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Ringstrom Rings the Victory Bell in Paris
Skateboarding Vert Finals Recap
By Eric Kirkwoood
High winds and dark clouds have been the ongoing theme for each of the finals on our last two LG Action Sports World Tour stops . . . Paris Vert finals was no exception.
Our ten finalists are as follows: Otavio Neto, Jussi Korhonen, Chris Gentry, Buster Halterman, Juergen Horrwarth, Terence Bougdour, Jake Brown, Jean Postec, Mathias Ringstrom and Anthony Furlong.
There were so many amazing tricks and runs in this contest that instead of just listing off runs, I will give highlights of tricks that really made waves and stood out in this incredible display of vertical wizardry!
Otavio Neto from Brazil ended up in 9th place, but his brand of vertical skateboarding is a definite pleasure to witness. Alley-oop nollies in the 5-7 foot range impress even the most discerning critic and Otavio has them cold.
Buster Halterman's rodeo 540 is just beautiful, even and practically upside down . . . just superb! Chris Gentry is still chasing the perfect run, but in the interim he has without a doubt discovered the perfect rodeo 540. Chris rode to a 7th place finish and although had slight trouble on his second and third runs, his first run was a flurry of tricks like body jars, 360 varial airs at good height and a text book Phillip 66 (homage paid, respect). Jussi Korhonen . . . body varial 540 . . . damn boy!
Jussi came correct all afternoon with 540s, McTwists, 360 varials and much more. Juergen just rips . . . period (see the Berlin vert finals). Anthony Furlong rocked his run as always. His tricks included varial flip mutes, kickflip mutes, kickflip body varials and a variety of lip tricks and airs.
Jean Postec was definitely in contention for the top with a run that he capitalized by sticking a 720! Heelflip frontside airs and nollie heelflip indy airs were just some of his deep bag o' tricks.
Terence Bougdour is an exceptional skateboarder with an amazing repertoire of tricks. He definitely pulled them out today with heelflip indys, mute 540s, rodeo 540s and, in his last run, a varial rodeo 540, which is generally reserved for best tricks - has only been done by Danny Way - and is F&%^$ing SWEET!
Mathias Ringstrom was the big winner today with good reason. After coming just short yesterday (taking 2nd in the vert prelims), Mathias upped the output with a flawless and beautifully orchestrated run. It went down like this; Big stalefish air, backside air, kickflip indy, heelflip indy, japan air, mctwist, lein air, backside grab to fakie, cab heelflip, smith grind, tailgrab, tailgrab 360 to fakie, cab stalefish, 180 nose blunt, blunt to fakie, frontside cab, halfcab heelflip indy and a fakie to fakie 540 . . . That is what first place reads like and that was skateboarding in PARIS!
»»View the official results from this contest
