Once again, Skaters from all over the world will meet in Mönchengladbach, Germany to compete, learn from each other, meet and greet and have a lot of fun. Do we care about bad weather? No, we don’t, since it’s an indoor event. Come hell or high water, on this week-end, Cones will be kicked, Wheels will roll and Trophies will be awarded.

Entry to the Event is free on all days and spectators are highly welcome. Participation in the Battles (which are official WSSA Battles counting towards the World Ranking) will cost 8 Euros, which also includes an Event T-Shirt. Of course, the T-Shirt is also available for everyone else who wants one (or two or three…) for the same price until stocks last. 

We also organize two diners. On Friday at around 22:00, we will go to the Mokka in Viersen, who exceptionally keep their kitchen open for us. The translated menu is at the bottom of this post. On Saturday, we will visit the Chinese Restaurant near the Hall. 

Catering during the Event is also been taken care of, with Sausages, Sandwiches, Yoghurt and other Sweets being available, along with Soft-Drinks, Water, Hot Chocolate, Coffee and Sport Drinks. 

If you cannot attend the Event, we will have a Live-Webcam, an Event-Ticker on our Forum and on Twitter. 

Registrations for the Battles are still open until Saturday, 13:00. No registration is required for Spectators – come along, bring your friends, your family, your local skate-community, everyone is welcome! 

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions, if you want to register, if you want to have a T-Shirt put aside for you (highly recommended if you want one in your size) or really for anything else you’d be interested in, drop us an e-Mail at info(at)roller-days.de 

Time Table Roller Days 2009 
(All Times are CET, GMT+1) 
On all days, Entry for Spectators is free. 

Friday, February 13, 2009 
1800: Entry into the Hall possible 

1900 - 2300: Roller Disco (Free Entry) 
You don’t have to be a Pro, this Event is all about having Fun! Organized by GSRC and 4WheelFreestyle and open to everyone, we’re going to hit the Dancefloor on Friday Evening! 

2200 - ????: Dinner at Mokka 
See Menu. 

Saturday, February 14, 2009 
0900 – 1400: Free Training, Workshops, Battle Registration 
Saturday morning is all about free Skating and Workshops. You have the entire Hall available to practice, learn new tricks or prepare for the Battles. 
If you want to participate in the Battles, you can register on site until 1300. After 1300, further registrations may not be possible due to planning reasons. 

1400 – 2000: WSSA Battle Competitions 
Starting on 1400, we will hold the Battles. Currently, we anticipate to hold them in the following order: 
- Speed Slalom 
- Slide Contest 
- Freestyle Slalom Qualifications and First Rounds 

2000 – 2200: Fun Contests, Party Skating, Relaxing 
After a hard day of battle, the entire hall is once again available for fun skating. Depending on the remaining time and circumstances, fun contests (e.g. Free Jump) may be held, but essentially you’re free to do whatever you want. 

Sunday, February 15, 2009 

1000 – 1800: WSSA Battles 
Starting at 1000, we will hold the remaining rounds and finals of the Men and Women Freestyle Slalom Battles. 
Afterwards, the Mixed Team Battle will take place. 
Award Ceremonies will complete the Event  

Menu of the Mokka 
Snacks 
• Ciabatta bread with cherry tomatoes and mini-mozzarella, au gratin – 3.50 € 
• Roasted Ciabatta with tomatoes, onions, olive oil and garlic – 3.50 € 
• Grilled Turkey Hen pieces in chili sauce, sesame and curry – 4.50 € 
• Warm Goat Cheese on steamed chicory with tomatoes and pignolias – 4.50 € 

Main Dishes 
• Miscellaneous Salad with grilled turkey hen pieces – € 8.00 
• Tortellini in Tuna-Olive Sauce with Tomato-flavor and Parmesan - € 6.00 
• Baked Potato with a crème of herbs with vegetables on salad - € 6.00 
• Penne with roasted vegetables in cream sauce - € 6.00 
• Penne with beef Bolognese sauce and Parmesan - € 6.00 
• Escalope on cream sauce with fried potatoes and miscellaneous salad - € 7.50

In 2009, the 4WheelFreestyle Team is working on the next incarnation, this time called "Roller Days 2009". Like last year, this will once again feature a WSSA Freestyle Slalom Battle, but also a lot more events like Roller Disco, Fun Contests, Party-Skating, etc...

Looks like another weekend with way to little sleep but more than enough fun as a compensation incoming...

And of course, with such an Event, the team of 4WheelFreestyle was also at the Event. On Friday, we did a lot of free training and meet & greet. Oh, by the way: Congratulations to this couple! The Friday ended at the place near Hotel d'Invalides, with more skating and meeting more people. The day ended with a trip on the Metro (I need to get another backpack, the existing is too bulky) and a visit to a restaurant that had some interesting wall decorations…

Saturday started with the confirmation that you CAN have 4 people in 31m² without people stepping on each other's toes, and also with the confirmation that the French can't Park So, back to Trocadéro, the sun was burning but luckily there were some clouds to make it endurable. With the lighting being a challenge, it looks a bit like the world is going to end any minute During Saturday, the first part of the Men Freestyle Battles started. At the beginning, there were 48 Riders, in 16 groups of 3 each and the first 2 riders to qualify for the next round. Unfortunately, some German Riders already bit the dust during Round 1, finishing 3^rd in their group: Thomas Vilcans from 4WheelFreestyle, Bernhard Kuhn and Heiko Bader could already change their plans for Sunday. At the end, 32 Riders were left for Sunday. For 4WheelFreestyle, Rudy Op't Veld and Michel Schulz were successful in this round. (From left to right: Thomas, Rudy, Michel). The day ended at Notre Dame, that beautiful church that attracts a lot of people. It was nice, having all those bystanders and "accidential" visitors.

The final day of the Event - Sunday - started with the Women Battles. With 12 girls competing, we had 4 groups of 3, with the last one being eliminated. Sadly, Miriam Kwasny and Antonia Eggert did not make it past round 1, leaving 8 Riders (what's the female form of Rider by the way? Ridestress?) for the next reound (2 groups of 4). At the end – surprise, surprise – Chloe Seyres of Team Seba won, ahead of Polina Semenova and Nathalie Rager.

Also, Sunday had the Men Finals. 32 Riders in 8 Groups of 4, with the first 2 Riders going to the next round. From the German perspective, we lost Stephan Ullmann, Jan Gresens and André Stepczac on Position 4 and Michel Schulz on Position 3 of their groups. From the remaining three German Riders, Martin Sloboda was eliminated in the Quarter Finals, and Mischa Gurevich (who would later finish 7^th) in the Semi-Finals. The Finals had a surprise for us, even though it is not really a surprise if you see the final: Rudy op't Veld finished second, in a Group with Igor Cheremetieff (who won the event), Tiziano Ferrari and Kirill Ryazantsev. In this picture, Rudy is the one with the white shirt and the german flag, Igor is standing right of him (not holding anything), and Tiziano on the left. On the left side of Tiziano, there is Kirill, and on the left side of him, there is Olivier Herrero, the 5^th Placed rider.

Needless to say, we were really happy with the week-end, even though I am mentally kicking my ass for forgetting to get sun blocker, and now I've got pretty bad sun burns.. sigh… well, a minor price to pay for this great event!

Links:

• Complete Results for Freestyle & Speed
• My Photo Album
• Videos of the Men and Women Final at Rekil
• Videos of the Men and Women Final (Streaming)
• 4WheelFreestyle Result News
• 4WheelFreestyle Forum Posting
• Hyb-Ride Forum Posting (French)

Friday, 15.02.2008

On Friday, we spent the Evening with moving all the technical equipment in place. Organizing such an Event is a lot more complicated that it may seem at first, and the list of equipment needed grows and grows and grows... Anyway, putting everything in the cars and the trailer and driving to Mönchengladbach Neuwerk was the easy part. But then, it had to be moved downstairs, which was easy for the small things, but interesting for the big speaker cabinets. But well, this is the first of 3 days and we were still fresh and relaxed, so building the Team Area was straight forward.

Also, the first guests arrived and after doing some free training, we spent a nice evening at the Mokka in Viersen till 1:30 or so.

Saturday, 16.02.2008

After a very short night of maybe 5 or so hours of sleep, we started into a much too cold day at 7:00. As we had a little shop on the Event, we had to take the pile of stuff from Thomas' apartment into the car and to the event. The official start of the Event was at 10:00, and the time until 16:00 was spent with Workshops and free training and preparing the top-notch equipment that was used to make some 3000 photos and countless hours of video. At 16:00, the Battles started. With Sebastian Lafargue, Thomas Vilcans and Rudy Op't Veldt as Judges it was guaranteed to have proper and well-founded judgements, even though it was a pity not seeing Rudy and Thomas compete in the Freestyle Battles.

The day ended at 22:00, and I think I never felt my feet with such an intensity than on that evening. But regardless of exhaustion, it was a very nice day.

Sunday, 17.02.2008

Sunday started with the Final rounds of Speed Slalom. Thanks to the Freestyle Slalomskater Munich Team, we had a light barrier and a nice display of the times. For the Men, Seba won the Speed Slalom, and Chloe Seyres was successful for the women.

After Speed Slalom, we went on to the finals of Freestyle Slalom. Chris Fessel won the Event for the Men, and Chloe Seyres was successful for the Women. The Riders seemed to like the Winner Certificates - they have style, certainly. Also, the Podium is a nice example of why multi-function sport halls are useful

One of the attractions of the Event was the DJ Equipment, thanks to Thomas. The people liked the live DJ set on Saturday evening. As Thomas was one of the Judges, Michel took over the music during the battles.

And as my personal Highlight, I could add some Souvenirs to my 4WheelFreestyle Shirt

Overall, it was a great event. It was quite exhausting but it was surely worth it. If you want some more photos, check out my album of the 4WheelFreestyle Forum Thread.

The full list of results is available here.