Niels Mostert is one of the organizers of the Teenage Riot , the largest skate contest for kids in Holland, The contest is for kids aged 0-16, both sponsored and unsponsored, with a division into 5 age categories. On the 13th october at the Skateland in Rotterdam was held the 2nd edition of the Teenage Riot, after the contest I have asked some questions to Niels about the contest.
Enjoy Reading 🙂
The results of the skateboard contest are HERE
Foto’s by Ziggy Schaap
You are one of the organizers of the Teenage Riot the largest skate contest for kids in Holland. This year was held the 2nd edition of this event. How it was this year?
Yes, together with Patrick Moelaert I have organized Teenage Riot this year. The first steps in preparations were to evaluate the event of last year. What went well and what should we have done better? Based on those outcomes, we made a smart plan for Teenage Riot 2013. It was great to build and execute that plan, and the result was amazing! We had 153 kids that registered at the event and participated in the contest. This was the largest kids-skateboarding event in the Benelux!
How many people were involved for the organization?
It all started off with just Patrick and myself , we voluntarily initiated this out our passion for skateboarding and the feeling the need of an event like this for the skateboarding youth. During the planning and organization, we attracted more people to help us out, location facility people, DJ’s, hosts, jury and sponsors. In the end roughly 20 people were involved to make this event a success.
How long it takes to organize an event like this?
We started our first preparations in March 2013. So from then to October 2013, it took us about 7 months. However, you should consider that we have a normal daytime job and that we organized Teenage Riot part-time and on the side. So effectively we could have done in a shorter period of time. But it was nice to be able to have so much time to prepare well. Our sponsors applauded our timing, they were joyfully surprised to be working with us so far in advance.
This was the 2nd edition. From where this idea born?
Patrick and I both have sons that skateboard, that’s how we have met a couple of years ago. We both found that the skateboarding industry is very focused on older skateboarders that have broken through as talents and not so much at the skateboarding youth that enjoys skateboarding but might never break through. Sometimes there are some contests where kids can participate in a special category for all kids below 15 year old, but how can a 9 year old skateboarder shine when 14 year talents with flow deals go home with all the prices?
That’s why we said that we wanted to organize a youth-only skateboarding event with a primary goal to make it a joyful day for all contestants. Part of that goal is our strategy to break up the contestants into different age groups, so that more kids can shine and win prices.
What differences have you noticed between the first and second editions ( riders tricks , participants)
We felt that many kids without a sponsor did not participate last year because they would not stand a chance against the sponsored riders that are usually a lot better. So this year we made an important change, namely to split the contestants up into age groups AND additionally to split the sponsored kids from the unsponsored kids. The result was amazing, many more kids showed up to participate, especially in the category of unsponsored skateboarders.
In general, that caused a decrease of quality tricks, but that is not what the event is about. Every single kid that we have spoken afterwards was hyped about the event. Now everyone had his opportunity to show his skills and to win some prices!
With events like the scene grows much faster. How much differente is the skateboard scene after the first edition of Teenage Riot?
Ha ha, we really don’t know. 🙂 We just hope that all skateboarding kids, with- or without a sponsor, are now more enthusiastic about participating in any kind of contest. Furthermore, we hope that the skateboarding industry understands that this audience is a very important one to stronger invest in right now. These kids (and their parents) are the future of the skateboarding industry for the next 10-15 years. Ignoring them now is risking to lose them in the future.
The skateboarding school helps kids learn much more safe and fast tricks. The Netherlands is one of the European most advanced countries in this sport. How much you think the skate schools have helped to grow the scene?
Unfortunately we don’t have very many insights on the skateboarding schools. We do know that certain skateparks such as Skatepark Amsterdam take a lot of efforts to grow the skateboarding scene amongst the youth. The result is that we see many young talented skateboarders from that area succeed in contest all over the country. So we believe that it works, growing the skateboarding scene starts by building it from the bottom up. It starts with the kids….
Lastly, I would like to add that organizing Teenage Riot for the second time was really fun to us. We really enjoyed it a lot. And if the skateboard industry allows and supports us, we are up for some more events! 🙂
Foto’s by Ziggy Schaap
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