Post GT Games Press Release
World’s First
Garden Trampoline Games
‘SkyBound GT Games Presented by GRT’
For Immediate Release
July 21, 2017 – Escondido, CA. SkyBound USA and GRT Inc partnered together to bring the
world’s first official garden trampoline competition to the Southern California area last weekend,
July 15 – 16, 2017. GRT co-founder Greg Roe and SkyBound USA have been involved in the
GTramp community in various ways the past few years, helping to promote athletes who demonstrate
outstanding skills within the ‘garden trampoline community.’ The GT Games was the culmination of
a year-long plan to legitimize the talent and dedication these kids have for their sport and the
camaraderie they share.
Young athletes from across North America and Europe vied for a spot in the GT Games by
submitting their best tricks and flips videos on their garden trampolines using the #GTGames
hashtag. Over 1,000 entries were received and the top 50 were invited to the Games for a chance to
compete and win prizes in a friendly environment. Many of these young athletes (age 11 – 18) were
excited to be able to to show-off their unique skills and talents in front of their many followers and
fellow GTramp athletes. Some of them have already become YouTube sensations, spilling over from
their Instagram accounts where they highlight impressive skills and their unique ‘daredevil’ style
stunts. These kids live on social media and when they talk about something on their platforms,
people listen. One post from a popular GTramp athlete can bring in over 2 million views on their IG
and YouTube accounts alone. GRT and SkyBound USA took notice and decided to give these athletes
a chance to all come together and engage in a friendly competition to show the world who is the best
of the best.
The event was also live-streamed by Jukin Media on their popular channel ‘People Are
Awesome‘ at — https://www.facebook.com/peopleareawesome/videos/1383993078316533/
The GT Games spanned two days located at the Escondido Sports Center, with Saturday, July 15th,
being a training and warm up day with legendary Trampolinist Greg Roe, as well as a chance for the
athletes to try out the new Skybound Orion Trampolines, that just hit the market for pre-order that
very same weekend. SkyBound USA contributed a total of 6 trampolines to the event, 4 SkyBound
11’ x 16’ Orion Trampolines and 2 SkyBound 15’ Stratos Trampolines. SkyBound USA has always
put energy into recognizing and sponsoring athletes, such as Tanner Witt, Solomon Berg, and Andrew
Freidman, and promote safety and the use of nets with their trampolines.
The organizers were proud to say during the two day gathering there were no injuries, a concern
which has always sparked criticism from those who do not understand what the sport is all about.
Over the past few years, the GTramp community has been faced with criticism for allowing kids to
perform multiple flips and tricks on their backyard trampolines without supervision and coaching.
What the general public don’t realize is many of these young athletes learn the skills from well
known and respected trampolinists by watching on-line tutorials, taking classes at local gyms or
trampoline parks, but still many are self taught. The fact that they can achieve the skill level we are
seeing today is a testament to their perseverance and the improvements in the quality of equipment
available. Both SkyBound USA and GRT see them as true athletes in their own regard and want to
give credit to the GTramp community through the GT Games.
“I have been pushing for years to try and bridge-the-gap between the backyard enthusiast and the
competitive world of trampoline. Having a 2016 Olympian (Trampoline) there to Judge on the
difficulty and skill level was key to legitimizing the Games. We were so happy that Logan Dooley
could do this for the sport and embrace our vision!” ~ Greg Roe, co-founder of GRT
Judges for the competition included Roe himself, who also acted as M.C for the day, as well as
Olympian Logan Dooley and Tricking master Dominique Lewis. Judging was based on a score out of
11 from each judge, based on awarding up to 5 points for Difficulty, 5 points for style and one point
for showmanship. Top award winners in each category were as follows:
1 on 1 T.R.A.M.P
– 1st – Jaxon Cosina (@jaxoncosina)
– 2nd – Ramsen O’Keeffe (@rammy_ig_)
– 3rd – Wyatt Pedersen (@wyatt.pedersen)
Big Trick/Combo Spectacular
– 1st – Ramsen O’Keeffe (@rammy_ig_)
– 2nd – Lenny Wolkind (@lenny.wolkind)
– 3rd – Jaxon Cosina (@jaxoncosina)
30 Second Freestyle
– 1st – Jaxon Cosina (@jaxoncosina)
– 2nd – Colby Iverson (@colbyiverson_)
– 3rd – Wyatt Pedersen (@wyatt.pedersen)
Two special awards were also given out, one for M.V.T. (Most Valuable Tramper) that was voted on
by the athletes themselves. They were asked to consider not just skill level, but also who best
embodies the spirit of the Games, shows outstanding sportsmanship and is also a great ambassador
for the GTramp community. This was awarded to Ramsen O’Keeffe (@rammy_ig). The second
special award was the Youth Award and was awarded to Stratton ‘Biff’ Norrie (@strattleball_9) for
the top placed youth under 14. Biff is only 11 years old and was the youngest athlete to make it into
the Big Trick Spectacular finals, for his ability to land an impressive quad backflip. Luca Opperman
(@luca_opperman1), also 11 years old, was only 0.2 points away from Biff to place 2nd in the Youth
category.
At the end of the games, some of the winners ended up donating their winnings to some of the other
athletes that didn’t have trampolines of their own in order to allow these athletes to focus on their
training in their own back yards. These acts of compassion from athlete to athlete in the Games
embody what the GTramp community is and has always been about and this is why SkyBound USA
and GRT want to recognize and legitimize their hard work and sportsmanship.
“SkyBound USA is committed to our GTramp community and we are embracing the culture they
portray; camaraderie, athletic ability and perseverance. Our on-going partnership with Greg Roe
and Trish McGeer of GRT has helped us to show these young athletes that they have a place in the
trampoline world beyond their backyards. We are also helping to educate them on good foundations
of training and conditioning with the help of Greg Roe, a world class athlete and educator in the
trampoline industry.” – Ricky Lai, Skybound USA
Full Video here — https://youtu.be/NDSkh2VDbrI
Short Promo Video here — https://youtu.be/5NNZ-MAtRLE
For more information on the GT Games, please visit their website at: www.gtrampgames.com
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For more information please contact:
Trish McGeer, GRT Inc.
Cell (416) 566-8738 email trishmcgeer1@gmail.com
Ricky Lai, SkyBound USA
Office (888)-891-4689 email rlai@skyboundusa.com
click link below to download pdf
http://sandbox.gtrampgames.com/press/gtgamespr.pdf
