The Kimberley locals have finally recovered from last weekend’s Midway Mayhem and were stoked to finally get back to their regular weekend events at the Maloof Plaza. Sticking with our transition-oriented programs every Friday, we welcomed our return of the mini ramp jam contest. Some standouts were Damian Bramley’s double handed bonelesses, Brad Balie’s switch blunt indie grab ins, and Kwabena Awuah’s casual cruising the ramp with smooth bs 5-0’s and nollie shuvit to rock fakies. In the end, Brad’s killer tricks earned him the gold.

Saturday yielded yet another ruthless day in the sun, but that didn’t stop the skaters from coming out to enter the game of skate. Cousins Jacques Reynecke and Dylan Niemand skate flat almost every day in hope of FINALLY taking the game of skate, and with how solid their tricks were looking, it was possible that one of them could take it. Kimberley flatground champ Theo Setsetse was kindly asked to help judge (since he takes every game!), and happily judged and checked out what the locals have to bring to the table (or floor).

One of the highlights of the day was Kimberley’s female skate sensation, Olivia Fielding, blowing minds once again with her flatground skills as she took out some of our better skaters and skated into the semifinals. Look out for her fakie fs 360’s, switch fs shuvits, and heelflips; she’s got them ALL on lock! Cousins Jacques and Dylan ended up facing each other in the semifinals, with Dylan advancing to the finals. Super-grom Brad Balie also made it to the finals, which was no surprise since he is winning or placing in almost every contest. Finally, Will Meleng was our 3rd finalist, crushing everyone in his path with bs heels, double flips, and bs 360 ollies. With Brad, Dylan, and Will in the finals, it was anyone’s game. Brad ended up going out first, and with Dylan at T, it seemed like Will had this one in the bag. Dylan ended up coming back and getting Will at “T” with nollie 360 shuvit, switch fs pressure flip, and nollie flip. After a few tricks, Will prevailed with a bs 360 and took Dylan out for the win. Our top 3 skaters went home with some rad prizes, and since Session Magazine was kind enough to hook us up with a few stacks of the new mag, the semifinalists didn’t go home empty-handed!

Saturday night found some of the locals goofing around with the megaphone and hyping up a 5 stair session. Highlights from that session include DBH’s tre flip and heel flip and first-time ollies from Alec Balie, Micael Matthews, and Brendon Molena.

Sunday was the longest launch competition, and easily the most fun to watch due to the amount of bodies slamming the ground! Some standouts of the beginners division were Thapelo and Muhammad Hassan, however, Jon Alan, Enrique, and Arno took the top 3. The advanced division finalists should not be surprising, as Brad, Jacque, and Alec took the top 3 as they usually seem to.

Thanks to Session Magazine for hooking up some mags for the locals, thanks to our judges, and thanks to everyone for coming out to enjoy a rad weekend! Check below for all the results.


-Mini Ramp-

1) Brad Balie
2) Damian Bramley
3) Kwabena Awuah
4) Enrique Ortell
5) Arno Scholtz

-=Game of Skate-

1) Will Meleng
2) Dlyan Niemand
3) Brad Balie

-Longest Launch-

Beginners:

1) Arno Scholtz
2) Enrique Ortell
3) John Alan Horseman

Advanced:

1) Brad Balie
2) Jacques Reynecke
3) Alec Balie

What makes Maloof Money Cup so unique is our ability to work with the best skaters and industry VIP in order to bring you the best skateboarding events, and Midway Mayhem was no exception. With judges consisting of Adrian Henderson of Session Magazine, Luke Jackson of Baseline Studio, and Wandile Msomi of Funisu Skateboards along with emcees Andrew Nero of Africa Skate and funny man Maanda Mulaudzi and Sechaba The Bakersman in the DJ booth, you know we did this one proper! Skateboarding events are about bringing friends together, and Midway Mayhem did just that. The Midway Mayhem Am was Maloof Money Cup and Northern Cape Tourism Authority's initiative to bring the best skateboarding in South Africa for a day to celebrate the midway point to the Maloof Money Cup. Skateboarders came to Kimberley from as far away as Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban for a weekend full of skating, camping, and good times....And a shot at a chunk of the R30K prize purse!

On February 16th, over 30 skaters came from all over Kimberley and surrounding areas in hopes of qualifying for the Midway Mayhem Am contest on March 2nd. Only 2 lucky skaters would be the guys to hold it down for Kimberley on that day, and with hopes of getting a piece of the R30k prize purse on that day, everyone was going off.

Some heavy hitters to look out for of the day were Dillon Hartzenburg, Gerhard Botha, Tsegho Afrika, Brad Balie, and local hero Warrick Delport. The Bloemfontein crew made the trip down for the day and Suedolf Odendaal and Morne de Kock skated their tails off in hopes of qualifying.

Warrick Delport also helps manage the Maloof Plaza, and he skates like he owns it. Feeble, noseslide, and crook down the big 4 stair rail are go-to for Warrick. Once he got to the A-Frame section and threw down nosegrind, noseblunt, bluntslide, feeble, and a few others, it was certain that he was in the number one spot for the day. Suedolf Odenaal aka Dolfy and his crew look for any excuse to make it to Kimberley to skate the plaza and the qualifiers was no exception. Dolf’s first-try melon over the 4 stair rail, first try ollie down the 4 and hardflips on lock were a few tricks that helped him into the second place spot. Only 2 skaters would advance with a spot in the Midway Mayhem Am on March 2nd, but we did give a 3rd place prize to Kwabena Awuah for killing it all day. Kwabena is a quiet kid who is usually skating solo in the background and whose skating is often overlooked, but what people don’t realize is that he’s progressing just as fast as some of our most ripping, charismatic locals. Kwabena was getting nollie back bigspins, nollie 360s shuvs off of everything with ease, and also came through with a kickflip down the 5.

Some extra shout outs go to Moustache’s bigflip and backside double flip down the A-Frame, DBH’s kickflip down the 4 and super close tre flip attempts, Theo’s smooth, precise skating in the tech section, Gerhard’s bs 5050 down the big 4 and bigflip on the quarterpipe, and Brad’s 180 down the big 4 after time ran out. Everyone killed it!

Congrats to the winners and look out for Warrick Delport and Suedolf Odendaal at the Midway Mayhem Am on March 2nd. Check below for the results!


1) Warrick Delport
2) Suedolf Odendaal
3) Kwabena Awuah

Oddly enough, this is the first SA Saturdays clip that was actually uploaded on a Saturday! This clip features skating from mostly local contests and heavy sessions at the Maloof Skate Plaza in Kimberley, South Africa.

Featuring Moustache, Dolfie, Martin Kotze, Theo Setsetse, Will Meleng, DBH, Gerhard Botha, Warrick Delport, and Brad Balie.

Filmed with Canon 60d. Edited with iMovie '11.

Filmed and edited by Chinner.

Song- N3xus- B Boys Renaissance

Check out local Kimberley, South Africa hip hop group's new music video "Kimberley Diamond" filmed on location at the Maloof Skate Plaza. The video showcases several of Kimberley's unique features or activities that are particular to Kimberley such as car drifting, the townships, "The Big Hole" (the world's largest man-made hole), and of course, the Maloof Skate Plaza! Keep an eye out for local Kimberley rippers Warrick Delport, Brad Balie, and Jacques Reynecke, to name a few.

Blue Skye performed at one of our after parties at the Halfway House this past September during the Maloof Money Cup. Donovan and Chillow are 2 super nice cats that are always down to get involved, so check out their video and show them some love!

“Vert Fridays” is a weekly event held over at the Kimberley, South Africa Maloof Plaza in which the local skaters are given the opportunity to borrow some pads and a helmet and perfect their skills on the vert ramp. Vert Fridays usually entails lessons on the vert ramp including the basics of vert skating: pumping, kickturning, etc. and is usually followed by a contest. Highest kickturn, highest fs kickturn, and highest tail tap are among several of the competitions held on the vert ramp. Our favorite is the torturous “longest pump” competition where skaters pump at a certain height for as long as they can….until their legs give out! Brad Balie has the Kimberley record for 8 minutes 30 seconds!

-Jan 28 Highest Kickturn Winners-

1) Damian Bramley
2) Brad Balie
3) LQ

Check out a couple of photos from recent Vert Fridays events in the gallery below!

Check out our fourth installment of SA Saturdays featuring footage from various local contests held at the Kimberley Maloof Plaza along with the Element SA "Rediscover South Africa" tour.

Skaters in order of appearance: Jadan, Morne de Kock, Muhammad Hassan, Jacques Reynecke, LQ, Chris Thorn, Jino Modise, Gerhard Botha, Martin Kotze, Brad Balie, Dillon "DBH" Hartzenburg, Chinner, Kyle Stoffberg, Neledi Mabenge, Wandile Msomi, Braxton Haine, and Kanya Spani.

Filmed with iphone 4 and Canon 600d. Filmed and edited by Chinner.

Song- Kevin MacLeod- "Dubakupado"

The Maloof team was stoked to welcome the return of the local favorite “Mini All City” teams competition to Kimberley in 2013. The Mini All City is a smaller version of MMC’s All City contest that first took place at MMC South Africa in 2012. 11 teams of 3 skaters showed up with hopes of taking their piece of over R3000 worth of cash and product prizes.

Stuart Walker, who skated the All City contest back in September representing Pretoria, made it down to Kimberley with his crew of rippers from Bloemfontein, which added some extra competition for the day. Unfortunately, Stuart’s team didn’t make the cut past the qualifiers, but we were psyched that him and his guys made it out to check out the contest! We also had a few more All City alumni in the house including Martin Kotze, Gerhard Botha, and Dillon “DBH” Hartzenburg that represented Kimberley in the All City contest. Gerhard held it down with some sick skating for his team, “Washing Powder”, but also did not make it to the semifinals.

The biggest threat of the contest was the “Act of Boredom” clothing team, who took home the first place prize during the last Mini All City in November. With the consistency and bag of tricks from Theo Setsetse, Martin Kotze, and Brad Balie, it was tough for the other teams to compete. Their main competition was the “Digital Kids” team, consisting of Llewellyn Botha, Jino Modise, and DBH, who also skated the Maloof Am back in September. DBH killed it in the tech section for the qualifiers, which cemented their team’s spot as a hot competitor for the day.

The Bloemfontein team also held it down with Suedolf Odendaal’s first try noseslide and ollie down the big 4, but were not enough to take out the Act of Boredom team in the first round. Other action down the big 4 included an ollie by Jacques Reynecke, and the big banger of the day, a kickflip by 11 year old Brad Balie which earned him a KFD deck for the best trick of the contest. Lew and Jino killed it in the first round which helped their point total carry them into second place and R750, and only a few points behind Act of Boredom, who undoubtedly deserved the R1000. The Core, including Jacques Reynecke, Chris Thorn, and Morne de Kock from Namibia, was right behind the Digital Kids and took home R500.

Thanks to everyone who came out to skate and check out the contest, especially the crew of guys who made the haul from Bloemfontein. Thanks to Warrick and Talitha for helping out with judging and registration. Check below for the results and photo gallery!


1) Act of Boredom (R1000)
-Brad Balie
-Theo Setsetse
-Martin Kotze

2) Digital Kids (750)
-Dillon “DBH” Hartzenburg
- Llewellyn Botha
- Jino Modise

3) The Core (R500)
-Morne de Kock
-Will Jenkins
-Jacques Reynecke

We were stoked to bring in the new year with some contests to stoke out the Kimberley locals! We started off Friday with ‘Vert Fridays’ followed by a mini ramp jam contest. Saturday we welcomed the return of the local favorite Game of Skate competition, where we were excited to have a very different list of finalists for a change! Following the Game of Skate, Kimberley hip hop group Blue Skye shot their new music video at the skate plaza and even featured some of Kimberleys most talented rippers. Check back soon for the video! Sunday we finished out with a best trick contest on the newly built A-Frame obstacle. Check below for the list of results from each of the contests along with a photo gallery for some photos from the weekend. See you next weekend at the Mini All City Contest!


Mini Ramp Jam

-Beginners-

1) Darren Joseph
2) Muhammad Hassan
3) Caleb Goa

-Advanced-

1) Brad Balie
2) Jacques Reynecke
3) Damian Bramley

Game of Skate

1) Alec Balie
2) Keletso Malwane
3) Jon Alan Horseman

A-Frame Best Trick

-Beginners-

1) Enrique Ortell (Nollie Heel)
2) Will Jenkins (FS Flip)
3) Jaydan Klassen (Ollie Airwalk)

-Advanced-

1) Keletso Malwane (Double Flip off)
2) Dillion ‘DBH’ Hartzenburg (Lipslide)
3) Chris Thorn (Shuvit Tailgrab)

Legendary H-Street skater Ron Allen skated in our Masters of Street demo in NYC at the Maloof Money Cup in 2011. Ron Allen is still killing it, and Paradise Wheels put together some of his best footage from 2012 to prove it. Here's to many more, Ron!