Australian Titles

Day 1: 21st April 2001
Skaters from all over Australia, Basic Funktions Dj Crew, A Great Vibe and more skaters than you can poke a stick at flocked to Melbourne for Australia's biggest annual inline event, the 2001 Roces Australian Inline Championship. Day one started in Parrahn where the Vert qualifying and finals were being held. Every year I see more and more new faces turning up for the vert event and every year I am amazed at the level of skating across all the categories. Australia continues to pump out the worlds best vert skaters like it has always and that's a good thing to see. Certainly keep an eye out for a young vert skater by the name of Scotty. He skated very well throwing wall-to-wall flips and back-to-back 900's.

In the open event we saw even more amazing skating and better yet a good day for Brad Watson. Brad managed to fight off the tough competition and claim gold in the open men's Vert Final. Back-to-back Technical grinds, as well as a range of technical spins in both directions ensured his victory over competitors like Sam Fogarty, Stiffy, Scotty and a whole bunch of other skaters. What made the event interesting was that all categories were held in jam format, which allowed us to see some of the tricks that the skaters aren't confident enough to try in timed runs.

Brad Watson

After the competition there was a private party held at a place on St. Kilda rd. About 100 skaters crammed them selves in to two rooms and tried to find some floor space for the premier of three Australian Skate Vids. The Roces Team vid, Double or Nothing 32#1#6 issue 2 and Darkside Divisions. All the vids are off the hook and all are available except for the Roces Team Vid, which will be available soon. Darkside Divisions and Double or Nothing are avalible from us at DaKlinic.com at DaShop.

Day 2: 22nd April 2001
The morning started early. Way too early…. but people rocked up at the Camberwell skate park 15 mins from Melbourne city earlier than 9:00 when Adam and I rocked up. Due to local grandma we couldn't start the till 12 noon. By 12:00 the whole skate park and its surrounds were covered in rollerbladers and spectators. The younger divisions were under way and there was much, much more skating to go.

crowd

The women's event was still only small with 3 contestants. They jammed the corse for 15 minutes and were marked from that. The favourite and defending champion SA's Hubner skated very well pulling, souls to soyals in the bowl, gaped the nine stair and transfer to ally-oop soul along the back square edge bank. But it seemed that Jodie Tyler won so she got the trophy this time but better luck next year. Also we would like to see more female contestants next year so girls you still have a year of practice to go before you can battle Coco and Jodie for the title.

In the 16 and under category CJ Welsmore and Dave Jacobs skated very well to give us a little taste of the future skaters of our sport. Dave Jacobs linked a nice run together with big tricks, like 180 back flip and corked 720's. He ended up taking the trophy followed in second by CJ, who was pulling t-spin top souls on the back grind. Some of the skating in this division was easily the standard of the open competition, which was up next.

There were many contestants in the open event. The format was two one-minute runs in four heats. The finalists competed in a jam styled format against each other. The skating seen in the warm up promised lots of world class skating to come. The finals had some of the best skaters in Australia and the world competing. From SA there was DaKlinic's own David Wilcock and Adam Vakulin competing against the likes of Justin Buchanan, Toby Heslop, Sam Fogarty, Blake Dennis, Dave Jacobs, Ross Cambell, Ian Brown and others. The skating just kept getting crazier and crazier and more technical as the jam continued. Toby Heslop's and Ross Cambell's 540 wall rides, Adam Vakulin's 900's, Sam Fogarty's disaster no grab fish brains to revert, Ian Brown's smooth grinds on everything, Dave Jacobs corked 900's, Blake Dennis's Full Cab True Spin disaster top soyal's and Dave Wilcock's 540 disaster Kind grind.

By the end of the jam those left skating were going ballistic. Blake Dennis skated extremely well and smooth, pulling some of the most technical grinds on the rail, which was good enough for 2nd. Sam Fogarty also skated really well, long soul grinds along the back of the park and also a 360 soul on the back quarter's, and he managed to pick up 3rd. But it was SA's turn this year. Never before had a South Australian won the Australian titles or done this well in a big comp. Dave Wilcock skated better than he had ever skated in his whole life. He bounded around the course switching up grinds on everything and also pulling huge tricks like the show stopper, 540 Kind grind. Dave's close friend Adam sprained his ankle 10 minutes before the end of the jam pulling a 900 over the whole funbox to the flat but he skated well enough before hand to pick up 5th place close behind Sam Fogarty's 3rd. David will be flying first class to Los Angeles for the World Championships in October.

It was an amazing weekend of world class skating but was only possible because of Manuel Billiris, the organiser or the whole event; and a mighty fine job he did too. Also a huge thanks to Robbie Richards who was on the mic all weekend and also to DJ sHEp and DJ David L from the Basic Functions DJ crew for supplying us with phat beats all Sunday. I can wait to see everyone at the next Aust titles in 2002, from what I hear will be held in Adelaide! Watch out world, SA's on the map!

Click Here For Competition Results