SKATEBOARDER Mike Bancroft was injured before Bowl-a-rama, last year’s international skateboarding competition, had even begun. But he still competed.
“I got hit by a car following last year’s pre-party so I didn’t do as well as I could have in the competition because I had a sling,’ he says.
His injury meant that, unlike 2009 when he was placed 12th, he didn’t make it in the top 15 prize winners. This year, Bancroft is determined to “go fast and hang loose”.
Bowl-a-rama, a World Cup Skateboarding sanctioned event, features an impressive line-up of international skaters including Pedro Barros, Omar Hassan, Sky Sijeg, Josh Borden, Rune Glifberg, and NZ’s Mike Bancroft, amongst others, as well as a week of festivities leading up to the event. The first prize is A$30,000 – the largest prize pool in NZ to date.
Bancroft doesn’t do it for the money though, he just loves to skate.
“My style is old meets new. I like doing old-school hand plants but you also have to keep up with the new tricks.
Everyone has their own style – it’s like dancing. You just have to do things in your own style because most tricks have been done anyway,” he says.
Despite a love of the street, bowl skating is his favourite.
“It’s fun on the streets because you have this sense that you could be the first person to do a trick or something on that particular spot.
“You get skaters who love the street and hate the skate parks. More parks are being built, I guess to keep the kids off the streets. They are kind of on the right track but not really because some people will always want to skate the street – especially if you get kicked out of a spot,” he says laughing.
“We’re not out to cause trouble but you’ll try to go back to that spot and get the trick. Last time I was in Wellington it felt like I got kicked out of everywhere,” he says, amused.
Bancroft is not only a talented skater but is a NZ Air Guitar champion. In 2008 he was the NZ champion, and got through to the Australian Air Guitar Championship, in which he was placed fifth.
“I pretty much got a rockstar holiday for free,” he says.
Last year he announced his retirement as an air guitarist, but it sounds like a come-back is on the cards.
“The guy that came first last year broke the only rule – you can’t leave the stage. But he rolled into the crowd and it was on the news and everything so that’s Australians for you,” he says, laughing. “In a world of their own - those guys.
“You can’t really take it too seriously though. In Finland, where they hold the Air Guitar World Championships they take it very seriously but I just want to win it once.”
Bowl-a-rama, Waitangi Park, 5.30pm, February 12.