The Annual Air Guitar World Championship contest
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The Annual Air Guitar World Championship Contest was first held in 1996 as part of the Oulu Music Video Festival in Oulu, Finland. Participants from all over the world compete in skills of playing air guitar. The judging panel includes Finnish guitarist Juha Torvinen, and prizes include a custom made 'Flying Finn' guitar and VOX BM Special amplifier donated by Queen guitarist Brian May. The ideology behind the event is that "wars would end and all the bad things would go away if everyone just played air guitar".
[edit] 2006 Championships
The 11th World Air Guitar Championship finals were held in Oulu, Finland in September 2006. Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke of Japan competed against other international finalists and reigning champion Michael "The Destroyer" Heffels, to win the event.
The top 5 finalists were:
- 1. Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke of Japan
- 2. Clay "Bangers" Connolly of Australia
- 3. Christian "Heart Buckboard" Sweep of Germany
- 4. Gabriele "The Hoxton Creeper" Matzeu of the United Kingdom
- 5. Takeshi "Takeshi the SAMURI Kongochi" Kongochi of Japan
[edit] List of World Championships
| Year | World Champion | Country | Second Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke | Japan | Clay "Bangers" Connolly of Australia |
| 2005 | Michael "The Destroyer" Heffels | The Netherlands | Giesela "Gizzy Guitar" Visser of New Zealand |
| 2004 | Joint Winners: Tarquin "The Tarkness" Keys and Miri "Sonyk-Rok" Park | New Zealand and USA | David "C-Diddy" Jung of the USA |
| 2003 | David C-Diddy" Jung | USA | Jordi "Funky Jordi" Nieuwenburg of The Netherlands |
| 2002 | Zac Monro | UK | Toby Peneha of New Zealand |
| 2001 | Zac Monro | UK | Markus Vainionpää of Finland |
| 2000 | Markus Vainionpää | Finland | Sari Rivinen of Finland |
| 1999 | Johanna Ala-Siurua | Finland | Petteri Tikkanen of Finland |
| 1998 | Juha Hippi | Finland | Teja Kotilainen of Finland |
| 1997 | Ville Paakkari | Finland | Jenni Pääskysaari of Finland |
| 1996 | Oikku Ylinen | Finland | Heko Rehtori of Finland |
