I received this in an email and thought to put it together and share it with SB-C. Enjoy the read.
1st Place for Germany: Thomas Weber wins CLASH 2010
Article and photos by: Adam Sello – www.anzeigeberlin.de
Relaxed vibes and a sizzling finale at the CLASH 2010 for the first time together with Relentless. On 29th and 30th of May for the sixth consecutive time the Skatehalle Berlin was hosting a weekend celebrating the finest skateboarding. A wide range of entrants of international calibre was performing an abundance of thrilling moves of the highest level, which were put into perfect focus by the renewed and re-coloured street-area and it’s freshly installed illumination system. After an intense and breathtaking final, with the fiercest of consistent and technical skatboarding, Thomas Weber, who had come in third place last year, could hold the 1st place trophy. Not one bit less exciting was the “Death or Glory”-bowl jam, that was presented by Zimtstern for the first time this year – here, American Packy Flancher could walk away a winner. However, one downer remained: a series of renowned casualties.
Apart from the new enhancements in the park’s street-area, such as the granite ledge, cleverly placed quarter pipes and a rail, all the rest of the compound around the building had been refurbished: Café and the outside section were given a face-lift, which also benefited the familiar atmosphere that the CLASH has been infamous, for more than half a decade now. In the bordering Biergarten many of the spectators and competitors were partying, facing – against all forecasts – welcoming weather and enjoying eatery from the grill, cold drinks or coffee while pondering the events inside or of marvelling at the climbers clambering up the adjacent climbing tower.
The rider’s line-up was missing a few familiar faces this year, as local hero – or better yet local and hero – Jürgen Horwarth was absent, as well as last year’s winner Bastien Salabanzi and regulars such as Dennis Busenitz and last year’s best-trick-winner Klaus Bohms. Instead, some other top-notch starters filled the void: innovation- and technical wizard Chris Haslam and legend Tom Penny. Also, the rest of the line-up from all corners of Europe knew how to rip the Skatehalle: Up front there was Lennie Burmeister who put every centimetre of his home-turf to use, Dennis Klüssendorf, the new Flip amatuer Andrew Langi from the USA and his fellow countryman Vince Del Valle, Maxim Genin from France, from Hamburg Michi van Fintel, Maxim Kruglov from Saint Petersburg, Yannick Schall, Thomas Weber, Alex Mizurov, Lem Vilemin and the “man of the minute“ Youness Amrani from Belgium, who should be known to everyone by now, after being featured having heavy interviews in Kingpin and Monster magazine the last month.
After street eliminations, the popular “Death or Glory” Bowljam was to follow, where due to the constriction of space on the deck the spectators were practically drawn into becoming part of the action. This in combination with the jam-format’s high-speed snaking, where at some point multiple riders are trying to squeeze their lines past each other’s, was loading up to a highly volatile atmosphere, which – given a radical manoeuvre – would discharge in frenetic clapping, cheering and smashing of boards on the coping. The vibe was hot – in fact it was that so exuberant, one of the spectators felt like he needed some relief and decided to go for a cruise through the bowl au naturel (plus shoes, plus a yellow vest), to the delight of everyone else watching. 
Delighted and true happiness is also what Packy Fancher was, after he’d won the bowl in front of Kilian Heuberger from Munich and Jan Tomsovsky from Czech. One candidate for a place on top of the order unfortunately could not compete: Tom Penny had to retire from the contest after a heavy collision.
Alongside the habitually amazing DJ-line-up for the party – in this case DMC World Champ DJ Rafik – Saturday night’s agenda also held some skateboarding culture: Skatehalle Berlin’s open air cinema was showing the premier of “Einmal Reicht”, a film by Berlin based skate-crew “Chinchillas” and “Microcosme”, the debut release of fresh French skateboard company “Magenta” – of which both were equally persuading.
The semi-finals were carried out consisting of a 45 seconds run plus a 180 seconds jam, for three riders each, which let the skateboarders hit their normal boundaries, even venturing beyond in some cases. Albeit, the level of tricks shown was huge; technically more than challenging moves were usually delivered in unforeseen precision and consistency. The rails, ledges and the double set were dealt a serious blow of hammers, Maxim Habanec’s back to back frontside as well as backside bigspin boardslides and Youness Amrani’s switch back tails on the rail and his wicked hardflips down the double set were just a few tricks nailed over and over, with close to no bailing or sketchiness.
After men’s semis the girl’s jam followed, which Diana Kränsel from Dresden managed to win thanks to some serious backside flips over the big hip. Sweden’s Sarah Meurle, doing stylish back tails on the quarter pipe and ollies down the double set, and Anna Kruse out of Aurich, who began her run by dropping from the giant, five meter plus wall ride, were placed second and third consecutively.
Prior to the finals, the skaterboarders qualified were eagerly trying to refine their tricks and runs. However, for some it seemed a bit too crazy, thus a few really promising starters became casualties to partially severe injuries, all in a matter of just a few minutes: Dennis Klüssendorf, Yannick Schall and the most drastic one: number two qualifier Lem Vilemin.
The finals commenced on a sad note with a minute of silence for Berlin local Christoph Schwarz, who had deceased way too early in life a few days prior to the comp. However, after said minute, the contest went back to full blast, and the twelve finalists were setting off to once again give it all they had, this time by means of two runs and no jam. Here, Thomas Weber, who had been shredding hard with a mix of light-footed momentum and enormous consistency in utilising his heavy tech-stunts over the whole weekend, managed to step it up the most, sequentially winning the contest, with Alex Mizurov coming in a close, but deserving second and Lukas Danek in third place.
After a wild “Cash 4 Trick”-session and the award ceremony the winners, spectators and organisers, were happy and smiling as yet one more round of the CLASH was over, Now you can start looking ahead to 2011, where, thanks to the reliable partnerships with Relentless Energy Drink, adidas, Zimtstern, Planet Sports and Flip Video, the next CLASH will surely become just as much of a success as this one.
Online Highlight Clips
All Highlightclips are already online:
Highlights Saturday: http://video.mpora.de/watch/Ef98HgcCx/
Highlights Bowljam: http://video.mpora.de/watch/xc77t2GWv/
Highlights Sunday: http://video.mpora.de/watch/SG7g19xee/
Results
Street:
1. Thomas Weber (DE)
2. Alex Mizurov (DE)
3. Lukas Danek (CZ)
Girls:
1. Diana Kränsel (DE)
2. Sarah Meurle (SWE)
3. Anna Kruse (DE)
Bowl:
1. Packy Fancher (USA)
2. Kilian Heuberger (DE)
3. Jan Tomsovsky (CZ)
