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| Etnies GvR 2005 Part Two / Saturday-Sunday Street Events |
| BLKPRJKT |
It wasn't looking good for the Irregular footers. The Phelps-led right rears seemed to be dominating the competition going into the street and by all appearances would hand the goofy troops a large platter of braised crow to eat. After 3 closely won pro victories in Friday's bowl events, all was a matter of regaining lost ground. The street area at Etnies was primed and properly logo'd for the high impact throwdowns which would clearly determine stance superiority for this year.
There was a time when "street" contests attracted top vert pros as well as street riders. It was a time of relative prosperity in skateboarding in which arenas were rented, lumber was purchased, and massive kneivel style leaps of faith were proffered. Along with the massive fabrications, there was always a natural element like a parking block, a flat wall, even a fire hydrant. One could witness the likes of Mountain, Hosoi, Cab, and Hawk, mixing it up with urban masters such as Guerrero, Dressen, Kaupas and others. Savannah, GA... Dayton, OH...Capitola, CA. Cars... jumping on cars. A natural, seemingly harmless natural street element, a bench, devoured one of Tommy Guerrero's wheels mid-run at one event, and an actual working fountain perched atop a "fun" box swallowed Natas' board which led to a calming foot soak for the remainder of his designated minute's worth of mayhem. Of course, this was back in the late twentieth century, well ahead of the coming skatepark resurrection and before the diversion of street skating into a morass of total madness. Slappies, curb-cut hops, jump ramps and wall jams began to lose their appeal for some when they were confronted with the overnight superstars from the middle of nowhere who could leap massive gaps, take on impossibly long handrailings, and generally put the old guard collectively into it's grave. These kids were hungrier, gutsier, and completely out of their minds, and left everyone wondering not only where they came from, but how they got so incredibly good. Street skating in the year 2005 is tough to comprehend unless you are a serious practitioner and these specialists continue to make things harder to define on a daily basis. The Lake Forest street area might be smooth, but it's hardly tame...a 10-stair is performance-oriented to be sure.
The girls begin attacking the course, and closing the divide between themselves and the guys. They are pushing it faster and more furious than ever before, so if you happen to be a young dude coming up, you have a lot of leap-frogging to do just to reach their level.
Girls Results:
1. Vanessa Torres
2. Amy Caron
3. Elissa Steamer
4. Evelien Bouilliart
5. Lauren Perkins
6. Lacey Baker
7. Jessie Van Roechoudt
8. Kenna Gallagher
Some of the top five in a moment of post-battle friendliness. During the finals, all wanted to take eachother down, but no catfighting erupted, and no hoops were yanked... just some gosh-darned goood skateboarding.
Evelien Bouilliart tears into a properly balanced back lip at speed. French fried flat bar feeling the wrath.
Elissa Steamer can probably drink you under the table. It is certain that she abused those little baker boys in recent years and showed them all they might know about switch krooks while investigating breweries for quality control practices.
Have you ever wondered about the origins of the "Feeble" grind? I submit to you that perhaps it was named for and by a guy who couldn't get his 50-50's going properly because of the dreaded lazyfoot disease, and just couldn't get that front truck on there. Amy Caron doesn't have lazy feet. If she did, she would have never lofted into this 10-stair backfeeb.
Two fine examples of the Vanessa Torres school of frontside hard knocks. Frontside boardslides have always been a bit tougher than their backside counterparts, under-rotate that upper body and hang up, and you may end up with a shattered C-5 or C-6. As for the frontside Smith, well that's just plain stylish.
Saturday ends with intense men's sessioneering tuning up for Sunday's main event... a few out-takes for you to enjoy are below, along with some Sunday action leading up to the finals.
Sunday's men's street finals were surrounded by hoopla, and when we say hoopla we mean street closures, carnie tents, open fire grilling, and the mandatory girl-throwing ritual of overzealous school spirit spouters.
This trick is either a switch cameltoe flip, or a brizzake tizzlah over the flizzle bizza. Dig those funky moves in the foreground, alas, Britney wasn't scouting a cast for her next tour that day, it was all about skateboarding and airborne women.
Who says skateboarding isn't a spectator sport? Overall street winner Jereme Rogers over-krooking the 10 while the gathering crowd is tuned into his action. Where's Waldo? Outside the fence most likely.
Mens Street Results:
Goofy
1. Jereme Rogers
2. Nyjah Huston
3. Ronnie Creager – MVP
4. Darrell Stanton
5. Nilton Neves
6. Dennis Busenitz
7. Paul Rodiriguez
8. Pat Chanitta
9. Mark Appleyard
10. Angel Ramirez
Regular
1. Chris Cole – MVP
2. Bryan Herman
3. Arto Saari
4. Ryan Sheckler
5. Ernie Torres
6. Carlos de Andrade
6. Chris Cudlipp
7. Tommy Sandoval
8. Sierra Fellers
9. Ron Bertino
10. Kurtis Colomonico
10 year old Nyjah Huston surveys the lines while fronting a heavy duty line-up. How many 10 year olds get to session with the likes of P-Rod, Sheckler, Herman, and Arto, let alone get teamed up with them in competition?
Corey Duffel has a tight wardrobe. It's White Stripes meets New York Dolls meets Sid Vicious. Free of wrist plaster for the first time in what seems like years, Corey was charging it. No top ten placing but who cares. Barricade levitant.
There is no bone in the human nose. The proboscis is built of cartilege and soft tissue. This means that the concept of a nose bone has no basis in the reality of the human anatomy. Shhhh! Don't tell Nilton Neves from Brasil that! The sawhorseycade stays well below this snap and poke.
Booze-Knits! Well that's how to pronounce Dennis' last name. Sounds like a fine Oktoberfest product as well. The DB utilized so much speed in his runs, he was forced to use the ditch-a-voir section. In fact he was the only guy to seriously use it as part of his routine. Taking a momentary break from those transistions here is a 74 mile per hour backside 50-50 down the large ledge.
Paul Rodriquez lives up to the hype. Nike. Mountain Don't. Plan B. When he rides, he lands everything solidly. Seriously. Watch video of him and it is uncanny how cleanly he stomps every landing with his feet exactly placed in textbook fashion. P-Rod, front feebles casually down the 10 on his way to a perfect 4-point landing
Darrel Stanton is a stylish, no bullshit guy. Anybody's guess what he is doing here...it could be any number of things but most likely it's a backside 5-0 revert spoken in the language of a true flowmaster.
When talking of secret weapons and covert operations, It would be wise to consider including Nyjah Huston. At half the age of a lot of the competitors, the youngster introduced a stealth offensive landing him in 2nd place on the goofy side. Dis version, him tro dem front krooked briefcase bombs mon!
Chris Cole ain't no skrawny skinny toe-head. The zero representative bristles with sinew and muscle and sticks everything with brute force. Somwhere just short of 180 degrees, He throws this over turn frontside to metal contact only to come out the way he started. 1st place regular and MVP as well.
In the end, It was all Jereme Rogers. Hopefully he has a no-fee checking account, as this novelty check surely cant fit into the ATM deposit slot.
The MVP awards were handed out to Ronnie Creager and Chris Cole respectively. Ronnie has been quietly doing his thing for a good many years and comes from the previous generation of street horses... nice to see him come through and smash the tired old man mythos. Could next years GvR feature a guitar solo-off between these two? Better start listening to Eddie play Eruption, boys.
Dave Swift with a shit eating grin, Phelps with a smug confident look, and Pierre-Andre/Etnies progenitor looking happy about the way this year's event played out.
What Dave really meant to say was...Whuttup?
When it was all done and a lot was said, Goofy came out victorious for the entire weekend. Not too shabby for the guys and girls who ride with the proper stance, right? right.
-BLKPRJKT
ALL PHOTOGRAPHY ©MRZPHOTO / CONCRETE DISCIPLES
-BLKPRJKT / PHOTOS MRZ |
Monday 31st 2005f October 2005 18:05
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