Vans APAC showdown by Pa’din Musa went live in the heart of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. In this special event bringing all skaterboarders and artists from all over Asia close together to skate the newly and vibrant skatepark at Ampang, KL.
The Showdown kickstarted off with a premiere for the new holiday route film featuring Indonesia's top skaters such as Sanggoe Tanjung, Dede, Rubianda Pachman and Arik Bagiarta (Palit). The premiere was enjoyed with all the contestants other visitors in the surrounding area, plenty of good food and laughs.
The next day of the event, the qualifying rounds happened of many skaters having their last chance to qualify for the vans showdown. Even 1 day before the contest started, there was some really technical and big skateboarding. The likes of a young up-becoming skater from solo Indonesia, Basral Graito impressing the crowd with his strong and dialled flips over some pretty large gaps. Later on in the evening, we were to attend a history exhibition opening by 4OR Media at the Vans Pavillion, Bukit Bintang featuring old VHS tapes of some well known Malaysian skaters in the 90s
Finals Day, this was the nectar of all the event. The Vans APAC Showdown Final by Pa’din Musa had started around 2pm of a community market allowing all local stores or brands to display their fresh line of merchandise or coffee and food. Then the rounds started to begin, 12 rounds of 5 mins each the skateboarders battle against each other on best and big tricks. Now it's time for the final rounds where the likes of Ian Iman, Koya Miyasaka and Daiki Hoshino had reached through to the finals but were left knocked out by Sanggoe Tanjung, Rome Collyer and Basral Graito. Great skating was performed by all athletes, showing all levels of technical flips, slides and grinds but the winner had gone to Sanggoe with his bs smith over a 3 step the gap to barrier.
The last day was set out to be a fun day of going on a train visiting different skate spots of Kuala Lumpur, some newly built skateparks and some famous and well ridden gems that have been found in the city of the many years since skateboarding has been introduced to the city. One of the highlights of this experience was the holiday route challenge, where the skaters had been given a ramp with a dummy camel used as an obstacle to do tricks over, Basral Graito impressing the crowd with his large hardlip over the camel. The night was ended by a series of best tricks throughout the whole park that all skaters in the area could participate, the longest grind on straight ledge, longest grind/slide on curved ledge, best trick over barrier and finally best trick over a 3 step.
In the last moments of the 3-step challenge, Arik Bagiarta captivated the audience with a stunning buzzer-beater nollie backside flip. His initial shock upon landing swiftly transformed into a big smile, igniting a spontaneous celebration that swept through the crowd. It's worth noting that the event concluded on a remarkable high, with each skater departing, determined to realize their full potential and become the best versions of themselves.
Big love and thankyou to the team at Vans APAC for bringing us along to this spectacular event. Truly good memories were shared and hope to be apart of the next one ❤️