On Saturday 22nd April, the Malta Street Sport Association, in collaboration with the Malta Skateboarding Assocation and Urban Jungle, organised the first ever ‘Redbull – Mind the gap’ event in Malta. This is a skateboarding competiton held all over the world to promote street sports and to push the personal athlete limit in skateboarding. Public participation was overwhelming as a couple hundred people filled Msida square and cheered on those who managed to land their trick. The competition had a large number of young athletes and so was split in beginners and advanced stages – with Marc Gauci winning the best trick and Braydon Borg winning biggest gap in beginners’ category.  Sean Bowles won the best trick for the advanced catergory whilst Zach Perici Calascione won the biggest gap. Skateboarding is a highly inclusive sport, and we are happy to say that we had a large number of female skaters, with Alexandra Cali winning the ladies’ catergory.

This event, being the first of its kind on the island, together with the past events organised by the associations – such as the first Street Sport festival and Full Moon Redbull competitions by MSSA, the first mobile skatepark trailer and the first National Skateboarding competiton in Malta organised by MSA has helped put Malta on the map for street sports tourism.

The RedBull Mind the Gap event was held in Msida square to send a message that all open spaces can have a multi-use – be it a bench for people to sit on, which turns into a ledge where a skater can practice a trick. It is now the aim of the assocations to continue to working with government and sponsors to cement Malta as a top destination for sport events and for street sport athletes. In fact, next Saturday, 27th April, the Malta Street Sport Assocation and Malta Skateboarding Assocation will collaborate once more for the ‘For a cause Malta IFR’ – a 3v3 basketball competition, a parkour showcase from LeapSquad Malta and a skateboarding show will be held at Saint Claire Collage in Pemroke from 1pm onwards. The event is free for to the public to join in and try-outs will be held throught the day.

Here are Pictures from the Mind the Gap Event.