Copenhagen Pro 2008 Street Finals

Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek

Rob Gonzales - 360 flip

Rob Gonzales - switch heelflip

Matt Beach - backside 180 fakie 5-0

Five frames per second doesn't capture a double flip. Daniel Viera - double backside flip

Danny Cerezini - nollie backside flip

Diego Oliveira - rail assault part 1 - frontside 180 switch backside 5-0

Diego Oliveira - rail assault part 2 - fakie ollie fakie 5-0

Diego Oliveira - rail assault part 3 - nollie half cab switch 5-0

Diego Oliveira - rail assault part 4 - switch bsts

Diego Oliveira - rail assault part 5 - frontside 180 switch crook

Diego Oliveira - rail assault part 6 - kickflip frontside crooked grind

Diego Oliveira - rail assault part 7 - fakie back lip

Eero Antilla - nollie flip

Eric Koston - nollie noseblunt slide

Eric Koston - switch 360 flip

Pontus Alv - frontside tailslide

Rob Gonzales - 5-0 fakie

Elton Melonio - 360 shuv it noseblunt slide

Jason Rothmeyer and I are having fun doing ignorant ass radio rapper poses with the prize purse money. There was $70,000 cash in our office the whole weekend

Congrats Danny Cerezini!

These were the trophies made by Lau from Copenhagen

Lau also made these boards. They each came with $1000 attached and were given out as special awards picked by the Copenhagen Skatepark staff. Chico got one and was going around getting it autographed for a nice wall piece

DJ Wade got one of the Lau decks with $1000 in it for partying. What??!! Yeah, for partying. I think this is the first time I've ever said this: I should party more

DVS made this special run of shoes for the Copenhagen Pro 2008 event. That's the Denmark flag on the sole. Thanks for hooking me up with a pair, Gabe

After the Finals on Sunday, the Park cleared out because of this one game where people kick a ball around a field without using their hands. The hotel lobby in the Fox Hotel was packed with everyone from the Contest that got super excited whenever the checkered ball got close to the box with the net thing around it

The streets of Copenhagen, lost, all our luggage in tow, late getting to the airport when you're really ready to go home. Not the most fun time in the world, but I have absolutely no complaints, especially when I'm traveling with the best crew in the world

I didn't go out Sunday night either and I just realized how boring my photos are unless I go out and party. So, I'm going to say this for the second time: I should party more. Wait, does this mean it's actually part of my job to party? Sweeeet! I'll be sure to party on the next trip. Good bye Copenhagen. See you next year

I met Rob in the lobby of the Fox at 11am and he was looking like a million bucks. I suppose that’s because he took my route and didn’t go out last night. When we made it to the Park things were really mellow and in true Danish fashion, we got started bright and early at 3:30pm. It was okay though because it’s not like we were in a rush or anything...there was plenty of time to spare.

We broke the guys into three heats of four skaters each. They each got one, one-minute run that counted for 25% of their score and then participated in 12-minute jam that counted for 75% of their score. 12 minutes is a long time, but it really produced some great skateboarding. Here’s who got what:

• 13th – $1000 – Jani Laitiala – M.I.A. Where in the world was Jani? No one saw him all day, so we gave his spot to Willian
• 12th – $0 – Willian Seco – Willan agreed to skate in the Finals only under the condition that he gave the first $1000 he earned to Jani. Well, since he got 12th place, he technically got no money. He was a good sport though
• 11th – $1200 – Pontus Alv – I haven’t seen Pontus since Tampa Am 2000 or so...it’s been quite a while. But he’s got he speed and lines to keep any skateboard junkie entertained
• 10th – $1400 – Rob Gonzalez – when was the last time you saw Rob G. in the Finals? Thanks for coming out, Rob, and it’s a pleasure to witness your buttery style
• 9th – $1600 – Matt Beach – don’t worry, no one is calling it a comeback, but Matt Beach is on a path of destruction right now. He’s definitely one of the most talented skateboarders out there
• 8th – $1800 – Daniel Viera – he was the first of several Brazilians to earn a little bit of money in CPH
• 7th – $2000 – Elton Melonio – who is this guy? I don’t think that he’s even 20-years-old yet, but he sure kills it. Considering he was never out of Brazil until this weekend, he’s not doing so bad
• 6th – $3000 – Eric Koston – as I’ve said 100 times before...my favorite skateboarder by far. Frost got robbed. Just kidding. The bottom line is that he didn’t land as much as he could have. With a fakie tre down the gap and the switch bigspin bluntslide on the handrail he could have come up a couple more G’s
• 5th – $4000 – John Rattray – I heard that Rattray told Schaefer that the only reason he came to CPH PRO was because he heard that we (SPoTlight) were involved. Damn that’s good to hear. It’s almost as fulfilling as seeing John skate
• 4th – $5000 – Jereme Rogers – he did SO MANY tricks on the rail that it was absolutely ridiculous, but there were some guys that even stepped it harder than Jereme
• 3rd – $6000 – Eero Antilla – I said his name incorrectly all weekend by calling him “e-row,” but it’s really pronounced “arrow.” At least I didn’t call him “Euro.” Nice work, Arrow
• 2nd – $7000 – Diego Oliveira – he qualified 1st, but got bumped down to 2nd in the Finals courtesy of brother-Brazilian Cerezini. Diego was solid and in control the entire jam, but the nollie 180 to switch bs 5-0 on the handrail stands out in my mind
• 1st – $10,000 – Danny Cerezini – is there anything that he didn’t do? Danny ripped the entire course, but the mass destruction went down on the rail where he took out his list of difficult (both switch and regular) tricks and started checking them off one by one

Last night at the hotel I took notes of who won and the prize money they received so I could write the story on the flight home, which is what I’m doing right now. Since I forgot to jot down what tricks were done I’m going off of memory here.

The Best Trick was held immediately following the Street Finals. Well, it wasn’t exactly “immediate.” Nothing is immediate when you’re on Euro time, but it still happened soon enough. Anyone that skated in the Contest was permitted to skate in the Best Trick of course, but we threw Scott Decenzo in there, too, because he was hanging out and was itching to skate. And he almost made the switch kickflip to bs tailslide shove-it out. Had he landed it, I’m sure the results would have differed.

After 30-minutes of hucking themselves down the medium-sized gap with a not-so-big rail, here’s who walked away with some money:

• 5th – $300 – Jereme Rogers – his landing on the nollie flip nose slide 270 shove-it out was sketchy, so the judges didn’t count it. I can’t remember what he actually landed and got credit for though
• 4th – $500 – Willian Seco – I can’t even remotely recall what he did
• 3rd – $1000 – Lewis Marnell – switch bs bigspin kickflip down the gap
• 2nd – $1200 – Danny Cerezini – nollie flip fs boardslide on the handrail
• 1st – $1500 – Diego Oliveira – nollie flip fs 5-0 on the handrail

The crew at Copenhagen Skatepark took it upon themselves to do their own version of our “Just for Showing Up” and “Thanks for Nothing” awards. Nice work on that one, fellas (and Camilla), but I think that you definitely one-upped us by giving each “winner” $1000 each. What?!?! Yep, you read that right...

• Gnarliest Slam – Pontus Alv – since no one really slammed all that hard, this award was given the Swedish professional for being so damn gnarly
• Best Partier – DJ Wade – who would have ever thought that you could come up a G by partying harder than anyone else? Hopefully Wade didn’t lose the money
• Sexiest Skater of the Weekend – Danny Cerezini – talk about coming up. Danny won the Contest, got 2nd in Best Trick, and then is crowned sexiest of the weekend? You go
• Nicest Guy – Chico Brenes – have you ever hung out with Chico? If so, you know why he won this. He’s a class act

We need to give a shout-out to our friends at DVS for putting up the initial money to make this event happen and bringing out a legit crew with Shier, Baines, Brenes, and so on sure helps out. Also, William, Simon, Camilla, and the rest of the crew at Copenhagen Skatepark...you guys are a true pleasure to work with and go above and beyond with making us feel comfortable, so thanks. Ciggy and the crew from Tacky World.com, thanks for being easy to work with on the live webcast. Finally, thanks to the people of Copenhagen...damn I love that city.

Ryan