Eight regional skate shops docked in Wilmington, North Carolina, for Red Bull Battleship, a head-to-head team skateboarding tournament set on the historic WWII USS North Carolina.
Eight southeast skate shops looked to capsize the competition on December 13, but it was Westside Skate Shop whose three-man team, Brent Sowinsky, TJ Sparks and Willy Kane, avoided being sunk throughout the double elimination rounds. In the final battle they faced off with their hometown rival, Skate Park of Tampa, to narrowly edge them out and take the first ever Red Bull Battleship title. ‘Today was a lot of fun and it was really cool that Red Bull was able to get us to skate on the battleship,’ said TJ Sparks with Westside Skate Shop. ‘This was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime thing.’
The battleship, which is located on Cape Fear River, was transformed into a skate park overnight with a course layout that incorporated kicker ramps, manny pads and rails with natural features of the ship to ollie. The technical course might have left some competitors swearing like sailors, but it didn’t stop local skater Josiah Gatlyn from landing a double kick flip fakey on the quarter pipe or Skate Park of Tampa’s Dylan Perry from pulling off an ollie 5-0 over the gap. In the end, it was the team from Westside Skate Shop that nailed the most consistent runs and best tricks to take home the victory.
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