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We got to the area241 skatepark in Plauen Friday night, after a five hour drive from Stuttgart. Elly of the street jungle shop and the locals were hanging out and barbecuing in the park with some beers and music. Sweet!
What a start! Let me tell you, the park is awesome. Thanks to the super motivated fine folks of area241 and a generous mayor, Plauen boasts a skatepark that cities like Berlin or Munich would lick their fingers for. On 3000m2 of concrete you can pretty much find everything you could possibly wish for. Oh yes, they have a bowl too. Needless to say.
 Kids loves free stuff!!!
The next morning was cloudy, and one drizzle followed the other. We set up everything anyways, hoping for the best. Little did we know at that point, that the best was just around the corner.
After another short rain shower stopped the skating, the sun finally came out and provided the essentials for a great outdoor contest.
More and more kids were arriving at the park, got their bibs and started to skate, while the candy was getting devoured and the barbecue started.
When the contest finally started, there was a field of 60+ skaters and approximately 250(!) spectators. The setup consisted of a 6-stair front with two straight and two down ledges, another 5-stair front with a rail, kinked ledge and curb and two banks forming a big hip with ledges on both sides. In the 15- division Florian Hackenberg was slightly ahead of Tillmann Richter and won by only 2 points. Third place went to one of the youngest if not the youngest competitor, Jonas Barabas, who pulled big kick flips down the stairs as well as some nice moves on the hip.
Best girl was won by Lydia Wilfing.
In the 16+ division riders were not giving away anything or leaving room for mistakes. This was hard skating with two runs to the hospital in just 2 heats. The kids in the east are hungry!!
Jindra Fenel, our buddy from the Czech republic came over to display some fine skating, and pretty much did every grind you can find in the book. Nosegrinds down the bigger ledge, smithgrinds, switch flips, and whatever.. you name it. Stylish, fast and solid. He would have won, if it wasn't for Tanh Nguyen and Thomas Weber, who skated their brains out with move like bigspin shuve-its over the hip and benihanas down the stair set. Of course he had all his flips on lock too and the only one to beat him was local wonder Thomas Weber. 360 flips, varial heels, frontboards, feebles, smiths, switch or normal this kid has them on lock. He’s doing his civil service at the moment and is, quite frankly getting exploited so bad by his boss. It’s a shame! Even during the contest he had to leave for some deliveries, but was always back when it was his turn to shred the concrete to bits and pieces. Give this man a break, you hear me!? He stuck most of his tricks first try anyways.
After the grand finale we went over to the 9stairs with ledges on both sides for the best trick. This was intense and whoever wanted could take turns while metal was blazing out of the speakers and the many people created a stunning scenery for the riders when they approached the stairs. Lawrence Libl landed the most stylish fs flip I have seen in quite some time and took the win.
All the winners walked away with tons of prizes, and after the inevitable Volcom free stuff avalanche everybody just stayed in the park to eat, drink and chill with rock tunes playing well into the evening.
 All the happy winners!
The biggest thanks have to go to the people who were there that day and made this whole thing possible: The area241 guys who run the skatepark and are just plain and simple the friendliest and most dedicated guys ever:
Area241 and our local Volcom dealer street jungle.
Big thanks go out to the crew who helped during the contest: Simon, Nic, Chris, Rene, Elly, Sebi, Thomas and our good friends at Electric , Lakai and PlaceSkateboarding for making it impossible for the kids to carry all their prizes!
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