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Vert Finals… You Wish You Were Japanese!
by Mike Opalek
The crowds were at full capacity and the MC’s were building up the excitement. France’s Lamine Fathi started it all off. Lamine skated pretty well, much better then I would have with the hangover I had; I could have never landed the 540 or the fakie 540 that Lamine threw. The Advil I just took is only just now settling in to my stomach now and slowly entering my bloodstream.
Ayumi Kawasaki stepped up her run with some consistent 5ft airs, a forward 900 and an alley oop topside pornstar. She lacked a bit of style though and she doesn’t grab any of her spins and most of her airs, which will always go against her. Still, her run was good enough for a 10th place.
Kevin Marron Lopez is one of the smoothest skaters on the tour. This 17 yr. old from Brussels is definitely going to light up the vert ramp for years to come. His Mctwist 540s and inverted 900 were consistent and stylish; Kevin finished in 7th place. Rich Parker had the best run of the year. He was very impressive today. It always helps when you throw a 1080 in the middle of your run, along with a 900 and flat spin 540. Rich landed in 6th.
The ageless Cesar Mora, who you can see on Youtube juggling a soccer ball for like 10 minutes straight or something like that was amazing today. He looked great on the ramp with over head high Rocket airs, 720s and 540 combinations. Cesar amazed us all and his 5th place was definitely well deserved. Fabiola da Silva rocked us all with her amazing style. The Brazilian is so smooth on the ramp. Her trick list went something like this: fakie 900, 540, flat 540, fakie fronside royale, and an invert to boot. Fab just missed the podium but she should be happy with her 4th place spot.
The top 3 was definitely a treat. These guys all killed it today and should be pretty stoked with their results. Shane Yost who won two tour events earlier this year was his consistent self: 900s, double flat spins , 540s. Shane’s line was like no other; he just lacked a bit of amplitude throughout the run. Shane walked away with a 3rd place.
With the top two left, I’d like to try to make this exciting, but seriously no one can touch Takeshi Yasutoko right now…NO ONE! So Marc Englehart gave it his all, double flat spins, head high airs, 1080s, fakie 900s and all his variation 540s where sick. His 2nd place was well deserved.
But the man of the day was definitely Takeshi Yasutoko. His over 10ft. high airs were by far the highest of the day, along with his Viking flip to double Viking flip, 900 and 540s, and then he destroyed the coping with all his lip tricks. Eito, unfortunately, couldn’t get over the pain. He went down on a California Roll 1080 early in his run, and waved it off.
Overall an excellent comp . . . and now, on to '07!
