Red Bull Art Of Motion Event
October 6th 2007 in Vienna, Austria

Saturday the 6th of October and as we land at Vienna Airport, we all get shuttled to the hotel with open minds, not knowing what is in store at the Redbull 'Art of motion' Freerunning event. This would in effect, be the first organised Freerun event ever and would be history in the making for what is still such a young discipline. The invites had only been sent out a month prior and with initial thoughts seeing a few eyebrows being raised, it took lengthy discussions with organiser Felix Guenther, to make us decide to go along, meet him and check out what he and his company had up their sleeves. Seemingly a collective of twenty nine athletes from eleven different nations were thinking along the same lines.....

The full international line up was as follows;

Austria Lukas Steiner   Matthias Wiesflecker   Michael Kloiber   Patrick Morawetz   Sascha Hauser

Bulgaria Evgeni Genchev   Tsvetan Hristov

Germany Andreas Muller   Jan Witfield

Italy Daniele di Marino   Luca Virdis

Latvia Andrey Turanov   Anton Tkachenko   Evgenijs Varakin   Pavel Hvalov

New Zealand Richard King

Poland Jakub Kazikowski   Michal Surdej

Spain Dani Sampayo Garcia   Erick Valino Lopez

Sweden Filip Ljungberg   Marcus Gustafsson

UK John (Kerbie) Kerr   Ryan Doyle   Tim (Livewire) Shieff   Yusuf (Asid) Yirtici

USA Gabriel Nunez   Paul Darnell   Victor Lopez

Venue Arrival
Once at the venue, we were all led upstairs to a VIP area where a brief was given by the organiser, Felix Guenther, detailing the rules and how the competition would run in general. Basically, each competitor would be given a one and a half minute run through the course doing whatever they deemed fit. Once everyone had completed their run, they'd get another chance to do it again but this time for just one minute. Once complete, each athlete would vote for their favourite and when the votes had been counted up, the top six would be chosen to compete in the final for one and a half minutes. When done, the twenty three athletes who hadn't made it to the final, would vote again to find the top three. All of whom would win cash prizes along with trophies. The athletes would also be asked to vote for 'sickest trick' of the competition.

Practice What You Preach
With the brief completed, everybody was encouraged to check out the terrain at hand and to practice as much as possible within the very short one hour time slot. This period quickly turned into a freestyle jam where the athletes would step up and session relentlessly. While all this was going on, the media from many different countries/channels, made the most of it by conducting interviews, taking pictures and filming all the action. The terrain itself consisted of a 35ft high up starting point which had tiered levels down to the ground where stairs, rails, scaffolding structures, a vault box and car awaited. There was no pre-determined path to follow other than starting at the top of the tiers making your way down to then follow your own path at street level, having just one and a half minutes to pull off as many techniques as you can in the process. As a backdrop, logo's were sprayed everywhere and spotlights lit up the area which by the start time would be pitch black. At the last minute a truck was driven in to position to unveil the DJ's booth which would blare out the tunes chosen by each athlete during their run.

Let's Get This Party Started
Once the hour practice session had finished, the MC announced that the heats would soon start and for the first group of athletes to warm up and prepare at the starting area. At this point a crowd was beginning to gather to see why the street had been converted into a concrete arena. As the first runner started his run, he flipped his way down the levels onto the crash mats before hitting the street level obstacles. Obviously adrenaline was running high and although he made a good account of himself, he had clearly underestimated how long one and a half minutes is when moving at full pace. He burned out and became tired before the end of his run and everyone used this as a bench mark to set their own pace. As the athletes continued to do their runs and show an array of impressive moves, it was the UK's Ryan Doyle who stepped up and literally set the place alight. Using a variety of complex moves, he tore through the course at pace utilising pretty much every obstacle available. He had the crowd and all the other athletes going absolutely mental and he seemed to be loving every minute. Many people on the night agreed that his first run absolutely killed it but even so, the participants still awaiting their turn went on to use his energy to push the envelope and tackle the course in many different ways, sending both the crowd and competitors wild.

Start As You Mean To Go On
At this point, it has to be pointed out that the vibe wasn't openly 'competitive'. It was more a showcase of skills where everyone was trying their best to put on a display for the next man to vibe off. As soon as anyone pulled off something of note, it was the other athletes who could be heard loudest, screaming and shouting their props in unison. This kind of atmosphere isn't something that is always guaranteed at an event. It is something you can only hope for and with the tone being set so well at the first ever event like this, it only bodes well for what the future hold for other competitions.

Big Up Yourself
Every single athlete present, did themselves proud and tried their best. The skills on display were nothing short of outstanding and with so many athletes taking part, we can't go into as much detail as we'd like. However, with the UK's Ryan Doyle raising the bar so high, it was the likes of Victor Lopez and Gabriel Nunez of Team Tempest from the US, who stepped up to give him a run for his money. They went from strength to strength and the more the crowd cheered, the more they upped their game. At certain points there were moves being pulled that would send shivers down the spine and as a result, the appreciative crowd got louder and louder! Sweden's Marcus Gustafsson seemed to be really enjoying himself and he also had everyone cheering as he went from one complex technique to another with effortless grace. Someone who really stood out and deservedly made the final was our own Livewire, who's upper body strength was clearly evident as he pulled handstands in crazy places, flags, handstand precisions, flips, hollow backs etc. With everyone else moving at a much quicker pace and concentrating more on flips, it was Livewire's style which went against the grain but earned cheers from all. At one point he pulled a handstand from height on a single rail and as the crowd clapped, he clapped too but with his feet. This proved a winner and had everyone laughing, only adding to the positive vibe already in effect.

Into The Final
2 runs down for everyone and the crowd continued to gather. At this point the participants voted from their favourites and it was Victor Lopez (US), Ryan Doyle (UK), Luca Virdis (Italy), Gabriel Nunez (US), Marcus Gustafsson (Sweden) and a very surprised Livewire (UK) who got the vote from their fellow participants. Again, everyone put on a display that was on another level. The performances that sent everyone wild though, came from the Team Tempest duo of Victor Lopez and Gabriel Nunez. Their individual pieces just got stronger and stronger and with the crowd screaming, they kept stepping up their game to finish on a high note, pulling techs that would usually be saved for the gym environment. Last up and a crowd favourite, was Ryan Doyle who had the full attention of everyone present. Wanting to make his run something to outdo his first, he brought in the help of a steward who he had bend over at the top of the tiered platforms to use as an obstacle to perform a kong gainer. As he jumped he didn't get full rotation. Luckily he landed face down on the crash mats but he looked unhappy and a little shaken at this and quickly moved down to the next level. Stepping to the edge and signalling to the crowd to 'watch this', he attempted a double cork but landed awkwardly and just off of the crash mat. The crowd watching couldn't see what had happened, as he'd rolled off of the mat out of view, but from the top level we could see that he was trouble. As silence fell and the medics rushed over, it became apparent that his leg was broken. About 20 minutes passed while he was attended to before being loaded onto an ambulance and taken away. As he was being carried on, he gave a wave to everyone to signal that he was ok and the whole place erupted with everyone singing his name. A real electric moment.

Ryan Doyle on his final run. From here he spun down then used the steward to kong gainer off of.	While trying a double cork, Ryan landing awkwardly. Here he gets medical attention from the paramedics	DjuXa, Livewire and Marcus discuss what has just happened.	After being stabilised, Ryan was put on a stretcher and loaded onto the ambulance. As he waved that he was ok, the whole place went absolutely mental.

Anthem
Knowing that Ryan was in good hands, the athletes went back to casting their votes. As an aside, Kerbie stepped up, took control of the mic and positioned himself standing on top of the car to spit the new UF anthem and had the athletes who understood the tone, laughing, saying 'NO!!!' and cheering.

Announce This
With voting done and dusted, the first announcement to be made was the winner of 'Sickest trick'. Originally it was meant to go to one person but at the drop of the hat it was decided that both Victor Lopez and Gabriel Nunez would share the spoils for stepping up and hitting hard with a caster wallflip from height and a double backflip with a full twist. Crazy!!

Marcus Gustafsson gets 3rd place and freaks out.	Followed by Victor Lopez who claimed 2nd.	This left 1st place going to Ryan Doyle who was flying the flag for the UK.	With Ryan at the hospital, Livewire was asked to step up and accept the trophy on his behalf.

And The Winners Are
With Victor and Gabriel being given plenty of time to milk their spotlight attention, it was now the turn of the overall comp winners announcement. In third place was Marcus Gustafsson from Sweden. Upon hearing his name, he went off the hook and deservedly so as his double gainer was a show stopper in its own right. As Marcus calmed down a bit, the second place was given to Victor Lopez of the US and he was obviously stoked. At this point, everyone started chanting "Ryan.....Ryan....Ryan" and it was confirmed by the MC that he had indeed, won overall. With him being laid up in hospital, Livewire was asked to step up and accept the award on his behalf, which he duly did. From here, the media zoned in and got their press shots and interviews as everyone else just celebrated what an outstanding event it had been. A few people decided to carry on jamming but with the night air turning chilly, the Redbull bus seemed the obvious place to hang out, as rumours were circulating that it was now stacked up with Vodka along with cans of the Redbull. Hmmmmm.....a no brainer really.

Let's Party 2
A bus ride that should have only taken 10 mins to get us back to the hotel, for some reason was crawling at a snails pace and took about 30. Nobody seemed to care as the Vodka was flowing and the atmosphere was electric with everyone amped at what they'd just witnessed and been a part of. Once back at the hotel, we were told to take a 45 min break before being ready again in the lobby to be shuttled to the after party. Needless to say, it was a night to remember.

Summary
As stated initially, when Redbull approached us about the competition, we were slightly hesitant. However, we are so glad that it happened and did so with such little hype, because it turned out to be one of those rare gems. We'd go so far to say that it will go down in Freerun history as one of the most important things to happen to the scene, which will no doubt pave the way for bigger and better to come. As with anything, there are some tweaks to be made (particularly with the obstacles) but the fact that it was an international gathering with every single person stepping up with such a positive attitude, is something you simply can't buy. For anyone on the outside reading this, it might be hard to comprehend but if you speak to anyone present, they will all tell you that the event was something very special and unique. The unity between everyone became ultra clear on the Sunday when we should have been flying home to our respective countries. With schedules aside, all of the athletes and crew could be found half an hour away from the hotel together crammed into Ryan's hospital ward. He was in good spirits and seemed genuinely choked that everyone had taken a detour to see him. It didn't last long though because the nurses cleared the 30 plus people out before too long.

Ryan, if you read this, you are a star and inspiration to all. Best wishes with the recovery.

Special thanks go out to Redbull for pulling this off against all the odds. To all the athletes who stepped up to make it the jam of the century. An extra special thank you is thrown to Felix Guenther, who championed the cause tirelessly and worked his ass off to make everything tick on the day.

See you all at the London event..............

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