etnies

Dustin Session's Estonia @ Simpel Session

Just wanted to drop a line and a couple pics from Estonia.... It was pretty cold (about 20F) and snowed almost everyday and I don't think I saw the sun once when we were there. Tallinn, the city the comp was held in, is right on the Baltic Sea and has a part of the town that is almost 1000 years old. We went into a pub that was founded in 1643 and dubbed "Estonia's first pub." Along with a lot of the other restaurants and bars in that area, your imagination tends to run wild about what could've and probably has gone down in these places. The bars paint pictures of serving wenches and people eating huge drumsticks...Danny took advantage of all of ‘em.

The comp was crazy—way bigger than what I expected—and with a fully sold out arena, wasted Estonian’s and Catfish on the mic, it was bound to be good. Josh Harrington won the high Air comp with 13.8ft out of a 10ft quarter...WTF.

He also proceeded to tear the Wessell-designed course a new asshole and won the contest too. Right near the end of the his run he looped out on a double b-spin alley-oop over a hip and dislocated jaw...that guy can ride a bike. Chase Hawk got second by making riding look as fun as I've ever seen and using the whole course...all with taking but one foot off his whole run and running no pegs or brakes. Mirra got third with a clicked turndown flair, flair whip and a bunch of other things I don't understand. Danny T-whipped down a 6 set to flat and you couldn't even hear him land. Joe blasted 2ft out of a 16ft vert wall, Aaron Ross did feeble grinds to T-whip so easy it looked like if he sneezed he'd do a tailwhip. Ronnie Surridge does good 360's. Sergio rode the whole place both ways like only Sergio could...and with a smile on his face.

There were parties every night and the guy to girl ratio had to be 1-2. Everybody speaks English, good food doesn't cost as much as it does here and 90% of the country has free wireless. Summer in Estonia must be amazing with much more agreeable temps and the sun only going down for a few hours.

Cheers to Risto Kalmre for putting on one hell of a contest…hopefully see you next year.

dustin