The German Masters Inline halfpipe competitions 2009 are now over and all that is left is our crazy memories. We spent one week in Germany and I have to confess we loved
every minute of it. Here is a few words describing what happened over that period.
The riders and personnel from team-disaster that went to Germany were: Hristina Mustafchieva, Pavel Mitrenga, Kiril Trayanov, Nikolai Naidenov, Marco and Lora Jara,
Stefan Vasilev and Dimitar Pedev.
Monday 5th: Arrival Day
Amazingly enough we all met at the airport on time. That was a miracle. As always our meeting was at 6am in the morning for an 8am flight. Why we cannot ever get some
flights at 6pm I have no idea.. seems we are destined with getting up early for all international comps.
Arriving in Germany we were met by Benny and Marina, they helped us with out luggage and took it somewhere. While leaving the plane somehow Pavel "lost" his phone as
usual we did not know if this was a joke by some other team-disaster member or really the phone was lost... well was lost.
Picking our luggage seemed interesting. All the passengers went to one conveyor belt and meanwhile the luggage was thrown in another place. The nice luggage people made a
nice pyramid with our luggage piling and throwing all bags. As you can imagine several bags were damaged and lots of angry people were not happy.
About 20mins after arriving Marco Di Santi arrived. We all decided to chill together and do some sightseeing until our apartment was ready. Around 3pm we went to this
amazingly huge apartment the SAG had provided for us... it was a fantastic place and 15mins max from the competition site (YOU-MESSE).
SAG had a lot of work to be done and asked for volunteers. Team-1: Kiro, Pavel and Mitko volunteered to go and unload a TIR truck that contained skatepark pieces and
Team 2: myself, Niki and Stefan would help build the halfpipe. Team-1 worked non stopped from around 8pm till midnight.
Tuesday 6th: Building Half-Pipe
Team 2 went early to the skatepark to help build the halfpipe while the rest of the guys relaxed after working so hard the previous night. We spent most of the day building the
halfpipe and did not get back home till late. Meanwhile the other guys went to the Red Bull skatepark and had a nice session there with Marco Di Santi and Cesar who arrived
earlier in he afternoon..
So far no hassles- nobody had burned down the apartment or blowup a wall..
Wednesday 7th:
There was a press conference, EU meeting, Official Sightseeing Tour... so many things and yet I don’t remember much of them. I just remember walking with Dutch. French,.
German, Brazilian and lots of Bulgarian guys around Berlin and having fun and laughing. The Dutch street guys were crazy and they were also sharing the apartment. They were
non-stop party animals from the day they arrived till they left- everyday going out late at night and coming back real early in the morning.. "the truck driver lady" will not be
forgotten hahaha
In the evening some of guys decided to go to Red Bull skatepark while others like me decided was better to go and eat and chill around in the evening.
Later that evening I got an SMS from Ingo that Marco Di Santi had had an injury and was in hospital. That was sad news. I hate those phone calls and SMS you get before a
comp. I was really hoping it was not bad but when I was told that he felt almost from the 5mt straight to the floor on the halfpipe it did not sound good.
Went home and met up with the rest of the guys... there was not much news and there was no party mood.
Thursday 8th:
Hard to remember now what happened this day but it went something like this.
Breakfast- eggs .. everyday was eggs
Go to skatepark to skate and practice
break.. hang around somewhere
go home
go back to skatepark or red bull park
go home
go out somewhere
have beers
listen to Dutch guys party in their room loudly :)
have more beers
go to bed
....
Marco Di Santi released from Hospital! We are happy again because he can come to the comps to watch at least.
Friday 9th: AM Competition day
We were all excited as the competitions would begin and now most of the riders from other countries had arrived including Leonid, Rich and Doug. There was a general
practice during the morning and the comp was due to start 3pm. I kept getting worried because Sopa (Stefan) would go missing from time to time and we would have no idea
where he was. Already we had lost once Mitko in the metro when he was left behind in a train station. We lost Sopa also somewhere else.. and losing people was becoming a
habit.
The competition went well and Sopa and Mitko did well. Both had nice runs and had good chance to be in top five. I knew that Sopa had a good chance to win but you never
know until a comp is over and results are said, before that its all speculation. After Sopa second run I knew he had done well enough to be first or second. Mitko had done very well for his first contest and I was not sure what position he would take. Later we learned first and second. This was a great result for team-disaster.
Hrisi had a bad first run, whether it was nerves or just lack of confidence I don't know. She didn't show up for her second run. The strange thing was that when I saw her
practicing the next day she was awesome and I know she could have had a high placing if she tried.. lets hope next year.
Saturday 10th: German Masters Inline Halfpipe Contest
Everything was as usual. Arriving at the skatepark I noticed that we were missing Sopa and Mitko. I did not worry much at first. As time started to tick I realized these guys
would not be on time to either warm-up or to compete. Around 12pm I was really nervous, I sent SMS and tried to call them.... to say I was furious its a mild statement. They
had come all the way to Germany and were about to miss on the comp. Mitko missed the comp... but Sopa arrived 5mins before his run. He changed, rather slowly and
walked up the vert- again slowly and his name was call and he had to do a run cold. Amazingly he was able to put a complete run.
Niki did a good run.
Pavel put together also a nice first run I think only falling in the end.
Kiro started hard and almost immediately run into troubles.
The comp was good and of course Cesar was impressive, Rich and Doug did very well and Leonid skater better than ever before. It was hard to predict the placing in this
comp.
Sunday 11: SAG European Challenge
This time we all arrived at the YOU-MESSE on time and managed to get up early and have breakfast. I was shocked actually but finally we were on time. Many of the riders
were already practicing. the event was almost a repeat of the previous day event and no real great surprises were expected. This time Sopa was prepared and warmed for his
run... funny enough he got worse results when he was prepared hahaha Maybe he need stress to do good.
Results were announced.. mayor chaos of course and afterwards we continued to skate well into 6pm. SAG asked us if we could help dismantle the halfpipe and we did so... it
was sad to dismantle that beautiful monster. We had so much fun and now it was all over. We worked hard for a few hours and then was time to go home and celebrate and
pack up. Cesar bought beers and Niki the food for everyone... and it turned into beautiful last day party. It was a wonderful last night with plenty of food and beers.. we were
all super happy- chatting and laughing.. the Dutch guys were real nice and joined us we all had a magical celebration. Its beyond words this night.
Sometime when all the beers had run out we all managed to get to bed..
Monday 12: DEPARTURE
As always we had to get up early to go to the airport. I couldn’t sleep much so I was awake early enough to chat with Marco Di Santi who left at 6am. We had breakfast,
spoke for a while and then he left to go to New York. I woke everyone up and we started the super slow process. Around 8.30am we left the apartment, leaving behind
around 80 empty bottles of beers, lots of food and fantastic memories.
The trip to Sofia was tiring.. we were all tired from one massive week of skating... I think we all slept most of the way to Sofia dreaming of the nice week we all had together
with people from all over Europe.. we will miss them but we will see all of them again next year.
Thanks to SAG- Frank-Ingo-Nicole-Marina-Benny and everyone else who made our stay in Germany so hospitable! You guys did an unforgettable event...
KRUMME LANKE!!!
Marco
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