Woodward Beijing Opening Day

Camp Woodward opened their first camp on foreign soil this weekend in the Daxing District of Beijing, China. Under hot sun and a trippy rain of snowflake sized pollen, a contingent of major players in street and vert skating christened what could easily be called the raddest skate facility in the world. The assembled crowd, which included Woodward brass, government officials, soldiers, Chinese shredders, BMX riders, French Parkour dudes, cheerleaders, Olympic gold medal gymnast Shawn Johnson and even some kook with skateboard wheels on the bottom of a wok, was possibly the most unique at a skate event ever. Dudes like Tony Hawk, Sandro Dias, PLG, and Kevin Staab handled business on the gleaming new halfpipe before Ryan Sheckler, Tom Asta, Riley Hawk, Curran Caples, Jaws, Jimmy Carlin, Dane Burman, David Loy, and Billy Rohan tore up the polished marble studded lakefront street course on their way to a share of the $15,000 in prize money. After Sheckler and Asta walked with most of the dough, the opening was capped off with an old fashioned Chinese fireworks display. Check out our mega-gallery of behind the scenes shots after the jump and stick around for more from this historic day in skateboarding.