Belgium Open Freestyle 2026: In Antwerp, 120 seconds for a skate that was thought finished in 1994?

Saturday, November 7, 10 a.m., in an old wagon shed in Antwerp: no ramp, no rail, just a smooth concrete floor and 120 seconds to convince judges. It’s the Belgium Open Freestyle 2026, second edition. The kind of contest we thought was tucked away in the attic with the ’80s. In 1994, Guenter Mokulys, future eleven‑time world champ, even quit skating because there were no competitions left. So who’s still riding this floor, and why is it back in Belgium?

Belgium Open Freestyle in Antwerp: a wagon shed, 8 m by 30 m

First up, the setting. Park Spoor Noord is an old railway yard up north of Antwerp. The old wagon shed now powers a local gym, the Buurtsporthal Parkloods. That’s where SBA Antwerp runs the contest, at 36 Damplein.

For the inaugural run in November 2025, the organizer pulled the specs from the WFSA event sheet, the world body for freestyle. Roughly an 8‑by‑30‑meter slab. Smooth concrete with just enough grip, “like an underground parking floor.” And judging modeled after Paderborn in Germany, a European freestyle benchmark.

If you’ve never seen freestyle, picture pure flat. A board, a flat surface, music, and a choreographed flow, no modules. It’s one of the oldest skate disciplines, and the one that birthed most of the flip tricks you drop on the street today.

Täby, 1984: the Swedish camp where Mokulys met Mullen, Hawk, and Welinder

To get the full picture of what’s happening in Antwerp, you gotta go back to Sweden. In ’84 and ’85, a training camp in Täby, just outside Stockholm, brought together Rodney Mullen, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain and Per Welinder. In the mix was a German from Dortmund who’d only been skating for a few years: Guenter Mokulys.

Welinder’s the local kid, born in Täby. He’s also the only rider to ever beat Mullen in a pro contest. That was back in ’83, a day when Mullen was skating way below his usual game. Most of the time, Welinder finished second. Mullen, on the other hand, won 34 freestyle contests out of 35. The only one he lost was to a Swede who took him down.

Mokulys came out of that camp changed. In ’86, he grabbed the amateur world freestyle title at the Transworld Skateboarding Championship in Canada. In ’91, he was pro world champ in Münster, his hometown in Germany. The video at the top of this page is the freestyle portion of that ’91 World Cup. Watch closely: it’s all ground work, no modules.

And the women weren’t waiting for their turn. In ’83, at the NSA contest at Paramount in Los Angeles, Diane Veerman raced against men and finished 13th out of 31. In Antwerp, there’s a pro men’s, women’s and “+” category open to anyone who doesn’t fit into either.

1994, just one more contest: Mokulys stops, then comes back to win in 2003

Then everything stops. From 1994, skate fell into a slump, both in the US and Europe. Competitions were almost non‑existent, and Mokulys put his board away. Freestyle, already eclipsed by street since the late ’80s, lost its stage.

Others pivoted. Mullen went back to learn street from scratch and became the dude who made the street fly. Welinder left Powell Peralta in January 1992 to start Birdhouse with Tony Hawk. Freestyle became a passion project, with videos circulating hand‑to‑hand.

But Mokulys didn’t quit. In 2002, in Cologne, he got back in. A year of training later, he won the 2003 world championship in Würzburg. He followed that up with about fifty competitions worldwide. In total: over 100 contests, more than half won, and eleven freestyle world titles.

Kids at 60 seconds, pros at 120: the schedule for Nov 7‑8

The contest runs for two days, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Antwerp is on the same time zone as Paris, no time‑zone math needed. Run time depends on the category, and the official WFSA sheet tells you.

• Kids60 s

  A minute for the youngest. Last year, they went early in the afternoon.

• Amateurs H/F/+90 s

  Open to anyone hitting a contest floor for the first time.

• Masters90 s

  The old guard. Those who rode contests before 1994 have their own category.

• Pro H/F/+120 s

  Two minutes of routine. In 2025, the pros went last, around 5:20 pm, before a best‑trick session.

The schedule by category for this year hasn’t been released yet. The 2025 lineup gives a hint: amateurs at 1 pm, kids at 2:30 pm, masters at 4 pm, women and “+” at 4:30 pm, pros at 5:20 pm. The list of confirmed riders isn’t out either. Sign‑ups were €25 and closed on October 20. No public price or live stream announced: follow the contest’s Instagram for updates.

Freestyle ended in ’94? The answer’s in the Kids category

No. And the proof isn’t nostalgic. A contest that includes a masters category is a tribute. A contest that opens a kids category to 60 seconds is a hand‑off. Freestyle doesn’t need a six‑figure skatepark: a board and a smooth surface do the trick. That’s exactly what kept it alive during the dry spells.

Last year, the organizer said Belgium hadn’t hosted a freestyle contest in ages. A year later, he’s back, this time over two days instead of one afternoon, and the entry fee rose from €20 to €25. On the WFSA calendar, Antwerp slots right after the All Japan Freestyle Contest. It’s no longer a one‑night revival; it’s a circuit in motion.

Mokulys showed it back in 2003: one contest is enough to bring a skater back. On November 7, someone will drop their board on the concrete of Parkloods for the first time. The podium will land on NOSK8 right after, and we’ll see which kids already have the 1991 rotation.

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Two minutes of flat without a single rail: would you watch a freestyle run to the end, or skip after twenty seconds? Drop it in the comments ↓