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SMP held its annual Shanghai Showdown at the SMP skatepark in Shanghai, China, on October 5th. Four US riders were invited to compete this year including Mat Hoffman, Dennis McCoy, Koji Kraft, and Joe Rich. With the most amazing park on the planet to play in, the riders were not very concerned about placings—they were all having too much fun shredding the park.
In the Park contest, Dennis was like a spinning top with 900 and 1080 tailtaps, gap-to-manuals, 360 drops, and a lot more. Koji also ripped with a psycho double-whip and a superman-seatgrab over the big hip. Mat didn’t ride the “street” area until the contest started, but that didn’t stop him from pulling some gaps and going for a flair transfer. Joe had perma-grin from the second he saw the park and was the meaning of the word “flow.”
The vert contest was held on the massive SMP vert ramp that is way bigger than anything you see at a normal contest. Joe flowed both ways with high airs. Koji was a ball of energy, but he took a hard-shot to the head on a double-whip gone wrong. Dennis nailed a 540 around nine feet, and Mat was…I don’t even know where to begin. The ramp was around 150 feet long and he sprinted the entire length of the deck every time he dropped in. First place.
Overall, the trip to Shanghai was incredible, but not as incredible as the park itself. I shot a lot of overviews of the place, so scroll through them all in The World's Largest Skatepark Photo Album —it will have you drooling.
Click here to go straight to The World's Largest Skatepark Photo Album
