Windy City Riot 2017 (Extreme Sports - Aggressive Inline Street Skating Competition)

The Windy City Riot of Chicago, Illinois, is one of the longest running aggressive street skating competitions in the world. WCR 2017 marked the 16th year of the event, second in lifespan only to the Mile High Battle of Denver, Colorado, which will be celebrating its 18th year this Fall. This year's WCR was one of the best to date, and I think the main driver of its success was the spot selection.

The terrain in Chicago is anything but ideal for street skating. Those of us that grew up in this metropolis were quick to realize that despite its sheer size, the city had little to offer in terms of mellow stair rails, low handicap rails, and perfect buttery ledges that constantly graced our television screens as we consumed endless amounts of west coast skate videos. The topography of Chicago simply does not lend itself to the types of obstacles on which most skaters prefer to perform their craft.

Luckily, out of the solitary wasteland of the city's south-side emerged a new kind of spot. One with variety, including large storage containers and concrete banks, yet not withholding the original allure of the quintessential stair rail. Not surprisingly, however, the small mellow stair rails were a side-note to skaters who chose to raise the stakes and lace tricks on one of the two large kink rails found at both sides of Chicago's Big Marsh Bike Park.

From this spot we moved to another stair rail, this one of the steeper variety, and the technical onslaught that ensued was nothing short of remarkable. It was at this spot I decided to set up my camera and simply let it roll. The video at the bottom of this post shows the footage I captured of the competition, the majority of which was shot at this 2nd spot.

The final spot was a divergence from the typical final spot of a street skating competition, which turned out to be an ingenious twist, allowing skaters to exert whatever energy remained on an obstacle which allowed for maximum difficulty, yet presented less intimidation.

My goal for the day was to enjoy the camaraderie found in sharing this common interest with the diverse group of characters that have weaved in and out my life over the past 17 years, and then, if there was time/energy/battery life, capture some photos and video and compile a brief recap of one of the most anticipated days of my summer. This post is the fruition of the latter, and I hope it broadened your perspective of the uses of a storage container and a common set of stairs.