The past two weekends at the Maloof Skate Plaza in Kimbereley, South Africa have been jam-packed with contests and rad sessions. Assistant skatepark manager Maurice Obaray did a killer job hosting contests and taking photos during the festivities over the past two weeks. Browse the photos and check out some coverage of the contests featuring local Kimberley rippers!

The skateboarding for Hope Tour arrived at Mothibistad Sports Ground to an eager group of skaters and spectators. Several skaters traveled hours to Kuruman in hopes of earning the wildcard entry to the Maloof Money Cup Am in September.

The day started off with a skate clinic where Warrick Delport and Chinner with the help of Tumi Lyon, Jino Modise, and Moustache taught several kids how to skate. The top 25 kids that showed the most potential on a skateboard were awarded with a free Element complete!

The first skate competition of the day was the “Cash for Tricks” jam, where the judges awarded R100 to each rad trick that they saw during the 15 minute jam session. Thoriso Gaobuse aka “Steeze Magoo” came up on a few hundred Rand with tricks like kickflip back tails and feebles down the rail. Olorato also earned a few hundred Rand with insane tricks like varial heel back lip on the flat bar. Fan favorite “Mystery Man”, skated the contest in all black clothes, a ski mask, and sunglasses! Mystery man pulled a back lip down the rail and earned R100. Mothusi Nobela also earned a few hundred Rand with tricks like nollie shuv 5-0 on the box.

The first best trick skate jam featured rad skating from more skaters including Gerhard Botha and Marvin Matthews alongside crowd favorite Mystery Man, Steeze Magoo, Olorato, and Mothusi, just to name a few. Mothusi secured 1st place and R900 with a noseslide on the bank from flat along with a few other hammers, Olorato ripped it up and got 2nd place and R600 with tricks like a boardslide up the rail, Thoriso aka Steeze Magoo did a kickflip back tail to fakie on the box first try, earning him R400 and 3rd place.

With the second best trick jam about to start, it was anybody’s game. Mystery man aka Private Number skated super hard the whole day and pulled a crook shuv out on the box, but not enough to place. Gerhard Botha was stepping it up and earned 3rd place and R400 with a 50-50 down the rail along with a few other tricks. First and second place from jam #1 switched seats this round, Olorato knew he had to step it up and put the flat bar on top of the wedge and boardslid it and noseslid it, earning him 1st place and R900 in jam 2. Mothusi did nollie shuv manny and nose manny shuv on the big box, earning him 2nd place and R600 in jam 2.

It was a tough decision, but at the end of the day, Mothusi Nobela took home the wildcard entry for the Maloof Money Cup Am. Mothusi will be representing Kuruman during the Maloof Money Cup Am contest September 28-30!

Congrats to Mothusi and thank you to Peter McKuchane and everybody at Northern Cape Tourism and Boogaloos for their help! Thanks to all the Kuruman skaters who came out and ripped the course and all the kids who received skateboards!

 There was a huge turn out of locals on the day - perfect weather set the scene for an amazing showcase of talent. We also saw the biggest group of young skateboarders so far on the Hope Tour with 3 girls in the mix. 25 lucky kids received Element complete boards and cool product handouts from Converse & Maloof and are going with us to the Maloof Money Cup on 28 - 30 September 2012 in Kimberley for a life changing experience.

 "Skateboarding for Hope" - Now that's hooking it up proper!

Biggest Winners on the day - Overall R5k in cash won.

1st - Puddy Zwennis - Flip Backside 5-0 Stall
2nd - Dean Marais - Nollie Backside 5-0
3rd - Dennis Collins - Backside feeble

Puddy took home the Wilcard Entry.

Thanks to Northern Cape Tourism & Boogaloos - Awesome Event - Makin it happen! - Thank You.
 Big Up to - Converse, Dickies, Element, VZ, Monster Energy, Iron Fist, Volcom, and AV Skateboarding.

Jacques Allison and his boys Christian and Terry came down to Kimberley from Johannesburg this past Friday to skate the vert ramp and prepare for the free skate clinic that was held on Saturday. Thanks to Boogaloos provided ten sets of pads and helmets for our local skaters for the weekend and many more to come.

During Saturday’s vert clinic, Jacque gave pointers to the skaters on the basic fundamentals of skating the vert ramp: Pumping, kickturning, how to fall properly, etc. Jacque hosted two clinics and taught over 30 skaters the basics of vert skating.

After the skate clinic, we hosted a highest kickturn contest. Only about ten skaters were brave enough to take on the challenge. In the end, Gerhard Botha and Damian Bramley tied with wheels touching coping, leading to a sudden death to determine the winner. After a heated head-to-head match, Gerhard took the win with a bs 5-0 and won R300 store credit at Thando skate shop. Damian took quite a hard slam but was able to skate just as hard the next day!

On Sunday we had two contests: A highest tail tap and longest pump. The highest tail tap was a great way to get the kids comfortable skating the ramp and eventually fakie tail stall on the coping and one day work their way up to dropping in. Gerhard Botha and Christian Potas made their marks but in the end it was Jacques Reynecke that won R300 store credit at Thando, tapping his tail only 8 inches below coping.

A larger number of kids entered the longest pump contest because they thought it would be an easy task, but keeping your momentum on the ramp for so long at a certain height is super tiring and not so easy! Jacque Reynecke pumped for 7 mins and 30 seconds before a gnarly flatbottom slam, but in the end Alec Balie took out Jacque and pumped for 8 minutes straight and won R300 store credit at Thando skate shop.

To keep the momentum of the weekend’s transition skating, the last contest on Sunday was a 15 minute jam-format contest on the quarter pipe section of the street course. Standout skaters include Damian Bramly with his rock & roll on the big quarter, Christian Potas who did a pivot nosegrab and a nollie shuv sex change, and Jacques Reynecke who learned half cab rock & roll during the contest! Our top skaters during the contest were Brad Balie and Gerhard Botha. Brad didn’t rifle out the most tricks but his tricks were some of the most difficult: switch rock & roll and blunt stall nosegrab in, earning him 2nd place and R300 at Thando skate shop. Gerhard Botha had several tricks including a nosepick to disaster and lien to tail from the small to the big quarter, earning him R500 at Thando skate shop.

Overall the weekend was a blast. Jacques was getting proper inverts every try and almost pulled a 540 on the vert. Big props to Jacques and his crew for coming from Johannesburg to host the free skate clinic on the vert ramp and showing everyone a great time! Check out their website for more info: http://vert.co.za

We started the day out with a game of skate with 36 skaters. Some highlights include Jacque Reynecke taking out Dylan du Preez along with Nico Van Hayssteen and Theo Setsetse's game which could have easily been a finals game. In the end, the final 3 came down to Katz Morena, Martin Kotze, and Theo Setsetse. Martin Kotze came in 3rd place winning and Act of Boredom shirt along with a set of bearings. Theo took out Katz with a full cab bigspin. Katz walked out with second place and won a shirt and a set of wheels. Theo won first place and took home a Creature deck.

With a deck, wheels, bearings, and 2 t shirts on the line, everyone skated their hardest at the best trick. Standouts include Brad Balie's blunt nosegrab in on the quarter, Moustache's double flip down the 3 earning him a t shirt, Llewellyn's pop shuv down the 3 earning him bearings, Christu Thorne's ollie over the manny pas earning him a t shirt, Marvin Matthews' 50-50 up the small hubba and fakie nosegrind on the flatbar earning him a set of wheels.Martin Kotze swept everyone away with his bag of tricks including noseslide manny down the manny pad,, shuv late flip up the ramp, just to name a few, earning him an Enjoi deck.

Congrats to all who entered and all the Kimberley skater for killing it!

3 clips from friday warm ups featuring Andrew Langi, Curren Caples, Louie Lopez, Chima Furgeson, Sierra Fellers, Tom Asta, Kevin Romar, Manny Santiago, Felix Arguelles, Vincent Alvarez, Ishod Wair, Eli Reed, Elijah Berle, Leo Heinart, and Gilbert Crockett.