I together with Bobo and Dumi (Mircea Mocanu and Cosmin Dumitru) left home on 13th of june, going to be part of an event a bit different from what we experienced before. Leo from Redbull Romania sent us in Sarajevo, Bosnia on a speed contest in a bob pist (thank you!).
After a short trip with the plane we arrived in Sarajevo where Ana and Dino - organisers of the comp - were waiting for us and for Herby, the coach who was in the same filght with us. We got to our hotel rooms and got more information about what and how is going to happen the next days. When we took a look out from the balcony we saw 2 buildings close to each other full with big holes - from the war. So the first impression was something like: what the fuck happened here?!?
Hotel view
Boomsnia
We went out in the center and what we first saw on the window turned out to be everywhere we looked: the fights during the war damaged all the buildings! and i mean ALL OF THEM! the only buildings wich looked untached were the new ones built in the last few years. During the next days we talked with people from there and we understood how bad the situation was there 10 years ago. But everybody got over it and in the whole city was alot of people out on the streets at almost any time, spreading a good vibe. Soon we got used to this view and started to see whad we always see: a city in the mountains full of skating spots - all types of handrails!
Lets get back to the schedule! During the 5 days we all had to be ready at 9:00AM to go on the mountain where the bob pist was placed and start training. SO the first morning we met the other skaters who were already there for the competition. I got extremely happy to see Marko from Slovenia, a friend of mine who is doing aggressive skating and who i met EVERYWHERE i traveled this year so far. As soon as we got there the first day we realised that this is a totally diferent thing from what we do and that we're a bit unprepared for it. The skaters reach a 70-80km/h speed on this type of tracks and a fall at this speed can result into something serious. So almost everybody had a suit full of protections and helmet. And when they saw us on the 2wheels aggressive skates they told us how unstable they become at big speed and how dangerous is what we are trying to do. OUPSS!! So we started training slow and carefully.... from the bottom of the pist to the top of it.
Dumi
eu
Everything was well organised, everything was taken care of: they got men all over the bob pist with walkie-talkies and every skater began the ride after he got a "clear!" signal. So i was somewhere up the pist whare they called it 2nd start waiting for my turn when they said somebody crashed and stopped everything for 45 mins. I was hoping not to be some from Romania, but when i got down and saw Bobo in the ambulance, full of hurts all over his body and with the clothes ripped off. Fortunately nothing serious happened, but he couldn't skate the next days (and he still doesn't skate now, after 2 weeks). he explained us that he took a bad and that the motocross helmet really saved his life.
The practice continued the next days with no other injuries. After a few runs i got used to it and it started to look easy to me: all you had to do is stay on your feet. And i did stay every time because seeing everyone else full of protections on absolutely every part of their body made me feel unsecure and for me it just was no way to fall there.
Start no.1
pro competitor
Special guest: Jean Ives
high speed
The training ended up every day at 17:00. While most of the competitors were using all the free time to visit the city or just to chill, we did our thing every single day: we went in the city and skate. We met at the bob pist some skaters from Sarajevo, and first day we got in the local skatepark for 15 mins and then we went street to some really good spots with a really cool guy (shame to me i dont know his name). Even if we didn't do too much, everybody seemed to be very impressed of our skating. The next days we didn't have a car anymore to skate so we skated only the spots that we saw around our hotel. And each time somebody was hanging with us.
Dumi - topacid
Mili - sweastance
Mili - switch sweastance 540 out
Dumi - 180 gap
The day before the contest some pro inline speed skaters arrived and things got a bit more professional and serious. We made 2 timed runs wich were going to determine our start position from the contest next day. So it was something like: only 2 guys from Sarajevo who do aggressive and the guys who fell were slower than us. The contst day was the most weird for me because we got up again at 8:00, each day even more tired and at 10:00 i was on the start, going to do the first of 2 timmed runs in the contest, with no warm-up. So that was the reason why i was there: to do my best in the speed competition and i was fighting to keep my eyes open and not fall asleep. Me and Dumi were the only guys on aggressive skates from the whole competition and we made a competition between us 2 (wich i won haha). But this doesn't mean we finished the last on the comp. From what i remember there were 2 more guys behind us.
Marko - amateur winner
the finish
the music car
Dumi and his new VX 2100
some rain after the contest
After the contest it was an after party at a club named "the club" haha with a TV screen where we saw edits from all the type of redbull events and, to my surprise, images from the Hot Run, the contest that just happened during the day. I have to admit that most of the people from there had a pretty weird way of having fun at a party. It might have been the free redbull and votka...
lift me up...
Herby the coach
It was a good experience to meet people who also rollerblade and travel around the world for the contests and for the fun, but don't do exactly the same thing like we're doing. They do love their thing, they love speed and this type of life wich is similar to ours, and they have my respect for this. And we definately earned our respect for doing the hardest and most dangerous stuff on in-line skates. It was a nice event who bought together people nice from all over Europe + the guys (and of course the girls) from Redbull, the DJ from the competition - ESPECIALLY the DJ!!!, the aggressive skaters from the city. And this contest was just the beginning: Redbull is preparing a really big competition next year, with alot more competitors and with about 3000 spectators. I think they have alot of work to do to make the minefield around the bob pist ready for the people! I hope we'll be there again - this time better prepared with speed skates and motocross protections. Cause the contest itself is easy: you just need to stay on your feet! And if you don't brake you have your place on top 3!
waiting for the plane - FIFA 07
Sarajevo
Bucharest at night
For more pictures and a nice edit check out the ambiance website.
Ambiance members in Sarajevo
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