Red Bull skateboarders turn Atlantis waterpark into skating haven

Sport360 staff 14:18 11/04/2016
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  • Located in the entertainment resort Atlantis of The Palm, the waterpark was drained of hundreds of thousands of litres of water in January 18 – 21, 2016. Italy’s Alex Sorgente, Argentina’s Milton Martinez and UAE resident Jan Hoffmann from Germany made its seven hectares of waterscape their home for a few days.

    These world-class skateboarders took on the world’s largest waterslide, Aquaconda, and the near-vertical wall of Zoomerango, both normally full of water and six-person inflatable buoys.

    From a height of 25 metres above The Palm – that’s more than six storeys high – they skateboarded down the 156-metre serpentine twists and turns of Zoomerango, before taking on its 14 metre wall. Sorgente, an 18-year-old athlete who won bronze at the 2011 World Championships in Marseille and at the 2013 Rocky Mountain Rampage, even landed a frontside flip (a 180 ollie with a kickflip) against the bank.

    “I think it’s probably like 25 metres to the bottom, so if you fall over it I think you’re going to be dead, it’s definitely a high danger level and then we have a 9 meter drop and I went down it yesterday and it’s pretty big,“ said Sorgente. “But it’s good, and we get a lot of tricks done here and as long as you don’t fall over that you’ll be good.”

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