As most of you might know, Germany is not blessed with any good surf. But this doesn’t mean that there’s no one surfing in this country. The Holmstrøm surf crew from the north of Germany consists of that kind of people who live for their sport and just surf all conditions. Even better they won the Arnette “In Your Face” video contest last year and with this a fully sponsored trip to California. They had some serious fun on their “Spot ‘n Go Tour” and got a taste of the sweet surfing life in the sunshine state. See what happened to these crazy fellows in their video edit.

Holmstrøm Surfing --- Spot 'n Go Tour 2011 (California) from Holmstroem Surfing on Vimeo.

Here's a quick summary of the contest... Skateboarders from Germany, France, Spain and Italy were asked to team up with their buddies to submit their own skate footage and provide a rough idea of how they'd want their very own video part to look and feel.

From all the submissions received, four crews were selected to compete in the final round including: Goodstuff Crew (Germany), Les Bloby’s (France), SUICHI Crew (Spain), and ZUCKA Crew (Italy).

Each crew went filming with Felix Urbauer for a week around their local spots to collect a grip of footage which was then edited into a video.  The four finished videos were shown at a legendary premiere party and they were then posted on Arnette Europe's Facebook page where fans voted on their favorite.  After all the votes were cast, the people's choice was the SUICHI Crew comprised of Ales Amor, Gustavo Rodríguez and Damià Tesorero -- and the grand prize was a trip to the US!

When they got to Cali, they stopped by Arnette HQ and then headed over to the Etnies TF where they skated alongside Arnette team riders Ryan Decenzo, Pat Duffy, Willy Santos and Danny Supa.  Here's an edit from their session.  Enjoy!

Suichi in Etnies Training Facility Park from Suichi Films

The Holmstroems, the winners of Arnette IN YOUR FACE contest, are back from their trip and are now sharing their impressions on amazing California with you. Here’s a short note from the Boys that sums up their impressions and experiences. Give it a read...

“On March 10th 2011 we started our Arnette IN YOUR FACE trip to California. Because of the good weather and recommendations of the really nice OC locals, we spent the first 6 days of the 10 day trip in Southern California. Spots like Trestles, Blacks or Swamis contributed to making it a real good time! Being surfers from Germany and surfing the Baltic Sea at home all the time we’re also having loads of fun in less ideal beachbreaks like Newport or Huntington. Surfing Germany’s coast brings conditions much worse and at way lower temperatures

As we’re not afraid of cold water we wanted to check northern California, too. So we took the Suburban for a little ride on Highway 101. Due to bad wind and a wrong swell direction Rincon and Sandspit didn’t quite live up to their reputation. That’s why we went right away and drove straight to Santa Cruz. We surfed the best waves of the trip at spots like Steamer Lane, Pleasure Point and the Hook for the next couple of days. We were quite impressed about the locals’ friendliness, which we hadn’t expected after hearing stories about the Santa Cruz surf scene...

In the end we can say that we had an awesome time in California, surfed many good waves! Yet to say that the beer isn’t that bad, but it doesn’t make a difference as night life isn’t happening after 2 a.m. anyways."

We are stoked on their experiences in California and letting you now go with a few impressions:

Surfing one of all the amazing spots there are in good ol' Cali.

That's how they roll(ed) - Suburban, classy.

You can't compare that to their home turf/surf. So clean.

The Holmstroem Crew SUVing.

We know this is not classy at all - it's shocking actually. This fellow teaches us why you shouldn't place bets if you are betting against someone that knows better.

Thanks Holmstroem Crew for sharing your impressions with us. It was a pleasure. Everyone is looking forward to the videoclip of your trip!

They were an extremely frothy group of guys and upon meeting up with them in Newport at 28th street for a surf with Arnette riders Michael Dunphy and Christian Saenz, we knew immediately why they won.  Needless to say that the fog bank rolled in and weather went to crap almost instantaneously but they were still super psyched to be hanging and surfing with us. Even better, was post-surf while we were drying off and the Red Bull girls rolled up…well, just look at the photo below and you will catch my drift. At that moment we realized that these guys were definitely a handful but we wouldn’t have it any other way. Be on the lookout for them as they head up to Santa Cruz, you can’t miss their car…if you see them give them a honk!

Jonas Bronnert...the next Marlon Lipke?

Dunphy was easily the standout of the sesh with huge airs like this...he almost stomped this one too.

Saenzy!

Epic hub caps.

I don't know what they are going to do when they have to return this rental car. Hope they got insurance.

The Red Bull gals were digging the Germans. I need to learn a foreign language.

Christian Saenz as seen thru the eyes of Michael Dunphy.

And the winners are: Paul Beck, Jonas Bronnert, Lars Kossowski, Lennart Stagneth, Fin-Eric Christenson, Christian Saenz, Michael Dunphy, Fabian Aschenbach and Jasper Schwampe. Congrats boys! Tear it up in Santa Cruz!

PHOTOS: CARL STEINDLER/ARNETTE

There are five sequences of Ryan Decenzo and the first four people to head over to our Facebook page and correctly name the tricks will be the lucky winners of an Arnette goodie bag. Enjoy the images from the day! 

This one is a Wall Ride, obviously. But can you head over to our Facebook and tell us the five below?

Supa.

Duffy.

Duffy takes a shot at the wall.

IN Your Face, some of Barcelona's best.

Decenzo, its not all fun and games.

Willy was ripping to say the least...

Willy giving Ryan some props and saying, "hey man, let's see that one more time".

Supa contemplates his approach.

Yeah Supa!!!

Willy Santos. Man, myth and legend. 

Pat Duffy.

Supa signing his life away...

Pre sesh office banter with Joe Freitag, Pat Duffy, Willy Santos and Ryan Decenzo.

The Sucihi boys were psyched on our building.

Our A-Team grinds some Wahoos.

Until next time Sucihi crew, have a safe flight home.

PHOTOS: CARL STEINDLER/ARNETTE

The Barcelona boys' eyes lit up with excitement when told they would be going to a private/secret skate spot, and have it all to themselves while skating with our top dawgs. I could go on and on about the level of skating that went down but we're saving that for our major post next week complete with sequences, video and all, but for now, please enjoy these few snippets of shredfulness. 

Pre shred meal at Wahoos...bet they don't got that in Barcelona?

Supa's still the man.

Pat Duffy.

Willy and Ryan stretching it out and visualizing their lines...

Ryan Decenzo with a 50-50 across the logest rail in the park for the crowd.

Willy's style is timeless.

Sucihi skater Ales Amor doing work.

Adrian Villar.

Gustavo Rodriguez.

Ryan Decenzo is an absolute machine. The kid never stops or gets tired.

No doubt after a long action packed day the Sucihi boys slept tight.

PHOTOS: CARL STEINDLER/ARNETTE