[2005] European Championships, Stockholm, July 15-17, 2005

[Hans Koraeus]

Oboy Kenny, that must have been boiling hard inside of you for quite some time. I got the feeling you had something against me on Sunday. Now I understand. So I told you you could not have the new cones to practice with. I don't really remember that but you are probably right. Well, that wasn't very nice of me. Sorry. I hope all the second hand cones wasn't that bad though.

Sorry also that my work got unnoticed for you. I will make sure I do frequent reports to you of my doings next time, Captain Mollica.

If you found me mildly retarded over the weekend that was probably a good observation. With my head spinning well before until well after the weekend I actually felt mildly retarded. That may explain the cone incident. The only thing spinning more than my head was the distance meter on my car. I was surprised how much distance I had gathered driving around in Stockholm during my car rental week.

Over and out. The event is over. Well not really actually. All bills not payed yet by our American guests. Fine guests indeed...

[Kenny Mollica]

I read your prediction of the race and my placings. I had a great time in Sweden, but I must admit that my low point was when I talked to you on Saturday evening, with over 7 hours of light left, when you said we could NOT use your cones, because you wanted "fresh" ones for the race. I have never heard of anything quite so lame or gay since I began slalom racing 4 years ago. We came all the way over there as your guests and we came to ride and race slalom boards. If you, or anyone else ever came to the states for a race, I would NEVER act so lame towards you. That was pitiful. Fresh cones? What am I missing? Marcus and Peter worked their asses off, but I really did not see you do a single thing the whole weekend.

I will never understand why you acted that way, but I don't really care. There was a character named Corkey on an American show a few years back. It was called Life Goes on or something like that. You remind me of him sometime. Mildly retarded.

[Hans Koraeus]

True European Championship result lists now on the site (with only Europeans)

the European Championships in Skateboard Slalom

Prize money. I would say 400-500 euros for you Kenny.

I didn't want to give you any false hopes Kenny but of course I knew you would get at least those 600 euros in your hand. ;-)

[Steve Hinzen]

Lads,

I had a fu....in' good weekend in Stockholm! It doesn't get better than this.

Some things could have worked better but this was definetely one of the better contests of this year. I appriciate the way the orga-team is dealing with criticism of all kinds. Thank You for explaining every detail and answering any question. Making things transparent helps to understand and do better one day. That's the way racers should be treated by any organizer of a slalomcontest, big or small.

Peter, Marcus and Corky, You guys took a big drop into the adventure of a Supercompetition in the small World of SkateboardSlalom and You made it!
Thank You.

[Carsten Pingel]

Look at Freds pictures ! Who is that Girl in white in the background ? Chris Hart seems to be interested in her ???

[Hans Koraeus]

Some thoughts around the event site as it was.
The original plans for the competition site were not implemented in the end beacuse we ended up with an outlaw event. This was not at all planned like this of course. We had got yes verbally from multiple instances. Then when papers were sent in the answer from the final authority said they had no time to do it because many of them were on vacation. This was 2-3 weeks before the event. It was too late to cancel and we just went ahead as normal hoping we would get away with it. The event site is very calm so the risk was not that big even though it was a risk. But having no official permit we had to keep a low profile. I.e. not pushing hard to get people out there, not setting up tents, not setting up barriers along the courses and so on. We apologize for this even though we still think it was the good descision to make under the circumstances. Even though some might say it was on the brink of disaster one could just as well say it was on the brink to be one of the coolest slalom events ever. It might have been stressful for many participants but probably nothing compared to what we felt ourselves seeing that our ultimate goal with this whole event would not be possible to achieve.

The format and all the ideas will live on and we will not let go of our dream to get all the pieces together one day.

[Peter Klang]

Ha ha ha ha ha ha,
Jani I didn´t know you were such a hacker

[Pelle Gustafsson]

yes jadranko it was funny sorry for my balls ...hehe
pelleplast

[Jani Soderhall]

What happend to J-Rads post?????

Jani ???

I screwed up. I wanted to quote it but hit the wrong button so it became an Edit. My brain was not clear enough with a lot of things happening around me so I didn't realize the mistake until after I hit the Submit button.

I have written to him to ask if there is a chance that he'll re-write it.

I'm really sorry.

/Jani

[Jani Soderhall]

Now it's the time for the ISSA to make some guidelines, how a competition must be held. (Starting, Timing, Courses and so on...)

History repeats itself. The "old" ISSA guidelines were made so that people would know what to expect from a race. It was aimed at helping the organizers and let the skaters know the rules, in advance. OK, rain will inevitably always change things, but there needs to be a formal way to deal with it.

I think we all agree that this is needed and now! We'll follow up on that topic in another thread. We have a long winter in front of us - just a few more races and then we'll be there. Let's use that opportunity!

/Jani

[Peter Klang]

What happend to J-Rads post?????

Jani ???

[Peter Klang]

VERY NICE PICTURES ELLINA.

Thanks for posting them.

N4L
PK

[Ellena Senina]

---

[Donald Campbell]

besides all my hollering and ranting about the orga part of the race i have to say that this was one of the best events so far.
everything mentioned before by a few folks was the way described
klangster and the rest DID a good job on that.
i won't forget peters desperate face sometimes,when things with the timing went astray.
i WAS feeling for you,bro and i wouldn't have been in your hide at that time.
bottom line is:that was one of the most competitive races ever,filled with surprises galore.

hack beats the idol
all in all #3 in the standings-i was so stoked for dave.
maysey pulls off the fastest raw time
kenny kills it in the giant-as he predicted himself before on ncdsa-the ruler...
dong comes out of nowhereland in the cyber and races to the top.

girls galore,the shuttle,the park,supernice giant-course,peter and the rest are there to make it happen.

just want to add this also to my previous rant-i've seen it all and i reflect on it all.

extra thanks for being very open to criticism on the event peter, marcus, corky.
you handled that very PROfessional.

thanks again for the event-see you guys soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jadranko Radovanovic]

Now it's the time for the ISSA to make some guidelines, how a competition must be held. (Starting, Timing, Courses and so on...)


J Rad

< Ed note: Post accidentally edited/deleted. Sorry /Jani>

[alavoine jean paul]

Here is the long awaited (and stinky?) answer to some of the things I have read above. I usually don’t post long comments but I thought Donald had been a little rough (understatement) with my Swedish friends, considering that sportsmanship and not putting down the events organized by our slalom mates should be our leading principles.

Peter and his friends are not responsible for the weather.

And despite the weather, WE FRENCH SKATERS HAD A GREAT TIME IN SWEDEN, as always.

I had as much fun watching some of my friends skate (and coming across some other I hadn’t met for sixteen years) during the pool session on Saturday as if I had skated myself. An English poet once wrote : BEAUTY IS TRUTH
TRUTH BEAUTY.
Smooth skating is beautiful, difficult tricks are beautiful, endless lines are beautiful…
And that my fellow Frenchmen were dazzled by some of the Beauties who were surrounding us while we were watching the session is not beyond my understanding. I will never forget some of the girls’ smiles I’ve seen last weekend !

Why Steve and Dave decided not to skate during the pool session I don’t know. Babesland, I mean Sweden is a free country, maybe they were just tired (as we all were after the cyber) or wanted to save some JUICE for the next day. Dave certainly proved he did by beating our European hero Gianmarco on Sunday in the straight.

Don’t you enjoy watching a little freestyle session when a few drops of rain make the surface too slippery for slalom? Lillis made the most of the small area of dryness doing 50/50s, fingerflips, new variations of footworks and wheelies…

Why you didn’t hand out the stuff you had brought during the awards ceremony, I don’t know.

It doesn’t appear to me that the best word to describe Peter, Corky, Marcus and their friends is NEGLECT or NEGLIGENCE! DEDICATION must have been the word you were missing. The timing system failures, which caused a little delay and waiting, were not more numerous or important than elsewhere… We’ll see if you manage to do better when you organize your contest (will I still be invited after this?).

And I feel as if this whole contest was the best of meetings we could have, chatting with the other skaters in numerous languages, getting a clear view of the global level in every category, seeing the differences in styles, techniques, equipment and teams. A good contest speaks a thousand words and one only has to listen…

Thank you all for being there!

Special thanks to Mark who decided he would help the organizers rather than skate, speeding up the events a little by calling every skater by his or her first-name, while cheering us and coaching some Dudes who were here to THROW THE MEAT…

Ride safely but fast nevertheless…

The very happy popol.

[HUYNH BACH SAC Frédéric]

[HUYNH BACH SAC Frédéric]

I'll post others later....

[David Rudnianski]

thanks. Sorry i don't have more video.

But now i got the pics:

riding pics: http://static.riderz.net/videos/LTC/stockolm/page1.htm

People pics: http://static.riderz.net/videos/LTC/sto ... /page1.htm

And i still enjoy swedish pizza!

[Peter Klang]

VERY NICE David please post more if you have more.

[Claude Regnier]

Nice work David.

Tht is a very nice piece. I will show my skatecamp at the lunch break.

It will be nice for them to see a variety of skating and talents of some of the best riders in the world performing/competing.

Thanks for the event to everyone that took part.

[David Rudnianski]

next year you should bring more girls into the public !


here is a small video of the E.M.

http://static.riderz.net/videos/LTC/stockolm/stoc.mpg

[Marcus Seyffarth]

LET'S RAP THIS UP REAL QUICK IN A LONG LONG SUMMARY
marcus:next time you use your timing system-debug it before you decide to you it brand new on a world's race.you should also talk to clingfilm about your system and the times you had shown-this is a hint you should follow.

Thank you for the advice. The program was used in Paris 2003 and 2004 so I'm not sure if that's brand new, and yes I've asked race organizers around to try it before this season since the timing systems used at mose races last season sucked. I'm not sure if you were on the list of people I sent emails to last december, but the only one who responded was - you guessed it, Clingfilm, who have given me some good ideas.

Anyways here are some facts,
The software died a few times on friday due to the fact that we haven't been more than 20-30 persons at races before. In the GS all 80 starting was entered at once and the sorting thing took to much time. No times where lost though. The problem was fixed friday evening at home. I wouldn't program the timer at racesite. The sw worked fine the rest of the weekend.

On sunday it was a foot brake over one of the tapeswitches that caused one of the cables to stop working correctly. When the rain hit us the computer we used wasn't put away quick enough and stopped working so we used my laptop for the rest of the race.

While the rain was pouring I did do some programming to make sure the extra monitors could show DQ's, perhaps that's the debugging you are suggesting. So a hint right back is to know what you are talking about before starting giving advices away.

All in all it was a cable problem not a software problem, though still a timing issue...

If you would like to use the system or come with great ideas and input of how to make it better so that we some time in the future can have races where the racers know what times they get right away, what position they are at in the race and that way make races even more fun to attend, please don't hesitate to download the timer, or the source code - it's free.

I'm happy the swedish girls seems to have helpt us keeping the spirit up! At least that one will be difficult to do better at Brixlegg

[David Rudnianski]

Whoa.... Exept some timing problems; it was a perfect week in sweden. Evryone is super cool, i think that the french camembert racing team will be back!
Pics and video will come later


Ps: I love sweeeedish girls.....

[HUYNH BACH SAC Frédéric]

We had rain : It's a fact...
We had timer problems : It's a fact...
We didn't have as much qualification runs as we wanted : It's a fact...


FOR SURE I WILL COME BACK TO SWEDEN : IT'S A FACT !!!!!!!

Thanks again Peter, Marcus, Corky and others..... it was good to meet you all !

ps : Special Thanks to Jani and Anders...

[Ellena Senina]

---

[Peter Klang]

Check it Patric and all others.

http://em2005.manster.se

[Patrick Allan]

Pics anyone?

[Chris Eggers]

So back at work and a little tired from 4 days in Stockholm.
Well, what can I say, I really really enjoyed being there, but my expectations were not met.
Once again.

I know it is hard to organise a slalom competition, now doubt and Peter and the Wolves (ah his buddies I mean) Corky, Marcus everyone who helped deserve the greatest respect to get it on, It was great to have the hotel, next to the pool, bus pic up etc. Peter did the best to cope with the weather and timer situation. I did not want to be in your skin last weekend, baby (german saying).
I had fun and I don´t regret any minute.

Personally I see a few things....GS is not my thing, cyber slalom even less, I have to work on harder courses and I need another board.


For a European Chamionship I would expect:

Good location with spectator appearence
Funding and permit by the city and fencing of the race site, this way the car would have been towed instead of moved by 20 slalomers
Real professional timing
Spend money for that, not for price money, we race for bragging rights not money

All in all it was good that we were in a remote location. I don´t think it would have been good for the sports reputation if we were in the middle of the city. Several hour long breaks because of technical problems are hard to explain to thousands of waiting spectators.

Thanks again Sweden, it was good.

Chris

[Donald Campbell]

you'll receive a warm welcome peter,no doubt about that.

i'm amped now,working towards brixlegg.
all engines are go

thanks for your immediate support of my idea,i'll make sure it happens as promised

[Peter Klang]

Donald my bro, it´s all good. I have no hard feelings, like I said, to hardest critisism comes from myself.

About your comp, sign me right up. I hope and I think an event like yours should be Major status and maybe the Euros 2006, please keep us all updated so we can make are traveling plans.

Best of look to you. I had a word with Mauros about timing, I agree totaly with his idé. I just hope I still can show my face outside Sweden in the future.

SMF

[Donald Campbell]

peter:
you can lay on the railroad tracks after brixlegg has happened,not any sooner.
the purse there will be lowest 5000.
i have the money to back it up now in my hands-no kidding.
i also have a company at hand which will give away free food and drinks during the event.
i do have full back-up from the mayor of brixlegg for everything i want to do.
i have a pool for the death race at hand which is at least twice as deep as yours-you'll love it.
i have a superfriendly local staff working with me during the event-you'll love the austrian guys for sure.
i had talks with j-rad,chris hart and maurus-they will/might join the orga-part of that race.
t-shirts i am a printer

accomodations-no prob
bus?
not needed there

it's all within a footwalks reach

2 media partners big mags fome germany and the usa-they seldom feature slalom,but this time it will be different...

see,i'm leaning myself out of the window,but i did it before and i didn't fall.
just go ahead and ask the few who joined the first brixlegg race,which was a small one.
ask about the oss-jam and how it was.




i'd be more than happy to host you guys during that event.

thanks for being cool with me on the critcism,i appreciate that,peter.


late august you'll all see what's up-i hope you like it....
stay tuned

[Peter Klang]

Well, I bitch sometime, I know, and I can take a hit Donald. I just wnna say the hardest critisism comes from myself. I think overall it went ok, rain we can´t help, timing system we can, it will be different in the future. Permit for the hill? We had a verbal one from the City and the Police, they had just not sent it to us do to holiday time from the guy who signs them.

OK Donald here is challinge for you. When you put on a race with 3.800 EUROS and 600 US DOLLARS in price money, Bus to and from the venue, T-Shirts, discount accomidations in a nice hotel and some side event I be the first guy to sign up.

Maybe we wanted to give you all to much, sorry we be cheap basterd next time, but the fact about the timing is funny, it never bugd when me and Marcus was running it.

Keep skating and have fun, for mayself I just gonno lay here on this railroadtracks and wait.

Heres some picures

http://em2005.manster.se

PK

[Pat Chewning]

After every contest, I think it is very useful to do a "postmortem" and write down what went well and what could be improved on for next time.

Typical things that can go wrong and should be analyzed:

1) Coneheading -- was it quick and accurate and the results clearly made available to contestants?
2) Timing and recording of results -- did it work well? Were results made available to contestants in a timely manner?
3) Adhere to rules/format. Were the rules/format clearly outlined? Where changes made mid-race? Were contestants made aware of any changes?
4) Courses, surfaces, etc. Were the courses as advertised? (Length, cone spacing, steepness, difficulty). Quality of road surface? Starting ramps and shut-down areas safe and large enough? Width of road? Absence of obstacles (manhole covers, potholes, stray animals, etc).
5) Prizes, trophies, awards, etc. Were these as advertised and commensurate with the size of the event?
6) In the end, did the contestants get race worthy of the expense in $$$ and time that they spent to be there?
7) Weather. Nobody can control it, but did the contest organizers work out the best result given the weather conditions?
8) Preparation: permits, fencing, banners, accomodations, sign-up, etc. Did the event organizers adequately do all of the little preparation activities that are necessary for the race?

The perfect contest has yet to be organized and executed. It is very valuable to discuss what went well and what didn't -- not to criticize, but to make the next event better. And it is most valuable to do this as soon after the event as possible -- so you don't forget what happened.

-- Pat

[Vincent Berruchon]

I was upset at some moments by a few things during this week end, especially on sunday afternoon when this hard rain arrive just after those confusing timing system problems
We were so wet that we left and later whe the sun came back I should say that I was really about to give up! But hopefully Corky took me in his car to come back to the race.

We were probably tired (not much sleep, it's not your fault), confused (timig system) and disappointed (the rain)...
but finally I should say that Peter, Marcus, Corky and all the others that were involved in this contest really did their best to carry it through a successeful conclusion.
It was really near the disaster... but at the end we can say we had great racing and good time!

Peter Klang, the guy well known to complain loudly proved he could do something great (nice spots -what a GS!- accomodations, transportations, pool session, prize money, good stuff, ...).
Rain and timing system problem are things that happened everywhere. Some points were discutable but doing mistakes is just human
(Ok Latvia is a kind of land of exception where perfection can probably exist )

Big Up to the Swedish people who had hard time but go through.
It was so good to met one again most of the slalom familly united
I pass 10 unforgetable days around the Baltic sea, it's so hard to come back to the work.
I just hope to do more trips like that with skate and friends.

[Donald Campbell]

alavoine:
i did NOT attack anybody unfounded-i would go so far to say that i am not attacking,just giving my impressions into discussion.if you have a problem with that,that's your PROBLEM,ok?
next time start thinking before you start stinking,maybe that's why your post vanished into thin air?
i don't have a problem with saying what i think,but i REALLY try to keep it discussable.

there were things that absolutely went wrong-no denying that.

as a sad matter of fact,i am only reflecting in my previous post what a LOT of people said on other forums or in private conversations which have been held at the racetrack.

i did not talk with peter pim or billy ball.
trust me-i talked with the right guys.

and just to make this clear-i did not start the discussion on that.

just one thing corky:skating on a hill with a permit is absolutely ok-anything else is absolutely unprofessional and undebatable when you hold a race and invite the world-you surely know that.or were you going to take full responsibility for it when this place got a bust then?


sweden is a nice place to be and to race,you guys are friendly and so on-i enjoyed being there,especially with all the americans who really spiced it up.

all which has been posted here by me is just for the sake of avoiding mistakes next time.
maybe some peeps keep that in mind when they post next time.


there's always the idiot who posts what others don't post-this time it's me,but i don't feel like an idiot.


here starts the edit:

i am all behind what you did in stockholm,i absolutely support your idea.

don't get me wrong in any of what i said.
maybe it's the tone that makes the music,i am trying to stay in a good vibe about what i posted and i have no bad feelings against anybody of the organizers-just to make this EXTRA CLEAR.

hopefully next year there will be some improvements,since you had the chance to learn from mistakes being made this year.i only wish you the best for that.

[Hans Koraeus]

And yes, the overall results are posted on the event homepage now. Jani was quick to find them.

[Hans Koraeus]

friday:skating on a hill that doesn't have a permit sucks-but even better when the police that showed up decides to let it go.
kenny rightfully complained,when you guys decided to have to pros another 2 runs after the first 2.
i couldn't see any real system behind that decision..also there was no cut to 16/8 etc visible to anybody..
well... you had enough time that day to have done it otherwise.
FACT

1. No permit
What sucks the most? No skating on a hill without permit or skating on a hill without permit.

2. GS format
Kenny did not rightfully complain about having to run 2 more runs. This was the format posted for the event...

Friday Giant Slalom
9.15-9.30 Riders meeting
9.30-10.30 Practice
10.30-12.30 Qualification jam, Women, Am and Jrs. Min 2 runs.
12.30-13.30 Final jam, Women top 4, Amateurs top 16. 2 runs
13.30-15.30 Qualification jam Pros. Min 2 runs.
15.30-16.30 Final Jam, Pros, Top 16. 2 runs.

Donald, you didn't know the format. That's the fact.

day 2 which is saturday:RAIN
so we end up in your garage winterspot for cyber

i could not see a realistic cutting sytem there either.pros go to 16 ams go to 8(how unfair is that and how disrespectful also?)
the whole show ends at 3pm with enough time to go back to the race track and start the special-which doesn't happen due to the pool session that's supposed to be in the eve.
so i'm sitting there with the boys and hack comes by with olson and a few others-they decided not to skate there because it was gay?
NO


you were talking about a legends session by itself all the time-apparently that was something of a contest.
here's my 2 cents on that" non-willing to skate" issue-


you can't throw a seasoned pro into a reg contest-it wouldn't be a contest at all-for style hack and olson f.e. would be the top scorers,but not for diversity of tricks.
so your friends from the usa were bummed to find out,that the session promised on the net
didn't happen as promised instead it turned out to be something completely different.


fact is,that the sat afternoon was wasted time for the contest participants.

1. Cyber
This was the cyber plan...

18.00-19.30 3 Qualification runs Cyber Slalom Cup.
19.30-20.00 3 Semi final runs Top 16.
20.00-20.45 3 Final runs Top 8.

This was supposed to be Sunday afternoon but due to rain was moved to Saturday. It was also supposed to be open to Pros only. So be happy you got to run cyber at all Donald. Here we did redo the format a little to make all classes be able to skate so after qualification runs only 2 more final runs for the top 16 skaters.

2. Saturday afternoon slalom
If not for the pool session we could have got back to the slalom area to race. True. But our main sponsor who helped us out a lot with cash on the table did so mainly for the legend pool session. It was very important that the pool session was going through as planned. For us and our sponsor and for future interest in sponsoring such an event. We also thought it was an amazing bonus event for the slalomers themselves. I'm amazed you say it was a waste of time for the contest participants. Even more amazed hearing it from you. I don't know what interest you have with your skate business but for me this was as right as it could be.

3. Pool session
The pool session was never meant to be a competition. Sure there was planned a sort of a prize to one selected skater in the end. But many of these guys are/where pros and there was no money involved. I.e it was a skate session. I agree it was maybe not necessary to do a cut to four riders but it was decided in the last minute. But cut or not it was a nice event. And not having Hackett, Olson and Chicken in the event actually disstorted the balance we had planned for. A mix of new and old legends with new and old type of skateboarding. Poor Jason Mitchell where left alone with the sharks. He was very brave and I salute him. He showed that its all about having fun. Him carving around in the pools was just as nice to see as the others. Those who choosed not to skate did the wrong thing of comparing themselves with others. They were not there to be compete with others. They where there beacuse of who they where and there way of skating.

sunday mccree takes over the am moderating for the special and he is also heavily involved in getting the whole thing going somehow-did you say "thank you" yet for that?

rain comes and the race is over
at around 5 or 6pm the whole bunch of racers-or better said what's left-heads back to the venue to race again on a single track,since the timing system is not working the way it should be.

there never was a cut to 16/8 for the ams here either.

so each amateur coming to that venue again will start to think,if it's worth the money and time invested?
could be...

1. Thank you!
Donald, don't worry about us saying thank you to people who have helped out during the event. It's way more people than you think. And if Klang happens to have forgot anyone we will gladly thank them too. No big deal.

2. Timing problems
Yes there where timing problems. Whats's new. It's regretable and no fun at all. The only thing we can do is trying the best we can to get it working. Rain did not help either even though it is no excuse for the problems. Just making things harder to handle. The single track solution was not because double lanes wouldn't work but more to keep things as simple as possible to minimize risk of more problems. And it did. After the rain doing the single lanes it went on very good.

3. Sunday race format
With time constraints due to the rain we did change the format to only 2 runs each for both tight special and straight slalom.

4. Sunday rain
We knew there would be rain in the afternoon. Never imagined it would be that heavy though. It can only remember seeing a rain like that once before in my lifetime. The good news was that they had promised good weather in the evening so we where positive. Some people left the slalom area. That was ok but there own choice. If you leave the slalom area you take a risk not being back when things dry up again. But since the straight and special disciplines was the most attended disciplines of the weekend for the pros I don't think it was any problem in the end.

stockholm is nice and you guys are nice people,but without the surrounding elements to the whole event you would have caught way more shit on the forums than what you're getting right now.

peter:i remember you as one of the guys who complained a LOT on other events during the last year-did you see now how difficult it is to organize a well-run contest? i certainly hope you did.

marcus:next time you use your timing system-debug it before you decide to you it brand new on a world's race.you should also talk to clingfilm about your system and the times you had shown-this is a hint you should follow.

the contest t-shirts were mostly done in the wrong sizes.
small and medium doesn't fit too many participants.

1. Taking shit
Don't worry. We can take it. That's part of trying to do things. You take shit. But you also create a lot of good moments doing an event like we did. And I hope you got some good moments with you back home to remember. It's up to you to filter out what you want to remember. Be sure we will filter out both the good and bad.

2. Organizing
We all know the difficulty in organizing events. How little it take to make it all go astray. But whatever happens, never give up. Just try to keep on fighting. We actually did more racing in the end for many than promised. Sure we lost the head to head finals but we got Ams and Women to try out the Cyber as an extra bonus instead. Some will like it and some don't. At least many got to try it out. When things go wrong you just have to play the cards you have.

3. T-shirts
My fault. The T-shirts where very big in there sizes compared to normal. A medium was like a normal large. People didn't know of course and took what sizes they where used to. If anyone did miss out a T-shirt because of size there is nothing saying we couldn't print up a couple more. Never give up...

i went home with my sponsor stuff again,because nobody seemed to care for my stuff?

next time,maybe somebody takes the promo decks i had with me?
next time,maybe somebody takes the time to ask me about what i have?
maybe it was my fault?
i don't know...

the conference that was supposed to be held?
i felt like a jerk asking.

i will not try to be involved in any of that ever again-thanks for absolute neglectance.

no bad feelings-by the way-i'm only reflecting thoughts and feelings spoken out and experienced by most of the participants over the weekend.

it was no BAD contest,due to the amount of quality being there,but it was on the brink of a disaster-you got to admit that.

there's people travelling around the world-never forget that-to your contest.

i invite you guys to come to brixlegg next year-you'll see there how things are handled and you are invited to throw big lumps of shit into my direction later on.
i'll make sure you guys don't have the chance for that.

1. Pavel sponsoring
Sorry to hear your sponsoring stuff was not made used of. We would have been glad to take it and hopefully you was as eager to give it away. Or? I would say it was the fault of both of us.

2. The ISSA conference
As I assumed long before I would have no time for it. Seems like I was not the only one. For you who did feel you had time you could have gone right ahead.

[Pelle Gustafsson]

Thanx klangen and all who make this possible, it was a greate race but i dont do as well i use to do...but next time i kick some ass....
pelleplast
if you can´t be the best be the ugliest insted...(ugly helmet)

[alavoine jean paul]

Je viens de poster un très long message pour défendre le contest de Stockholm contre les attaques infondées de Donald, et puis pfuit, tout ce que j'avais écrit a disparu. Ca ne fait rien je recommence demain.
I had posted a very long message arguing against Donad's unfounded attacks against last weekend's contest in Stockholm (which I enjoyed very much of course) and then oops, it all disappeared. Never mind I'll post it tomorrow...


SVERIGE FOREVER.

POpol le skater who loves sweden...

[Jani Soderhall]

I copied the images of the combined results here (cyber slalom not included).





/Jani

[Marty Schaub]

Hey Donald,

Throw a deck my way, I am always open for some Schwag!! Kidding aside, we have a bunch of newbies up in the Carolinas that we could bless with your underappreciated stuff....

Mama always said it never hurts to ask.....


Marty

[Donald Campbell]

LET'S RAP THIS UP REAL QUICK IN A LONG LONG SUMMARY

friday:skating on a hill that doesn't have a permit sucks-but even better when the police that showed up decides to let it go.
kenny rightfully complained,when you guys decided to have to pros another 2 runs after the first 2.
i couldn't see any real system behind that decision..also there was no cut to 16/8 etc visible to anybody..
well... you had enough time that day to have done it otherwise.
FACT

day 2 which is saturday:RAIN
so we end up in your garage winterspot for cyber

i could not see a realistic cutting sytem there either.pros go to 16 ams go to 8(how unfair is that and how disrespectful also?)
the whole show ends at 3pm with enough time to go back to the race track and start the special-which doesn't happen due to the pool session that's supposed to be in the eve.
so i'm sitting there with the boys and hack comes by with olson and a few others-they decided not to skate there because it was gay?
NO


you were talking about a legends session by itself all the time-apparently that was something of a contest.
here's my 2 cents on that" non-willing to skate" issue-


you can't throw a seasoned pro into a reg contest-it wouldn't be a contest at all-for style hack and olson f.e. would be the top scorers,but not for diversity of tricks.
so your friends from the usa were bummed to find out,that the session promised on the net
didn't happen as promised instead it turned out to be something completely different.


fact is,that the sat afternoon was wasted time for the contest participants.

sunday mccree takes over the am moderating for the special and he is also heavily involved in getting the whole thing going somehow-did you say "thank you" yet for that?

rain comes and the race is over
at around 5 or 6pm the whole bunch of racers-or better said what's left-heads back to the venue to race again on a single track,since the timing system is not working the way it should be.


there never was a cut to 16/8 for the ams here either.


so each amateur coming to that venue again will start to think,if it's worth the money and time invested?
could be...


stockholm is nice and you guys are nice people,but without the surrounding elements to the whole event you would have caught way more shit on the forums than what you're getting right now.


peter:i remember you as one of the guys who complained a LOT on other events during the last year-did you see now how difficult it is to organize a well-run contest?

i certainly hope you did.

marcus:next time you use your timing system-debug it before you decide to you it brand new on a world's race.you should also talk to clingfilm about your system and the times you had shown-this is a hint you should follow.


the contest t-shirts were mostly done in the wrong sizes.
small and medium doesn't fit too many participants.


i went home with my sponsor stuff again,because nobody seemed to care for my stuff?

next time,maybe somebody takes the promo decks i had with me?
next time,maybe somebody takes the time to ask me about what i have?
maybe it was my fault?
i don't know...

the conference that was supposed to be held?


i felt like a jerk asking.

i will not try to be involved in any of that ever again-thanks for absolute neglectance.


no bad feelings-by the way-i'm only reflecting thoughts and feelings spoken out and experienced by most of the participants over the weekend.

it was no BAD contest,due to the amount of quality being there,but it was on the brink of a disaster-you got to admit that.

there's people travelling around the world-never forget that-to your contest.


i invite you guys to come to brixlegg next year-you'll see there how things are handled and you are invited to throw big lumps of shit into my direction later on.
i'll make sure you guys don't have the chance for that.

[Hans Koraeus]

<center>

<a href="http://euro2005.dinstudio.com" target=_blank>European Championships in Slalom Skateboarding</a>

Results now up on the home page

</center>


It's over and it took a lot of energy and very little sleep to some of us. As always it all came together in the end. Actually there was more skate disciplines then what was planned beacuse Ams and Women got to do cyber slalom as well. That's what I call magic. Less time turned into more racing. This slalom event was much more than a normal slalom competition with the Legend poolsession and a lot of skaters staying at the same hotel or close by. It was in the middle of a very living area with bars, nightclubs and restos. The bus taking people to and from the racing site. The event office in the skate shop "Coyote Grind Lounge" was well visited and very much appreciated by people. There you could hang out and relax in a true skateboard shop environment. Also having the pools as neighbour made it very special. As Marc McGree said himself "This is like coming to Disneyland". Even though it seems like he got too much of rollercousters in the end. The GS hill was fantastic and so was the race with Kenny Mollica loosing his 1:st place towards the end of the finals. It seemed impossible for Mollica to be able to get that first place back on his last run but it just showed why Mollica is one of the best slalom skaters in the world. He put all he got into that last run and took his first place back. That was one of the highlights during the whole competition. Whatever he says in the future about taking it easy and not taking it so seriously will be empty words for me. He will always be a true slalomracer into his bones whatever he says. The low-point of the whole weekend was seeing Hackett with a lame excuse backing off from the legend pool session in the last second. It couldn't have been a greater contrast with the following day when magic things happened for him by winning the straight slalom event six hundreds of a second before Luca.

More to come later but we all need some sleep to come back to our normal us.

By the way, many have asked why we didn't get out and slalom on the Saturday afternoon and there is a reason for that. The main sponsor "WE" who cashed up the major part of the money for this event did it mostly because of the Legend Pool Session. And we could not just cancel this event that had been giving us so much goodwill. And even if we could we wouldn't have wanted too. That session was just great and hopefully just a beginning of great things to come.

[Peter Klang]

Well time to reflect, I hope everybody had a good time in Stockholm, it looked that way up till Sunday, then we had a little to much rain and some timing problems. I’m not going to get into details about it but I can say me and Marcus just wanted earth to open up and swallow us.

Good news are, we delivered everything we promised, the transportation, four disciplines, the cash, the merchandise and a super good pool session. All result are posted above, check it. I will go to bed now and sleep for a week.

ICU next time, Antibes or ?
PK

[Claude Regnier]

Hey Guys. I'm home and beat just like most of you. Weather caused most of the problems throughout the weeknd so don't frett about the crying too much.

It takes a lot of people working together to put on a rave. To host an event such as yours takes even more help. So to all of those that worked on it, competed in it and attended the Europen Championships a gtreat big Thanks You.

It was nice to have all the courses in one area. The vehicles were a drag. I assume all the automatic entries into the tymming system will be corrected as well as for those who did not actually compete in the events adjusted.

Hope you guys get some much needed rest. I hope everyone has a safe journey home and Congrats on the Great Racing by everyone. There was some great racing by some great racers over the course of the 3 days and it was a pleasure to be there to see it. The AM class is looking and the Pro class is good. Getting younger every time out.

I guess the only disapointment for me was getting to see Hacket and Olson in the Pool Session as Hackett said it was gay ( he must have decided to save himself cause he raced great on Sunday) and bolted. It was great watching the guys that skate.

[edwin james brockman]

Marcus, I have just seen the results for the Tight Slalom which was held on Sunday.
I would have been very happy to have got the 14... odd seconds for my run.......but I was not there!!!

I DID do the the Special Slalom before the heavens opened and got a time of 19.58 raw changed to 20.58 after a ten cone penalty. This run was well before the timing went awry.
Sam had a word with Peter Klang who said that even though all qualification times would be started anew he would keep my time because I only had the one run and had to leave with Sam to get our plane.

Could I please have this time re-instated , but lose the world ranking points of course.

Peter, I really felt for you when we where talking under the bridge, and I for one would not want to be an organiser of a Slalom race for all the tea in China ( an English saying.)

I did feel that we should have raced on Saturday afternoon after we came out of the underground car park and the weather finally turned hot and sunny.
I must admit that I for one was absolutley knackered after racing in the carpark because of the humidity and dust cloud.

I have not been to ONE SINGLE comp were the timing equipment has not at some point gone tits up. It just seems to be one of those things.
The weather of course is another thing altogether.
I have never seen rain like it in Engalnd, and that's saying something!!
I must admit it was quite funny to see the top slalomers in the world all huddled under the tree's together trying to stay dry.

Despite all the setbacks I did genuinely enjoy my weekend immensely,along with my Wife.
It was great to see alot of people that I had seen in Grunny in June and also The Brewster, Keith Hollien, Olson and the Carrasco's who I have met before and also the rest of Team Radical.

Mcree, you the man for putting your money where your mouth is and showing your product and what it can do in the best and only way you can ........podium, podium, podium.
Watch out for Adam, a nice kid and fantastic skater.Hello to his Mum as well.

Once again thanks to the people of Sweden and Stockholm for looking after us all.

Memory of the trip............Brewster's leather pants in search of company.........funniest thing Iv'e ever seen!!

Edwin (LSD)

[Eric Brammer]

Thanks Jani, that would probably do that, something I hadn't considered.

Sam, thanks for the picture of Adam !

[Sam Gordon]

Thanks very much to Peter and Marcus for putting together the Euro Championships, despite the adverse effects of Acts of God and Ghosts in the Machine.

It was great to see the Americans raising the game in Europe this weekend and forcing their East Atlantic colleagues to work twice as hard for any of the top places. Top stuff, well brought together by McCree.

Very impressive also was US Am rider Adam Schwippert (Roe Racing Team) who proved that technique rises above bulk and power even in the fast GS:



Memorable was Kenny's battle in the GS down to the last tenths against Maysey and Mitchell, gaining victory by just a breadth of lycra. Also outstanding were the Cyber performances of Michael Dong, Steve Olson and Heiko Scholler, the latter having just turned pro a couple of races back.

Click here for pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samg/sets/605651/

Sam

[Marcus Seyffarth]

Here are the results from a rainy weekend in Stockholm. For all you engineers out there I have removed the totals to reduce confusion. Also the timing system doesn't tell if there is a tie, so this have to be fixed manually. I think I have found most, but if you find one that is still in there, let me know.

Results First day - Giant Slalom
Women
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/WoGSQuali.html
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/WoGSResults.html

AM
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/AmGSQuali.html
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/AmGSResults.html

PRO
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/ProGSQuali.html
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/ProGSResults.html

Results Second day - Cyber Slalom
Women
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/WoCyberResults.html

AM
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/AmCyberQuali.html
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/AmCyberResults.html

PRO
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/ProCyberQuali.html
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/Pro ... sults.html

Results Third day - Special Slalom
Women
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/WoS ... sults.html

AM
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/AmS ... sults.html

PRO
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/Pro ... sults.html

Results Third day - Straight Slalom
Women
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/WoTSResults.html

AM
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/AmTSResults.html

PRO
http://www.ettsexett.com/EM2005/res/ProTSResults.html

All in all I'd like to thank all the people that came to Stockholm and I hope you had a good time. The weather didn't make life easy for us, and a foot drag over one of the tapeswithes at the finish line did'nt really help us either. At the end we got it together and at least got some results. Now it's time for some time off. See ya!