Simon Tabron at the LG Action Sports World Tour. © ASA
The LG Action Sports Tour 2006:Amsterdamage
Aug 18 2006 / Los Angeles, CAThe LG Action Sports World Tour kicked off its season in Amsterdam on July 14 and 15. It was held in conjunction with Dance Valley, the largest electronic music festival in Europe. And it was insane!
Beats, booze and beauty. 90,000 diehard party-goers converged on Dance Valley in Amsterdam for a weekend of uninhibited fun. It wasn’t the first 48-hour dance party Europe’s ever seen, but it was the first time a multi-sport professional competition has been held in the Netherlands, and Dance Valley was the perfect location for the first tour stop of 2006.
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With the wind raging just below tornado level, the danger factor was at an all-time high, but the stakes were high, so the riders forged ahead. Skaters came from all around the world to compete in the second stop of the Action Sports World Tour; the podium for each event looked like a UN conference. Takeshi Yasutoko(JPN) took inline vert gold. Mathias Silhan (FRA) took gold on street. Jake Brown and Tas Pappas (AUS) fought ‘til the end for skate vert gold (with Tas ultimately nabbing the honor). Daniel Vieira (BRA) took skate street gold with two flawless runs. BMX saw an Englishman – Simon Tabron on vert – and a German – Tobias Wicke on street – claim gold medals with amzing riding that brought down the house . . . Music, that is.
“It’s a really terrific series,” said Simon Tabron after his gold medal victory in Amsterdam. “It’s the only series that takes us out to the wider world and wider audiences. We’ve already established ourselves in America, and now we have a chance to go to countries where, before, they’d only seen us on TV.”
Why a dance festival? I asked the same question until I saw all the half-naked Scandinavian women who showed up for the event. As skateboarder Anthony Furlong put it, “It’s a festival of people. Everybody’s having a good time. What better place to do it?”
The LG Action Sports World Tour is the only global professional competition series for skateboard, BMX and inline skating. What started in Amsterdam will continue in Birmingham, England, Berlin and Paris before moving stateside to Dallas for the LG Action Sports World Championships in October.
Next stop: Birmingham, England where the ultra-popular NASS Festival is already practically sold out. To find more information on the LG Action Sports World Tour, and see a gallery of hotties, go to www.LGactionsports.com
