To accompany Alex Pasquini’s video recap of this year’s Helsinki Hookup we managed to get a few photos Sam Clark shot over the weekend. Should give you a good idea of how fun it was.

Remy Taveira, Back smith:

Dallas Rockvam, 50-50:

As you can tell from the photos above, these Finnish boys built one hell of DIY spot. As in so good that it almost doesn’t feel like a DIY park. Remy Taveira, the Sweet gang, Fernando Bramsmark and pretty much everyone else there absolutely killed it. Hadn’t seen a lot of those guys skate in person and it was quite a treat. The English delegation was definitely a little intimidated…

What you can’t tell from the photos is that this was the first thing we went to and that it was actually in the middle of a massive music festival. We were surrounded by concerts, beautiful women and (very well organised) partying. I hadn’t been to one of these major euro comp things in ages and have to say walking straight into a Kendrick Lamar concert wasn’t exactly what I was expecting… Weren’t we supposed to spend the weekend staring at kickflip backlips in a sweaty arena?

Woke up the next morning thinking things were suddenly about to start getting serious. I guess I kind of assumed that I’d find everyone waiting outside the hotel super eager to head to the skatepark to practise their 2 minute runs but it was the complete opposite. Nobody seemed worried about the comp at all and we all decided to head for a mellow cruise around the city instead.

Jarne tail dropping off a baby with a lizard’s tail:

 

The super productive crew:

 

Oh yeah, also bumped into a scooter kid “grinding” a kinked handrail:

 

Phil Zwijsen, Didrik Galasso and Axel Cruysberghs made some friends:

We all went to the Monster best trick after that and it was fucking gnarly. They opted for the good old cash for tricks format and everyone was going absolutely mental. Chris Jones even won 50 euros for sacking on the spine!

After that we jumped on the karaoke bus and got ready to paaaaarty!

Next day was the actual comp day and it turned out to be the one I enjoyed the most. I never though I’d ever be this stoked on watching contest runs. Knowing how hungover everyone was and seeing how hard they were shredding was fucking sick!
Josef Scott Jatta and Jonas Skröder are my new favorite skateboarders:

 

Steve Forstner spent the whole weekend giving out free drinks to increase his chances of winning the comp. His plan failed miserably but he still did some pretty gnarly stuff on this thing:

Seeing Eniz skate in person is mind-blowing. That thing was slippery as fuck.

Wes Kremer and the Sweet boys smashed it:

Josef, backside noseblunt:

 

The weekend seen through the eyes of Sylvain Tognelli:

Thanks to everyone involved, I had an amazing time out there. See you next year!

Oh yeah almost forgot, here are the results:

1. Robbin De Wit
2. Phil Zwijsen
3. Wes Kremer
4. Eniz Fazliov
4. Axel Cruysbergs
6. Fernando Bramsmark
7. Jaakko Ojanen
8. Ross McGouran
9. Tim Zom
10. Josef Scott Jatta

Women:
1. Kristina Westad
2. Amy
3. Louisa Menke

Best Trick: Jaakko Ojanen