The 2023 Belco Bowl Jam
Once a year, Canberra becomes home to The Belco Bowl Jam, and when I say ‘home,’ I mean a hot, sweaty, KFC-and-beer-fuelled sharehouse packed with hundreds of rowdy piss heads.
Arriving Saturday lunchtime, we missed all the street challenges and walked straight into the sizzling hot concrete frying pan that was Belconnen Skatepark. The line for the bottle shop overflowed onto the street, and the flashy new KFC opposite the skatepark 100% made the most money they will all year. Bodies splattered on the hot concrete as the street-esque challenges kicked off around the skatepark, while some people found relief (and potentially cholera) in the local manmade lake. ‘Longest Ollie’ saw many a board snapped, but, luckily, no legs.
Come 2 pm, the main, long (and did I mention hot?) bowl event kicked off. There’s nothing like the Belco Bowl. It’s perfectly round yet perfectly imperfect, crusty and ‘hesh,’ as the Creature heads would say. Cash was handed out for the longest grind, highest air, longest invert held, best trick over the channel, and all that good stuff. Best believe some very gnarly tricks went down, spearheaded by Australia’s next generation of heavy hitters. As the afternoon wore on, the tricks got bigger and the crowd more vocal (drunker)—the party was certainly on.
Cutting right to the chase and placing third was Steven Pineiro, followed by high-flying Newy local Jedd McKenzie, and taking out yet another well-deserved Belco title (and an oversized Viking helmet) this year was none other than Kieran Woolley.
