BOWLZILLA Gold Coast was postponed a week so friends and family could put their houses back together after the flooding. Beautiful Gold Coast came through to make sure their reunion celebrations were epic.

After the torrential rain and flooding of the weeks before, the water rolled back and everyone had a fantastic week of celebrating in the epicentre of Australian skateboarding; the Gold Coast. With Yeah Girl putting on a free women’s learn to ride clinic and a skate zine workshop, the debut of SALKZILLA, the ASF National Park Skating Championships and the final celebration – Dive in at Beach Burrito Company, it was the week everyone needed.

Once again the sponsors stepped up to make sure the skating community knew how much they are appreciated. Yeah Girl ensured the women had equal prize money once again making it the biggest Equality in Skateboarding competition in Australia and Girl’s Skate Gold Coast raised the stoke with some extra prizes, Dickies had the Opens covered, Protec raised the stakes by rewarding the Best Slam of the whole competition which ended up having to be shared three ways (heal up everyone0, and Vans, Santa Cruz, Independent, Gold Coast Skateboard Coaching, Zipang Fine Dining, Fryzee Tattoo, Girl’s Skate Gold Coast, Fiik, Beach Burrito Company, FUEL TV, along with Major Events Gold Coast, City of Gold Coast and Tourism & Events Queensland helped out with the all-important structural support and prizes.

Everyone worked so hard to help friends and family recover during the postponement and that good energy flowed over into the entire week. It wouldn’t have felt right to run the week before while our friends and family were going through so much. What a difference a week makes though. The community was so happy to rally and get together at BOWLZILLA. The festival is an opportunity for friends and family to gather from near and far to catch up, show off their art, get creative, socialise and skate. It is a gathering point first and foremost and that was what supplied all the best moments of the week.

SALKZILLA was a new addition to the festivities this year and will grow into its own beast soon enough, it seems. Yeah Girl, Girl’s Skate Gold Coast, Gold Coast Skateboard Coaching, Zipang Fine Dining, Fryzee Tattoos and City of Gold Coast all got together and created a night of good times, free barbecues, loads of prizes and cash giveaways for random tricks and maximum stoke. The whole of the park was set alight by all our friends for hours. No stress, good times, nothing timed or serious, just get in there and get at it. The beast has been unleashed.

As the world recovers and adapts more friends and family from far and wide will be able to make the journey to BOWLZILLA. The last couple of years have been a challenge but that has laid the groundwork for even more awesome times ahead with the BOWLZILLA community.

“You can crush us, you can bruise us, but you’ll have to answer to the fact that skating is our way of life and no matter what is thrown at us we will always rise above and find ways of gathering to celebrate the best of our skate community. Skateboarding won’t change the world but skateboarders sure are. The resilience and fortitude and goodwill that skating teaches us has been shared far and wide the last few weeks. Look at the many members of our family that have been working overtime to help water-soaked communities recover. They weren’t doing it with skateboards but skating lifted them and supported the support. BOWLZILLA Gold Coast was bloody fantastic again this year, one of the best ones yet but I’d rather you take the time to celebrate those in our community that worked far harder and for far nobler causes. They deserve the accolades. I just hope we did enough to show them all how truly grateful we were this week. Thank you, every single last one of you.” Chad Ford; BOWLZILLA – Director.

Sponsors and prize givers for BOWLZILLA Gold Coast 2022 were: Gold Coast City Council, Tourism & Events Queensland, Yeah Girl, Dickies, Santa Cruz Skateboards, Independent Trucks, Vans, Fiik Electric Skateboards, Gold Coast Skateboard Coaching, Beach Burrito Company, FUEL TV, Protec, Girl’s Skate Gold Coast, Truck Stop Skate Shop, Fryzee Tattoos, Zipang Fine Dining and Australian Skateboarding Federation.

The final placings for BOWLZILLA Gold Coast 2022 are;

PROTEC BEST SLAM OF THE COMPETITION – special prizes by Protec

Indi Barnard

Jake Thatcher

Harvey Campbell

YEAH GIRL SKATEBOARDING – WOMEN – equal cash prize purse with Open, prizes donated by Girls Skate Gold Coast.

1 Ruby Trew – ASF National Park Skating Champion 2022

2 Arisa Trew

3 Heili Sirvio

4 Taniah Meyers

5 Anneka Lewis

6 Zahra Johns