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 Winners: Shane Yost (second), Takeshi Yasutoko (first), Eito Yasutoko (third) |
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 Takeshi Yasutoko takes another championship home to Japan. |
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 Fabiola Da Silva is always on top of her game. 12th in Dallas amongst the best in the world. |
Three is the Magic Number:
Inline Vert Skater Takeshi Yasutoko Claims His 3rd World Title
By Colin Bane
Takeshi Yasutoko emerged from heated Finals competition against Tasmanian skater Shane Yost and his own brother Eito Yasutoko to claim his 3rd Pro Inline Vert World Champion title at the LG Action Sports Championships.
"This competition as so good and everybody was doing such good skating," says Yasutoko. " Marc Englehart, and Shane, and my brother... everyone one was really putting the pressure on, and when I missed one of my tricks in my first run I really got some pressure for my second run. It was really a great contest."
Of the 15 skaters competing in Finals, just three were from the United States. Other skaters traveled from France, Columbia, Japan, Holland, Brazil, Belgium, England, and Spain for the competition, reflecting the global reach inline skating has had. Two female competitors (Japanese skater Ayumi Kawasaki and Brazilian skater Fabiola da Silva) now hold their own against the men, making it one of the only sports - maybe the only sport? - in the world where it is no longer necessary to hold separate contests.
If you haven't paid attention to inline vert skating in a while, it might be time to give it another look: Today's vert skaters are soaring 10-15 feet above the vert ramp and hucking explosive 1080s, double back flips, and double flat spins that might just blow your mind.
"Inline skating is getting crazy because everybody is going so high and skating so fast, and all the spins and flips just keep getting harder and more insance," says Yasutoko. Even though he's as guilty as anybody of pushing the sport to such extremes, he says it's incredibly difficult to stay on top of what skaters around the world are working on. "When you come to a competition like this, with the best people coming in from all over the place, it's so hard to keep up with the progression and to also keep some style and keep the really technical tricks in there too."
The Yatsutoko brothers have now been at the top tier of inline skate competition for nearly 10 years, ever since Takeshi first made headlines in the U.S. as the youngest competitor ever to enter X Games when he as just 11 years old. Inline skate competition was dropped from the X Games a few years back, but the sport is still huge on the international scene: The Yasutoki brothers have been competing all over Europe and Asia this year, and say the sport's still getting increasingly popular in Japan, where their family operates the G Skates Skatepark in their hometown of Kobe, near Osaka.
In the Finals competition, several riders wore "Support Rollerblading" t-shirts, urging action sports fans in the U.S. to get with the program.
"There aren't as many American skaters at the top levels of inline skating anymore, but it isn't because inline skating is dying out," says Yasutoko. "In fact, I'd say inline skating has never been better. In Europe and Asia and Brazil it's so popular and so good. I would say, to American skaters: Look at this ramp and the things people are doing on it now. Americans, please start skating more! This ramp is so big, and with these huge roll-ins you can go so fast and so high. It makes you feel like you can do almost anything. I think we saw tricks today we wouldn't have seen on any other ramp because of that: It just makes everybody want to push it even more to see what they can do."
Eito Yasutoko, third place.
