Xtreme Degreez Sports Magazine

by HEATHER-LYNN EVANSON

WHAT DO YOU get when you throw skateboarders in a space with ramps and rails?
Big air, boneless manoeuvres and 50-50 axle grinds.
This was the scene when the One Movement Skateboard Competition came off at Culture Village last Saturday.
Some of the best and youngest took to the course in an all-day skating session that saw skateboarders pulling out their tricks and flips in man-on-man knockout competitions.
When the dust had settled and the wheels had stopped spinning, Martin Clarke of One Movement had skated away with the top prize of the afternoon.
In his wake were Michael Elcock, Brett Thomas, Alexander Browne and Luke Shepherd.
The event, the first for the year, also saw five-man competitions, in which skateboarders vied for prizes for the best trick in the session.
The event was organised by Paul Wilson, who told Midweek Sport he was looking at having three competitions this year.
This would be one more than he had organised in 2009.
Meanwhile, the event also saw the announcement of a new skate/surf shop in April and a concourse by the end of June.
Kelly Puma-Moll, the brains behind both, said: “I want to be able to provide an environment for kids to come and have a good time in a safe environment off the streets where Paul doesn’t have to keep moving his equipment around every where, so you go somewhere every Saturday.
“The park should be open by the end of June and we’ll start with a street concourse and if you guys keep coming out we’ll throw in a quarter pipe and a half pipe,” she added.

The Super Six Series.

The Barbados Bodyboarding Association & The Barbados Surfing Association invites you to the first installation of the, “Super.Six.Series” presented by Bodyboard Barbados.

*Members are considered to be active participants of the Barbados Surfing Association or the Barbados Bodyboarding Association.
Please note on the 14th of March there will be a general meeting for members of the Bodyboarding Association starting at 3 pm. at Brandens. All interested parties are urged to attend.

Thirteen year old Chelsea Tuach created history earlier this year by becoming the first female surfer in Barbados to be given the prestigious National Sports Council Award of Junior Outstanding Sportsperson – Female.  This Award was given to this talented, dedicated athlete based on her 2009 results as follows:

In January 2009, Chelsea became the first surfer in Barbados to win a NSC Youth Award for her achievements in sport in 2008 at such a young age and an Appreciation Award as one of the three athletes nominated as Junior Female Outstanding Sportsperson of Barbados for 2008.  She was given this award for her outstanding results on the local, regional and international scene at the age of 12.  She ended the year ranked No 2 in the Open Ladies and Under 18 Girls, was the CSN Makka Pro and Soup Bowl Pro Women’s Champion in 2008 and achieved a World Ranking of 25 in the Under 18 Girls’ Division at the ISA World Junior Surfing Championships held in Seignoss, France, the highest ever ranking of a Barbadian junior female at these Championships.

Chelsea went on to dominate the local surf scene in 2009, winning both the Ladies Open and the Under 18 Girls’ Division in the first Surfer of the Year event held in early February.  In the School Surfing Championships she won the Under 16 Girls Division and placed second in the Under 18 Girls’Division and also won the award for the most radical manoevre among the girls. Read the rest of this entry »

My journey to visit the Hispanic Island of Cuba by Ametza Nicholls for “PROJECT CUBA” was an inspirational first Pan-American Surfing Association’s (PASA) trip to open doors and develops relationships with our Spanish Speaking Caribbean Neighbour.

My Friend Icah Wilmot from Jamaica had been working on a discovery trip to Cuba for some time and
was trying to get some sponsorship from various international Surf Companies and magazines. It all
looked really good until the last minute…. It ended up being way too expensive so just about
everyone backed out. Maile Aguerre, the President of PASA, took the opportunity that Icah was
working on Cuba to join in his initiative and help put together the first Cuban Surf Nationals and a
PASA invitational in the Island at the same time as we were there. Icah and I surfed the event
representing our own countries against participants from Cuba and The Dominican Republic. Those
were the 4 countries participating in this, the first ever International Surfing Event in Cuba, which
really meant a lot to the surf lovers of Cuba and to us being the first participants and hopefully the first
of many.

PASA conducted a training/judging seminar lead by Marcos and Juca of Brazil, which was very well
received by all of those involved in the sport there and our job was to showcase our talents as top
surfers in our respective countries and to let the Cuban surfers experience the competition first hand.
There were only two divisions for the competition. This was the bodyboarding and the open. There
were no girls participating and therefore I was asked to surf in the open. At the end of the prize giving I
donated one of my personal boards to top Cuban surfer Umberto Rodriguez who had recently broken
his favourite board and also a 7’ board given by Alan Burke of Burkie Boards, compliments of Nick
Parker, to Yaima Espinosa who runs a kid’s surf training camp in Santa Fe, La Habana, Cuba.

The final of the open went as follows:
1st Icah Wilmot – JAMAICA – 2nd Junior Gomez – DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
3rd Umberto Rodriguez – CUBA – 4th Ametza Nicholls – BARBADOS

The Association of Cuban Surfers – as it translates – is not yet recognized by the Cuban Government.
It is run by self appointed Eduardo Valdes who makes, fixes, lends and donates boards to whoever
cares to learn the sport if he happens to be in a position to do so. Hopefully this can change soon.

There is also Cuba Surf, headed by Luis Manuel Mazorra. This is a group of young surfers who pretty
much do the same as well as make sure that any surfer coming to experience the surf of this island is
taken to where they should go, told where they should not go, shown a great time, personally
entertained and provided with an insight into the life of a Young Cuban Surfer.
By Ametza Nicholls

Come put down some flips, grinds and slides to see which of you will skate away being the top skateboarders of Barbados. Prizes to be won, it’s easy as skate!!!

There will be music jamming all day long plus live bands, dancing acts, food and drinks on sale and an OUT of this world after party with a guest DJ from Canada.

Public Admission: Adults-$10 Children-$5

Registration spots for the Skaters are going fast, register now!!!
One event – $15    Two events – $30    Three events – $35

Contact Paul Wilson @ 249-9807 (please be considerate and call from a cell phone, thank you.)