Is that a Thundercat? We don't really get this event poster at all! But hey we see those zeros "USD 20,000"


Singapore will play host to 32 of the regions most select skateboarders this August, in the inaugural Billabong City Squared Asia skateboarding invitational. The event, presented by Sony Ericsson, will take place at Ngee Ann City, Orchard Rd, one of the busiest shopping precincts in the Southern Hemisphere. Top skateboarders from over eight countries Asia wide will battle it out on a purpose built rail, ledge and stair set-up for their part of a USD $20,000 prize pool.

“There’s such an amazing talent pool of skaters in this region”, stated Billabong Brand Manager Peter Thew “On this type of obstacle, at this venue, with this kind of money… these guys are going to be going big!”

Larger than anything built before it, the skate obstacle will be set on an elevated platform, with the skaters progressing through the elimination concept competition based on their ability to consistently land high difficulty skateboarding maneuvers. The Billabong City Squared Asia champion will walk away USD $10,000 richer with second, third, and fourth places of USD $6,000, USD $3,000, and USD$1,000 being awarded respectively.

UPDATED INFORMATION - COURSE DESIGN AND COMPETITOR LIST

The Converse Asian Crown took place on Saturday the 12th March, 2011 at *SCAPE skatepark. It signified Converse's come back into the local Singapore Skateboarding scene after 13 years of being inactive in the community. It's nice to see an event like the Asian Crown push the level of skateboarding here on our tiny island.

Converse's last skateboarding event took place in 1998, with professional skateboarders Kenny Anderson, Chany Jeanguenin, Felix Arguelles, and Atiba Jefferson flying down from the United States for a demo and signing.

Generally, the competition was befitting with some good skateboarders throwing down both big and technical tricks. One of the highlights had to have been VANS rider Farris Rahman sticking a McTwist. It was also nice to see some gaming consoles set up and airbrush tattooing going on.

Unfortunately, the event was severly tarnished by the live bands playing ska, hardcore and rock music. Now don't get us wrong we aren't complaining about the genre of music (to each his own right!) but the problems set in when the bands seemed to be out-staging the skateboarding. Instead of complementing the competition, they actually took over with their ear deafening volume. It was not only difficult to hear the MC announcing skaters names and tricks but it was almost impossible to talk to our buddies sitting next to us. 

After speaking with many of the athletes and spectators just to make sure we weren't the only ones noticing this problem. We found they all had something to say.

One skater commented "..is this a skateboarding competition or a rock show". We understand the need to have loud music in order to create atmosphere and make the event a spectacle but the volume was excessive and ear-piercing. We witnessed many spectators and skateboarders attempting to block out the thundering sound with their headphones.

Another athlete who won't be named complained of a headache and actually vomited after his run was over claiming it was hard to focus, with the deafeningly loud music. 

Moving on from the issue of volume, we thought it was disastrous that the bands were warming up and testing their equipment on full volume as athletes partook in their individual runs and jams. At times, there was no music playing during a run and at other times the band would start a song half way through an athletes run. Not only was this distracting for the athletes trying to concentrate on their tricks but we felt it put the spectators off watching the skateboarding.

Instead of a fusion of live music and action sports, it was like watching two events take place at the same time in the same location with both competing for the audiences attention. It appeared as though there was little to no communiation between the skatebaording side and music side of the event.  The bands continued on even during the prize award ceremony making it difficult to hear the results.

At one point one of the bands made a reference to Japan and the recent earthquake disaster saying that this song was going out to the Japanese people. We thought this was a very heart-warming thing to say until the singer changed the topic to his thoughts on a particular Japanese adult entertainment actresses that must be suffering from the disaster.  This was inappropriate and disrespectful! If these guys play at an action sports event ever again it will be too soon!

We hate to go on but as the voice of Singapore skateboarders we also received some feedback from athletes expressing their unhappiness about the Asian Crown (sponsored) category only having a cash prize for 1st place, but no cash prizes for 2nd or 3rd place.

Agreed, there can only be one crown for the King. But perhaps there could have been cash prizes for the runners up, especially considering this category paid a $20 registration fee (which often isn't covered by the the riders sponsors). There were cash prizes for the runners up in the Open and Beginner categories so a few sponsored riders were left wondering why the categories below them all got cash prizes but they did not. They did however, receive Converse vouchers.

Since we are on the subject of Converse Skateboarding we just found out that Rune Glifberg (Converse rider) was recently in Singapore. According to his twitter account he was in Singapore 2 weeks ago. If Converse really wanted to come back into the local scene with a bang we would have expected them to coordinate with Rune and get him at the event. Having a Converse professional skateboarder at the Asian Crown would have really taken the event to the "omg that was the best competition ever" level.

Pulling back from the failure of the live bands, the skateboarding was fantastic and it was great to see some regional athletes from Thailand, Indonesia, and China come down to compete. We are looking forward to seeing what Converse has planned next for Singapore.

Converse Asian Crown Results

Photo by Ainn Chanelly

Asian Crown
1st  -  Farris Rahman
2nd - Feroze Rahman
3rd -  Hafizul Hisyam

Open / Intermediate
1st  -  Nazeer Hussin
2nd - Izuan Musa
3rd -  Fred Erick

Beginner
1st  -  Felix Mcauliffe
2nd - Ben Ridley
3rd -  Jeffery Linnear

Congratulations to all the skaters that made it to the podium and to the organizers for putting on such a big event.

Here are some videos quickly thrown together from the event. Please note, this is just a glimpse and many tricks and runs were not captured. The quality of the videos is also pathetic but it's better than nothing.

Filmed and edited by Dominic Cartmer

Reverie Wearable Connection is organizing a skateboarding best line competition at Go Sports Margaret Drive to commemorate the end of 22 years of operations at Margaret Drive. Opened in 1988, Go Sports will be moving to a new location in February 2011.

Reverie Best Line Competition
Date: Saturday 29th January 2011

Registration can only be completed online at Reverie
Cost: $10 payable on the day of the competition

2 categories:
Under 18 years old  (25 skaters)
Above 18 years old (25 skaters)

Prizes:
1st place   : G-Shock watch & Trophy/Medal
2nd place : Go Sports to announce prize at a later date (Trophy/Medal)
3rd place  : Draven shoes and a Fuct T-shirt & Trophy/Medal

To learn more about Reverie visit their blog at http://www.reveriewc.blogspot.com and facebook page.