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By: Abby Zsarnay

The Florida BowlRiders Cup is one of the few “big” girls skateboarding contests that is still in the United States. It is an amazing event that brings girl skaters together from across the country with all different abilities, backgrounds, and styles. All ages are welcomed with open arms and bowls, as the three-day contest gets underway.

This year, there was a turn-out of five girls at the first competition in New Smyrna Beach, FL and seven girls at the Kona skatepark in Jacksonville, FL. Let me start off by saying that the New Smyrna Beach park is one of my favorites to skate. It is a clover bowl with great transitions and reasonable pool coping that is challenging, yet skate-able even for those not used to skating pool coping.

This contest took place on Friday, March 9th, and this year, it was raining on and off all day (That’s Florida). This made it a very unique day. It was especially interesting to watch a few of the younger boys go down into the pool and work on drying it out with their shirts, just so that the girls could compete. Probably my favorite day of the competition.

The bowl at Kona skatepark is unique to itself and has more character than any bowl I have ever skated. I’m not even sure how old the bowl is, but you can tell that it has seen its fair share of skaters and rippers tearing it apart. This day of the contest (Saturday, March 10th) was very cold and windy, but no rain this time. I have really come to believe that this bowl has the ability to pull the monster skater out of people as I watched all of the girls step it up even more than at New Smyrna and that’s saying something.

Although this year was not the best turn-out they have had for the girls division, the Florida BowlRiders crew that sets up the events are shooting to get to the maximum limit of 20 girls for the 2013 event. That would be amazing to have 20 girls compete in each event! This awesome crew is run by Martin, Laurie & Cassidy Ramos. They are family oriented, professional, very organized, and put on an amazing event.

Make sure to put it on your calendars as soon as the official dates are released, as we are going to get a true girls division going. All ages and all abilities are welcomed and respected the same, so there is no excuse not to come out and participate in next year’s Florida BowlRiders Cup!!

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