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The Battle At Brandenburg Gate
Yost Continues His Streak (Inline Vert Finals Recap)
By Mike Opalek
I woke up this morning less hung over than the day before, so already it’s a good day. It’s drizzling outside so I relax a bit before it occurs to me that the foul weather could ruin this event. By the time I finally get to the Brandenburg Gate, the sky is clearing and inline vert is just about to start. “Sweet,” I say to myself, and walk over to the Paul Mitchell booth to commandeer some hair care products (My hair, if you’re wondering, looks outstanding right now).
The venue is located at the historic Brandenburg gate. Have I mentioned I’m in Berlin yet? If not well hey, I’m in Berlin. It’s pretty sweet here. Lots of history and cool architecture everywhere. I mean, just 17 years ago, the Scorpions’ power ballad “Wings Of Change” was the soundtrack as the wall came down and history was made. History was made again today, and this time, the soundtrack was Guns and Roses’ Night Train (as requested by Shane Yost and played by super-DJ Pat Sweeney).
With dark clouds on the horizon, the skaters lined up on the ramp, ready to throw down. There were some new faces at this event: Richard Sedlar, from Gersthofen, Germany (say that 10 times fast), Benjamin Drescher from Augsburg, Germany and Kevin Lopez from Brussels, Belgium to name a few. Of course we had some regular faces in the crowd: Fabiola da Silva, Eito and Takeshi Yasutoko, Marc Englehart, Nel Martin, Sven Boekhorst and Shane Yost just to name 7 people.
Rich Parker who made the trip from jolly ol’ England wowed the crowd with some nice spins that included a 540 and fakie 900. Nel Martin who flew in from Barcelona this morning without his luggage, still managed to have a decent run with a liu kang 540, a 900 and a flat 540.
Kevin Lopez, the youngest rider at age 17, was killing it in practice, but seemed to lose some of it during his runs. Have you ever tried Hefe Dunkel beer? You really should; it’s awesome. Kevin showed his talents with a nice hover flip, a 900 and a 720 mctwist. Fab had clean runs, landing a flat 540 but sketching on a fakie 900. She ended up in 6th place.
Cesar showed up for his first pro comp of the season. He threw some of his old favorites, wowing the crowd and the judges, who put him in 5th after the prelims. Sven probably had the best lip tricks of the day; his 270 frontside farvergnugen was wicked! His 720 and frontside torque didn’t suck either. He finished in 4th.
Eito was the shock of the day when he fell on a California Roll in his first run and his second wasn’t much better. He didn’t even make the top ten. It was only later I found out that his spine is in bad shape. A doctor told him before the trip that if he wasn’t already a professional skater, he should never skate again. Well wishes for the king of vert.
His little bro, Takeshi, had two decent runs with double flat spins, 10 ft airs and a 270 backslide, but only managed to finish with the bronze. That’s right – the bronze, which means for the second time in four years, the top positions were wide open...
And so the battle for the top two spots was on. Marc Englehart did his usual distribution of 540s with a different grab on each one, while Shane Yost was on the spin-to-win tip: double flat spin, forward 900, barrel rolls and a sick soul grind would be enough for the pole position.
For anyone who’s counting, that makes 2 in a row for the Tasmanian Devil. I never actually asked Shane how he felt about his second win in as many events but I’m sure he’d say something like this, “Aw mate, I’m stoked!” Shane, you’d say that right?»»View the official results from this contest
