GET READY: BOWLZILLA 2022 IS COMING BACK TO GOLD COAST IN MARCH
12 MARCH: BOWLZILLA GOLD COAST 2022 is already shaping up to be amazing and the annual week of skating festivities on the Gold Coast is going to put it over the top in 2022. With a packed line up of Learn To Ride clinics, Art Shows, Workshops, Music, Parties, Food and the Competition, everyone is guaranteed a good time at BOWLZILLA Gold Coast 2022. Find all info and keep yourself updated on our Bowlzilla 2022 page.
Poster: Bowlzilla
The BOWLZILLA Gold Coast festival is about the gathering of Australia’s skateboarding community for a week on the Gold Coast. To celebrate all that makes it great - art, music, food, friends, community and skating. And with the newly opened borders, there will be skaters coming from far and wide.
ASF is again ensuring Australian skating is properly supported with the seventh annual BOWLZILLA Gold Coast National Park Skating Championships. The biggest park competition of the year in Australia has nurtured Olympic skaters like Keegan Palmer, Poppy Olsen and Kieran Reilly, along with underground legends like Shaun Boucher, Aimee Massie, Nixen Osborne and Shanae Collins. With divisions across all ages, abilities and sexes, the goal has always been to get everyone together to inspire each other and have all the fun.
7th year of Bowlzilla and just the beginning
Chad Ford, director of Bowlzilla is excited for Bowlzilla 2022 and reminds us all that this is just the beginning:
“Seven years in and we’re just getting started with BOWLZILLA Gold Coast. When we began all those years ago the goal was to create a reliable, fun, entertaining gathering to show off our friends and family’s amazing talents and get everyone together once a year to catch up and celebrate.
We have grown beyond that to become the biggest skateboard festival in the country, set international standards with equality in skateboarding with our prize purse and staffing, nurtured the local kids into becoming the current biggest sporting event finalists and gold medallists and most importantly become the dependable community gathering we had hoped we could be
None of this would have been possible without the foresight and investment made by Gold Coast City Council which provided the base for us to build upon and then the support from Major Events Gold Coast and Tourism & Events Queensland which has enabled us to support and promote the talents of our amazing community and of course the skaters and our friends and family that have driven it all from the outset. Everything is free and everyone is welcome to come and join us for the week to celebrate.”
Skateboarding and so much more
Once again the incredible; Yeah Girl crew is back. They kick the week off with a women’s Learn to Ride clinic, continue the awesomeness with workshops and art shows, ensure the Equality in Skateboarding prize purse is funded and finish off the celebration with the curation of the Dive In after party.
“What we really love about BOWLZILLA is that it brings the skate community together and fosters great sports(wo)manship and camaraderie”, Sara Huston, the woman behind Yeah Girl says and continues: "BOWLZILLA Gold Coast is the perfect partner for us because they have always worked hard to ensure an equal platform for all skaters. They were the first international competition to have a woman as head judge for the entire competition and they are the largest Equality-in-Skateboarding competition in Australia”.
“Bowlzilla were the first international competition to have a woman as head judge for the entire competition and they are the largest Equality-in-Skateboarding competition in Australia”
Poppy Olsen at Bowlzilla Gold Coast 2021. Photo by Sara Huston, Yeah Girl.
The main event at Elanora Skatepark
The main show, the competition is the Australian Skateboarding Federation’s biggest Park Competition of the year for them and the Nation. ASF competitions are run by members of the skateboarding community across Australia as a collaborative effort, and the ASF are stoked to have BOWLZILLA as the peak national park event for 2022 with all its fantastic partners and amazing festival events.
Tourism & Australian skate culture
Tourism and Sport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said events like BOWLZILLA were important to the Palaszczuk Government’s Economic Recovery Plan for the Gold Coast.
“Events bring competitors and spectators to the Gold Coast which benefits local jobs, accommodation and transport providers, as well as restaurants and cafés,” Mr Hinchliffe said. That’s why in 2022 we’re backing events that make a sound contribution to the Gold Coast’s visitor economy. “Learn to ride clinics at BOWLZILLA 2022 are a terrific way to get immersed in Australian skate culture.”
BOWLZILLA is supported by the Queensland Government through Tourism and Events Queensland and features on the It’s Live! in Queensland events calendar. Their support helps promote the festival to a much wider audience and helps to show how participation in the skating community continues to grow each year. It helps show off the best of skating to the world and encourages them to come and be part of it all.
QLD Government and Council support
BOWLZILLA is supported by the Queensland Government. They help promote the festival to a much wider audience and helps to show how participation in the skating community continues to grow each year. It helps show off the best of skating to the world and encourages them to come and be part of it all.
Gold Coast City Council have done fantastic things for skateboarding and also the local community through skating for decades. The number of facilities they have built, skate schools they support and events like BOWLZILLA Gold Coast that they encourage, has ensured the Gold Coast has the best skate scene in Australia. It also has benefits for the wider community with lifestyle and business opportunities. New world class facilities in the coming years heading toward the Olympics will only serve to cement this legacy.
“Broadening our annual events calendar has never been more important,’’ says Gold Coast Mayor, Tom Tate.
“BOWLZILLA fits that bill perfectly as it attracts the best skaters from the country for a week-long program of workshops, shows, exhibitions and competitions.
“I applaud organisers and look forward to visiting Elanora in March for the action.’’
“BOWLZILLA attracts the best skaters from the country for a week-long program of workshops, shows, exhibitions and competitions.”
Make sure to check out Bowlzilla’s official webpage here and give their Facebook and @instagram.com/bowlzilla/ a follow to stay in the loop.
