BOWLZILLA Gold Coast 2024 Finals

For the ninth year in a row BOWLZILLA Gold Coast delivered the Australian Skateboarding Federation’s National Park Skating Championships to a raging audience and a raucous field of competitors. There were big differences this year in both and as a result everyone in attendance said it was the best one for years.

Energy levels were high and everyone there was up for the best day’s skating on the Gold Coast all year. So a bit of rain and a lot of humidity did not deter anyone. The crowd stayed through the showers and pitched in to dry the bowl during the breaks in rain and screamed louder for everyone each time the skating took off again. There’s no crowd like a Gold Coast skate crowd.

BOWLZILLA Gold Coast 2024 FORMAT

7.00 – 9.40 OPEN PRACTICE

16 and Under Eliminations: Format: 3 Heats: 3 x 40 second runs + 10 minutes practice, best run counts, top 8 scores of competition advance to Final.

9.40 – 10.00         Practice

10.00 – 10.30       Heat 1

10.30 – 11.00       Heat 2

11.00 – 11.30       Heat 3

Women’s Eliminations: Format: 3 Heats: 3 x 40 second runs + 10 minutes practice, best run counts, top 8 scores of competition advance to Final.

11.30 – 11.50      Practice

11.50 – 12.20        Heat 1

12.20 – 12.50        Heat 2

12.50 – 1.20          Heat 3

Open Eliminations: Format: 3 Heats: 3 x 40 second runs + 10 minutes practice, best run counts, top 8 scores of competition advance to Final.

1.20 – 1.40          Practice

1.40 – 2.10          Heat 1

2.10 – 2.40          Heat 2

2.40 – 3.10          Heat 3

Lunch

3.10 – 3.30         

FINALS:

16 and Under Final: 8 skaters, 3 x 40 second runs, best run counts

3.30 – 3.40           Practice

3.40 – 4.00           Final

Master’s Final: 8 skaters, 3 x 40 second runs, best run counts

4.00 – 4.10          Practice

4.10 – 4.30          Final Jam

Women’s Final: 8 skaters, 3 x 40 second runs, best run counts

4.30 – 4.40           Practice

4.40 – 5.00           Final Jam

Open Final: 8 skaters, 3 x 40 second runs, best run counts

5.00 – 5.10           Practice

5.10 – 5.30           Final

AWARDS:

5.45 – 6.00

COMPETITION FORMAT:

16 and Under: 3 Heats – 8 person heats, 3 x 40 second runs, best run counts, top 8 scores advance, each heat is based on 10 minute warm up. 8 best scores advance to Finals.

Masters: smaller field this year, will run a straight Final.

Yeah Girl Women: 3 Heats – 8 person heats, 3 x 40 second runs, best run counts, top 8 scores advance each, heat is based on 10 minute warm up. 8 best scores advance to Finals.

Open: 3 Heats – 8 person heats, 3 x 40 second runs, best run counts, top 8 scores advance each, heat is based on 10 minute warm up. 8 best scores advance to Finals.

16 and Under FINALS: 8 skaters, 3 x 40 second runs, best run counts. Judges will rank skaters 1 – 8.

Masters FINALS: 8 skaters, 3 x 40 second runs, best run counts. Judges will rank skaters 1 – 8.

Yeah Girl Women FINALS: 8 skaters, 3 x 40 second runs, best run counts. Judges will rank skaters 1 – 8.

Open FINALS: 8 skaters, 3 x 40 second runs, best run counts. Judges will rank skaters 1 – 8.

BOWLZILLA™ Gold Coast 2024 JUDGING

JUDGING:

Three (3) judges with one (1) acting as head judge who will also score. Head judge ensures other judges are understanding of format and judging criteria.

BOWLZILLA™ is a park competition and therefore will be judged according to park skating style. Park skating has its emphasis on style and flow. Tricks are complementary to the riders run rather than being the focus of the run.

Judging is based on:

Use of the bowl: Each park is unique and therefore requires a unique approach. Elanora park has these things to consider use of in a line: two ends, full pipe, corners, hips and extension. A well-rounded run in this park will utilise as many of these features in a fluid park skating approach. If a skater spends the majority of their time utilising just one area of the park performing tricks, their run will be scored down.

Style: the fluid linking of park features and how individual tricks are performed within the run (i.e. continuity of line).

Content: park skating dictates that tricks are complementary to the whole run. If the tricks appear awkward and singular rather than part of the whole run they may be marked down. If the tricks are fluid and complimentary to the run then; the number, difficulty, originality and variety of tricks successfully performed will add to the score.

Note: These categories are weighted by the individual judge’s subjective opinion. Judge’s decision is final. Skateboarding is judged subjectively rather than objectively so it is fair to assume different people will have different ideas on results.

Run points:

Scoring is out of 100 per run.

The top two scores will be taken and the bottom two scores will be thrown away. In the event of a tie the riders other scores will be taken into consideration to form a tie breaker.

The top 8 scored riders will go through to the final. The final riders are chosen by top score across all heats and not by top skaters from each heat.

Run point distribution for judging guidance; 90-100 best runs of day – these runs should sit between; 90-100 and are usually reserved for the finals to ensure a lifting of scores throughout the competition. 80-90 top scoring heat runs sit within this range. A run within this bracket will consist of use of whole bowl, fluid and fast approach, tricks are complementary to the run and there is a variety with a mix of difficulty and originality. 70-80 runs within this range are generally smooth and consistent, use the whole bowl, fill the allotted time of 35 seconds per run but may not have the most spectacular approach. 60-70 a rider may not complete a run but within their run may use the bowl well and do some amazing tricks or a rider may do a very trick focused run that only utilises a portion of the bowl rather than all of it or the rider may be consistent but not perform a run that stands out against the other skaters. 50-60 a rider may only last 5 or 6 walls but do a couple of tricks that really stand out but did not have a long enough run or the rider may use the whole time but not perform a spectacular run that stands out. 30-50 the skater dropped in a got one or two tricks but nothing was spectacular. 0-30 the skater dropped in and did nothing.

Falls:

A subjective penalty will be assessed, and the following will be taken into consideration when determining the amount of penalty: First wall rebate; if the rider falls on the very first wall, they get to rebate but the clock keeps going. Not the second wall. The rider must race to restart their run as quickly as possible. If the skater chooses to rebate it is within the 40 seconds, the clock does not start over. When the clock hits 40 seconds the run is over, regardless of when the rider decides to start their run. What was being attempted when the fall/step off occurred? How the overall fluidity of the run was affected. Ability to recover and continue the continuity of the run.

BOWLZILLA Wellington is CANCELLED for 2024

It is with deep regret that we announce the cancellation of BOWLZILLA Wellington for 2024. The current global financial challenges have impacted the ability of BOWLZILLA Wellington to secure the necessary sponsorship funds required to conduct the event successfully. Despite the dedicated efforts of the BOWLZILLA Wellington team, the legacy National Bowl Skating Championships cannot proceed without adequate financial support.

BOWLZILLA Wellington has been a cornerstone of the community for the past eight years, and it is disheartening to make this decision. The BOWLZILLA team takes great pride in supporting local and skater owned businesses and acknowledge the impact this cancellation will have on Wellington's skate economy.

While New Zealand’s National Bowl Skating Championships is on hold for this year, we strongly urge the skate community to rally behind other skater owned and run events such as Mangawhai Bowl Jam and other SBNZ (Skateboarding New Zealand) supported competitions. In these challenging times for many it is crucial for the community to show their support by getting behind skater-owned and run businesses and events, who are all no-doubt doing it tough too.

The BOWLZILLA team extends heartfelt gratitude to every individual, business and organization that has played a role in making BOWLZILLA Wellington the premier skate festival in New Zealand since its inception in 2016. Thanks to Wellington City Council for your ongoing funding and support of BOWLZILLA. Your support has been invaluable, and we look forward to the possibility of resuming the event in the future.

SAVE THE DATE: BOWLZILLA Gold Coast 2024

BOWLZILLA Gold Coast Skating on Cloud Nine

BOWLZILLA Gold Coast is celebrating nine years of ripping this February 24th. Friends, family and fans are all rolling in for Australia’s biggest week of Park Skating. The Australian Skateboarding Federation National Park Skating Championships will be bigger and better than ever.

A week of skating in Australia’s favourite destination has already got skaters near and far getting their crew together and booking travel. The ninth annual skating festival on the Gold Coast is full up with; Learn To Ride clinics, Art Shows, workshops, Music, Parties, Food and the Competition. BOWLZILLA Gold Coast will be riding high on Cloud 9 this year.

The main event at BOWLZILLA Gold Coast is the Australian Skateboarding Federation’s National Park Skating championships for 2024. With inclusive divisions across all ages, abilities and sexes, the cross pollination of generations and styles ensures the greatest week of skating in Australia. Maintaining the largest Equality in Skateboarding event in Australia with equal prize purse across the Open and Women’s divisions is just one of the key ingredients making the celebrations such a success. Adding in the Open prize purse, cash for the Masters and prizes for the 16 & Under Amateur division, almost everyone goes home with something awesome.

BOWLZILLA Gold Coast is supported by Experience Gold Coast and the Queensland Government through Tourism and Events Queensland and features on the It’s Live! in Queensland events calendar. Promoting the celebration to a much wider audience is incredibly important in bringing greater awareness and better support for our community. We’re showing the best of friend’s skating to the world and encouraging them to come and be part of it all.

The City of Gold Coast have backed skating since forever and are continuously proactive in working with skaters to find ways of supporting them and encouraging their successes. It is not just the fact they have more skateparks per capita than anywhere else in the country but how they have supported the women’s skate scene with previous successes such as the workshops, activations and art shows, the many and varied skate events that have been both funded and supported across ages, styles and levels of expertise and also the grass roots opportunities they provide by working with Gold Coast Skateboard Coaching and so many others in the community. All of this comes to a culmination in the festivities that are BOWLZILLA Gold Coast every year.

“The Gold Coast’s star continues to shine with fantastic events like BOWLZILLA back for 2024,” said Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate.

“I welcome the international competitors to the city as they battle with Australia's top skateboarders at Elanora and urge locals to get involved in the week-long expo which supports BOWLZILLA, offering free skate sessions and seminars from the pros."

Chad Ford; BOWLZILLA – Director: “Our focus each and every year has always been the excuse to gather or friends and family from near and far and celebrate their talents and share all the best our community has to offer. Grinding into our ninth year on the Gold Coast is no small feat and we are looking forward to stepping up to the challenge of ensuring this year will be our biggest and best yet. Our friends and family are the greatest and we invite you all to come and celebrate them with us at this year’s BOWLZILLA Gold Coast!

21st February: Girl’s Learn To Ride Clinic – Tugun Skatepark

22nd February: SALKZILLA

23rd February: Gold Coast Grill – local hosted BBQ skate session

24th February: BOWLZILLA™ Gold Coast, Australia’s; National Park Skating Championships

24th February: Dive In – official after party – Rattlesnake Motel

SAVE THE DATE: BOWLZILLA Wellington 2024

PEACE IS WORTH SKATING FOR

BOWLZILLA Wellington, Waitangi Park 17/02/2023

BOWLZILLA Wellington is celebrating its 9th year as New Zealand’s biggest skateboarding festival the week of the 17th of February and capping it all with the New Zealand National Bowl Skating Championships.

For the ninth consecutive year, BOWLZILLA Wellington will be putting on the biggest week of skating in New Zealand. With more events, bigger gatherings, larger celebrations and the best week of skating Aotearoa is likely to see. The weeklong festival highlights all the best of skating through ARTZILLA, music, barbecues, catch ups, our incredible friends and family and of course the competition.

“The BOWLZILLA community has always been enthusiastic in their celebration of the most important parts of skating; fun, unity, music, arts, creativity, and all-round heavy ripping. There have been many changes to skate gatherings the last few years and we believe the best parts of skating that have always bound us in fun are worth that extra effort to ensure we maintain the stoke. For our ninth year we are dialling up the good times and making sure everyone knows how grateful we are for all their years of support in the best little city in the world.” BOWLZILLA Director – Chad Ford

BOWLZILLA is renowned for its full week of festival happenings and this year there will be new additions celebrating the wider skate community and their awesome talents. The biggest week of skating in New Zealand is growing even larger. Everyone is welcome to come along and cheer and be part of the whole festival for free. There are exciting announcements coming in the New Year about sponsors and the festival.

Wellington City Council, Wellington Skateboarding Association, Redhead or Dead Events and Miryoku Agency have joined forces once again to bring this fantastic festival to the New Zealand skaters.

BOWLZILLA was born out of likeminded friends in the skateboard community looking for new platforms to promote the extraordinary talents of their friend’s talents that run in oversupply within skateboarding but are not often seen in the outside world. BOWLZILLA Wellington is the biggest platform for showcasing all of this amazing talent in skateboarding in New Zealand. There is an open invite for everyone to come and be part of the celebration.

15th February: Women’s Learn To Ride Clinic

15th February: Welcome Party

16th February: WSA Street Jam

16th February: ARTZILLA

17th February: BOWLZILLA™ Wellington competition – Waitangi Park, Wellington

17th February: Dive In – official after party

18th February: Karori Vert Jam, Ian Galloway Park, Karori, Wellington

BOWLZILLA Gold Coast 2023 Highlights

Beautiful one day, ripping the next. The BOWLZILLA Gold Coast highlights clip is here to warm up the southern winter with a scorching summer recap – watch, enjoy and GO SKATE.

Higher, faster, longer, funner. Competitions can push skaters to challenge themselves and risk that little bit more. The best of it is when they’re pushing their mate in the next run to do better than they just did. Yeah, people won but that wasn’t ever the point. Nothing and no one was left behind this year and everyone celebrated together at the end. BOWLZILLA Gold Coast 2023 was a uniform free zone of rad times and ripping skating.

The Gold Coast skate scene is massive and growing with so many rad spots and generations of shredders keeping the torch lit it is no wonder that it is being called the skate mecca of Australia. Everyone’s welcome to come and grind the epic concrete and share in the stoke of it all.

It’s the community that makes BOWLZILLA Gold Coast happen and as rad as it is. Without their support it just isn’t possible to have festivals like these. The week is really a celebration of how epic they all are. Watch the shredding in the 16 & Unders, Masters, Yeah Girl Women and Opens and you'll see the next step that Australian skating took in 2023.

Sponsors and partners like; Dickies, Santa Cruz, Independent, Kangol, Yeah Girl, Gold Coast Skateboard Coaching, Australian Skateboarding Federation, Truckstop, Fuel TV, Girl’s Skate Gold Coast, Etnies, Rattlesnake Motel, Gold Coast City Council and Tourism & Events Queensland made sure everyone got thanked properly.

Massive shout outs go to all the friends, family, fans, media, sponsors, supporters, community, crew, and skaters for what was truly one of the best years ever for BOWLZILLA Gold Coast.

BOWLZILLA Gold Coast Turned the Tide

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

7 Coco Crafter

8 Haylee Powell

9 Jada Ward

10 Mila Sirvio

11 Isla Lillie Bower

12 Tanisha Gardner

13 Tora Waldren

14 Mel NC

15 Chihiro Young

16 Marley Williams

17 Kayla Matthews

18 Olive Williams

19 Jazz Kennedy

16 & UNDER – prizes donated by Protec, Santa Cruz, Independent, Vans                                                                                

1 Louie Daiguchi – ASF Australian Park Skating Champion 2022

2 Caylen Goldsbrough

3 Taj Wolfenden

4 Hudson Walker

5 Cayden Hawker

6 Noa Barnes

7 Jack Lewis

8 Jacob Hanson           

9 Asher Watt

10 Oliver Macdonald

11 Kruz Lovett

12 Jackson Schulze

13 Kai Gould

14 Yo Wuoti

15 Samson Scott

16 Tasman Cahill

17 Zion Gallagher

18 Elijah Jack Smith

19 Zen Dickson

20 Zane Perez

21 Gustavo Baker Brandini

22 Noah DC de Campos          

MASTERS

1 Trev Ward – ASF Australian Park Skating Champion 2022

2 Chris Enwright

3 Marcio Godinho Brandini

4 Justin Leslight

5 Iain Watt

6 Deryck Murton

OPEN

1 Marley Rae

2 Jake Thatcher

3 Shaun Boucher

4 Jesse Noonan

5 Ash Wilcomes

6 Matthew Beer

7 Charlie Holland

8 Marcos Baker Brandini

9 Nixen Osborne

10 Logan Graff

11 Kai Farrelly

12 Barry Taniwha

13 Jorge Tichbon

14 Bryce Mckean

15 Levi Yeaman

16 James Stuurman

17 Dylan Phillips

SALKZILLA!!!

The first ever SALKZILLA is on tomorrow 15th March from 5-9PM at Salk Oval Skatepark; 2 Thrower Dr, Currumbin QLD 4223, Australia.

There’s gonna be some $10 and $20 notes being given our with some prizes for tricks and good vibes for all our rolling friends across the spectrum.

There’ll be a bit of a free barbecue and an over supply of good times. Everyone is welcome.

We want to thank all our sponsors and supporters for making this first year possible for us to share the stoke and have a bit of fun with all our friends and family.

SNOWZILLA

SNOWLZILLA Jindabyne 22/09/2019 – Jindabyne Skatepark

BIGSHOT Drinks, Beach Burrito Company and BOWLZILLA are rolling into Jindabyne skatepark for a ballin’ good time to celebrate the end of the Australian 2019 snow season at the first ever skate comp at Jindabyne skatepark.

BOWLZILLA is getting the ball rolling with the skating, BIGSHOT Drinks are bringing the fun for this Over 18s skate jam and Beach Burrito Company are keeping it all going with the awards ceremony and after party. It’s going to be a Ballin’ afternoon of Fun & Shredding at Jindabyne Skatepark.

SNOWLZILLA is the first year for this end of snow season skate jam at Jindabyne skatepark. Incredibly this will be the first ever comp at the skatepark but it is just the start of many years to come for what is going to become the traditional end of snow season skate celebration.

"Our roots at BIGSHOT Drinks are in the action sports scenes. We’re all snowboarders, MX riders, surfers and skaters. Being able to put on a celebration where we have so many of our crew are based for the season and cover so many of our interests is bloody awesome. We’re going to have a lot of fun this first year and we can’t wait to blow everyone away with what we have install for the many years ahead.” Tim Vlandis – BIGSHOT Drinks – CMO   

 “We opened Beach Burrito Company Jindabyne because we love snowboarding and wanted to have an embassy of fun where we spend so much of our time outside of work. SNOWLZILLA is the perfect coming together of all of our passions. Hit the slopes in the morning with our friends, go for a skate in the afternoon and then celebrate it all with tacos and BIGSHOTs in the evening – EPIC!” Blake Read – Beach Burrito Company – El Jefe

The SNOWLZILLA skate jam is an Over 18s only comp with Open and Women’s divisions. The skating is being judged by use of the whole park – bowl and street course combined. The winners will be awarded for their highest scoring 35 second run through the whole park. It’s free to enter and there are a lot of prizes for the first year.

“Our friends own drink companies and Mexican restaurants and want us to help put together a skate session at a great skatepark in an awesome location and celebrate it all with an afterparty of tacos and drinks. Thanks for thinking of us. Or course we’ll be there! BOWLZILLA has always been about the gathering of our friends and the fun that comes from that. SNOWZILLA is blindingly obvious. Not sure why it has taken so long for something like this to happen? We’re here now though and that means many years of good times ahead with all our friends. Pack your bags and come celebrate with us.” Chad Ford – BOWLZILLA - President

Event Name:

SNOWZILLA™

Date:

22nd September 2019

Event info:

Competition – Over 18s; Open and Women’s divisions

Judging – flow comp, use of whole park – bowl and street course, best run counts

Entry – free

Location – Jindabyne Skatepark: 4 Bay St, Jindabyne, NSW, Australia 2627

Times – 2pm start, Women and then Open division

Awards Ceremony / After Party – SNOWBALLIN’ – official after party – Beach Burrito Company; 3/5 Kosciuszko Rd, Jindabyne NSW 2627, Australia PH: +61 2 6457 2681