The Nike SB Shelter was feeling the heat today for the finals of the 2016 Berlin Open - 31 in the shade of the beer garden where the crowd watched the live stream on the a screen, boiling point inside the park where the 30 skaters laid it down for a part of the €20,000 prize purse.
With a19 year age gap between the oldest and the youngest competitor, nothing seemed to faze 13 year old Herman Moeller out of Malmo who destroyed the park in the semis, dropping tricks that defied the generation gap. He straight no-complyed the stair set, foot planted the wall and locked in fully grown back-smith on the Hubba.
The day’s 30 got cut down to 16, and after 2 days of heavy skating in the heat the toll was paying on the skaters making them need to dig deep into the energy reserves to secure one of the 4 spots up for grabs in the Super Final. Justin Sommer was raging in every round but didn’t link it together at the crucial time, though his front 360 shuvit over the hubba was as stylish as they come. Martin Pek proved that even under pressure you can have fun with a smooth switch blunt on the handrail and nollie blunt on the A frame but also missed out on the big prizes.
The super final was looking like it was going to be epic one for Vincent Milou, a flawless 1 minute run was looking like a comp winner until a back smith flip out attempt left him clutching his ankle and his day was over. Gustavo Ribeiro, a second place podium finisher in the Barcelona AM will be taking another silver trophy home to Portugal by way of a bigger spin flip to front board and a 360 flip to lipslide on the rail, both of which he had on lock all weekend. 1st place however was reserved for Brazilian Ivan Monteiro – 360 flip noseslide down ledge, ollied the big gap from the vert platform and showed a level of consistency throughout the weekend that was well deservving of the winners check.
1st Ivan Monteiro 17 Sao Paulo, Brazil €6000 2nd Gustavo Ribeiro 15 Lisbon, Portugal €4000 3rd Vincent Milou 19 Tarnos, France €3000
Best Trick - Max Kruglov 27 St. Petersburg, RUS €1500 Hard flip back nose blunt on the hubba
For more information about the Berlin Open and the Nike SB European Series - nikesb.com/euroseries