For the first time ever, the Scandinavian Real Street finals were held somewhere else than in the Copenhagen area. As it was the first time ever, that such a big inline event had been held in Oslo, this also meant new surroundings for the skaters, a new afterparty place, and some new good times.

Ignition skateshop and the Powerslide Conference (Deshi, USD, Kizer, Sifika, Undercover, and Stygma) made the competition possible by sponsoring the whole tour of 6 competitions as well as sponsoring the main prize of 500 Euros for the finals.

The weather had been perfect for 3 weeks – 25-30 degrees celcius and high sun. I guess it just couldn't last for the SRSC weekend. When we arrived in Oslo on friday morning, the clouds were waiting to burst open as soon as we hit the streets for skating.

This meant that we only skated indoor spots this friday. Oslo is a city with a seemingly uncountable number of spots, so we got to skate 4 indoor spots the day before. It seemed as the rain had scared the normal large amount of people that usually gather up to skate some good sessions in the days before the real street finals.

After some good skating sessions with 20-30 skaters at the end of the day, we went home to watch some videos and get ready for the next day. The weather forecast was not good for the next day. :-(

As soon as we woke up the next day (saturday – the competition day), we checked the weather… not good. The streets were filled with rain. My fellow RSC organizers and I went to see if we could get permission to skate some perfect indoor metal curbs at a downtown hotel. Unfortunately the hotel manager had a bad day and didn't want some extra excitement in her watch. After a long discussion whether or not to postpone it for the next day, we decided to use the indoor spots we used the day before. The final spot was an indoor spot anyway, so it was only spot 1 and 2 that had to be changed.

So after quite some hassle, we had communicated to all the skaters that the spots had been moved. Finally, one hour late, we could start the competition.

The crowd were not as big as in usual finals, but what surprised me was that all the hardcore and truly dedicated skaters that could really skate were there. All the locals from around Norway had also gathered up, but didn't dare to skate in the finals, but they made a great crowd of around 100 skaters. Few – but loud and enthusiastic.

The skating was top notch from all the competitors. The first spot were moved to the KPMG building – some really nice smooth ledges – some spared from the rain. The most memorable tricks from first spot were Jacob Juul's fullcab line tricks, Adam Skuggan's negative fishbrain to budget negative topside citric acid!!!, and the norwegian budget master tricks.

The second spot were moved to the Helsfyr rails: two long flat rails for switch-ups. The first group at this spot kicked it in with some amazing skating. I've never witnessed a harder job as a judge to decide who should or should not go to the final spot. Sam Cabaza, laced some really nice switch-ups – for instance topside pornstar to backside royale budget alleyoop topside pornstar, truespin mizous, truespin topsouls, etc. English Jon Hubbard did some looooong backside torques and fast switch-ups, and Henrik Jensen did a sweet royale to alleyoop topside soul to royale to alleyoop topside soul. Jojje Nyberg did his signature toppornstar budget truespin mizou as well as his topside acid budget topside mistrial. Other sick tricks were Jacob Juul's 270 backside savannah to frontside fahvergnugen, Henrik Hays' fluent and flowing style, Seth Nicolas' alleyoop and truespin tricks, and Stian Christiansen's topside acid budget alleyoop pornstar and his frontside unity to topside pornstar (looked so sweet!).

The final spot was the Lindeberg T-bane station. This spot has first a 6-7 meter fairly steep rail and after that two other rails like the first one, but connected so that transfers between the two are possible. The finals started at the top rail. Highlights from this rail was Jacob Juul's truespin topside pornstar, 360 hurricane topsoul and 360 hurricane topside acid, Seth Nicolas' fullcab alleyoop fishbrain, Kenth Ulvedahl's truespin pornstar as well as tons of other sweet tricks I can't remember now. The atmosphere was great – people were shouting, clapping and having a great time.

After a while the finals moved down to the two transfer rails. Here Stian Christensen transfered the two rails in topsoul to topsoul, Jonas Bødtker in Topsoul to backside royale and later topsoul to truespin mizou. Seth Nicolas also transfered the two rails in topside soul to topside soul after a bunch of fishbrain to royale tries. Jacob Juul had the cool view over the situation. He quickly laced the topsoul to topsoul transfer, and as soon as people had done this, he did a hurricane 360 topside soul transfer to topside soul. There were no doubt in who the winner should be.

The final placement were: 1. Jacob Juul Petersen (Denmark) 2. Jonas Bødtker (Norway) 3. Seth Nicolas (Denmark) 4. Stian Christensen (Norway)

Jacob Juul Petersen went home with a cash prize of 4500 norwegian kroners (500 Euros plus entry fees!).

The next day, the sun finally showed, so that day it was street sessions on the local spots of Oslo as well as a sick miniramp session.

Again – another weekend to remember. Can't stop thinking of how many good times skating has brought me. Thanks to Jonas Bødtker, Kjetil V. Stø and Jay Cho for helping out with the competition and for letting so many people sleep in their appartment.

Hope to see you all soon!

- Anders Toxboe