WheelTurnerHawaii.com: March 2014

The Festival of Sugar and Love 6

BOOM! The Festival of Sugar and Love is back for its 6^th year in a row and it was a banger event to close out the Landyachtz 2013 – 2014 Hawaii Winter Outlaw Series! Crews from Oahu, Big Island, Maui, California, Portland, Vancouver and more gathered to sugar some wheels n get steezy for a day long Skateboarding festival.

The Wheel Turners from all over met up amped to jam on a Saturday morning up at Oahu’s infamous S Turn. This has been the arena for the F.O.S.A.L steeze fest for the past 5 years and we could never get tired of it. A STEEP back to back left to right that drops a couple stories within the corner with endless possibilities to take different lines.

The only this messing with people this year with the slight drizzle that would hit the mountain every once and a while blessing us with a few damp spots.

Nonetheless, EVERYONE tore the hill apart!

We got everyone signed up as soon as we got to the hill… just about 40 riders!

Once everyone was registered we got the practice runs started and gave the hill some time to dry off.

After about 30 minutes everyone looked warmed up n’ ready to go. Plus the hills starting to look pristine, so we got underway with round 1.

This first round is a 45 minute open Jam style session. Riders are allowed to take as many or as little runs as they want within that time… They just need to make sure they make an impression on the secretly selected judges. After this round is complete, we will be cutting the riders pool in half. The top 20 ish riders will move onto the next round.

What’s the judging criteria for the Festival you may ask?

We want to see anything and everything!

Speed, clean lines, creativity, tricks, dirt lines, close riding… anything to get the crowd hyped.

Round 1 is started and from the first run we are seeing skating that matches the finalist in last years event! Not only were experienced F.O.S.A.L veterans floating through the corners, but also tons of the grom series rookies were giving them a run for their money.

Oh ya! The Caliber team also blew some minds in this 45 min jam… Carmen Sutra bomb dropped off of the inside wall of the s turn, a line I’ve personally been thinking of for years! Nick Ronzani was flinging SICK blunts and classy colemans, Brandon Tissen was flying fast, Alicia Fillback was showing the boys how to skate switch, Big Dave was giving style lessons and Tyler Howell was DESTROYING the turn like never before was his fast raw style.

As we were coming to the end of round all riders are making sure to unleash the bangers… and damn did this make it hard for us judges.

But once the shredding took a pause, we met, contemplated and made our list of the riders who stood out in round 1.

I thought 20 riders moving on would be easy to choose but it was surprisingly hard when every skater was doing something notable throughout the hill!

We made the announcement of which skaters will be moving on, then got blessed with a little more drizzles. SO, we took a breather and threw some grindz on grill… had a little BBQ and mid event prize giveaway thanks to Miur Skate.

After our little intermission, the sun decided to pop it’s head back out for round 2.

We still have a good portion of the visiting Caliber crew in it, a few Maui Killahz and some of Oahu’s top riders. From here to the finals its gonna be intense.

This round we will be only 30 minutes, cutting the riders pool from just under 20 riders, to the top 6 … so everyone was ready to make it count!

The riders headed back up the hill, the crowd was amped and judges were ready.

Round 2 is ON!

Some of the Maui crew along with a couple of Oahu F.O.S.A.L vet’s decided to take their first run from the tip to get some extra speed and start with a bang! Others started at the normal zone but filled their runs with tricks and spins, I love seeing the huge mix of styles being displayed on the same turn. Every skater here is approaching it differently.

Did I mention it’s also RAD to still have 2 girls going HARD this round. That’s a F.O.S.A.L first!

After 3o minutes of sugar, style, speed and air we ended round 2.

The judges met to compare scores and we have decided who will move on to the next round.

Though we were planning on a top 6, every judge had a tie between 2 riders… so we sent 7 riders to the Semi Final round.

Going into the Semi’s is Evan Twigg- Smith, Dakota Camp, KJ Nakanelua, Carmen Sutra, Nick Ronzani, Tyler Howell and Kaimana Pinto.

This round is going to go a little different then the last few, instead of an open Jam sesh… riders will only get 3 runs each to nail everything they want the crowd and judges to see.

Through the riders runs there were still no two styles that were similar.

Dakota, Evan and Kaimana were choosing to bomb in from the top and go big. For them going fast and keeping a perfect line was key. Carmen busted out more bomb drops, and clean slides both regular n switch like it was no problem. Nick represented Nor Cal coming through the corner with smooth Colemans along with a few blunts. Tyler blasted through the corner spinning fast, busting switch and regular slides… straight assaulting the S. While KJ mixed both big slides with some techy slides n spins.

All riders stoking out the crowd every run they took!

After each rider took their 3 runs, the judges added up their scores and we now have our Festival of Sugar and Love 6 FINALIST.

The 4 riders moving onto the FINAL BATTLE are

KJ Nakanelua ( Oahu )

Kaimana Pinto ( Oahu/Maui )

Dakota Camp ( Maui )

Evan Twigg-Smith ( Oahu )

To make things even more tense and interesting… KJ, Kaimana and Dakots have been battling it out since event 4 for the overall Hawaii Winter Outlaw Series title… and now IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS FINAL.

All 4 riders are exhausted from this slidathon, but they work their way back up the hill for their last 2 runs of the season.

Everything’s riding on these runs.

Kaimana, Dakota and Evan follow the method they’ve been going with and walked to the tip top to get every bit of speed they could.

As they worked their way to the top KJ decided to take one run as tech as he could. He spun his way down the beginning of the left then blasted a couple blunts in the first corner, followed by a big toeside blunt in the second corner.

The remaining 3 riders came down shortly after, all coming in FULL TUCK… not putting down a hand once the whole hill keeping the perfect line they wanted.

For the next run all 4 riders were at the top coming in full speed.

KJ with a huge frontside standie to a CLEAN backside, all while barley loosing speed.

Next Evan came down flying fast into a STYLE blasted Backside slide standing tall through the left, then glided smoothly through the right.

Kaimana came in with some HEAT for his last run and pulled probably the biggest, fastest backside we saw all F.O.S.A.L followed with a fast grippy line through the right.

Last up was Dakota.

He came maching into the first left and drug out a LOOONNNNGGG frontside, popping a CLEAN shuvit. Rolls out flawlessly and with speed, then blasts yet another clean backside and finishes that off with a shuvit as well. All while staying rolling quick.

What a last run to the season.

Following the finals we did a few more fun games for more prize giveaways while the judges added up their scores.

We had so much schwag we made sure everyone went home with some goods… but not without working for it first!

When we got the results for both The Festival of Sugar and Love as well as the overall series points we pulled out the GOODS for the winners.

Decks, both cast AND precision trucks, wheels of all sorts, bearings, helmets, shirts, hats, footstops, sunglasses, CA$H… ALL KINE!

Time to announce the results…

First up is F.O.S.A.L 6

The points were CLOSE as can be but there can only be one Festival King.

Coming in 4^th is Evan Twigg-Smith, 3^rd was Kaimana Pinto, in 2^nd loosing by 1 point was KJ Nakanelua and taking home the Festival crown was Dakota Camp.

The next announced results are the points for the Overall Series Title.

Holding it down through the whole season, destroying all terrains… is your new Hawaiian Champion Dakota Camp.

Giving Dakota a run for his money coming in a close 2^nd was KJ Nakanelua.

Followed by Kaimana Pinto in 3^rd, Toa Nanpei in 4^th, Jeffery Khau in 5^th and Evan Twigg-Smith in 6^th.

The Landyachtz 2013 – 2014 Hawaii Winter Outlaw Series is complete and once again a HUGE SUCCESS. We couldn’t do any of this without our epic crew of Hawaiian wheel turners and ALL OF THE SUPPORTERS we had through out the season.

6 more events of the series checked off! I hope everyone enjoyed every single one of them.
We are spreading the love and good vibes of skateboarding around Hawaii more then ever.

Keep an eye on WheelTurnerHawaii.net for information later in the year about the