After seeing the Aeon Footwear contest advertised on the back of the Summer '05 Puzzle DVD, I on the spur of the moment booked flights and a hotel for the weekend, fly out Friday morning, go to contest Saturday, come back Sunday evening and to plenty of tourist things in between like the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Trioumphe and all the others.

So off I went down to Heathrow on Friday morning, hopped on the plane and about two hours later I was collecting my baggage from Charles de Gaulle airport outside of Paris. Then got one of the scariest shuttle rides to my hotel, having avoided crashing twice, I got to my hotel just around the corner from the Eiffel tower, in one piece.

I then started the tourist thing and went up the Eiffel tower, including having lunch on the second level. Then went for a wander around Paris going to the Palais de Tokyo where the contest was to get my bearings for the next day. There seems to be skaters there permanently. Including this weekend, Welsh skaters Dylan Hughes, Cashman and Chris Roberts. Who were there for the contest too.

So the day of the contest came things started at 2pm so went for lunch at little Café near the Palais de Tokyo then went to the Arc de Trioumphe. Got to Palais de Tokyo which was already filling up with skaters, then the Aeon van with the two tables pulled up and they placed the tables on the first set and the double set.

This is when the action started as more and more people started turning up including all of the Aeon team and some of France's big names like Thibaud Fradin, Guillaume Dulont, Idriss Diop and many other great skaters.

The skating was of an incredible level, the general line was trick on the first table with maybe flatland trick in the middle, then a trick down the second table which was on the double set. Whilst filmers from Puzzle followed the riders from table to table.

After a while the Aeon photographer stood on one of the tables and called the name of a select few picked out by the judges, to ride on their own to narrow it down and make judging a bit easier.

Then after some sick tricks and amazing lines had been thrown down, It was time to announce the winners. The clear winner was Alex Carolino who took the €1500 away with several lines including Switch Kickflip BS 5-0 on first table, Switch Flip, then Half Cab Crook down the second table.

Second was taken by Cliché rider Thibaud Fradin who's lines included Switch Nosegrind down the first table, and Pop Shove Crook down the second table. Nine Yards rider Idriss Diop came third with lines including Nosegrind Revert on first table, Switch Flip, then Crook second table.