Thrash hit - Bowl-A-Rama returns to Bondi Beach - 16th February 2011

At just 15, Brazilian skate prodigy Pedro Barros has already opened his own skate complex, bagged two X Games medals and last year knocked out Bucky Lasek to win Bondi’s Bowl-A-Rama competition.

This week, Pedro will return to Bondi to defend his title and take on another bowl-full of the world’s finest thrashers, including Steve Caballero, Omar Hassan, Bob Burnquist, Rune Glifberg, Sam Beckett, Tony Trujillo and Corbin Harris.

Despite vanquishing Lasek (who has 20 more years’ professional experience) last year, Pedro attributed much of his apparently freakish skill to luck and timing.

“Winning doesn’t say you’re better than anyone, that was just a moment and Bucky didn’t have the luck of landing the tricks when I did,” he said. “Being happy for me isn’t knocking out nobody, it’s just being around everybody and skateboarding. That’s what it’s about.”

Learning to skate from the moment he could walk and entering his first competition aged three years old, Pedro said he’d been lucky to have a supportive dad who loved to skate and to avoid “serious injury”.

“I only broke my arm two or three times and I blew my elbow out of place not too long ago - nothing really serious,” he said.

“It’s never good to hurt yourself, but whatever happens is supposed to. You can’t choose anything.”

This year Bowl-A-Rama is bringing four days of parties and events to Bondi, including performances from Infusion and Philadelphia Grand Jury and the skate-themed “Love and Guts Art Show”.

The show’s curator, Pat Ngoho, said skating was a creative discipline and that some artworks in the show were supplied by pioneers of the sport.

“When we were kids skating backyard pools we had no idea that we would one day be skating around the world 30 years later,” he said.

“As an artist, you always think the ultimate is a sold-out showing in big New York galleries and we did that last year with Love and Guts. It was a total backdoor way of approaching the art scene but we did it.”

Bowl-A-Rama events will run from Wednesday, February 16, to Sunday, February 20, with the major competition at Bondi Skate Park on Saturday, February 19. (Credit: The Wentworth Courier)

See www.bowlarama.com.au