15th Janurary saw NTU, NUS, SMU, Team Freestyle and Team Seba facing each other off, competing for the Skate Challenge Trophy 2011!













The day kicked-started with Bladercross [more photos] - an event never played before in previous Skate Challenge events. An obstacle course tailored to challenge skaters - both speed and skill are essential to beat the time. Bumping or upsetting any part of the course results in a 5 or 10 (for cones) seconds penalty.

Each team was given the opportunity to do a trial run (all members at once) before the actual thing (one person at a time).

First up, the bridge. The aim is to pass though it without upsetting it's structure - and hopefully without compromising speed. All the teams managed to clear this without penalty.


Next, the steps - 3 consecutive poles. Much more difficult than the bridge, not a single team managed to clear this course without hitting the poles at least once. NUS, NTU, Seba faced a penalty of 10 seconds for hitting the poles twice. Freestyle got 15 seconds and SMU performed best at this obstacle, hitting the poles only once.

Followed by Slalom Weave, a set of tight sharp turns. The proximity of the cones makes tackling this at high speeds very difficult, resulting in a general pattern of slowing down as compared to the other obstacles. Hitting a cone here gives 10 second penalty - NUS and Freestyle felt the bite here.


Finishing off with backward skating! Relatively simple to grasp, the only thing participants need to watch out for are the starting and ending markings on the floor. Failing to skate backwards within the indicated zone results in a 5 second penalty. Again, all teams cleared this without penalty. Some skaters even chose to continue skate backwards all the way.


Seba supporting the Freestyle participant on the way back to tag the next player



This event was won by Team Seba with 4 min 25 seconds, beating SMU by 5 seconds. Freestyle came in 3rd with 4 min 36 seconds, NUS 4min 55sec and NTU 5min 9sec.



After Bladercross, we have Dragon Endurance [more photos] for males, females and mix. Each team is given 5 minutes to complete as many rounds around the court as possible. Of course, if the dragon breaks it is no count. Each team may try twice. The high scores for this grueling event are...

Dragon Endurance Male
NUS: 11 Rounds 2 Cones
SMU: 10 Rounds 2 Cones
NTU: 9 Rounds 7 Cones

Dragon Endurance Female
NUS & SMU: 9 Rounds 3 Cones
NTU: 8 Rounds 2 Cones

Dragon Endurance Mix
SMU: 10 Rounds 7 Cones
NUS: 10 Rounds 6 Cones







With a special 'guest performance' from the 'All Star Team' - unfortunately there is no score for them because the dragon broke before the 5 minutes mark. Regardless of the 'falling star' (quoting our MC for the day), they performed splendidly.



Captian's ball on skates [more photos] opened with NUS vs SMU.











The following matches were played, winners indicated by an asterisk:
*NUS vs SMU
NTU vs *SEBA
*NUS vs Freestyle
*SMU vs NTU
Freestyle vs Seba (8-8)
*Freestyle vs SMU
NUS vs *Seba


The rain brought the matches to an abrupt end as everyone moved to the grand stand for shelter. At the grand stand, the lucky draw commenced with each school's president - or representative in the case of Seba and Freestyle - invited up to draw the lucky numbers. The 25 prizes ranged from water bottles, movie tickets to wheels and skate bags. The top 3 prizes were: $150, $100, $50 capital land vouchers respectively. Congratulations to all the winners!

This year, the trophy was won by NUS, cheers!



The event was wrapped up with a photo taking session of everyone present. Our brave camera man walked bare foot into the mud and thunderstorm armed with an umbrella to take the photo for us.

Special thanks goes out to our sponsors: Hvper Sports, Seba skates, Freestyle skates, SDN, Frolick, Seventeen, Shape, Men's Health magazines, Snow City, Fashion Lab, Block Up and PUB for making the event possible!

Hope to see all of you again!