Today, Vans have announced a world first: The inaugural edition of the Vans Pro Skate Park Series!

The best of park terrain skateboarding will be celebrated at the Vans PS Park Series, with an international slew of talent set to compete for a total prize purse of over $500,000. In the months leading up to the event, there will be several contests – four Men’s PS Global Qualifiers and one Women’s PS Global Qualifier – held across four continents. The five highest ranked skaters will then battle 15 Park Series professionals to be crowned the ‘Park Terrain World Champion’ – and it’s all going down in Malmö, Sweden on August 20.

Excitingly enough, one of these Qualifiers is set to be held in our own backyard – and it’s the first cab off the rank. It’s going down in Melbourne on April 16, and will kickstart some healthy competition before it all culminates in Sweden in August.

Vans say that the Park Series events will be held on “transitional concrete closed courses from five to nine feet in depth and being distinguished by having any number of features such as spines, angled hips, extensions, escalators, set-back walls, elevation changes, gaps and transfers, variable grinding surfaces, etc.” Big! See all the crucial dates below:

2016 Vans PS Park Series: Global Qualifiers

Melbourne, AUS*
April 16

Florianopolis, BRA*
June 11

Vancouver, CAN*
July 9

Huntington Beach, USA
July 30

World Championships

Malmö, SWE
August 20

*Men’s-only PS Global Qualifier