TITUS "Destroy The Spot" | "Hotel New York" Rotterdam
No cruise - lots of bangers!
Photos & Words: T. Gentsch
While our crew headed through a traffic jam on the Erasmus Bridge, the location of the first "Destroy the Spot" event of 2023 was supposed to be on our right. However, on Sunday, May 29, 2023, that wasn’t possible because a huge cruise ship took up almost the entire length of the "Hotel New York" island! For people who don't live in a port city, such a sight is always fascinating. A truly massive floating hotel anchored and ready for travel. The idea of traveling with this ship for 7 days to New York is no less exciting. Fortunately, the ship ended up setting a great backdrop for photos and video of our event that was about to begin.
Even in a big, spot-filled city like Rotterdam, it's not exactly easy to hold a "Destroy the Spot" contest. You need a street spot that has several, individual spots to skate, offers space for numerous skaters and on top of that, is not a bust. This year the "Wooden Plank Spot" on the "Hotel New York" island was chosen. An OG Rotterdam spot that’s not as easy to skate as it might seem. Nevertheless, when the best skateboarders in Holland come together, there’s definitely something going down. This became clear over the course of the day.
We started off with a small "kids event". After all, it’s always good to give the kids a chance to prove their skills. At about 2:30 p.m., we started with a small session at the long 2 stair and the first TITUS goodies were handed out. After that, we went to the first "real" spot, the low-to-high ledge, which had to be skated in a line, i.e. first a trick at the beginning of the ledge and then off the low to high section. Here, the Titus Tornados team riders that had come along with us really stepped on the gas, but it was OG Robin de Witt who truly "destroyed the spot”.
The third spot was then a nearby gap which some skaters initially questioned. How should you land on the horizontally laid wooden deck planks? Some skaters managed with a slightly diagonal approach, but the bottom line was that a perfect landing was basically required. Regardless, at least 30 tricks were stomped with Deniel Cramer alone stomping 5 for himself. In the end, however, it was Yassine Chadi who won the event with an amazing ghetto bird, among other tricks.
Shortly before the award ceremony where Douwe Macare was honored as "Overall MVP" together with two other winners, Jason Ljnzaat put on a little stunt performance. He ran up the really steep bank with his board in hand, up to the glassy part, and jumped on a frontside boneless before bombing the steep bank. The photo should make it clear how gnarly THAT was! After that, the event came to a close and we ended the day with a street session. So Rotterdam, as always, was more than worth the trip!