|
(Sacramento, CA - September 4, 2005) With the RFCC tour
in town, a ton of top street skaters were on hand: Team
Rollerblade, Team Valo, the USD guys. Even Davee Blair and
Randy Spizer
got up early to watch the showdown. And after the Valo video premiere
party the night before, that was really saying something.
|
|
Franky Morales shows off his style on a topside soul
|
The street best trick comp got under way with twenty amazing skaters
battling for four spots in the final round.
Brian Murphy
powered through
the launch section.
Oli Short
gapped off one quarterpipe to roll the
six-inch wide hitching post before dropping into the bank.
Jeff Stockwell
laced everything on the course. With twenty of the best skaters in the
world going all at once, it was an incredible sight to see. At the end
of the prelim round, it was decided that
Vinny Minton,
Steven Aleil
,
Nick Wood
and
Erik Bailey
would move on to the quarterfinal round.
The quarterfinals saw a whole lot of carnage along with some of the
most impressive skating in 2005.
Franky Morales
stuck a flawless 540
to topside soul up on the twelve foot quarterpipe.
Erik Bailey
launched
off the ski jump to disaster sweatstance on the suicide ledge, and then
reverted out of it. And
Carl Hills
was a crowd favorite with his launch
off the quarterpipe to stall topside soul on the judges tower.
Of the original sixteen competitors, only eight were chosen to move
on to the semifinals:
Brian Aragon
,
Carl Hills
,
Nick Wood
,
Franky Morales
,
Chris Haffey
,
Erik Bailey
,
Aaron Feinberg
and
Vinny Minton.
In the semis,
Chris Haffey
launched the ski jump to disaster soul revert
the suicide ledge, but it wasn’t enough to compete with
Vinny Minton’s 180 off the twelve foot quarterpipe over three sets of speakers out into
the fairgrounds. Neither could
Carl’s
900 compete with
Nick Wood’s
six foot drop off the vert wall to kind grind the ledge. In the end,
only four guys went to the final:
Minton,
Wood
,
Feinberg
and
Aragon
.
Vinny tried to 540 his original gap, but couldn’t quite pull it
off, so ended up in fourth. Aaron launched fakie 360 to alley oop fishbrain
the flat rail reverting back in to take third. Nick Wood launched out
of the quarterpipe to alley oop wallride the banked wall, then dropped
to frontside the ledge six feet below for the silver. And the gold went
to Brian Aragon who launched the ski jump to 450 disaster backside the
suicide ledge.
|
|
Street top-three (left to right: Nick Wood, Brian Aragon, Aaron Feinberg)
|
As the crowd made their way to the vert ramp, they were surprised to
see street stars
Brian Shima
and
Chris Haffey
already warming up runs.
Before you ask . . . they’re not bad. Haffey was pulling head high
airs and Shima was a master of the coping.
But it was the vert veterans who ran the table that night as
Ayumi Kawasaki
put together a seriously consistent set of runs that featured an inverted
900 and a series of unique flip tricks to finish 7th.
Fabiola da Silva
went for
broke, throwing a monster 540 over the ten-foot channel. Her run came
to an abrupt halt however, when she missed a double back flip and ended
up in 9th.
Eito Yasutoko
put together a strong first round run that included a
California Roll 1080 and a double back flip as well as a double back
180 over the channel to score an almost unbeatable 94. But then,
Marc Englehart
dropped in for what was probably his best run in 2005. He pulled
fifteen tricks including a perfect double flat spin, a lofty 540 over
the channel and a super buttery alley oop acid soul to tie Eito’s
94 score.
|
|
Vert winners (left to right: Marc Englehart, Takeshi Yasutoko, Eito Yasutoko)
|
There was only one competitor left to go:
Takeshi Yasutoko
, who washed
out on a double flat spin in the first round. From the moment he dropped
in, he was in total control. He stuck a twelve-foot flat spin over the
channel, an alley oop flat spin 540, a 1080 and a series of tech liptricks
that you couldn’t follow with the naked eye. When the scores came
up, Takeshi was awarded a 97, putting him in first place. His brother
Eito won the tie-breaker with the strength of his second run, and Marc,
once again, stood on the low end of the podium.
“It was so close,” he said as they handed out the medals. “Just
wait ‘til Pomona.”
Get
Results Here:
» Street
Photo Gallery
» Vert Photo
Gallery
|
