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 Pierre-Luc Gagnon |
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 Andy Macdonald |
Vertical Battle in San Diego
Skateboarding Vert Finals Recap
By Eric Kirkwood
Rune Glifberg is just soooooooooo elegant (I am not in the least bit ashamed to use this term . . . If you’ve seen him, you know what I mean) that it is almost a shame that he has to be judged at all. Rune skied the nicest heelflip frontside grab a person is likely to see in life. He also threw down the tightest mctwist (the whole thing happens at one spot in the air!), nose grind fakies among other nice liptricks and looked silky smooth throughout a great run.
Jake Brown always goes huge (the seven to eleven foot range) and has a do-or-die style that sets the crowd cheering at each stop. Jake’s trick of the day was a gigantic double flip mute grab, which, aside from being awesome just to enjoy, also won him the Mad-Croc Energy Award for an extra $500! Yeah Jakie!
Anthony Furlong came correct as always with nice combinations and stylish tricks, the best of which included a tail-grab 540 and fakie 540 and a kickflip mute body varial.
Danny Mayer “got some” with Backside and mute 540s, nice grab variations as well as a varial flip indy that was totally sweet DUDE!
Rookie pro (as of this contest, folks), Alex Perelson looked seasoned as he fearlessly flew through the air with a barrage of tricks including heelflip indys, kickflip mutes and a triple-540 combo – backside, mute and tail grab . . . o.k. so that last combo was all throughout practice, he elected to break them up in his runs . . . but still totally sick.
Pierre-Luc Gagnon is just back from a fairly massive injury in July (compound fracture of a halved knee cap) and you would just barely notice. Pierre came correct with kickflip mute grabs both straight and to fakie, saucy backside nose grinds, nollie heelflip indy grabs, big 540s and much more.
Tas Pappas couldn’t keep it together tonight, however he did manage to make a big impression after falls in his second and third runs by jumping back up and getting a few good tricks in as well as one amazing one . . . the 720!
Chris Gentry wowed the crowd with a big roller to eight foot rodeo 540. Chris had heelflip and kickflip indys, backside and indy 540s, body jars and blunts and amplitude to spare. Gentry is a heavy hitter who is no doubt looking forward to the LG Action Sports Championships in Dallas . . . (Texas is my boy’s home state. RIDERS!)
Buster Halterman was the man in practice and in his runs. Our brand new vert ramp debuted this weekend, and Buster took to it like a fish to water (come to think of it, he may be a Pisces). At any rate, Buster filled a run out with tricks like high speed smoothy backside lipslides, stylish body jars, kickflip indys, mctwists and one hell of a grand looking stalefish 540. Good work Mr. Halterman.
Andy Macdonald was definitely the BIG MAC in tonight’s finals. Andy was start-to-finish technical varialing and body varialing many of his flip tricks and even one of his 540s. A nollie varial heelflip to varial is actually hard to write and equally hard to imagine let alone execute . . . but the Mac daddy did this and more. Indy, backside and even a lien 540 (which is so inside out!) were accomplished by obvious ability and determination. It was quite a great contest and a treat to see Andy MacDonald doing his thing in such a relaxed manner.
Next stop Dallas . . . stay tuned.
