The location: Barcelona. The task: to film a skate video. The participants: one team each from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and the USA. The winners: Andi, Thomas, Philipp and Mario. In total: the first Red Bull Skate Shot.
Five teams of three or four skaters each won their tickets to Barcelona in the preliminary round. Once there, the task was to produce a skate video – with the added challenge that each skater had to film, and each cameraman had to skate. Plus: the whole videoclip had to be finished in 48 hours.
Each team was assigned a “local hero” to act as a guide. But time was very tight, even with the guides – and it was used in many different ways. The Germans had trouble with the police, the Spanish team with the Red Bull Mini Cooper, the Americans with their camera – which unfortunately destroyed a whole tape full of tricks. The Swiss spent a long time looking for the right location, after being driven away from several spots.
And the Austrians? First they were surprised to have a guide, Julian Furones, whom they already knew from various skate videos. Then they ran through a multitude of tricks in “fast forward” mode. But they also had slow motion well under control: with the deadline getting ever closer, the Swiss already on their way to MACBA (Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona) – to visit the museum, not to skate – the Austrians had just managed to finish cutting their 40-second intro.
The jury understood and appreciated the difficult conditions of the competition – as it consisted of the competitors themselves. “We think the Germans are the favourites”, said Austrian team members Andi Fugger, Thomas Steinwender, Philipp Schuster and Mario Wirnsberger. But the majority of the jury voted for the Austrian team. They probably owe their victory to the colourful mix of tricks and shots that perfectly conveyed a message: skating is about doing everything you enjoy.
If you want to see all five clips, including the winning video itself, have a look here.
