Make It Count contest finals

It wasn’t easy: the judges were tough, the weather could have been better and the competition was massive. But one guy stood out and took home the grand prize.

Out of the 17 contestants from 17 different countries it was Artjom (Tim) Prozorov from Estonia, who won Element’s 2011 European Make it Count Contest brought to you by Dakine.

Congrats to Artjom (let’s say Tim !), who received a one year sponsorship from Dakine and will be going to the global Make it Count Finals at Sequoia Lake in California in June!

Here, he will compete against fellow MIC winners from around the world: Japan, Australia, Brazil, USA, Canada and now, representing Europe – Estonia. The various nationalities will join forces at the Elemental Awareness YMCA skate camp and compete for the grand prize –a full year’s Element sponsorship. ”

“I’m so stoked I won, I don’t even know what to say. To have Dakine sponsoring me AND being able to travel to the U.S. in the hopes of bringing home the grand prize, plus I get to skate at the Berrics for a day! It’s crazy man!”” says Prozorov.

Contest day started out sunny and warm. Element’s team riders Mark Appleyard, Nyjah Huston, Levi Brown, Nick Garcia, Evan Smith, Madars Apse, Phil Zwijsen and Alex Amor were hitting the rails amongst the contestants and many local skaters at the Tetuan Skateplaza. Soon after, the contest began and with that, the dark clouds in the sky arrived. But thankfully, the core competition was completed before the rain set in.

Hence, the announcement of the winner was postponed until the evening, and that’s when everyone was in for a surprise: before the winner was unveiled and each competitor received goodie bags filled with Element skate decks, Von Zipper sunglasses and Dakine bags, one of the MIC judges did something out of the ordinary: 16 year old shooting star Nyjah Huston was so impressed by the talent he saw Saturday afternoon that he took 200 US Dollars out of his own pocket and announced the winner of the best trick of the day: Thaynan Costa da Silva from Portugal.

In the end, there was only one overall winner, but the 17 contestants certainly all made it count that day.

DAKINE, world famous for it’s high quality backpack and travel gear range, is a proud partner of the MIC Event series and highly motivated to continue this partnership for the coming years: “We are very happy with the outcome of the qualifications and with the finals in Madrid. The contest format & event matches the brand Dakine perfectly and meets our desire to interact and support the skate scenes of most of the european countries.”

www.elementeurope.com/makeitcount