Guy Fawkes Slide Jam – Event Recap

Written by: Mark Jansen Van Rensburg

Let me start off by saying how nervous I was to host this event. I had such high hopes, praying that this event would be good enough to produce just the right amount of stoke and froth the community so desperately needs. And let me tell you, it seems to have done just what we were all hoping for.
Morning came and we started setting up and getting ready for all the Homies to arrive. As I was carrying the cooler box with all the drinks in, I had to stop and gaze at the amount of Steeze that 2 Mossel Bay groms had just laid down before me making me question what I’ve been doing for the last year on my board.

As the day progressed more skaters pulled in and in the end we had quite a crowd of spectators cheering all the skaters on while sipping on the ice-cold free beer provided by Black Horse Restaurant and free cold drinks provided by PTA Longboarders.

Everyone was skating well and skating hard, pushing the limits and sharing the stoke. Once the prizes came out of hiding and after we had a meeting stating the rules of the comp and the categories to take part in, skaters were given elastic bands to vote for who they thought to be the “steeziest” skater of the day. We had 22 entries in total. Needless to say, every one put in maximum effort and went bigger than I’ve seen in quite a while.

Slowly but surely we painted the road in sexy thane until the road all but disappeared. We faffed for a while as everyone caught their breath only to be startled by the BlackSheep belting down the hill in a cloud of multi-coloured smoke billowing behind them. Fast forward 15 minutes and every skater had a smoke flare attached to their boards for the mob-run making for some amazing shots. (If we do this again don’t go last, you can’t see much ahead!)

Thankfully there were no injuries on the day despite a bit of road rash for some.

Head over to Jo’burg Longboarders Club Facebook Group to see more photos.

Going forward, we plan to make this an Annual Event with the hopes of getting more skaters to pull through. Not just skaters from Gauteng but skaters from all over the country!

So, prize giving then:

• Longest Puck Down – Henco Vermuelen (T-Tool, R250.00, stickers)
• Longest Heelside – Giloume Van Der Walt (Cult Wheels, R 250.00, stickers)
• Longest Toeside – Giloume Van Der Walt (Blood Orange Wheels, R 250.00)
• Steeze cat of the day – Bryn Langley (R 250.00, stickers)

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Special thanks to the sponsors:

• Black Horse Restaurant and Brewery for providing the beer.
• BlackSheep for all they do. Foam, Shuttle, Stoke, Footage, Stickers and Vouchers.
• LongboardingSA for sponsoring prizes and promoting the event.
• Dubbel G, Stephen Rheeder, Maryke Van Der Watt and Christo Celliers for the footage.
• GVSC Communications and Estpro Estates (Yvonne Van Rensburg) for the prize money.
• PTALongboarders and SFO for Hosting the Event
• Save Tranquility Animal Rescue Centre for giving us a very good reason to host this event.
• All the riders and spectators that came through, especially those that drove and flew
  From far away.

-Mark