Meet this year’s World Air Guitar Champion

Somewhere out there is a video of me winning an Air Guitar championship in 2000. No, really. It was in Montreal and it was called the Canadian Air Guitar Championship – so I assume either they didn’t know about the actual World Air Guitar Championship, of which this was not a part and which probably includes a Canadian Championship,  or it didn’t exist yet.

Whatever the case, the sport, if I may call it a sport, has come a long way since then, kind of like how figure skating at the Olympics is way more difficult now than it was in 1984 when Katarina Witt won the gold after shocking everyone with her crazy controversial outfits and rock music. There’s no way I could compete against these guys.

Here’s video of this year’s champ, Eric “Mean Melin” Melin, of the United States (no, that’s not Dave Grohl), and some pics of the other finalists. The championships are held each year in Oulu, Finland.

ALL PHOTOS BY HEIDI RISTO/AIR GUITAR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Corentin ”AirGus” Fermont, Belguim

Christian ”Heart Buckboard” Sweep, Germany

Doug ”The Thunder” Stroock, US

Kereel ”Your Daddy” Blumenkrants, Russia