Tags: adrien anne, andre milutzki, anna-lena cohrs, assia zaharieva, bastian goldbeck, benjamin brockmann, chintara krieger, chris thaysen, cornelius grunt, dave botchwey, edwin wieringh, eike loest, falk mathies, fedor simonov , friederike reisch, german champion 2011, gideon hagen, jacob juul, jan siepe, jannick landmann, jeremy kesler, jerome moebus , kilian boenisch, max schweikert, melvin siemianowksi, melvin siemianowski, miguel martinez, mirco helbing, nick mutschall, nikita gurav, niko thielebein, nils jansons, olfert poelen, patrick kraemer, paul schmudlach, rene bruckert, scott quinn, sidney hansen , stain bond, stephane alfano, tassilo borgemehn, younes khial
The X-Mas Jam in Hamburg, Germany is an institution. It has existed for a long time and each year it draws a large international crowd of skaters to compete. Besides being internationally renowned it has become the official German Championships competition, making it the most important contest for this nation.
Write-up by Max Schweikert
Photography by Olfert Poelen
Edit by Jan Siepe with Falk Mathies
This year, it went back to its roots with an old format of having the prelims on Saturday and the finals on Sunday, which may have not been the best idea considering Saturday is recognized as the party day. Bladers who ripped it on Saturday were not quite living up to their potential on Sunday, as was the crowd that had shrunk immensely from one day to the next. Never the less, all of the spectators were rewarded with some quality skating at an extremely high level of competition.
The amateur portion of the event surprised everyone with a higher than expected level of skating. It was quite intense and you could see in the competitor’s eyes that the determination for a win caused each person to truly push their own limits. The feeling was so distinct that you could almost literally smell fierce competition in the air. It was indeed a pleasant surprise. Congratulations goes out to Eike Loest for taking first in the Amateur competition.
The Pro contest consisted of such high caliber that it was truly hard to judge who had taken the win. While being super friendly, just like with the Amateurs, there seemed to be a heated battling atmosphere brewing as every skater tried to impress the judges with all that they had. Each rider earned roars and cheers as they laced every big trick they could.
Due to the layout of the park, which was more oriented towards skateboarding, the competitors seemed to go with lines and big tricks simultaneously. This combination of approaches made the Pro contest unbelievably intense and the crowd ate up every single moment of it.
All in all, the skating was very diverse. Nils Jansons and Julien Cudot tried to impress the judges with lines that ran through the whole park, tackling obstacles that were frequently unused by other riders. Nils threw down some seriously burly tricks while Julien went more for the technical approach. Both were very aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. One of the biggest tricks was a perfect 1260, thrown by Stephane Alfano. Jacob Juul and Adrienne Anne displayed some super technical skating with Adrienne having a few goes at a disaster backside fastslide, which he managed to pull off after some wicked attempts.
One moment in particular that took the crowd by surprise was a huge flat spin transfer battle between Stephane Alfano and Jeremy Suarez, both known for their crazy spins and transfers. During a warm up session they decided to go at it and went from the bowl to an adjacent quarter pipe, lacing some of the craziest spin transfers the skatepark had ever witnessed.
Special mention goes out to the three local German competitors that ripped the park up and stood their ground amongst such a high profile group of skaters. Fedor Simonov gets a special style shout out for lacing the most stylish big spin to grind tricks that you would normally only associate with someone like Brian Aragon, taking the first place of the Pros, without actually being a Pro, on Saturday during the prelims. Unfortunately, his nerves got the best of him on Sunday and he was not able to maintain his position at the top. Sydney Hansen impressed us all with both big and creative tricks. A big congratulations also goes to Nils Jansons who won the contest with his all out attitude and big technical tricks.
And, of course congratulations to Melvin Siemianowski, the current German champion, who impressed everyone present with a "turn the heat on" moment. He wowed everyone with his last run lacing big tricks like a hurricane topsoul 540 out and a big bio 540 transfer.
-Max Schweikert
X-Mas Jam 2011 Results
Professionals
Amateurs
Juniors
Girls
Hello mr. Crack...don't know where you were during the comp. but saying alfano landed only two tricks is a bit tricky since he did at least twice the shown transfer
a 1280 and the other transfer. so....
The judging were really weird, Nils should not won this one, Alfano landed only 2 tricks and Anne and Cudot did both a perfect run.
Where's is Nils clips? :o I bet camera broke from his sick tricks :D
I soooo wanna see an edit. like srsly, the hottest skater in the world right now wins and no one films it, really?
Nills won and got only two clips? :/