The Festival of Sugar
and Love 6
BOOM! The Festival of
Sugar and Love is back for its 6th 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 4th
is Evan Twigg-Smith, 3rd was Kaimana Pinto, in 2nd
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 2nd was KJ Nakanelua.
Followed by Kaimana
Pinto in 3rd, Toa Nanpei in 4th, Jeffery Khau in 5th
and Evan Twigg-Smith in 6th.
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.
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
2014 – 2015 Hawaii
Winter Outlaw Series.
Hawaii Winter Outlaw Series Event 6: F.O.S.A.L. 6 from Evan Higa on Vimeo.
Video by Evan Higa
Hawaii Winter Outlaw Series Event 6: F.O.S.A.L. 6 from Evan Higa on Vimeo.
Video by Evan Higa