Another amazing and historic year for Bowl Series has come to a close, but it seemed this year was so much more crazy. Maybe because we have reached the 3^rd decade? Who knows, but what we do know is that it is one of the best things happening in Skateboarding.

To watch kids as young as 5 years old travel around to bowls made in the 1980’s and early 90’s is amazing enough, but to see them competing in beginner and being so stoked on riding for 5 minutes in front of a huge crowd and progressing at every contest is tear jerking. This is what we live for as old school skaters, we helped set the bar high for skateboarding over many lost decades of discrimination and through our determination have seen success in the world and now have confidence that skateboarding will live on forever. Thanks kids for being the next generation of awesomeness.

And speaking of kids, let’s talk about our new King of the Bowls – Merrick Orr. Merrick started coming out to Bowl Series in year 19, only 2 years ago, and this year made an impact that will never be forgotten. At 15 years old he took 1^st place at Seylynn Bowl popping all the big gaps, ones that had been done before and some that hadn’t. Griffin Bowl he blew minds when he ollied off the smallest part of the virus to the outside of the bowl, and White Rock he flew with style and flow to take another first place. It was Squamish Beef Under the Chief contest where all eyes were opened wider as they got to see Merrick rip coping, and even though it wasn’t really a Bowl Series jam, Merrick fought to the top 3 by finding every gap possible and crushing the bowl with insane speed and furiousity. But it was Whistler Bowl that everyone was waiting for, where the King would be crowned and Merrick wanted to prove his holiness. He shredded the entire bowl, once again finding impossible and deadly gaps and making them look easy. With long hair blowing, shades on tight and fierceness in his face he battled the best of the best of Whistler and took 3^rd Place. As he ollied over the deepend of the bowl into the other side Renee Renee stopped him in his tracks to let him know he needed to prove no more and 15 year old Merrick Orr was crowned the 2015 King of the Bowls in the unforgettable Bowl Series #21.

Until next year, when we ask the question again

– Who will be King….

One of Hippie Mike’s favorite skate parks the Tsawwassen Skate Park is a great place for competitions. With a wide area full of ledges, rails, manual tables and hip to hips there’s plenty of room for lots of people to have fun together. And that’s what happened on August 2^nd at the 3^rd stop of the 2015 Hippie Mike’s Super Tour.

Kicking things off with the Beginners and Minis, lots of parents and other family members were keep the noise level high as they cheered on the young competitors. In Mini there were some new kids which is always great to see, but Aidan Eastman is a tough kid to beat. He conquered through to win another one. The Beginners was a tough category as all of them were skilled and were landing their stuff. Austin MacBeth showed everyone that he’s not just a Bowl skater and landed in 3^rd place, while Cody Mo and Fletcher Chan battled each other hard for the win, Fletcher took 1^st this time sealing the deal with a big frontside 180 down the 3-block.

The Intermediates stepped up the skill level by adding in the rail and ledge game into their runs. Austin Doquiatan was putting on a show in the qualifiers but ended in 5^th in the finals. All the intermediates skated really solid but the day belonged to the young buck from White Rock Jon Schrack. Way to hold it down Jon!

Advanced started off with an insane run by Jake Johnson from the island, who in height looks like he could be in the Mini category. He came out fierce and landed everything he tried setting the standard super high. Merrick Orr, also from the island, took that as a challenge and put on a serious demo in his runs, and Local boys Mick Bey and Aleka Lang used their long legs to look lazy as they landed a ton of tricks around the whole park, but it was tough for either of them the stay caught up to Bryce Aspinall as he shredded around with speed and style. Top 3 came down to Bryce, Merrick and little Jake but 1^st place went to Merrick who even after a face to face collision with Bryce in the start of the finals pushed through to transfer every gap he could find, kick flip front board the blue rail, crooked grind the red rail, and pretty much just destroy the entire park. It was a great show and a solid contest, thanks to everyone who showed up.

Results:

Mini: 1. Aidan Eastman; 2. Kingston Bird; 3. Dave McGough; 4. Kaelen Faux; 5. Lola Paller

Beginner: 1. Fletcher Chan; 2. Cody Mo; 3. Austin MacBeth; 4. Connor Farren; 5. Sebastian Manlig

Intermediate: 1. Jon Schrack; 2. Paul Abraham; 3. Devin Petry; 4. Colton Wilkinson 5. Austin Doquiatan; 6. Robert Wylie

Girls: 1. Jayna Clarke; 2. Rebecca; 3. Katie Wojtun

Advanced: 1. Merrick Orr; 2. Bryce Aspinall; 3. Jake Johnson; 4. Doogie Lester, Jay Mykyte, Aleka Lang, Riley Allen

Next Stop – Grand Finale

August 29^th – Vancouver Skate Plaza

See you there

Another sweet summer day in British Columbia, Canada, and a perfect day to run a skateboard competition. Hippie Mike came out strong for this one handing out about 100 free t-shirts while Wee Wong from Auto Repairs ‘R Wee gave out a bunch of chip bags and water bottles. Queensborough Skate Park the new park in New Westminster and has a solid design with a bank style bowl surrounded by street obstacles so anyone could participate but in order to win you would need to be good at everything.

Getting started right on time with the Minis, the contest was awesome right from the start. 8 minis 10 years old or less and they were all giving it everything they had. Aidan Eastman came out with skills in his final year as a mini and took home 1^st place on this one but don’t think it was a runaway. The Beginner category was a bit tougher with 10 kids that all knew how to shred. Top 5 made it into a Finals Jam where they had to skate for 5 minutes together and land as much as they could. Sydney Chalmers tossed himself over the quarter pipe time after time trying to hit the biggest gap while Cody Mo and Jack Blain utilized the whole park. But no one could catch up to Fletcher Chan as he skated every obstacle with ease and landed pretty much everything he tried. By the look of the Beginner category the rest of this contest was going to amazing.

Intermediates was a lot busier with over 20 people with ages ranging from 10 to over 30 years old, and all of them were good. Only6 competitors moved into the Finals and through all the ledge and rail thrashing from JR Barron, Austin Doquiatan and the others, little Rylee Wong destroyed to bowl with confidence, style and skill to beat out everyone and take 1^st place.

The Advanced category got even more intense, and the sun was shining super hot. Over 20 people in this one too, and once again all of them were shredders. A lot of top name locals were trying to make finals but it only came down to 5 guys – Kyler Hale, Noah Eastwood, Allen Handley, Dylan Lundgren and Penny Board skater Hugo Bedard. The Finals were intense and only lasted 6 minutes but everybody was killin’ it. Allen was destroying the bowl and Hugo was lighting up every obstacle on his Penny board, but Noah Eastwood took home the gold by skating everything and displaying how good he is all around. Everybody skated really solid all day.

After all prizes were handed out it was time for a best trick contest off the big hip launcher for a wall hanger Almost deck which Hugo Bedard somehow stomped down an overturn backside 360 on his penny to win.

Great contest, thanks to all who came out.

Results

Mini – 1. Aidan Eastman; 2. Dave McGough; 3. Presley Huska; 4. Elijah Williamson; 5. Kaelen Faux

Beginner – 1. Fletcher Chan; Jack Blain; 3. Cody Mo; 4. Sydney Chalmers; 5. Braeden Nerpio

Girls – 1. Katie Wojtan; 2. Erica Hardy

Intermediate – 1. Rylee Wong; 2. Austin Doquiatan; 3. JR Barron; 4. Yoshe Durston; 5. Rory White; 6. Stefan Bakker

Advanced – 1. Noah Eastwood; 2. Hugo Bedard; 3. Dylan Lundgren; 4. Allen Handley; 5. Kyler Hale

Best Trick – Hugo Bedard

Next stop – Tsawwassen Skate Park – August 2^nd (Sunday)

It’s crazy how someone cracking their head open and knocking themself out over the biggest gap in the bowl gets the crowd more stoked…. That’s the Vancouver Skate Scene for ya. Nice try Raney Beres!

This was the first big Pro contest in many years since the infamous Slam City Jam competitions shut down and the excitement was in the air. Bleachers and grand stands were set up to surround one side of Hastings Bowl and there wasn’t an empty seat in the house for the Finals. Guys from all over North America came out to show their skills, Tom Schaar, Omar Hassan, Mason Merlino, Brad McClain and many others came to try to beat out the local talents of Adam Hopkins, James Clarke and the legend Rob Sluggo Boyce. All 3 of these guys skated well in prelims on Friday and all made the Semi-finals, but only Hopkins got into the Top 6 for the final Finals. He ended in 6^th place and that was definitely respectable.

The highlights of both days were focused on Sluggo doing backflips to fakie in the deepend both days which amazingly are the only ones he ever landed on concrete. The crowd will remember those forever. A great guy to watch was Riley Stevens, he came out to have fun and that is what he did, best trick had to be popping out of the 9 foot to smith pick on the fence and back into disaster for the ride out. Dude had a smile on his face the whole weekend and the feeling spread. Tom Schaar killed it vert style tossing a couple different 540’s around the bowl and a few kickflip indy’s but he didn’t quite make Top 3. Brad McClain reminded the crowd who skates the fastest, Raven Tershy showed who could hang in the air the longest of every hit and Alex Sorgente just plain laid it down all over the bowl to take 1^st place.

The contest was great, it was well set up, well managed, and the weather was amazing. Thanks to Vans and Kevin Kelly for working together to make it happen. I’m sure that we will be seeing more of these types of events in the near future, but until then the Vancouver crowd has lots to reminisce…

Another amazing Canada Day as the 21^st annual Bowl Series kicked off at the legendary Seylynn Bowl. As hundreds of people flock to the park and set up tents, blankets and BBQ’s the sun was shining down to give everyone a good day. The skaters warmed up with speed lines and creative fly outs as we waited for the sound to be set up and Renee Renee to take his position holding the microphone.

Getting started right on time with the Beginners these kids reminded everyone what July 1^st is all about as they dipped in and out of the old snake bowl in every spot they could. Killa B Brayden Nerpio came out fierce in Run #1 and held true in the finals to take 1^st place and get the day rolling.

Moving in to Intermediate, it was great to see a bunch of the old beginners that had moved up a category proving the importance of the Bowl Series. Using the entire bowl these kids really knew how to shred and it was sweet to watch them. The girls category was also solid as this was the first year in a long long time where there were multiple heats and the girls owned the bowl for a good 15-20 minutes. Way to go Ladies!

After a little relaxing dip in the creek it was time to watch the Advanced battle it out. All eyes were on certain people of course like Adam Hopkins, Andy Anderson, Jamie Sherratt, Eve Feaver, Stevie Denham, Rob Rickaby, and the young buck from island Merrick Orr. Merrick came out with full aggression blasting up and down the bowl and over all the hips. He kept popping huge ollies from outside the bowl into the deep end and then somehow maintaining enough control to boneless across the wall in the deep. Eve and Andy touched every part of the snake with unique tricks that fire up the large size audience. And Rob and Stevie just plain laid it down like only they could while Adam Hopkins picked out all the big gaps and blew out his pants while flying through the air at mega speeds, Can’t Stop the Hop. In the finals it was Merrick Orr who pulled through on top of the others and sealed the deal with a first try massive crail grab over MFP – Insane!!

Could this be the beginning of the story of 2015’s King of the Bowls?

1^st – Merrick Orr

2^nd – Rob Rickaby

3^rd – Andy Anderson

4^th – Adam Hopkins

5^th – Stevie D

After the contest was done and the crowd began to disperse it was time to see who had the fastest time as the best of the best at the Seylynn Speed Line put their bearings to the test. Amazingly between about 8-10 people they were all within 1 second of each other to go down and back, it was like an alpine ski race. Steve Denham prevailed at the last moment with a 10.20 second run beating out Adam Hopkins 10.28. So awesome.

That’s it for this year people – another awesome Canada Day thanks to Mike Strato, Renee Renee, Cuz, Seb and everyone who showed up.

Bowl Series 21

See you at Griffin – July 12th