Coolgardie is an old gold mining town 560kms east from Perth, just before Kalgoorlie. On the weekend the town celebrated its 117th birthday with a big birthday party. To help celebrate the occasion Freestyle Now was there to put on a bmx and skate competition.
With Shaun Jarvis at the wheel, Philip Marshall on skate duty, Dylan Schmidt tagging along for the comp and a Canadian named Jay for some adventure the weekend turned out to be an awesome journey. Dylan was excited as he had never been out that far and upon stopping at the famous Southern Cross servo banks he was hella pumped to get to ride at.
Come Sunday morning, Dylan said that he got up at 5:30 to head down to the park. You gotta say he was eager to ride.
After setting up the Freestyle Now ramps to add to the skatepark things started to get along the way. Unfortunately for the ever so eager Dylan he took an upper cut to the jaw from the pavement as a result from a toboggan over the jump box. He was so gutted he had to sit the comp out.
The riding from the competitors was outstanding with some awesome stunts being displayed. Mad props goes out to all those who came and competed. You guys really made the comp a splendid Coolgardie celebration.
Clockwise from top left – Ashley – Corey Smithies – Cale Deeble – Skater Zac
Clockwise from top left – Sam Pearce – Dean Bidgood – Nick Doutchy – Mitchell Hannigan
Official Results – Coolgardie celebrations day – Show your style bmx and skate competition – sponsored by Smarter than smoking
Bmx Duds – 1ST Ashley – 2ND Josh – 3RD Jessie Best – 4TH Daniel Toifl
Bmx Studs – 1ST Corey Smithies – 2ND Cale Deeble – 3RD Nick Doutchy – 4TH Sam Pearce – 5TH Mitchell Hannigan – 6TH Dean Bidgood
Skate – 1ST Zac – 2ND Ethan Parker – 3RD Chris Basley – 4TH Dean Bradshaw – 5TH Jeremy Cottle – 6TH Jessie Best – 7TH Jake O’Donnell
After the competition we headed into Kalgoorlie to grab the best meal ever from the Star and Garter hotel. A ride at the newly renovated Kalgoorlie skatepark was a great amount of fun. The park has had its multi layered paint sandblasted off to make it a safe place to ride. Councils just paint over the graffiti and the paint becomes way too slippery and unsafe to ride. Big props to Kalgoorlie council for getting that done.
The Monday drive home was murder. A massive front had moved in and we were driving into it. Excessive head winds meant that out top speed was 80kms. We pulled over in a roadside camp ground to check out this rock flat bank. Dylan got one run at it and bailed out. After coming a gutsa on Sunday he was not risking anything more, so he decided to call it quits and pack his rig away. After a few more relieving stops we made it home 9 hours later.
Thanks go out to Smarter than smoking for sponsoring the competition and to Stowaway Distribution and Beyond Skate for their support.
