It was hot, very hot, as the TITUS van made its way towards Saarbrücken on Friday afternoon. From Münster, it first headed towards Cologne, where more team drivers joined, and then continued south-west on the A1 motorway. It is no secret that this motorway will still not pass through the Eifel region in 2025, but roadworks meant that we had to take the country road even earlier than planned. So the trip quickly turned into a sightseeing tour through the Vulkaneifel Nature and Geopark. That was quite nice, but we were still very happy when we finally reached the city limits of the capital of Saarland at half past six. We quickly checked into the hotel 500 metres from the skate park, made a quick trip to the supermarket and then headed for the park – now the boys could let off steam.
COS Cup Saarbrücken | Deutsche Skateboardmeisterschaft 2025
Half-time at the South-West German Championship in Saarland!
The Bürgerpark is a green space located directly on the Saar River with the remains of an amphitheatre and former industrial facilities. It also houses a really old ‘mini ramp’ where I took a skate photo over 20 years ago. The skate park is now seven years old, but it has a thoroughly modern character, apart from the usual minor problems such as ‘rails too low’ or ‘difficult to approach’. The tall poplars on the west side provided pleasant shade, and so a relaxed practice session got underway. The DSHLD guys were all there, of course, Bartosz Ciesielski and co, and Nick Wauer and Anny-Lynn had also made their way from Dresden(!) to Saarbrücken – and I complain about 80 km of federal highway through the Eifel!
When we arrived at the park on Saturday morning, one thing was immediately obvious: it would be several hours before even a little shade reached the area. Without the COS tents and the cold drinks provided by the Skaters' Palace crew, some of the riders would surely have collapsed after a short time. First, the women competed in the preliminary heat, and it was nice to see some new (or local) faces at the start in both the B and A groups. Jessica Tran showed no nerves, as she had done in Dortmund, and confidently qualified in first place in the Flinta A group. The same was true for 8-year-old Alma Schneider in the B group, who became the crowd favourite of the weekend with her stay-on runs.
The men followed, with their three groups (A, B and Ü35) competing in a total of four mixed heats in the qualifying round. The now truly numerous spectators were treated to some top-notch skateboarding, both from local rippers such as Josh Junkes, Dennis Puchala and Pascal Solich, as well as from those who had travelled from afar, such as Mika Möller, Jost Arens and Jan Rehring. Mika ultimately took first place and thus advanced directly to Sunday's final, but Jan's close second place finish was also impressive. All in all, everyone who travelled in the TITUS van made it to the semi-finals, and some rewarded themselves with a short trip to a swimming lake. The rest enjoyed the evening together with other competitors and the guys and girls from the organisation/judging crew in the warm summer night in front of the hotel.
Sunday – final day. Unlike the first tour stop in Dortmund, there was no need to worry about rain, just like on Saturday. Not a single cloud was visible in the sky, so Mika could relax for the time being. For the remaining 11 semi-finalists in the Pro Division, however, it was straight down to business, and I always find it remarkable how people can skate at such a high level at 12 noon. Pascal Solich had to start without any practice at all (he had apparently slept in a little longer), but still tore through his local park like no other. The spectators, who once again turned out in large numbers, rewarded his and all the other semi-final runs with loud applause! This was followed by the finals of the two Flinta groups, and as on Saturday, Jessica Tran didn't miss a beat. A 50/50 on the flat rail, an Fs boardslide on the top rail and a clean Bs flip over the hip were just some of her controlled manoeuvres. In the Flinta amateurs, Alma Schneider held on to first place and thus claimed her first COS victory. Congratulations!
The B division showed a high local level, which saw Ben Maurer and Maximilian Friedrich take third and second place respectively. Monchef Khamlichi had already demonstrated his skills last year in Torgau, and his continued improvement was evident in Saarbrücken, where he took first place. In the over-35s category, the ‘2 runs and then a best trick on one of 3 selected obstacles’ rule was applied for the first time. In the end, Nick Wauer finished ahead of Bartosz Cisielski, even though it was a very close call.
The names of those who had made it to the grand final of the Pro Division had also been leaked by then, and it came as a bit of a surprise that long-standing ‘permanent finalists’ such as Jost Arens and Flo Westers had not made it. In the end, local Josh Junkes had performed the most and best tricks on the individual obstacles, in addition to two flawless runs. Tim Otto's consistency and sheer number of (flip) tricks earned him second place ahead of the winner from Dortmund, Dominic Wenzel, who finished in third place. The end, applause? Not quite yet, because there was still the Ravenol Barrel Jump, where Nico Böttcher won a voucher for a weekend at the Bretterbude. Congratulations to all the winners, you truly deserve it.
That's it for the second stop of the 2025 COS Cup series. Saarbrücken was a top choice as a tour stop, mainly because you could really feel that both locals and spectators were genuinely excited to have a larger skate event taking place in their city. The race for the German championship, which this year will be decided based on points accumulated, will enter its final round in just 10 days in Dessau. It remains exciting!
