Thrasher Magazine

It’s Australian skateboarding’s biggest blowout of the year. The event that turns a turd into a Tim Tam never disappoints. We kicked off on a Friday arvo, throwing cash for tricks on the hot spots of CBR. It was nonstop action ensuing in the streets, alleyways, pubs and finally, the Belco bowl on the following evening. If Bondi Bowl-A-Rama, CPH Open and Swampfest somehow had a bastard child, it would be the Belco Bowl Jam. This year wasn’t just limited to Oz’s best—we also saw some of Vans’ heaviest from around the world join the parade. Too many tricks went down to count and there was some very hot contention for lord of the bowl. See for yourself who took home the horned helmet with this packed recap. —Wade Mclaughlin

Photos by Bryce Golder, Michael Burnett, Wade Mclaughlin and Luke Brown

First sights of the weekend, Chima and Rowan roll in on Canberra’s preferred method of public transport. Chima’s a good bloke and lends a ride to a local pisshead trying to make his way home from the TAB

For the first stop, we mobbed the ANU ledges

Hayley, Burnett, Poppy, Breezy, Sheezy and Liv prep for the show

Rob Pace kicks things off while Red commences the envelope emptying. Thanks to the many generous sponsors

Sam Atkins follows up. Dani Campbell took top honors at this spot. You’ll have to peep the clip to see what he did, though

Moving on...

Once again, thank you, Canberra, for letting this take place

Rome Collyer was on one and rifled off a bunch of tricks, including this kickflip front board

Jay Runciman made the trek from Adelaide and brought a backside hurricane with him

Cheers, Aimee!

Ben Saddleton put down a 270 lip before taking home the big wad at spot number two

All of Canberra’s best showed out

SUMMERRSS! Gabbers took a few tricks, including this front shove back 50-50

Whatever Sheezy is saying, Breezy and Poppy are living for it

Jay with a beautifully poised BSTS

Sammy Atkins came for the beer money with his BSNBS

Ben Weir, famous for pulling cats out of the bag, unleashes an unlikely Spanish grind

Didn’t see that one coming—Rob boardslides across and down

Next spot!

Indy custom built a highly-sackable flatbar of doom. Rob was first over with a 50-50, then this feeble straight after

Wads for days

Cheers, Cobber!

Gabbers narrowly avoids the nads

Justin Shmidt did this K grind way too easy

Second angle

Cheendog with the assist

A wild Nixen Osborne appears and flys straight across with a frontside 5-0

Restecpa!

Brad Saunders is back, front feeble

Gotta get another look. Whoa…

The crowd approved

Along with many others, Kieran got sacked big time. Here he opts to sip on the sidelines with uncle Conzy

Heated

Rome brought the crowd-pleaser, back Smith

Give the young man his money

Just when you thought it was over, Justin comes through with a hellish noseslide

Just when you thought it was over part two: HAYLEY!!!

Yes!

And finally, the wildcard! 

Off to the Vans X Church Alleyway Jam

Stickers

Zahba dabba doo

Aimee Massie was handing out Fireball shots but it didn’t impair her slappy crooks abilities

Marley Rae handles a blunt pop in on an obscure obstacle

Is it called a K grind because of Kieran? No, but he can certainly do them

Kalem Beange, otherwise known as "Leaf" or "Street Fighter," apparently—front blunt on the extension

Nixen boosting a FSO

Jett Dehaan with a rare one

Over on the stage we got Wheel Bite, a cover band that only plays songs from '80s skate videos

Cheers, c***s!

Zion and the Vans band

Surprise banger freestyle

Back on ramps, Rob back Smiths over the leg trap

The HUNKZ

Big Job Jimbo hunking it up

No stage can contain him

About 90 percent of the crowd's vision by this stage

Hmmm…

The leg-wrestling championship saw Conz take the crown—again. Who’s going to beat him?!

A humble champ

Needless to say, a few people left without their boards that night

Nothing good happens after midnight

I don’t remember exactly what was going on here, but I’m sure it was all fun

The following day, everyone met up at the library at high noon. Hats off to anyone who skated because it was pretty easy to get carried away on the opening night's festivities

Grilf AKA Ben Watts opens it up with a Smithers on the bump to rail

Canberra locals indulge in an Australian delicacy, the goon bag

Rome Collyer crushed every rail. Here he is with another marathon front feeble

Then he put the final nails in the coffin, going front board to forward and fakie

Next up, we get a look at the custom channel and vert-wall setup. Marley Rae pulls off a blunt to fakie

Nixen will invert anything you put in front of him

George Richards picks a nose

Daddy Dandy pocketed some beer money

Steven Piñeiro made the trek over for this tight front blunt

Made impact alright

Nixen took the cake with a crailslide over the channel—no Salba sauce necessary

Next up, eyes on the world's shittest double set. It wasn’t going to feature again, but it needed a kickflip. Who’s it gonna be?

Lenard Tejada!! He did this way too easy. Remember the name

BOOM!

Count the angles

Cash in hand

Some might say it’s illegal, but it’d be unAustralian if there wasn’t a Beni. Ray Macken, throwing the back leg off like a good man

The life of an outlaw

Shoota McGaven and his super cool princess

To the arena

Trilogy serving up the snags in true ‘Straya fashion

Scotty, I have one word: YES

Ray hucks a heely

There was only one place to go on the roll away, the conveniently located swamp

Ben Weir stayed dry after this switch heel

But Shmidy’s hardflip was rewarded with a dip in the drink. Nice arse, bro

Sammy won a quick $500 on the Surf Dive SEND

Guy in the sky

CAS$H

Time to kick out the jams… bowl jams, that is

Conz, the ultimate hype man

Harvey Campbell may be a grom, but he skated every damn thing! Keep an eye out for this kid

Overlord Omar was keeping a watchful eye on all the events

The girls absolutely kicked the bowls arse this year! Taniah Meyers warms things up with a back Smith

Local Katie Pike rips!

Aaliyah Wilson, frontside rock 'n' roll slide

Attitude

Gratitude

Mike D, MC for the past 20 years

Zahra Johns, gap to lip

Aaliyah backside nosegrinds all day

Stringin’ 'em together with frontside inverts

The crowd loves that!

Poppy!

Stackin'

Taniah, backside boneless for the paprazzi

Big love

Gotta love the Indy air from T-Dawg

And a boosted BSA from Aaliyah

Mitch 'n' Sam, "Yeah, probably gonna sit this next one out, aye"

Gabbers and Barney emerge

Curren Smithing for the longest-grind challenge

This frontside 50-50 around half the bowl would have easily taken the cake if grinding with two trucks was legal

Kieran takes the 5-0 fakie approach, absolutely cooking

Then he goes frontside, hot on Ethan Copeland's tail

Ethan sacked a kink rail a few weeks prior and fractured his tailbone. Still, he was able to take longest grind before sitting the rest of the event out

Highly controversial photo. Is it gonna be red or yellow? Mate…

Young Henry's with the refreshments

You already know

Longest invert official adjudicators

Jett Dehaan has a crack frontside invert

But it was a battle of the sadplants. RJ Barbaro almost had it. There was a fraction in it

Nixen, fully stretched

Ultimately it was Aus and NZ’s invert kid Nixen Osborne who took it out

Mum would be proud

The only back tat you need to know about

To the rafters!

Jam time. Keefer with an alley-oop Indy

Mashy did a couple stunts before battling a front blunt over the channel for the third year running and nearly rolled away. Next year, Mash! Swear on mums

El Lordo himself, high-speed assault with Jedd hot on his tail

Then he gives a nod to overlord Omar with a gap to lip from the deck and over the channel

This was Jedd Mckenzie’s first Bowl Jam and he was a definite crowd favorite

UUUUGGGHH

You got this

Kieran, gap front feeble

The neighboring KFC probably sold more chicken in one day than it has all year

STEELO!

Time for best trick over the channel

One of the rare occasions where Conz spoke into the mic instead of his beer

Marley Rae scored himself an NBD—back blunt to channel gap

Compromising position. We really want to see this one go down. Josh Matwijiw attempts a gap eggy

Piñeiro with the money grab. Another ode to Omar—you got to get here next year!

Jedd could have done two channels with this frontside flip. Believe it or not, this was a make

Piñeiro with the showstopper, gap to noseblunt slide

Showstopper

The Wilsons!

Steven and Zepp, double trouble 

What’s all this about?

Oh yeah, it's high-air time!

Starting off, Aaliyah gave it good nudge

In the end, it was a battle between Josh Matwijiw going backside and Jedd Mckenzie going frontside

Pretty good

Hangtime

There was a bee's dick in it

But Jedd got one that was a pretty clear winner

We love Mitch Tomlinson

Rip out the Vans extension

George Richards, back D from the crow's nest

Sam Giles had proper form on this rock 'n' roll

Harvey with a styled out front D

Fun fact: a few days after the event, Kieran had surgery on that left wrist

Josh…

… with a properly stalled andrecht

Adrenaline junkie

Then it was final jam time and Marley copped a nasty head knock straight out the gates. Don’t worry—he always looks like that

Kieran was stringing everything together in the last jam. Mach-10 nosegrind

Jedd, heelflip Indy

Zepp Hayes rips into a lengthy back Smith to tail

Approved

Jedd did a couple of these kickflip stalefishes throughout the day

And the crowd went wild every time 

You could tell Kieran wanted to revert this but made the snap decision to take it straight. The kid is next level

And that's time. Potty about to set forth thy winners and losers

Who could it be now?

Lord—Kieran Woolley (three years running. Can someone please come take him out?)
1st loser—Jedd Mckenzie
2nd loser—Steven Piñeiro

Influencers of Bowl Jam

That’s a wrap. This gremlin is off to the after party! See you in 2024!