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Phoenix Day One
Enerson, Hatchell and Gagnon Turn up the Heat
By Jared Souney
What a day in Phoenix… BMX box jumps, pro skateboard vert prelims, an amateur vert contest, a freestyle motocross demo, some BMX vert practice, and even some live music from Hawthorne Heights. A pumped up crowd packed into the Jobing.com Arena for an amazing day of action sports and air conditioning (it is blazing hot in Phoenix, I don’t know how the locals do it).
The BMX box jump event is something new to the Action Sports World Tour and BMX in general. The riders have been calling it “dirtless dirt jumping,” as it’s modeled in a similar fashion to dirt jumping events over the years. The course features a roll-in straight into two jumps, followed by a quarterpipe… all made from wood. As first place qualifier Dennis Enarson put it “We didn’t have to worry about the jumps getting messed up like in dirt.’ Maybe next year if they do this they need to have the landings a little steeper but other than that it’s real sick,” he added. Dennis is 16 years-old, hails from San Diego and managed to qualify in the top spot ahead of some big names like Ryan Guettler, Steve McCann and Anthony Napolitan. Enarson is fresh off a win at the Portland stop of the AST Dew Tour, and has positioned himself for another victory here in Phoenix. Watch for a triple tailwhip and possibly even a triple-whip 360 from Enarson tomorrow. He may be young, but his bag of tricks is deep.
The pros of the future, also known as amateurs, competed in skateboard vert this afternoon as well. Third place went to Brazil’s Marcello Bastos, followed closely by second generation vert skater Zach Miller (Zach is the son of vert legend and founder of Adio Footwear Chris Miller). First place went to Ben Hatchell who’s having a heck of a year already. Ben is fresh off a win at the X Games amateur contest, and with the win here in Phoenix we may see Ben in the Pro ranks before long.
The Pro Skateboarders took to the vert ramp right after their younger counterparts for a jam-packed prelim. With a great mix of newcomers and seasoned veterans moving through to the final, tomorrow is sure to be a banger. 17-year-old Adam Taylor just recently bumped himself up to the professional ranks and found himself squeaking into the finals in the tenth place spot, as did 16 year-old Alex Perelson, who has been turning a lot of heads this year. They’ll join veterans like Neal Hendrix, Bucky Lasek, and first place qualifier Pierre-Luc Gagnon in tomorrow’s final. Don’t miss it.
With all that crazy action, it must be over. We must have to leave now, right? Wrong! It’s time to rock. Or Screamo. Or whatever it is kids are doing these days. Hawthorne Heights took the stage as this evening’s headliner, and invited the crowd get out of their seats and infiltrate the arena floor, which they happily did, much to the chagrin of the venue security. You know what they say: Everybody dances or nobody dances. And in this case, the boys of Hawthorne Heights wanted everybody dancing. It’s too hot in Phoenix for dancing, though, so they had to settle for some singing along and head bobbing.
And with that the first day has come to an end. Tomorrow’s finals are set to be amazing. BMX vert finals, skateboard finals, and the new BMX box jump finals, followed by a musical performance from The Starting Line. I can’t wait.
