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Inline Street Finals…And Hammers Were Thrown!
by Mike Opalek
It was a nutty day, that’s for sure. The inline street finals were definitely one of the best I’ve seen lately and one of the hardest I’ve ever judged. Both the women and the men tore that course up – unfortunately, the course ripped a few of the skaters up too. Fabiola da Silva hurt her knee in practice just before the finals. The medical staff thinks she may have torn her ACL. This is a serious blow for Fabiola, lets hope for the best! On other injury news, Carl Hills dropped in and tried a 1080 over the launch box right off the bat only to come down a bit on his toes and then slam himself face first into the ground. Needless to say, Carl didn’t finish his run. And on a side note, JC Rowe ended up busting out his teeth when he washed out on the launch box preventing him from even competing in the prelims.
The ladies came out to rock! Canada’s Kaya Turski who has been seen doing a lot of twin tip skiing, was getting sick over the launch box with massive 540s and a nice alley oop topside acid, but falling on a backside royale didn’t do her any favors. 4th is where she would lay. Fallon Heffernan I swear might be unhuman. If you don’t know, Fallon is a cross country athlete. She competes for her college. She had her cross country nationals over the weekend too, so she flew to North Carolina on Friday so she could run on Saturday, then got on another plane and went back to Dallas to compete in women’s street on Sunday. I’m not sure if her meet had anything to do with her performance, but she was definitely missing something out there. Her first finals run, she fell on her 2nd trick and called that run a wash. On her second run, she came out on fire, with an alley oop topsoul and a sick 540, but it kinda went downhill from there. Fallon would squeeze into a bronze medal.
But the real battle was between Katie Ketchum and Martina Svobodova. It was such a tight comp that when it was all said and done, the winner won by only a single point. Katie’s run was packed with a load of tricks, 540, unity, true spin alley oop topside pornstar and a kind grind, where Martina’s style was queen for the day. It also didn’t hurt that she had a 540, alley oop topsoul and a front farfegnugen in her run. And when it came to the points, Martina was victorious! Congratulations, it was a hard fought victory!
When the men’s event started there was a thrill in the air, you could just feel it. We’ve been watching everyone practice, and after the prelims, we knew we wouldn’t be disappointed. Jeerasak Tassorn of Thailand, was in second after the prelims, but unfortunately, his finals runs didn’t go as well. Jeerasak would end up 8th. The event was so close from 3rd place to 8th place there was only a difference of 3.75 in points. All the judges earned their money on this day.
Brian Aragon started his run off with a classic 900, 270 unity down the square rail, 720, and a topside acid. It was a great run from Brian that landed him in 6th place. Aaron Feinberg who really hasn’t been skating much was very impressive. He was the only one out of all the sports competing over the weekend to use the snowboard style escalator launch ramp. Its hard to describe so I’m gonna just tell you to watch it on t.v. but I’ll say this: it was gnarly and just to make it harder, he zero spun it!!! What!!! Then he fakie 540ed over the spine, right into a topside acid and then a sweatstance. Aaron bobbled on a few of his tricks, but shouldn’t be ashamed about his 5th place spot. Japan’s Soichiro Kanashima placed 5th in last weeks Hoedown at Eisenbergs and decided to one up himself here today. For 4th place, all he had to do was a 540, backside farfegnugen to soul, a backside royale up the little square rail to 270 out and a disaster alley oop mistrial. This kids style is sick and I have a little feeling that we’ll see him for a long time coming.The top three didn’t hold back a bit. Chris Haffey's first run started off with him coming up a bit short on a 900, so he made sure to stick it in his second run. He followed it up by a flawless disaster frontside torque grind on the little square rail along with a few other things like soul grinds and unity’s. It was solid, but not good enough to reclaim the World Championship crown.
The French man Stephane Alfano (who barely made the finals, landing in tenth position ahead of Atlanta rookie David Sizemore came out like a bolt of thunder. His first run score was an unheard of 92.00. It was well deserved with tricks like, 900, 720, 360 to frontside farfegnugen on the sub box, topside alley oop acid. It was a shocking run and honestly, the only man to match it was Mr. Idaho himself, Erik Bailey. Erik’s first run wasn’t so hot so he had to make sure to bring it on his last attempt. With the best line of the day and arguably, one of the best styles in the world, Erik just killed it. 720 over the launch box then a royale over the gator gap right into a disaster backside backslide, then a disaster sweatstance on the massive make-it-or-die ledge. But the fun didn’t stop there, he continued with an alley oop topside acid grind on the sub box to a frontside royale 270 mute grab out. It was and had to be flawless to best Stephane’s run.
So there you have it folks, my last recap of the 2006 year. I’d like to thank all of my loyal readers out there. Without you, my editor would be the only one reading this. I’d also like to thank the person who left the bottle of Advil in the production office, my hangovers were much more tolerable thanks to you.
