Tuesday, September 20, 2011

World Championships 2011, how it all got started

No. No way! I tried to get out of it, I really tried not to organize the World Championships. I have organized contests before and know how much work it takes. No way! But sometimes no is not an option...



Me and Kevin Harris was booked for a demo in Malmö 2010 at the Ultra Bowl. I had done a demo there in 2009 and they liked it and asked if I could get Rodney Mullen there for 2010 to do a demo. I tried to pull some strings, but knew it was hopeless, Rodney simply don't do demos any longer. So I suggested Kevin Harris, another true freestyle legend, and they loved the idea, so they flew him over. Kevin has been a friend of mine for many years, and this was the first time he visited me. Before we went down to Malmö we did some sightseeing in my area, and when we were in Stockholm and skated this concrete area at Medborgarplatsen he told me this is the best place ever to skate freestyle, both the location and the surface, and told me to hold a contest here, to host the World Championships in Sweden 2011. I said "No way"… but he promised to back me up, to help me. And suddenly the rumor spread that I was organizing the World Championships and everyone told me the World Championships should be in Sweden 2011.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

The Coca-Cola trick

I got asked to do a show and "questions & answers" at a conference last Tuesday at Arlanda Airport, Stockholm. Not the usual kind of shows I do, but it indeed sounded fun so I agreed to do it. It was also a "questions & answers", to motivate and inspire those attending the conference.

As I like to be on stage I looked forward to this, and with my new unexpexcted World Championships title the organizers were thrilled.

I was told the floor looked like asphalt and when I got to the conference center it indeed looked black. But it was slick marble, so slick it was even hard to walk on. I stepped on my board, did a walkover to feel the floor and my board slipped and I landed on my back. Embarrasing... I knew by now this was going to be a challenge.

I asked the organizers of the conference if we could put a thin layer of Coca-Cola to make it less slippery. They called in the cleaning guy that did not really understand what we were talking about. Mopping the floor with Coca-Cola was unheard to him. I could do this myself, but they seemed to have made up their mind the cleaning guy would do it. So I went and did my 20 minute of warming up with Hatha Yoga and Dynamic stretching and then was ready to warm up on the floor.

This Coca-Cola trick is also something some dancers do when the floor is slippery. And now the floor was much better. But after awhile I got into some problems... my soles got sticky and it was hard to even get up on the rail, as my feet got stuck to the griptape...

I cleaned my shoes and did my show and it went fine. Only one miss in my routine. Then up on the stage for "questions & answers" and "motivation talk". It was great fun!