By: Hippie Mike
Another amazing year at the World Round-Up Freestyle Championships in Cloverdale, BC (Canada), the venue was filled with smiling faces, sweaty skateboarders, and crowds of people wondering what the heck was going on. It’s always so great to see these competitors from all over the planet come together in one location to enjoy the weekend with each other and 2019 marked the 8th year that they have been dong this.
For the past few years, Isamu Yamamoto has been the guy to beat and has added a different vibe to Round-Up by giving all the rest of the competitors something to fear, and something to work towards. But the question always lies, “What will Isamu do this year?” In the beginning years of the World Round-Up, it was strictly The Best of The Best of Freestyle Skateboarders, and over the years some of those legends like Guenter Mokulys and Stefan Lillis Akesson are still present, and again ripping their way into the top spots. But over the past 2-3 years there has been a new era of Freestylers coming to the surface, young ones too, even as young as ten-year-old Yuzuki Kawasaki who won the Amateur division last year and came to compete with the Pros this year. What’s interesting about this is how much the World of Freestyle needs this to happen; otherwise, it will eventually die off. With millions of skateboarders around the planet, you would think that there would be a ton of people skating Freestyle, but as far as I know, there is less than 1000 in the entire planet, probably closer to 500. So as the originals like Rodney Mullen, Kevin Harris, Russ Howell, Guenter, Lillis, Per Canguru, etc. all start to get into their 50’s & 60’s it’s a spark in their eyes to see kids 10, 13, 15, 20 years old starting to own the podiums. The big plus is that freestyle skateboarding is very much here to stay. Thanks to Japan’s master of Freestyle Masahiro Fujii for raising a big part of this next generation, and that brings us to the present day of what happened over the weekend at the 8th annual World Round-Up Freestyle Championships.
The Amateur division was slow paced but still enjoyable to watch. These guys are a mix of 2 types of Freestylers; the first are the ones that have been committed to Freestyle their whole life and want to work their way up to win Amateur Division once or twice before going into Pro. The next bunch of skaters are those who also have skateboarding for years but found the new world of Freestyle along the way and are working on trying to fit in. This is exactly how Andy Anderson got into Freestyle and ended up winning Amateur a couple of years ago, and placing high up in the Pro division last year. So it’s an exciting mix to watch, but usually, you can pick out who the Top 5 will be early on. My money was on Josh Dunstone, Cristobal Bahamonde, Mirei Tsuchida, and Nick Beaulieu, just from what I’ve seen at past years’ events, but I was surprised by some local boys like Andreas Tsougrianis and Allen Handley for actually stepping up their Freestyle game. The battle was tight, Mirei wowed the crowd with her elegant style and technical flip tricks, Nick Beaulieu and Josh Dunstone pulled out the aggressiveness and power moves to get the crowd lit up, and Cristobal Bahamonde did what he does best and threw down a combination of tricks that hurt just to look at. Cristobal is definitely in a league of his own on his skateboard, a true Freestyler at heart and very dedicated to being good at it. It was great to see him win this event and hopefully, we see him step it up to the Professional level for 2020.
The Pro Division was a little bit more intense. Like I mentioned earlier, Isamu Yamamoto shows up from Japan each year with one thing in mind – Gold Medal! This kid works hard and practices constantly. And then to top it off he hides away and invents new tricks that no one else would dare dream of. So the question lies, “What will Isamu do this year?…” Isamu didn’t come alone Canada; the plane from Japan was full of rippers. Isamu Yamamoto, Yuzuki Kawasaki, Yuta Fujii, Ikkei Nagao, Masahiro Fujii, and Kouhei Yamaguchi (plus Mirei Tsuchida who was in Amateur) all came to win, and most of them were under 16 years old! The fear was definitely in the eyes of the other competitors when they found out all the young bucks who dominated the Amateur division last year were now going to attempt the same feat in Pro, but these guys are all warriors and not ready to lie down and give up. The battle began Friday night at the qualifiers and ended with all 6 Japanese competitors in the Top 10, with Isamu, Yuzuki, and Ikkei holding the Top 3 spots in that order. The Semi-Finals ended close to the same except Mike Osterman was able to maneuver his way into the 3rd place spot. The Finals were heated up, Isamu came out with a whole new routine performed entirely on two boards at once, it took what Lynn Cooper did back the 80’s and supercharged it to the latest technical era of Freestyle. You need to watch this video of his run in the Semi-Finals to understand. Click Here
Most people knew Isamu was going to win, as long as he landed his runs it was pretty much inevitable, he is a crowd pleaser who feeds off the crowd’s energy, so as he rips it up the crowd gets louder and forces him to be even better. So the battle was really for 2nd place, and that was going to be a tough one, little ten-year-old Yuzuki Kawasaki was on fire, he looks like he’s about 40 lbs, but he goes super fast and gets super tech, even inventing new tricks that no one has seen before. When he lands his tricks he takes a moment to gesture to the crowd to make some noise, and then he blasts off for more. Yuzuki is a phenom on the board, and we are all excited to watch him grow, he finished in 2nd place. Maybe someday he will be the one to beat Isamu? Jacob Whitt and Mike Osterman know all to well to watch out for Guenter Mokulys as he is the reigning champion of Freestyle Skateboarding and at 56 years old has been winning with the same run for decades. These three went at it for sure, all with entirely different styles of skateboarding, but the fountain of youth prevailed in 2019 with Mike Osterman finishing in 3rd Place, Jacob in 4th, and Guenter with a proud 5th place. A 40 year age difference between 1st place and 5th place that shows you how insane the world of freestyle skateboarding is.
A huge thanks to Monty Little for always working so hard to put this event together and make it special for all the participants that travel from all over the world. The crowds at the Country Fair love to watch this event each year and 2019 was no exception as they packed the bleachers and watched a new era at the World Round-Up showcasing some of the youngest Professional competitors of all time. Sadly we were missing our Canadian boys Dillanger Kane, Ryan Brynelson and Andy Anderson this year, and no competitors from Brasil which was shocking, but the World Round-Up continues with or without these guys, the new era is here, and Freestyle is about to get a rude awakening from these young kids. Hold on to your hats as we move forward into 2020….