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Inline In-Seine!
Inline Vert Prelims Recap
By Mike Opalek
As the LG Action Sports World Tour moves south from Berlin to Paris, we find ourselves drinking over-priced coffee and questioning our existence. France is a country of rollers and as such, they are very proud of their inline heroes: Lamine Fathi, Nicolas Mougin and, of course, the indefatigable Taïg Khris, who announced on the morning of vert prelims that he has invented a new super-secret trick. Would he throw it? “If I do a good first run,” said Taig. “Then I will do it on the first wall in my second run!”
The event site is epic; the Eiffel Tower, the Trocadero and everywhere I look, beautiful braless French girls. Thousands of Parisians came out to see the inline vert comp. The poor weather forecast meant all the competitors needed to treat the prelims like a finals. With Eito Yasutoko on the sidelines with a neck injury and Shane Yost coming off two gold medals in a row, we knew we were all in for a good comp.
If you don't have the Pixies Trompe Le Monde album, you really should get it.
Borja Fernandez had two tough runs. Both started out excellent with a few nice spins, then he just lost it.
Sven Boekhorst has been improving on his vert runs throughout the past few stops. His airs are noticeably higher and he's been working on a few new grinds. He landed solid 540s and 720s, but when he went for a 270 frontside farfergnugen, he came up short. Too bad because he nailed it in practice.
I have a really short attention span these days.
Kevin Lopez, the 17 year-old from Belgium had an average first run, but came out on his second and took it up a few notches. His spins are some of the nicest on tour and his vocabulary is growing. 540s, backflips and a forward 900 that drifted three panels. This young buck will definitely have a future if he keeps progressing the way he has been this past year. Kevin found himself in fifth place, his best placing so far this year.
Taïg's trick has been talked about almost as much as his stationery line. Have you seen it? It’s fantastic . . . The stationery I mean - and it sells well here in France. He played it safe in his first run, but when he put on his elbow pads for his second run, we knew he meant business. He did a few set-up airs, then went for broke! He landed on the left side of his body, trying to shield a blow to the head, and tumbled a bit before sliding to a stop in the flatbottom. The crowd went silent as Taïg lay unmoving. Would he be alright? When Taïg gave everyone the thumbs up, the crowd exploded with applause. It was a great day!
Oh! You probably want to know what trick he went for, right? It was more or less a Toyko Drift (backflip 360 backflip) but Taig added an extra 180 to the second backflip so he would be coming in forward. He also pretty much went straight up and down whereas Eito drifts (get it?) about 3-4 panels.
So the battle for the podium was up in the air. Shane was in first after a terrific first run with Takeshi in second and Marc Englehart close behind. Englehart knew he needed to be awesome to move up, so he decided to throw the 1080 in the beginning of his run. Pretty ballsy, don’t you think? The thing is, he pulled it! He then added a double flat spin with a few more 540s, and to top it off a nice alley oop soul and alley oop porn star.
Shane stepped in with a mctwist, 540, a 900 and hit his double flat spin. The judges, however, felt it lacked a bit of intensity and he only had one grind.
Takeshi was the one with all the pressure, and today it didn't work out for him. His 1st run was solid. Massive airs and a double Viking flip, but on his 2nd run he hung up on the coping really bad and it just destroyed his rhythm.
So, as it stand for now, Marc Englehart is sitting in first with Shane Yost in second and Takeshi in third. Of course we hope to have a final tomorrow but we'll have to see how the weather plays out. I have a meeting with a few angels later to discuss the weather, religion, the war in Iraq and why I have fat fingers.»»View the official results from this contest
