Some people like Monopoly, others are Scrabble kinda crew, but when it comes to skateboarding, seems like there’s only one game doing the rounds; eS Game of Skate. Melbourne recently hosted the Australian grand final, and boy was it a doozy.
But what is Game of Skate about anyway? Loosly based on the basketball game of HORSE, competitors call their shot and name the trick they're going to do, sort of like a game of pool. Once the first skater tries a trick and makes it, everyone else has to try it too. Whoever doesn't make the trick scores a letter. The first letter is "S," the second "K", and so on, until "S-K-A-T-E" is spelled out, and that person’s knocked out of the game. The whole process repeats (unless the first person misses the trick he tries, in which case the second player tries his own trick, and so on) until there’s only one fellow left standing – the champ.
eS have been taking the game across the world to find champs from all corners of the globe, and when it was Mebourne’s turn they scored a double whammy - Game of SKATE and Australasian Game of SKATE Grand Final both held on the same day.
Taking over the city’s Riverside Park, an enthusiastic crowd filled with competitors and spectators spilled over into each of the three courts to catch a glimpse of the action going down. Sydney’s Game of Skate winner, Pete Dalmer, and New Zealand’s Game winner, Umberto Skinner, (who’s actually a Scotsman living in NZ) both made the trek to Melbourne to compete in the final and try take out the major prize of a trip to San Diego, California to the International eS Game of SKATE this September.
Competition was intense, with approx 50 entrants all vying for the Melbourne crown getting narrowed down into two amazing semi finals; last years Melbourne Game Of SKATE winner Jack Crook playing Barry Mansfield, and ‘Nugget’ playing Pedro Day.
Crook and ‘Nugget’ both advanced to the Melbourne Final, with Crook beating his rival, eventually landing himself a position in the Grand Final --- a three way battle between Crook, Dalmer and Skinner. Unfortunately Pete Dalmer was knocked out early, leaving Jack and Skinner to battle it out as light faded.
The showdown raged on through sudden-death challenges, with both riders throwing down whilst doing their best to keep up with each other. Aussie Crook, who hadn’t skated much leading up to the day due to illness, didn’t let Kiwi Skinner get the better of him with a variety of Full Cab flips, Bigspin flips, Nollie and Switch Tre’s.
Convincingly stealing the lead in the final three minutes, Crook was landing each trick so smoothly and with such precision that he proved too much for the Scottish Kiwi, and under the dwindling light Jack Crook reigned supreme once again - winning on nothing more than a Varial Heelflip, with only the letters ‘S’ and ‘K’ racked up against his name.
A massive congratulations to Jack Crook on winning the competition two years in a row- he’ll be making his way to San Diego in September to show his stez at the international Game of Skate. And guess what? Game of Skate will be back bigger and better next year, when each Australian state is gonna be competing for a chance in the Melbourne eS Game Of SKATE Grand Final. She’s gonna be huge!!!