BOWL-A-RAMA 2016

By Niall Roeder.

As the name suggests, BOWL-A-RAMA is a bowl-oriented event. It’s actually Australia’s biggest skate event… and it happens to take place in a massive bowl. A skate bowl that is.

For all you non-skate folk and the unfortunate souls who didn’t get to experience the virtual joy of playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater on PlayStation, you might not know what a skate bowl is. Let me enlighten you.

In the 70s, the now famous Z-Boys of South Cali took to skating drained swimming pools during a drought, and in doing so gave birth to vertical skating and aerial manoeuvres. Skip forward to today and bowls are commonplace in skate parks and are designed to emulate the pool skating experience. Class dismissed.

So, back to BOWL-A-RAMA; a skate comp held metres from the sands of Bondi Beach, in a seaside skate bowl, surrounded by a new stadium, live music and stalls selling grub. GET IN! This isn’t a comp for chumps either… The best of the best are rocking up to get as much air as possible without cracking skulls and snapping bones all for your enjoyment… ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!

The all-star crew hitting the bowl includes skate legends Tony ‘The Birdman’ Hawk, Steve Caballero, Omar Hassan, Pedro Barros, Eddie Elguera and heaps of other nutters willing to risk injury for the glory of victory and the cheer of the crowd. Gladiators on wheels I tell ya.

The comp is broken up into the following groups: Masters, Pros, Juniors, Females and All Riders. Saturday will see the heats run and then Sunday the semis, Girl Jam, Finals and Best Trick slots.

We’re mega fans of this event. So much so we made it our mission to be involved… so as it turns out, QT Bondi is now the official hotel partner for BOWL-A-RAMA. And we’re pretty bloody stoked about it to be honest. The legends at BOWL-A-RAMA have shown us some love back by swinging us a stack of VIP passes that guests can use during their weekend stay. So if you’re in and keen, holler at us.

Skate or die.

BOWL-A-RAMA runs February 20 – 21