Skateboarding the winner at the Mv2 Adl Cup

Annual Onkaparinga skateboarding event, the Mv2 Adl Cup, was held at Christie Downs’ Niipu-niipu Wama/Morton Park skate park on Saturday 18 November, drawing more than 300 spectators—including one of the organiser’s impressed parents.

Some of the state’s best skateboarders were among the competitors on the day—ranging from six-year-olds to 50-year-olds—and they battled it out across 11 divisions including junior age brackets, open and best trick. You can see all the results via liveheats.com.

The event, which Mv2 owner Eric Varga called one of the best held in the City of Onkaparinga in the past 30 years, was organised by Free Mind Skate School founder Josh Smith, and supported by Onkaparinga Youth and a range of other organisations and individuals (see below).

It was the perfect warm-up to the BMD Southern Rumble event—the first stop of the 2024 BMD Rumble Pro Tour—on Saturday 20 January 2023.

The BMD Southern Rumble will be the second time the City of Onkaparinga has hosted a national-level skateboarding event after the inaugural Southern Rumble at Niipu-niipu Wama/Morton Park in 2022.

The skate park at Niipu-niipu Wama/Morton Park opened in October 2021 after the City of Onkaparinga partnered with the Roger Rasheed Sports Foundation, the local community and state and federal governments to transform the Morton Road Reserve into an active family friendly destination.

Since the opening of the park in 2021, City of Onkaparinga and the Roger Rasheed Sports Foundation have been running free weekly sport programs for the community. Monday skateboarding is by far the most popular and consistent of the programs, indicating the sport’s appeal to young people. In fact, 40 per cent of the junior participants in the Mv2 Adl Cup are regular participants of the Roger Rasheed Sports Foundation programs!

Local skate competitions present the community opportunities to be involved in organised sport events they may not usually have access to. With many young people not actively involved in organised sport, skateboarding offers them an alternative and an opportunity.

The skateboarding culture in Onkaparinga is amazing to see, and the accessibility of skateboarding offers something for everyone no matter the age, gender or ability level.

The Morton skate park’s capacity for hosting major skateboarding events was highlighted by Mv2 owner, Eric Varga, who took to Facebook this week to celebrate the Mv2 Adl Cup’s success on Saturday. You may need to Google Translate into skateboarding for some of the references:

My oh my, where do I even start!! The Mv2 Adl Cup was hands down one of the best skateboard competitions held in the City of Onkaparinga region.... and that's 30 years worth. From working with Ken Moyle in the South Side skate club in the 90s to working with Onkaparinga Youth, Jolyn Phillipps, Jeffery Purves and Nadia Yacoubi, Free Mind Skate School's founder Josh Smith and Jack Saddler. This comp was a perfect example of community coming together and sharing a passion in its purest form; in the way of jams and expression session to the Olympic/Street league style format. We had the generations covered from six year olds up to 50 plus year olds! Everyone, and I mean everyone gave it their all on the park.

The Metallica "Master of Puppets", session was chaos, as nearly 30 middle aged shredders trying not to run into each other each other for eight minutes!! Thank you so much to everyone in that session... It was a great time... even my parents loved it hahahaha

The cash grab in four zones was high in energy, but Ash Smart's energy on the microphone was even higher... It was an absolute treat seeing Justin Edwards huck huge flips over the bank, Shane Wallace destroying every part of the park on an old school fish tale and Beau Hinge do stair sets, Max's display of power on every centimetre of concrete was a demo in itself! Who knew that Saul Matthews still could heel flip a double set. Bohdi Smith blitzed the bowl in his casual attacking style... The days soundtrack put together by Simon Ingels perfect matched the energy that the skaters were putting out. A massive shout out to Andre Zee and Simon Owen for sponsoring the cash jam, Bradley's Bakery, Grounded Lonsdale, Australian Skateboarding Federation for full support.

It was great to see so many familiar faces from over the years come through to see what I love to do, to see what skateboarding has to offer and see what the skaters get out of it. It was a perfect example of showing the public we're just not a bunch of skate rats breaking stuff out on the streets!

The most profound quote was by Ethan Ivanovic, "Such a simple thing of some wheels bolted onto a piece of wood brings so much joy"... put that on a sticker!

My parents come to their first skate comp after all these years. They were probably thinking "What does Eric do with all these skateboard toys?", but Stefan and Ann had a great time and experienced why I love skateboarding. I even got the ol' "You be careful!!", by mum.

Thank you to all the parents, skaters, officials, security, Free Mind Skate School, Sk8 Mates, Little RADlings, City of Onkaparinga, Onkaparinga Youth for supporting Mv2 Adl and all our staff and skaters. Without you, we wouldn't exist.

Please share your photos on this thread! I can show the oldies the smiles and stories later.

Till next year, keep shredding, keep smiling, stay rad and get some grinds.

YEEEEWWWWWWW!!

Eric

Three young women in skateboarding gear smile with their Mv2 Adl Cup awards.

A skateboarder flies through the air. A group of people at a skateboarding event smile at the camera with their arms around one another. A young skater grinds his skateboard along the coping. A young girl skater glides along the skate park. A skater does a big air up a ramp. A black-and-white photo of a shirtless skateboarder grinding along a rail. A group of young smiling skateboarders huddle together. Three open men's skateboarders pose for the camera with their awards.