The Air in the Square

Last week, I randomly came across a vert ramp in the middle of Times Square, it was pretty awesome to me considering I'm a skater. Later on that day I found out there was a skateboarding competition taking place, there was these lil kids gettin some serious Air. A kid actually won the championship as well, winning against actual pros. Check out the short clip below for a brief view of what went down on that day.



The afternoon Air in the Square event featured a 25 foot high roll in ramp, two 25 foot wide gaps and a 14 foot high quarter pipe that was besieged by talented, professional skateboarders and BMX riders. Among them were Andy MacDonald, Lincoln Ueda, Mitchie Brusco, Adam Taylor, Jett Eaton, Bob Burnquist, Pierre-Luc Gagnon, Elliot Sloan and Jagger Eaton.

The 411

The event, which was produced in partnership with ASA Entertainment, was meant to help herald the new partnership between Madison Square Garden Company (MSG) and Quicksilver as well as MSG's new action sports division. Let's take a brief look at who the principal players are in this new partnership.

The first principal player is The Madison Square Garden Company. The Madison Square Garden Company is an entertainment, sports and media business with MSG Entertainment, MSG Sports and MSG Media as three of their primary divisions. The MSG Action Sports division is a new subdivision of MSG Sports and FUSE TV is a subdivision of MSG Media.

The second principal player is Quicksilver. Quicksilver is an outdoor sports lifestyle company that manufactures action sports related gear, apparel and footwear. In addition to the partnership with the Madison Square Garden Company, Quicksilver also partners with the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) during certain special events like the Quicksilver Pro.

The third, principal player is ASA Entertainment. ASA Entertainment is a marketing agency that produces over 200 annual action sports events and television shows. Among those events are the Action Sports World Tour, and the recent Air in the Square.

Under the burgeoning partnership, MSG and FUSE Networks will become the official U.S. telecast partners for the Quicksilver Pro to be held September 2nd through the 5th, 2011, in Long Beach, New York. The Quicksilver Pro is an Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Title Race.

The Quick Silver Pro New York is expected to go down in the history books for being the first Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour stop on America's East Coast as well as for having a whopping $1 million dollar prize purse. Though the Quicksilver Pro is a surfing competition, there will be a festival associated with it that will feature live music, pro skateboarding, BMX and motocross competitions and demonstrations as well.