Rune Glifberg Noseblunts the round lip of Mamzar Bowl back in 2006. Photo: Evan

It’s been spoken of for a very long time now, and finally Omar Al Abbar has risen to the occaision of putting on Mamzar’s first skateboarding competition. A Bowl-B-Q they’re calling it! Sounds like oodles of fun, see you there!

SKATE BILADI MAMZAR BEACH BOWL BBQ

The first competition held in mamzar, Skate Biladi (skate my country). It is going to be a competition with 2 groups (Junior- who cant drop in, and Seniors- can drop in). After the competetion there will be a BBQ and in the middle of the day there will be a SECRET stand.(nobody knows what its going to be…)

THURSDAY Feb 25th

- 5:00pm to 9:00pm
5:00pm- Grind box Jam (best trick/ two groups)
7:00pm- Race down the sides of the bowl (Goofy vs Regular) Just for fun- winner gets a prize

FRIDAY Feb 26th

- 12:00pm to 10:00pm
12:00pm- PRACTICE
2:00pm- Junior/intermediate trash can Jam (over the trash can)
3:00pm- Senior trash can Jam
4:00pm Junior/intermediate Bowl Jam-Qualifying
5:00pm- Advanced bowl Jam-Qualifying
5:30pm- Chill Jam (includes food and secret stand!!!)
6:00pm- Quarter-finals of Junior/intermediate bowl Jam
6:30pm-Quarter-finals of Advanced bowl Jam
7:00pm- Finals for Juniors/intermediate
7:30pm- Finals for Advanced
8:00pm- BOWL BQ starts!!!
8:30pm- Presentation
10:00pm-FINISH- time to go home

IT IS GOING TO BE THE FUNNEST EVENT OF 2010!!!!

Born out of the mysterious sands of time the Mamzar ramp is storied in lore and legend. The wizards at Dubai Municipality magically made it appear 10 years ago as the first purpose built skate park (ok yes it was made for rollerskating first, it’s true) in the Middle East and has since become home to some of the most legendary sessions of locals and pros alike including Rune Glifberg, Maysam Faraj, PLG, Evan Collisson, Ibrahim Wadhi, Jake Brown, Kyle Smith, Ryan Sheckler, Colm Noonan, Bam Margera, Shaun Barton, Johnny Layton, Lawrence Jokun, Kenny Reed, Chris Pfanner, Gustav Larsson, Mark Issa, Mark Appleyard, Kareem Ghanam, David Loy, Danny Kasher, Figgy, Shamik Marjoria, Ross McGouran, Oran O’Kelly, Dennis Busenitz, Alex Medvedev, Aaron Suski, Mark Gavigan, Javier Sarmiento, Ryan Chambers, Chima Ferguson, Bryan Gavigan, Dave Duncan, Davey Edmondson, Sasha Steinhorst, Doug Martin, Josh Ogilvy, Kris Vile, Mark Ruzayk, Mark Khalil, Ignacio Morata, Martin Jaouni, Mustafa Freekshit and many others who have graced the pages of Skate Arabia, Thrasher, and Transworld skating its beautiful blue magnificence.

Mark Appleyard kickflip melon’s in 2006 for his Flip Extremely Sorry video part, high and above anything else thats been done at Mamzar. Can only imagine how much fun that feels to do. Photo: Evan

Imperfect as it may be it has become the single most important monument and symbol of the rich evolution of skateboarding in the Middle East. Feb 25-26 we hope to add to that legend by presenting the very first Emirati hosted Skate Biladi or “Skate My Country” Mamzar Bowl-BQ at this historic location. Like the informal sessions of the past we hope to maintain that Mamzar love and turn up the stoke with some semi-organized organically grown events including the big blue bowl-jam, the sandbox jam, the shallow-end-trash-can-jam, and the first ever (we’re guessing) downhill Yakhi race from the tops of the Mamzar ramp in full Arab dress. In traditional Arab style the BBQ will be smoking with lots and lots of delicious food and even tastier jams to keep the tropical island vibe going the only way Mamzar can… Skate Biladi… Skate My Country…

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=279376303966&ref=ss

Photos by Luke Kelly

Max Velmitsky, Noseslide, beside the big burj

the famous halwan grocery next to Deira Fountain

Martin Jaouni, five 0 up in Bur Dubai

Kevan Medullah, backside nosegrind on The Hill

Lawrence Jokun, Crooks, JBR

Kelvin Hartley, Ollie in Deira

Luke and friends, Deira Fountain

got some skate photos? send them in!

email: info@skatearabia.com

dear friends, family, supporters and fans,

philadelphia skateboards is extremely excited to announce the launch of their “wave 2″ products. this batch of products will include decks and Tees.

decks will be in stock in 2 weeks, take a look at the attached previews and let us know what your thoughts are.

will post the Tees once the previews are ready.

keep shreddin,
philadelphia skateboards.
Arabia’s first skate brand.

This is Qatar from Enrique Mayor on Vimeo.

The Spanish Nike SB team recently got back from a trip to Qatar and looks like they we’re quite productive! Watch the trailer!

Here’s what they had to say about it the trip and the documentary they are planning to release in January.

“This is the trailer of the documentary we filmed 3 weeks ago in Qatar. With Daniel Lebron, Adrian Del Campo, Daniel Lopez de Ipiña, Juan Algora and Daniel Rubio.

Exploration is part of every skateboarder’s DNA. Searching and finding new skate spots is something you have in your blood since the time you start skating and becomes part of your day by day life. In November, the Spanish Nike Sb team ventured to discover unexplored lands in Doha (Qatar). How these 5 skateboarders, suffered, enjoyed, discovered and skated, you can see it on this documentary edited by Enrique Mayor and producted by Ivan Jimenez in January 2010.

This is Qatar.”

Enrique Mayor

Check back in January!

Happening this year on October 8th, 9th and 10th, Arab Am 2009 was great… Three whole days of ripping around an indoor course built by Bradley Kirr and Tamer Ramadan. The event was part of the Adrenaline Sports Live, which hosted a weekend of all kinds of ‘extreme’ sports action from skateboarding to wake-boarding and even snowboarding..! (Photos of which we only wish we could share.) Fortunately the skatepark had the largest space out of any other event outside of the expensive cars on display. So we had a bunch of buttery flatground to skate instead of just the ramps.

A.S.L. takes place every year and it’s sort of like the ASR (action sports retailers) tradeshow which goes on in California every year with all the skate companies. In Abu Dhabi, there are numerous booths set up by all kinds of random companies and distributors. And not all of it revolves around ‘action sports’, much less skateboarding… Beside the skate park there were sailboats on display and also a Thailand tourism company who were giving away these flags that a bunch of kids tied around their necks as capes. (see Jan’s photo below, he opted for the skirt steez)

Sucks to be writing about an event that was already a month ago! Anyway for all you out there, this competition is open to anyone in the Middle East…

Results

Seniors:

1st: Evan Collisson, Dubai

2nd: Alex Medvedev, Dubai

3rd: Kyle Kenny, Abu Dhabi

Juniors:

1st: Mark Gavigan, Dubai

2nd: Omar Alabbar, Dubai

3rd: Lawrence Jokun, Dubai

Big up’s to all the winners!!! But uhhh, we’re just wondering.. “Shu!? Where’s all the Arab skaters in this competition if its called ‘Arab Am’!?”

Yalla, so if you can make it to Abu Dhabi next year, make sure you sign up for the Arab AM 10′ and represent!

If you’re in Abu Dhabi this Friday, go check out this contest at the public skatepark across from the corniche… There’s sure to be good weather, but what’s worrying is how busy that skatepark is gonna be! None the less, we hear Abu Dhabi might be getting a new skatepark soon…

Have fun kiddo’s!

Here’s the list of skateboarder’s competing:

1. SID DELA PAZ
2. MACK ESCANO
3. MAHMOUD ABDALLA
4. MARKO M.
5. DAVID FRANK
6. SAMI BADWAN
7. ADAM HEIKAL
8. MARK ISSA
9. SERGEI DUKIANOV
10. AHMED VALENTIN
11. ADI ORFALI
12. RAMZI BOULOS
13. YOUSSEF ZIEN DDIEN
14. IBO ‘IBRAHIM’
15. DONALD
16. KYLE KENNEY
17. MIKHAYEL JACOB
18. ASEM AL HAMAD
19. MAYSAM FARAJ
20. HASSAN SHAHID
21. MUSTAFA ISMAEL
22. JOHN PAUL
23. CONNOR BLACK
24. YAZAN JUDEH
25. JAN ZAJAC
26. ROB FOREST
27. SUGOR AL AWWAD
28. MAHMOUD AYOUB
29. MARWAN HUSSIEN
30. TOM ENGLISH
31. GHAYTH HASSAN
32. JAD HAKIM
33. BASSEL ABU ALI
34. AMMAR AHMAD
35. SAMI CHAIB
36. ZAID SHTRAYYEH
37. QOTAIBA W. AL SORY

www.abudhabiskaters.com

Dudes kill it around Dubai and around some of the other Emirates, including some international clips from Jordan and Barcelona?!?

A fine tune for such fantastic skateboarding…

Rage VideoMag Vol. 1 from Tamer Ramadan on Vimeo.

You should probably go check this out if you’re gonna be in Dubai this Friday! Chris Haslam at Rage, Dubai Mall… Bowl Demo… Sick!

Check out these photos shot by Yoon Sul courtesy of skateistan.org

kenny reed

“After two years of working towards this goal, the Skateistan team is extremely pleased to announce the official opening of Kabul’s largest indoor sports facility and skate park at 2pm on the 29th of October. This milestone has been achieved through the collaborative efforts of an Afghan and international team…”

maysam faraj

please visit skateistan.org for more photos and information

‘Sparks’, for those who haven’t been there to know, got it’s radical name early on when this spot was built back in 2006.? During a few initial sessions of the spot, sparks we’re literally flying… Any time you landed primo or grinded a ledge just right, sparks would light up under your board like firecrackers. It basically caught on real quick and everyone started calling it ‘Sparks’. It sounded real dorky for at first, but we all dorked out eventually.

…Forget what i just said and check out this amazing spot for yourself. Respect your local spot – throw away your garbage!

Here are a few photos from a couple weekends ago at the infamous Sparks in Deira, Dubai.

martin jaouni, backside smith. shot a little early

the que

omar alabbar

tamer ramadan, bs nosegrind 180

tamer ramadan, bs nosegrind 180