Vans Park Series Africa Continental Championship 2018 – Photo Recap

The 2018 Vans Park Series Africa Continental Championship went down at The Shred skatepark in Cape Town this past weekend. It’s the first skateboarding event in Africa that gives local skateboarders the opportunity to directly qualify for a place in a world final. The winner receives an all-expenses-paid trip to meet and compete against the best bowl skateboarders from around the world, at the 2018 Vans Park Series World Championships, scheduled to take place next month in Shanghai, China on October 27.

International Park Series judges from The Boardr travelled to Cape Town to run and judge the event according to international guidelines. Ryan Clements from The Boardr explained that their goal with the Africa event is to find the best skateboarder to represent the continent at the world finals. At a riders’ briefing ahead of the contest Ryan said, “our goal here is not to see who can put together the best run, but rather to see which skateboarder creates the best overall impression and ultimately who can best represent Africa on the world stage”.

This is the only event of its kind on the continent, where both a men’s and a women’s contest takes place, and where the winner of each particular event is afforded the same opportunity of attending their division’s respective world championships. Both the men and the women also receive equal prize money.

South African skateboarders from across the country were in attendance, hailing from Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Kimberley and Cape Town. Furthermore, Vans also brought in a couple of talented skateboarders from Indigo Youth Movement in Valley of 1000 Hills. With over 40 skateboarders registered to take part, most participants were South Africans, but competitors from other countries on the continent like Kenya, Zimbabwe and Namibia also took part. This was the first annual VPS Africa event, and hopefully more bowl skateboarders from more African countries will be inspired to take part as time progresses.

It was full-on both Friday and Saturday, with some of the heaviest bowl skating ever to go down on the continent. Check out a full gallery below to see a glimpse of what went down. All Photos by Jansen van Staden and Clint van der Schyf:

Robert Glover backside air