The Battle of Sickenburg. An event near and dear to my heart. The first one went down in March ’05. It was a turning point for a small skateboard company recently out on it’s own solo with no partner. What started out as a silly idea by skateboaders doing what they do best: skating and chuggin’ brews. The whole thing centered around a beer cooler type trophy we envisioned that was re-stockable. The winner would receive nothing but the trophy filled with their favorite beverage. The holder had to pass it on to the winner of the next one – restocked and modified however they wanted. The first incarnation of the Battle of Sickenburg Beer Cooler Trophy was a modified 6-pack cooler by yours truly and Dan McCabe, complete with vintage Indy Trucks and some wheels I don’t remember. The format of the contest was there was no format. Whoever had the most fun wins by crowd choice.
The time we did it we worked with the local community center and made everyone donate some usable used skate gear for the locals. They were stoked! We ended up doing a total of 10 Battle of Sickenburg events over the years (a list of winners is another story), people have been clamoring for another.
Skateboarding, BBQ’ing and friends…the simplest events are the best.
by Michael Cornelius
It started as a simple idea; bring some friends out to the Wickenberg skatepark to have a session. It can get lonely sessioning there. It’s a small town and not too many skaters session the nice bowl they have there nestled under the shade of some mature trees. So the idea hatched to gather up and head out there. But one good idea deserves another, and one thing let to another, so before you knew it it was a full-on jam. Bring the grills, set up for the day, bring the wife and kids. And while were at it, how about a trophy for the sickest skater of the day? Done. And the sketchiest? He’ll get one too. Since were totally taking over these kids park how about gathering up all our leftover but useable gear and pass it out to the locals, just to stoke em out. Not a bad idea.
The forecast was a bit sketchy. It rained the night before and dark clouds were dropping rain on various spots the morning of the jam. The consensus was to give it a go and bring some gear in case we needed to dry the bowl up.
And so it went down; close to twenty skaters converged on the Wickenberg skatepark to tear it up all day long. Grinds were slashed, burgers charred, beers swilled. Yes, beers are allowed at the Wickenberg park if your are of the age to partake. That makes it worth the trip right there.
The session cooked for a good long time but it never turned into a snake session. The little guys and gals even got their runs in.
As the sun started to fade and the clouds closed in the awards were passed out. Chris Kelley was the chioce for the mighty fine beer cooler AZPX trophy and a Aaron Prince, received the 2nd place honors Aaron donated a brand new deck to the local kids and skated hard all day. SkateRock.com t-shirts and other swag was flowed as well.
On the drive home the clouds opened up and it rained hard. Ha ha, too late, we had our fun. I guess a tradition has been started. Everyone was talking about when to do it again. Is next weekend too soon?
PHOTOS
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