Different Perspectives: IMYTA+ Jochen Smuda - 06/10/01

We asked different people from all over the world to write us their impression of the Amsterdam event, to get different perspectives on this even to give you an even more complete view of this event.
-Mike Bayr



Amsterdam is one of those cities you should have visited at least once with your friends. The vibe is unbelievable, it is very difficult to describe – let’s say the city has it’s own „smell“. I personally love to travel to Amsterdam and it’s even better if you got one of the most exciting events of the year goes down there as well.
I was looking forward to this event the last few months and couldn’t wait to go there. When I looked through the starting list I hardly could believe my eyes – just one of those events you can’t miss! Rollerblading’s finest showed up on the weekend and made this event to something compared to a festival. One of my personal highlights was to see Tom Alquvist skating that „last man standing“ bowl. I didn’t see him around for probably 5 years, but his skating is still one of my all time favourite skating. It feels great to see people like him around, I wish more skaters from back in the day would still put on their skates.
Another highlight for me was definitely to see Nick Lomax skating the drop rails. I have never seen someone skating that technical on drop rails ever before. That really impressed me!
The IMYTA is without a doubt a great event. I really liked the concept to bring the very best skaters from all around Europe to one single event. So every skater had the chance to qualify, which additionally gave the event an international flavour.
Another thing I noticed when I looked at all those skaters at the weekend was that rollerblading is about to grow up. It’s kind of hard to describe, but rollerblading now has skaters in competitions who have been skating since 10 years or more, we have the great power of media covering events like this with the right people behind it and skaters busting their asses to let our sport look amazing. I never saw this with such a power as during this weekend.
Some small things concerning the organisation went wrong, but I don’t want to be an asshole and overrate that at all. This just happens, because I know how much work it is to build up an event like this. I hope Jon, Gjis and all the other guys will do it again next year, because events like this help rollerblading. Events like this bring the scene from all over the world together. Events like this show you that rollerblading is more than just rolling around on your skates. I met a lot of new people, from Israel to the UK, from Bulgaria to the Cayman Islands. I definitely had a great time and came back home with a bunch of impressions, so what else can you ask for?

-Jochen Smuda

Tags: imyta imyta 2006 jochen smuda smuda ucon