One of the largest skimboarding contests in the world is the Polish Skimboarding Open and it went down in Gdańsk, Poland. Adrien Raza of the Netherlands took first place with Daniel Preiss of Germany taking second and Marek Wołkanowski of Poland taking third at the 2014 PSO. Congrats to all the riders and organizers on pushing flatland skimboarding to its limits once again.
Date: 01-02.08.2014
Location: Gdańsk / POLAND
Photos: A. Piorczynska
Video & Edit: Paweł Jurczak
Music: Jutty Ranx – I See You (Oliver Nelson Remix)
RESULTS:
[Guys]
1) Adrien Raza NL
2) Daniel Prieß DE
3) Marek Wołkanowski PL
4) Remigiusz Miczek PL
5) Paweł Sadowski PL
6) Max van Leeuwen PL
7) Marcin Kąkol PL
8) Michał Puchalski PL
9) Tomek Wojciechowski PL
10) Marcin Borys PL
[Girls]
1) Iza Batko CAN
2) Marta Węgrzynowska PL
3) Lisa van Leeuwen NL
4) Gabriela Kulka PL
5) Agata Kotlenga PL
6) Emilia Szymoniak PL
7) Aleksandra Dubas PL
8) Klaudia Bracisiewicz PL
9) Dominika Włodarczyk PL
More about the Polish Skimboarding Open…
Everything started in 2009 when “Sports department of City Gdansk” asked me about organizing a skimboarding competition. I had only a few weeks to organize everything and we built a quarter pipe, collected some other boxes and we called it the “Open Championship of City Gdansk”. There was around 30 riders from Poland and everything went fine even without big marketing and organizational features. It was a nice and friendly jam session.
In 2010, we decided to change the name of the contest to the “Polish Skimboarding Open” with bigger prizes, more organization and more sponsors. This made it the biggest independent skimboarding competition in Poland. We brought in over 70 participators including three riders from Germany and nine girl riders. For the first time we also used the “Cup System” with eliminations, quarterfinals, semifinals and a final. That format works the best with such a large number of participators. We also had a free lunch, free skimboard tests and mini school of skimboarding for spectators. After success of first edition the next step was just upgrading the event and making everything bigger and better.
In 2011, we started with a new website with online registration and a place to register before the competition and it helped to get over 100 riders with four from Germany and 10 girls competitors. In 2012, the same thing with everything being bigger and better: organization, media feedback, marketing, number of riders and boxes. The PSO has continued to grow year after year. There was 118 riders, also from Sweden, Holland, Germany and Austria. There was also record number of 16 girls! In 2013, registration was only online and we collected 106 riders overall. We had 18 competitors from outside of Poland from countries like USA, Holland, Germany, Austria and Latvia. This years PSO was truly an international event!
Each year we build unique boxes and rails specially for PSOpen and all riders rides them first time at this competition. That makes the contest fair. Another big part of PSOpen history are after parties but this is a different story…
The 2014 PSO was also the final stop of the European Skimboarding Cup.
European Skimboarding Cup 2014 FINAL RESULTS:
1) Adrien Raza NL – 100 pts.
2) Marek Wołkanowski PL – 80 pts.
3) Daniel Prieß DE – 66 pts.
4) Friedrich Flüh DE – 60 pts.
5) Max van Leeuwen NL – 48 pts.
6) Mariusz Wójt PL – 27 pts.
7) Tomek Wojciechowski PL / Paweł Sadowski PL – 22 pts.
8) Kor van der Vegt NL – 19 pts.
9) Jędrzej Tomaszewski PL – 18 pts.
10) Luke J Dirks NL / Helvijs Savickis LV – 16 pts.
ESC 2014 NATIONAL RANKING:
1) POLAND – 215 pts.
2) NETHERLAND – 195 pts.
3) GERMANY – 152 pts.
4) LATVIA – 56 pts.
5) SWEDEN – 14 pts.
6) SPAIN – 6 pts.