Freestyle Now

The Mandurah Action Sports Games action was intense the over the weekend at the Mandurah Crabfest. There were festival activities along with a wakeboarding competition and FMX demos but by far the best was the bmx and skateboard competition that went down. There was a park competition along with a halfpipe competition for with $4000 up for grabs as prize money. Large numbers of spectators and competitors rocked it over the weekend in the sun and all went home stoked.

This competition sees the start of the F.N.W.A.S.S. (Freestyle Now Western Australian Skatepark Series) each of the competitors in the park competition will have points awarded toward the end of year state series.

On Saturday the skateboard competition got things kicked off. The park competition had two classes, beginner/novice and expert/pro. In the beginner/novice it was all about Sean Harding who took out the win. Young Noah McPherson had a good bit of fun in the comp so props to him for rocking it like he did. The expert/pro park competition had $1000 on offer. After the skaters had finished their qualifying runs it was time to move into the battle finals. After some hectic battles rounds Darren Pryor took out the 3^rd place. This left Ryan Van Nellestyn and Samuel Gunthorpe to challenge each other one on one for either $500 or $250. It was Ryan who just had it by a few votes in the end.  The halfpipe contest was just flat-out crazy. With 11 competitors wanting a share of $1000 the class was whittled down to the top 5 fairly quickly. With the skaters running in a jam session they were knocked out as the jam intensified to leave Darren Pryor and Paul Bruno. This was a session that was hard to pick the winner. But the judge’s gave it to Darren with some solid runs and $500 for the win.

Left – Darren Pryor winner of the halfpipe comp. Right – Froggy has it going on for 2^nd place – photos courtesy of buzz marketing

Come Sunday it was all about the bicycles. The same format again was in action.  The beginner/novice class was cool to watch with riders doing their best to win the competition. Not a lot of super awesome tricks but Samual Thomas hit the park well enough to take the win. The expert/pro class was a treat. Riders had qualifying runs to find the order for the finals and then the battles started. The top 6 were in the battle finals first round was Alex Nolan and Laurance Bakewell with Alex taking 6^th and the win to Laurance. He then took on Chris Jones for another 2, 45 second runs. Again Laurance took the win with Chris Jones getting the 5^th place. The battle was on for the fourth place, between Laurance and Warren Bowers. Warren had the tech skills along with some large air tricks to edge out Laurance. 4th place to him.  The battle for 3^rd and $150 prize money was between Dylan and Warren Bowers. Dylan who qualified in 2^nd place had a lot to keep, get knock out and win $150 or the chance to win 1^st place and $500. Dylan who could have taken the win in this one but fumbled a few tricks and lost momentum which left the door open for Warren to progress to the final round against local Dwayne Saul. Both of these riders could have taken the win and $500 but it was the tech wizardry of Dwayne the secured his win and riches.

Clock wise from top left – Dwayne Saul $500 smile, Laurance Bakewell worked hard for this- Photos courtesy of buzz marketing. Darren Pryor was a winner, Noah McPherson receiving prizes on stage

The half pipe competition was the last things for the weekend. Everyone wanted to ride the ramp but only the expert/pro riders were able to compete. It was an all in jam with riders asked to leave the competition as the level of riding kept going up. With the final four left Jacob hit back to back flairs to much roar from the crowd. Not to be knocked out, Laurence Bakewell knew he had to up this so he dropped in and a few pump air and then fired out an unbelievable 8 back to back flairs. Oh my!!!!.  Dylan Schmidt went for some hard tricks that did not work for him which meant he took the 4^th place with Jacob DeAbreu getting the 3^rd. coming down to the 1^st and 2^nd it was between Warren Bowers and Laurance. Both riders were feeling the lack of energy and the sun but it went down to the wire. Run for run trick for trick. In the end it was Laurence who had the staying power to take the win and $500.

Left – Sean Harding got a chance to skate the halfpipe, Right – Brad Mas did turndowns on the ramp to turndowns from girls all weekend.

The Mandurah action sports games was one of the best weekends on the competition calendar in Western Australia. The $4000 prize money brought out some intense competition. it is looking good for this same competition to take place in 2012 so keep March clear and get ready for some action to rock it in Mandurah once again.

Left – Warren Bowers mid down whip. Right – Jacob DeAbreu fired out some flairs.

Official competition results – Mandurah Action Sports Games   12^th  and 13^th March

Skateboard – Beginner/Novice Park Competition – 1^st Sean Harding – 2^nd Jesse Nelson – 3^rd Zeb Scott – 4^th Noah McPherson

Skateboard – Expert/Pro Park Competition – 1^st Ryan Van Nellestyn $500 – 2^nd Samuel Gunthorpe $250 – 3^rd Darren Pryor $150 – 4^th Robert Yandle $50 – 5^th Sean Paul $50 – 6^th Tim Reves – 7^th Jamil Jackson.

Skateboard – Expert/Pro Half-pipe Competition – 1^st Darren Pryor $500 – 2^nd Paul “Froggy” Bruno $250 – 3^rd Sam Bennet $150 – 4^th Darryl White $50 – 5^th Jamie Muirhead $50 – 6^th Tom Hanlon – 7^th Conner – 8^th Dwayne Healey – 9^th Samual Gunthorpe – 10^th Ryan Van Nellestyn – 11^th Sean Paul

BMX – Beginner/Novice Park Competition – 1^st Samuel Thomas – 2^nd Corey Heal – 3^rd Ryan Hemsley – 4^th Jack Knowles – 5^th Michael Palmer – 6^th Tyronne Feverreitur

BMX – Expert/Pro Park Competition – 1^st Dwayne Saul $500 – 2^nd Warren Bowers $250 – 3^rd Dylan Schmidt $150 – 4^th Laurence Bakewell $50 – 5^th Chris Jones $50 – 6^th Alex Nolan – 7^th Brad Mas – 8^th Louis Nolan – 9^th Lee Carter – 10^th Jacob DeAbreu – 11^th Bobby Seabourne – 12^th Luke Jewell – 13^th Ross Scaffidi

BMX – Expert/Pro Half-pipe Competition – 1^st Laurence Bakewell $500 – 2^nd Warren Bowers $250 – 3^rd Jacob DeAbreu $150 – 4^th Dylan Schmidt $50 – 5^th Brad Mass $50 – 6^th Lee Carter – 7^th Dylan Thomson – 8^th Ross Scaffidi – 9^th Luke Jewell – 10^th Taylor Brown