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History
The Battle of The Shops is an invitational shop team contest. The first edition of this skateboard comp was organised in 2005. The purpose of the contest is to compete in a ‘team’ battle. Each team has 3 riders who try to skate their best run. Almost 100 skateboarders represent skate shops from Benelux & France. The VANS BASH has become an important event on the Belgian skateboard calendar and has been much appreciated all over Europe.
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Editie '09
This year, the VANS BASH will be a real battle at sea. We are not only expecting pirates from BENELUX, France or Slovakia just like last year. But also riders from U.K., Switzerland, Italy and Estonia who will battle for a 4000 dollars’ worth of treasure.
We also take the opportunity to celebrate Zumiez’ 12th birthday. In other words, you will attend one of the sickest contests of the year followed by one of the most legendary parties of the year. Live music, free beers, DJ’s & all-night-long skating is the best way to describe this notorious party.
Best Trick
Just like last year, we are hosting the Red bull Best Trick Contest. This is an individual contest on an obstacle built especially for this occasion. Any one who pulls the best trick in half an hour will take home a $ 1000 ( € 675) reward.
Format
- Every team consists of 3 skaters who will skate for 2 minutes
- Only 20 teams of Benelux & France will be invited.
- Four international teams will directly be qualified for the semi finals. The following teams won the vans shop riot in their country:
- Beach Mountain, Bern (Switzerland)
- Bastard Store, Milano (Italy)
- The Black Sheep, Manchester (United Kingdom)
- TBA (Estonia)
- Last year’s top 4 will also directly be qualified for the semi finals:
- Zumiez, Wevelghem (Belgium)
- Twits, Leuven (Belgium)
- Burnside, Deventer (Holland)
- Rock'n'Roll, (Slovakia)
Shoplist
Below you will find a list of confirmed participants:
- Zumiez Twits
- Burnside
- Rock 'n' Roll
- The BlackSheep (UK)
- Bastard Store (Italy)
- Beach Mountain (Swiss)
- Fan Surf (Estonia)
- Five-O
- Supervet
- Steve's Skateshop
- Left
- Lockwood
- 911
- 1st8
- ODK
- Lowdown
- Alfonce
- Sevenply
- Fleshwound
- Kingdom
- Pivot Skateshop
This may seem like a list of shops that are located in the ‘Low Lands’ only but last summers’ European contests have shown that there are a lot of good skaters in Benelux. Below you will find some examples:
Phil Zwijsen; 2nd place European Championships Basel 2009
Ricardo Paterno; 1st place Volcom Amsterdamnam 2009
Rob Maatman; 1st place Volcom Amsterdamnam 2008
Axel Cruysberghs; 1st place European Championships Basel 2009
Tim Zom; 1st place Grand Prix Rotterdam 2009
Youness Amrani; 3rd place Volcom Amsterdamnam 2009
Fabian Verhaeghe; 4th place Simpel Session Tallin 2009
It goes without saying that there are a whole lot of more good skaters to add:
Marco Lambertucci, Willow, Jeremy Reinhard, Fabian Verhaeghe, Neill Brown, Niels van der Zeeuw, Pieter Jenken, Pj Claeys, Kevin Vu, Jonathan Thijs, Douwe Macare, Niek Zandstra, Manual “Slick “ Thierry, Steve Achten, Yanto Drèze, Kevin Tshala, Gregory Lagast, Timothy Deconinck, Christian Plettner, Nassim Guammaz, Onrej Leskoviansky, Peter Molec, Nelson Mosikili...
About Zumiez
Skatepark Zumiez was founded in Wevelgem in 1997. Continuous reconstructions of the park and the implicit commitment of the Zumiez crew are 1 of the main reasons why Zumiez is by far the only valuable indoor skatepark in Belgium. Yearly, Zumiez has over 15,000 national and international visitors. Various demos and international events make Zumiez not just a ‘local’ skatepark.
Local skaters like Axel Cruysberghs, Fabian Verhaeghe, Evelien Bouilliart, Fries Taillieu or Kevin Tshala are making the international character of the park.
The park has especially been reconstructed for the Vans Bash and will certainly be the perfect battle ground for all these good skaters.
12th B-Day Party:
Traditionally we will celebrate Zumiez B-day party after the contest. The concept is simple and decent: live music, DJ’s, free beers & skateboarding. This year we are glad to welcome THE GO HARDS, GREASEMONKEY & DJ LOTTO. You might remember THE GO HARDS, they did the opening act of our 10th anniversary and they managed to entertain the crowd with their ‘70’s punk- rock style. Greasemonkey is an Antwerp
stoner band. DJ Lotto, K-town’s finest, will play a style that has to be everyone’s cup of tea. Of course you will be able to skate all night long while enjoying the music and booze.
Programma
10:00: Park opens
13:00: Start Qualifications
15:00: Start Semi Finals
17:00: Start Finals
18:30: Start RedBull BestTrick Contest
19:30: Prize Ceremony
20:00: Live gig: The go hards
22:00: Live gig: Grease Monkey
23:30: DJ Lotto
04:00: Closing Time
Practische info
Spectators will not be allowed to skate before 20h. To avoid any problems, we expect you to hand over your board at the entrance, so you can save your energy to skate from 20h on until the early morning. Spectators will pay the silly amount of € 7, 5 and receive a free ticket for the party.
At 20h we will swap the entrance.
You can enter the party around the corner via the big gate in Kouterstraat. Price is € 7,5 and you will get a 5 euros worth of drinking ticket for free.
Disguised pirates only pay € 5.
Media
Woodmag - woodmag.be
Tacky - tacky.nl
Freecaster - freecaster.tv
Zumiez - zumiez.be/vansbash09 - DAILY UPDATES
Greasemonkey - myspace.com/greasemonkeyrock
The Go Hards - myspace.com/thegohards
DJ Lotto - myspace.com/djlotto3000
Contact Info
Adress: Vlamingstraat 6 8560 Wevelgem BELGIUM
Contact: phone: 03256326902
email: vansbash09@zumiez.be
