Yesterday the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam, The Netherlands turned into a skateboard walhalla. Pro and amateur skateboarders competed with each other for the first place. The event was watched by over 8,000 people, who witnessed an awesome battle of skills set to the background of the historic gas works building on never seen ramps designed by participating teams Flip Skateboards, Palace, Blueprint and Antiz, at the 2012 Vans Downtown Showdown presented by Monster Energy.

Check out the videos above from the event. They offer a peek at event.

“Participating brands competed with 4 person teams, with two skaters sessioning each obstacle and competing for the 50,000 euro prize purse. Flip team rider Overall “Best Pro” Luan Oliveira skated with remarkable consistency and smooth style, landing tricks and winning 1st place on the Palace Obstacle and the Blueprint Obstacle.  Best Overall Am was Element team rider Ross McGouran, who also took 3rd place on the Flip obstacle, skating hard all day. He made every transfer the windmill-inspired Antiz obstacle had to offer.

The day started out on the Palace obstacle where Luan Oliveria was consistently landing trick after trick, skating the whole obstacle with ease, while spectators ate waffles from the Vans Waffle stand and checked out the many merchant stalls in-between the skate different skate obstacles.

Inside the massive Gasholder building at the Flip Obstacle the atmosphere intensified with heavy hitting last tricks and a solid performance by first place finisher Dominik Dietrich, who set the bar with a wallie up and Nollie heel flip down the ledge. At Blueprint, Luan Oliveria landed a variety of flip tricks over the pyramid and on the ledge.  Billy Marks double flipped the gap to flat and walked away with 1,000 Euros for 2nd place.  Technical and creative skater Dallas Rockvam took third place by using the entire design, which was inspired by the barges and canals of Amsterdam.

The Antiz Obstacle rose above the venue floor like a classical Dutch Windmill on Acid.  Rob Smith took first place by skating every angle, while Ben Nordberg’s backside nose blunt on the extension ricocheted into applause that reverberated off the walls. Vans Legends Steve Caballero, Tony Alva & Ray Barbee were in attendance all day and helped hand out prizes with Tommy Guerrero, including massive rounds of Gouda cheese for all the winners and a custom made Charge bicycle
for the First Place Team, Best Pro & Best Am.  The first place team overall was Flip. Element came in 2nd place, Antiz took 3rd place and Toy Machine was a solid 4th. The  Vans  Downtown  Showdown  is  made  possible by the support of Monster Energy, Fiat Freestyle Team, Pro-Tec and IOU Ramps.”