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The biggest Skateboarding event to take place on South African soil, the Kimberley Diamond Cup, took place over the past few days at the pristine and world class Kumba Skate Plaza in Kimberley. The biggest names in the Skateboarding world were there to compete for the huge prize money that was up for grabs and were there to catch all the action and bring it to you.
Big Air and Vert:
Saturday morning saw the first half of this insane contest take place on the Vert ramp with the international pro’s putting down some impressive runs with huge tricks thrown in for good measure. Skateboarding legend, Andy Macdonald posted the highest score ahead of Pierre Luc Gagnon in 2nd and Jono Schwan in 3rd.
The second half of the contest took place on the Mini Mega ramp on Saturday afternoon. Pierre Luc Gagnon had to put in a big run to secure 1st overall but just couldn’t put it together and finished in 6th. Jagger Eaton landed an insane Tre Flip over the gap to put himself into 3rd position. Andy Macdonald stayed consistent landing the gap tricks and a hug 720 on the Quarter to secure 2nd place. Jono Schwan wowed the crowds and landed a huge 900 on the Quarter securing himself 1st place.
The results from the Vert and Big Air were combined for the final positions of the Big Air and Vert contest and it was the flawless Andy Macdonald that posted the highest score and took the overall win and the R600k prize purse. Jono Schwan’s 3rd in the Vert and 1st in the Big Air earned him 2nd overall and Pierre Luc Gagnon’s 2nd in Vert and 6th in Big Air racked up enough point to put him in 3rd overall.
Vert:
1 Andy Macdonald
2 Pierre Luc Gagnon
3 Jono Schwan
4 Rony Gomes
5 Sam Beckett
6 Alex Perelson
7 Marcelo Bastos
8 Jagger Eaton
9 Nolan Munroe
10 Elliot Slone
11 Danny Mayer
Big Air Mini Mega:
1 Jono Scwan
2 Andy Macdonald
3 Jagger Eaton
4 Marcelo Bastos
5 Elliot Slone
6 Pierre Luc Gagnon
7 Rony Gomes
8 Alex Perelson
9 Sam Beckett
10 Nolan Munroe
11 Danny Mayer
Overall Vert and Big Air Results:
1 Andy Macdonald
2 Jono Scwan
3 Pierre Luc Gagnon
South African Street Championship
An all out battle took place between SA’s best skaters on the Sunday morning during the Am Street contest. All the big names in South African skateboarding took to the park in what was the result of a world class contest. Huge tricks were landed on and over the variety of obstacles available on the Kumba SkatePark. In the end it was Braxton Haine who had flawless and impressive runs to take the overall and the R20k prize purse. Khule Ngubane was in a close 2nd and Mitchell Rice rounded up the podium in 3rd.
South African Street Results:
1 Braxton Haine
2 Khule Ngubane
3 Mitchell Rice
4 Warrick Delport
5 Anthony De Mendonca
6 Jean-mark Johannes
7 Kanya Spani
8 Byron Rhoda
9 Justus Kotze
10 Adam Woolf
11 Alan Morola
12 Stefan Jacobs
13 Ryan Naidoo
14 Yann Horowtiz
15 Pieter Retief
16 Martin Stoffberg
17 Khulu Dlamini
18 Samuel Vider
19 Ofentse Ramakanye
20 Trae Rice
21 Evan Binge
22 Wesley Schroeder
23 Justin Adonis
24 Stuart Walker
Best Trick
A 25 minute jam session over the gap on the mini-mega ramp made up the best trick contest. All skaters competing tried to land the biggest trick available in their arsenal of tricks but it was only a select few that nailed them. Andy Macdonald’s Varial Air earned him 3rd place. Jono Schwan had been impressive all day on the mini-mega and put down a Backside 360 Heelflip Varial for 2nd place. Jagger Eaton had the masses screaming as he somehow landed and huge 360 Flip and a Backside Flip and took the 1st place prize of R50k.
Best Trick Results:
1 Jagger Eaton
2 Jono Schwan
3 Andy Macdonald
Pro Street World Championships
The big one, the 1 Million Rand first place contest that was the Pro Street finals took to the street park to end off the 2013 Kimberley Diamond Cup. With the likes of the world’s best competing for such a huge prize purse every skater put everything they had into their runs. A skater vs skater jam format was the order of the day and saw skaters with the highest score in each heat advance until there were two left.
Tommy Fynn unfortunately injured himself but still skated the final for the fans. As the heats progressed, so did the skating. Evan Smith won over the SA fans with impressive lines and unique tricks. Crowd favourite, Manny Santiago stormed through the heats with smooth and stylish runs until he was eliminated by Felipe Gustavo and finished off in 4th place overall. Another crowd favourite, Loiue Lopez lay it down throughout the contest and looked on form to take the win but was eliminated by Nyjah Huston and had to settle for 3rd overall. The final between Filipe Gustavo and Nyjah Huston was set to be insane but Gustavo had nothing left when it came to the final and didn’t nail the tricks he was attempting. Nyjah Huston lived up to being dubbed the best street skater in the world and nailed a Nollie Heel Backside Lipslide, a Switch Frontside Bluntslide down the rail, a Backside 270 Noseblunt and a Backside 270 Lipslide just to name a few to take the win and the 1 Million Prize Purse.
Pro Street Results:
1 Nyjah Huston
2 Filipe Gustavo
3 Loiue Lopez
4 Manny Santiago
5 Alec Majerus
6 Trevor Colden
7 Matt Berger
8 Ryan Decenzo
9 Micky Papa
10 Evan Smith
11 Yuri Facchini
12 Tommy Fynn
All in all the Kimberley Diamond Cup presented by Kumba Iron Ore was one successful Skateboarding event and we already can’t wait for the 2014 event.
Photos by Grant Mclachlan, LW Mag and KDC
