There I stood, nearly falling asleep at the Münster bus station at 4:30 in the morning. I was waiting for a Flixbus to arrive from Copenhagen. On board was Jordan Thackeray, a skater from the UK (who previously was in Copenhagen) I had yet to meet in person. Just days before, I was searching for some international skaters to attend an event and I turned to my homie Roman Astleitner. He referred me to Jordan and, after a short look at his social media, I thought „Yep, he’s good!“. I got in touch with him and was stoked to find out that he was willing enough to take a 12 hour ride to Münster! When the bus finally arrived a half hour late, I watched each passenger get off and nobody had a skateboard. When everyone was off, I just got on the bus myself to take a look. “Is there a Jordan on here?” I yelled. Suddenly, I heard “Oh, shit!” from the back of the bus and a young Rastafarian-looking dude sleepily standing up. The 2019 Miniramp-Jam weekend could begin!
Miniramp Jam 2019 supported by Santa Cruz
An international massacre in Münster
This year, we hoped to give the Miniramp-Jam an international flair. Considering the popularity of the discipline and how there have been fewer miniramp contests in recent years, somebody’s gotta keep the tradition alive! Besides Jordan, Ryan Price made the trip from Bristol, Toon Dierck and Donald Huyke came from Antwerp, and Tim Bljsterfeld & Ewout Breukink came from the Netherlands. Of course, the Germans were also represented by rippers such as Lenni Janssen and Tom Tieste. The whole event was led tri-lingually in German, Dutch and English by master MC Rob Roulaux from the Netherlands.
The Miniramp-Jam events of the last few years have included a mix of things like “cash for tricks”, team runs, and “last man standing” battles. However, we decided to go back to the roots this year with a more classic format. Skaters were given two elimination runs and then the top 8 skaters would battle it out at the end. We did still have a “cash & stuff for tricks” session as well as a best trick contest on the newly installed bench above the “love seat” quarter. Jordan Thackeray took the best trick with an insane backside tailslide on the bench, and Lenni was close behind by nearly landing a gnarly smith grind revert.
Thanks to event sponsorship by Santa Cruz, Thunder, Spitfire, and Titus, hardly any skater left the deck of the ramp without some cash or goodies. The skaters in the finals were essentially made up of the guys mentioned above. Rarely, if ever, have I seen such carnage go down on the mini-ramp attached to the ceiling of Skater’s Palace. Every skater seemed to give it all they had, especially Lenni who was blasting the most insane airs out of the extension. A surprise was definitely Julian Adomako who seemed to have flipped a switch and just started slaughtering one trick after another. In the end, Lenni took the win, Julian got second, and Jordan made his way back to London the next day with a very respectable third place.
We have to give a huge thanks to all the amazing skaters as well as those who made this event possible behind the scenes! The event sponsors, Skater’s Palace staff, Nico Asselmann & judges, and the skater’s all did an awesome job. See everyone again at this year’s DIY Riot on June 28, 2019!
Finals Results:
- Lenni Janssen
- Julian Adomako
- Jordan Thackery
- Ryan Price
- Toon Dierc
- Tom Tieste
- Reece Knobloch
- Louis Stahlberg
