Last weekend Oberhausen, Germany, was the site of action and fun at the Nokia hosted "Don't be bored. Be totally board." lifestyle event at "CentrO," Europe's biggest shopping and recreational center. 120,000 came to see this spectacular event.
A huge ramp standing 30m in height and 100m in length was built on the main square at CentrO, and was covered with more than 500 tons of snow brought from Sölden in Austria. Some of the world's best snowboard and freeski riders were present to bring the excitement and fun of mountain sports to city kids. Despite rain showers during the day, the final contest under floodlights finally faced nice conditions. Dani Costandaché from Switzerland won the snowboard big air competition. Swedish Nokia Rider Tomas Johansson finished 12th but didn't mind too much about not being top ranked this time. He was happy just to be able to compete in front of such a huge crowd, which he said pushed him to test his limits. Tomas was also part of another activity: the kids could vote via SMS on their mobile phones for which of three tricks he performed was the best.
The Freeski Big Air was another spectacular contest on the snow ramp, won by Evan Raps (USA), ahead of Rex Thoms from Canada and the Finnish Freestyle World Cup champion and Nagano Olympics Silver medallist Janne Lahtela. Vert ramp skateboarding featured Tony Hawk, the world's most famous skateboarder. The wakeboard contest, held just a few footsteps away from the vert ramp was won by Hardy Tunnissen from Germany, ahead of Bernhard Hinterberger and Benjamin Sühs.
In the evening of the second day there was an Open Air concert starring Bomfunk MC's. The two-day event ended with an After Show Party, attended by 6,000 people. Nobody was bored - just totally board!
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