Skaters take on the 2024 Street Lines Skate Tournament

The 2024 Street Lines Skate Tournament recently took place at the renowned Thrashers Skatepark in Pretoria.

LW Mag and Dragon Energy presented the event in association with Converse, Garmin, Balwin Properties and DJI.

The fourth edition of the event saw defending event champions, and 2024 Olympians, Boipelo Awuah (Kimberley) and Brandon Valjalo (Johannesburg) reclaim their titles in the women’s and men’s divisions, respectively.

Street Lines has evolved into the biggest Skateboarding contest in South Africa with the event capped at 70 skateboarders from across the country competing in the women’s and men’s categories.

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Each year the level of skating increases and this year was no different as skaters took to the park in the qualifying rounds aiming to score enough points to make it into the finals and compete for their share of the R60 000 prize purse, and Garmin Instinct 2 smartwatches.

In the qualifying rounds, each skater had two 45-second runs with the top-scoring run counting, while in the finals each skater had two 45-second runs along with four best trick attempts, with the top-scoring run and top two best tricks counting towards their final score.

Judges took consistency, difficulty, style, and use of park into account when making their decisions that would see six women and 15 men advance to the finals.

In the women’s division, Street Lines newcomers, Danielle Pan (Johannesburg) and Ashley Gindre (Johannesburg) made their mark by skating the park with confidence and impressing the judges in a closely fought battle for second place.

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Ashley’s run included a Mellon Grab over the Box, a One Foot Nosegrab on the Quarterpipe and a Boneless on the Bank to secure her third place.

Danielle’s run included a Mellon Grab over the Box and on the Quarterpipe, a Mellon Grab 180 and a Boneless on the Bank to claim second place.

Hot off competing at the Paris Olympics, Boipelo Awuah retained her Street Lines title by winning the event for the fourth consecutive time.

Her use of park paired with consistency and technical tricks – 50-50 on the Pyramid Rail, Frontboard on the A-Frame Rail, Noseslide on the Pyramid, 50-50 down the big Hubba and 50-50’s straight and down the Pyramid Rail – resulted in a dominant performance and scored Awuah above the rest of the field.

The top 15 men took to the course in an exciting and competitive three-heat men’s division final.

Jean-Marc Johannes (Cape Town) was stylish and consistent throughout the day including tricks like a Lipslide down the Pyramid Rail, Bigspin on the Pyramid Hip, Fakie Noseslide 270 out on the Floor Box and a Nosegrind down the big Hubba into his runs to score his first Street Lines podium in third place.

Ethan Cairns (Cape Town), who won the first Street Lines Skate Tournament in 2021, was looking to secure another victory.

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Cairns’ runs through the park were strong and fast with technical tricks like his Backside Lipslide on the Pyramid Rail, Overcrook on the A-Frame, Nosegrind on the Converse Feature, Frontside Feeble on the big Rail, Backside 270 Boardslide on the A-Frame, and a Hurricane down the Pyramid Rail.

The judges’ score was enough for the runner-up position.

Brandon Valjalo had a busy year competing internationally, as well as at the Paris Olympics. He made it to South Africa just in time to defend his Street Lines title.

Valjalo was on-form throughout the day with high-intensity runs stacked with difficult and technical tricks; a huge Indie Shifty over the Box, Switch Tre-Flip on the Bank, 360 Shove-It on the Pyramid Hip, back-to-back 5-0 180 and Nosegrind 180 on the Floor Boxes, 270 Transfer from the Quarter to Bank, 360 Shove-It over the whole Pyramid and a Bigspin Boardslide on the Big Rail to be crowned the 2024 Street Lines champion.

The day ended with the Best Trick jam, with a host of competing skaters participating in the 30-minute jam session down the stair set featuring rails and hubbas.

Notable tricks landed were

• Ashton Banwell’s 180 Switch Nosegrind Switch heelflip out.

• Marci Rodrigues’ Flip Backside Tailslide Bigspin Out.

• Kyle Kheswa’s Hardflip Backside Tailslide to Fakie.

• Blue Nkomonde’s Bigspin Flip over the stairs to the flat.

• Allan Adams’ Flip Crooked Grind.

• In the end, it was Brandon Valjalo’s Bigspin Backside tailslide to Bigspin out to Fakie that took home the Best Trick title and a new DJI Neo Drone.

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Street Lines organiser, Ryan van der Spuy said it was incredible to see how quickly the Street Lines Skate Tournament has grown into the country’s premier skateboarding contest.

“We are proud to put this event together for the skaters and to allow them to showcase their skills.

“The focus on growth and development of the sport locally is key and Street Lines is a building block to what the future holds.”