The Barcelona vibes were vibin’ along the Pretty Bay Promenade in B’Bugia this past weekend. The Malta Sports Association and the Malta Street Sport Association rolled up with their extreme sport dedication to host a weekend of scooter, skate, parkour, bball and general street energy, including some bangin’ BMX riders where Lucas Gellel snatched the 2023 BMX Up and Coming Rider title as well as Gold in the Advanced Park BMX comp!
The crew from Malta Surf and SUP Association grabbed their surf-skates and headed south, just because we surfer-kind feed off adrenaline, cool tricks and that ballsy confidence it takes to trick-out on a concrete ramp. Yikes! We’re happy with our soft water and sand landings, thanks. Massive respect to all the athletes who made that bowl their Mecca for the duration of the comp.
Two Nicks in a pod!
The crowd was there for it, with adamant participant support from the afternoon Scooter Champs where the two Nicks dominated the podium; Nicholas Meclan taking first, Nicholas Gatt in second and Isaac in third. As the sky chilled out; a purple haze brightened the skate park; just in time for the skaters of Malta to nollie down the stairs, hit those 50-50s and carve the bowls with speed and power. Talk about X Games magic!
Skate Comp kicked off with Group B, where promising Skater Liam Ayoub flew up and down the park with a crazy penchant for big air; can’t wait to see what this kid gets up to as he moves up from the Beginners’ Round in years to come. Group B saw winners Daniel, Tenyu and Dante shred with fun combos from flat tricks, decent airs and some attempts at grinds. The action was building.
Group A. Lit. Up. The. Park. The palm trees swayed with a light breeze to keep skaters fresh, with Lev Schembri and Sean Bowles taking 1st and 2nd respectively, Hirohei dominating in bronze and of course Ilya Melchin, taking Best Trick.
Now, we’ve stayed up to watch the X Games at shit-o’clock for many, many years; after a while you get to know whose who from their unique skating styles. Watching these dudes jam out in their practice rounds and during the comp itself was pretty damn cool; we see you skaters, y’all some cool shit.
Future dreams
But seriously, wouldn’t this be a sick PERMANENT feature around the islands? Dude, this is what you call clean fun, a focus on community, wellness and above all some killer street tricks. Do this again, your surfer friends will be there to bring the noise; it was BOMBA!
Scene setter: Kristina Cassar Dowling, photography by Nina Cassa Dowling. Double trouble!
