Thanks to Raoul van den Berg for this write up:
On the second of April we hosted the first ever Loaded SA Slide Jam. It was held in Stellenbosch, pretty much the capital of Longboarding in South Africa at the moment.
We have this little hill in the Industrial area, a quiet dead end road that is at most 300m long, but is extremely steep and slippery. Perfect for sliding and an easy walk back to the top.
I arrived early to throw down a few hay bales, and cordoned off the road because the locals from the near by informal settlement, Kayamandi tend to get a bit too enthusiastic at times.
As I approached the hill there were already riders waiting in anticipation. This was two hours before the event was supposed to start! A bunch of guys that drove all the way from the Eastern Cape, just to kick it with us. Stoked!!
Setup went quick and slowly but surely other riders started to show up. At 11am sharp the guys started getting sideways. My hands were getting full and I desperately wanted to do a run, so Mia Esterhuyzen, the amazing girlfriend of Paul Du Plessis (a fellow Longboard Stellenbosch rider) offered to help me with sign up.
We used a token system, where each rider got 3 tokens. He or she then handed them out to their fellow competitors who they felt deserved it. So at the end of the day the rider with the most tokens won! Easy, and which turned out to be very successful.
The riding went well…although a little blood was spilled and one rider popped shoulder. Everyone was pushing themselves to the limits, even the groms were showing us that the future of South African Longboarding is in good hands. All in all just too much fun!
What was interesting was that there were two very distinctive styles amongst the riders. The Eastern Cape crew and the Cape Town guys pulled of the fastest, longest pendy’s I’ve ever seen. Kent Lingeveldt, even dragged his helmet along the road in a controlled slide too.
The Longboard Stellenbosch crew was more into stand up slides, in any and every direction. Matt Arderne and Paul Du Plessis pulled of real steezy 14 meter plus standy’s!
The highlight of the day for me however was what we called “The Symphony”, 3 riders Matt, Paul and Alex Duss skated down at the same time, very close to each other doing synchronized stand up slides. Prettiest thing you ever did see!
At the end of the day we counted the tokens, and called the winners. Although we had a tied third place between Paul Du Plessis and Gary Denver Africa. We quickly sorted that out with a game of rock/paper/scissors…quick draw Paul won the stand off, and for his efforts got a rad Orangatang T-shirt (aren’t many of them in SA). Second place went to Mike Upham, who secured himself a set of Orangatang 86a Stimulus (nice and soft compared to the things he competed on). Matt Arderne showed that he’s not only number 1 in SA for racing, but also number 1 in the steeze department!! He was so stoked to receive a Loaded Dervish deck!!
The event was a real hit, and will definitely become a tradition!
I would like to thank Anton Pratt for organizing hay bales for me, Mia Esterhuysen for helping me with all the admin. And especially Loaded Boards for supplying us with prizes!
A big thanks go out to all 30 competitors, you guys rocked it. Next time lets double that!
Loaded is here and here to stay!
Results:
1. Matt Arderne (Longboard Stellenbosch) – 15 tokens
2. Mike Upham (Cape Town Fizzer) - 12 tokens
3. Paul Du Plessis (Longboard Stellenbosch) - 11 tokens
4. Gary Denver Africa (Eastern Cape Longboarder) - 11 tokens
5. Kent Lingeveldt (Cape Town Fizzer) - 9 tokens
6. Alex Duss (Longboard Stellenbosch) - 7 tokens
7. Renier van Staaden (Eastern Cape Longboarder) - 6 tokens
8. Raoul van den Berg (Longboard Stellenbosch) - 6 tokens
9. Nick Simic (Eastern Cape Longboarder) - 2 tokens
10. Carlo Randal (Cape Town Fizzer) - 2 tokens
Photos by Lee Casalena:
