Magic Moments/Dept. Urban Style

Unforgettable skateboard memories … For most, a cloud of nostalgia covers their first successful perfect Ollie or Railslide that didn’t end with grazed elbows. In 2007 the pros also gifted us with a few emotional Big Airs.

On August 5 Shaun White wrote sporting history with his victory in the Skateboard Vert contest at the X Games 13. He is now the first and only athlete to have brought home both summer and winter X Games gold medals. His success, though, was a tough fight. In the first two rounds White fell twice – but then enthused the fans with a catch-up chase that was well worth witnessing.

Also showing his fighting spirit was Ryan Sheckler at the fourth AST Dew Tour event in Salt Lake City. Two major falls in both contest stages resulted in his being way behind on the points table. He then managed to pull off some fireworks on wheels: a kickflip to frontside boardslide, a frontside salad grind, a gap ollie to backside smith grind. With this masterful display of tricks, Sheckler not only had the day contest win in the bag on September 23 but also the AST overall victory – well ahead of time.

A role a little less important is the competitive thought behind Red Bull Access All Areas – a series of events at which local athletes get to skate at locations normally thought of as taboo. This year the most bizarre of these was held on November 18 in Caracas, Venezuela, where a strip club was the venue for the locals to show their skating tricks. Skateboarding on Mexico City’s historical city square Zocalo is not normally welcomed either – especially not if the president happens to be giving an extremely important speech there. On September 6, 26 of the country’s best skaters were less impressed by the spectacle. They stole the limelight from the head of state, drawing 4000 spectators from the tribune to the finals of the Red Bull Manchado Tour. Forget the president: on June 10 in Finland’s capital it was the ‘King of Urban Skateboarding’ who was elected at the Red Bull Hefe of Helsinki. Since the three-day event the title has belonged to His Excellency of Skating, Henning Braaten I.