Red Bull skateboarders turn Atlantis waterpark into skating haven

Located in the entertainment resort Atlantis of The Palm, the waterpark was drained of hundreds of thousands of litres of water in January 18 – 21, 2016. Italy’s Alex Sorgente, Argentina’s Milton Martinez and UAE resident Jan Hoffmann from Germany made its seven hectares of waterscape their home for a few days.

These world-class skateboarders took on the world’s largest waterslide, Aquaconda, and the near-vertical wall of Zoomerango, both normally full of water and six-person inflatable buoys.

From a height of 25 metres above The Palm – that’s more than six storeys high – they skateboarded down the 156-metre serpentine twists and turns of Zoomerango, before taking on its 14 metre wall. Sorgente, an 18-year-old athlete who won bronze at the 2011 World Championships in Marseille and at the 2013 Rocky Mountain Rampage, even landed a frontside flip (a 180 ollie with a kickflip) against the bank.

“I think it’s probably like 25 metres to the bottom, so if you fall over it I think you’re going to be dead, it’s definitely a high danger level and then we have a 9 meter drop and I went down it yesterday and it’s pretty big,“ said Sorgente. “But it’s good, and we get a lot of tricks done here and as long as you don’t fall over that you’ll be good.”