Vincent Berruchon, FRA 3056


In the annual 2008 ranking, Dominik Kowalski set a new record by hitting the maximum score available for a year. By winning at least two events in every Major and Main event he entered, he earned a total of 4600 pts in 2008 and by that outperforms even legends like Luca Giammarco and the current World Ranking #1 (4 yr ranking) Jason Mitchell in their best years.
Our sincere congratulations to the high score.

ISSA Board Members 2009
[January 1, 2009 By Jani Söderhäll]
The ISSA board now consists of the following board members:
Gary Fluitt, Colorado (USA)
Paul Price, London (UK)
Peter Klang, Stockholm (SWE)
Wesley Tucker, (USA)
Jonathan Harms, Missouri (USA) [Elected Dec 2008]
Daniel Gesmer, Colorado (USA) [Elected Dec 2008]
Marcus Rietema, California (USA) [Elected Dec 2008]

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