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Vert Prelims in the City of LOVE! Ahhhhh Paris!
Skateboarding Vert Prelims Recap
By Eric Kirkwoood
With love (and skaters) in the air and the majesty of the Eiffel Tower in full view, our skateboard vert contest commenced. The weather report showed a storm on the horizon and the chance of Sunday being rained out, so all the skaters knew it would have to be an all-out battle... And some were up for the challenge.
Among the ready was Buster Halterman, who had one of the first full runs of the afternoon. Buster’s run included a true Mctwist, which is rare these days in the midst of a solid well-composed run. Buster’s backside lipslides are as smooth as a Parisian pick-up line. Chris Gentry had a tough time staying on today and in his second run he definitely showed he meant business with hugeness, but unfortunately, he lost it on a tailgrab 360. Gentry's first run was good enough to put him in 7th overall and included his signature immense and even spinning rodeo 540. Also in Chris' bag was a backside 540, bodyjar, tailslide fakie and a plethora of grabs.
Juergen Horrwarth was the winner of last weekend’s event in Berlin (his hometown) and he definitely brought the confidence of his recent victory to the ramp. Juergen rolled into a high-flying backside air followed by a gargantuan backside 540. After his initial blasting, Juergs continued the assault with stylish airs and liptricks like tailslides and cab mute grabs, and let’s not forget a beauty of a tail 540.
Terence Bougdour has been climbing the ranks for some time now and put together quite a packed second run. Mute 540, heelflip indy and a rocking 720 (which he just recently learned) were just part of his deep bag of tricks. Mr. Bougdour's run also included a nice rodeo 540 and put him into a well-deserved 5th place.
Jake Brown's power gave him a consistent edge on the competition. Jake pulled a full run, which landed him in 4th place and included a slew of tricks in the eight to ten foot range, including a kickflip indy and mute 540.
Jean Postec of France was in fine form as well and got in a full pull. Highlights included rodeo 540, cab mute grab, bodyjars and heel-flip frontside airs.
The day’s contest was definitely decided by technical trick combinations and the ability to STAY ON! Mathias Ringstrom and Anthony Furlong were both able to do just that. Mathias had combinations such as a kickflip indy to heelflip indy and indy 360 to cab mute to 180 nose blunt. Anthony answered back with kickflip mute body varial to varial air and the clincher- cab heelflip to kickflip infy fakie to fakie-to-fakie 540.
As the shadow of the Eiffel Tower slowly stretched across the ramp, Anthony Furlong found himself scoring just above Mathias Ringstrom, who ended up in a well earned 2nd... and that, as we say, is a rap.»»View the official results from this contest
