UK – Liverpool: extreme sports enthusiasts are being invited to try something new as part of an initiative in the lead-up to the World Firefighters Games 2008 in Liverpool. The Ramp-Up Tour is part of the WFG08 Community Engagement Programme – free taster sessions are being offered in BMX-ing, skateboarding and rollerblading, giving young people and adults the opportunity to try a new sport in professional surroundings, with experts on-hand to coach and advice. Ramp-up will be at Heswall Skatepark, Brimstage Road, on Wednesday, March 26: free taster sessions between 12pm and 4pm. Under 16s will need guardian’s consent. AUSTRALIA – Extreme sport action, music and live entertainment will be on show in April as the 2008 Southwest Harley-Davidson Max Youth Festival gears up for one gigantic party with a mixture of music, art and extreme sports in an entertaining display to help celebrate Bunbury’s youth culture. FRANCE – The first Kitespeed Worldcup of the 2008 season takes place in Port St. Louis, France, from 1-6 April. The best of the international kitespeed scene will be there, including the World Record Holder Alexandre Caizergues. Zoom, zoom. Surfing
BASQUE COUNTRY – is Mundaka about to disappear from the World Championship Tour; this will be a big loss for the ASP tour as well as for European surfing in general. Mundaka is under threat because of dredging the estuary to let large commercial vessels to the industrial port of Bilbao. The Mundaka wave was nominated for the Surfer’s Best Wave 2007, and is a big reason why Europe now provides 10% of the surfers on the WCT. US – three-time world longboard champion Colin McPhillips had been without a major industry sponsor for a year, since Ocean Pacific had disbanded the team he’d been with for 12 years. But Oxbow, a major European surfwear company huge in longboarding, watched him win the world championship last August at Huntington Beach, and after a few months of negotiations guess who he’s sponsored by now?