GvR 2007 // Lake Forest, CA
Words by Naka

Another Goofy vs. Regular has come and gone. This 2007 GvR bowl contest marked the year of the younger generation of skaters snaking and clawing their way into the top 10 ranks. The average age for the top 10 for the women looked to be about 14. For the pros, Benji, Omar and Patch tried to hold down the young guns another year and keep them in check. All in all, another great GvR and some sick bowl action.

As usual, the women kicked off GvR in the afternoon. Julie and Apryl seemed like the ones to watch, but Apryl had a few falls, so it was Julie Kindstrand who pocketed a check for $500 and first place. Nicole Zuck has been adding airs to her carve grinding speed lines and threw up frontsides, backsides, indys and mutes to grab second. Young grommet, Allysha Bergado wowed the judges with her 2 ft. frontside airs and inverts just below the coping to beat out Apryl for the third spot. Padless and aggressive is how Cressy Rice rolls. With her extensive concrete experience, she nabbed fifth place.

The Masters saw "Charno" work every nook and cranny of the skull. Big indys, crail to tails, hip transfers and an all out attack on the bowl helped to catapult Charno to first place. Caballero has been in the top three for some time now. He was his usual self, with clean lines and style that has made Cab a legend. He did take a pretty hard slam on a fakie to lipslide, but was able to get back up and kill again. And a man on a mission, Pat Ngoho, set himself ablaze and took the third spot. I hear Pat has been honing his skills at the new bowl in Culver City and it shows. I was waiting for him to pull out one of his inverts I've been hearing about, but I guess he's going to save it for another time. Lester just missed the top 3 and ended up in fourth. He has been practicing for the past month or more and came out firing on all cylinders with huge airs, but had a few bails. What can you say about Duane that already hasn't been said? He gives 110% every time. He took a few hard slams, but still earned his way to 5th place.

The pro contest got to be pretty hectic with up to four skaters in the bowl at one time. There was no courtesy to be found and no regard for who was in the bowl, whether it be Patch or Omar. No one was safe. Surprisingly, not one bad collision.The Bacon team was definitely represented at the top of the heap this year. Four of the top ten finishes were from the Bacon team; Benji Galloway, Donovan Rice, Rion Linderman and Kevin Kowalski. Lake Forest local, Tyler Mumma continues to speed his way into the list of heavy hitters. Tyler skates fast... really fast. Tyler took home a very respectable 5th place with long back smiths, feeble grinds and even a 360 lien air. In the end, it came down to, as it usually does, Omar and Benji. Omar busted out his usual barrage of airs to fakie, lipslides, big madonnas and even threw in an invert, but it wasn't enough for first. Benji took home the top spot by mixing it up and throwing up some big airs.

Some memorable moments from the pro contest, JFA rocking the deep end deck. Benji's backside 360 deep to shallow transfer, Will Powers' bomb drop attempts. Both, unfortunately, unsuccessful. Skreech throwing up (as he does every contest) into the shallow end of the bowl. Brian Whitney's belly roll-in. And a big congratulations goes out to House and SCS team riders, Andrew Miller and Daniel Vargas for being the only two riders from the Hometown Heroes to be selected to ride with the pros. Andrew might have done a little better if Kowalski didn't keep dropping in on him, but over time, he'll learn.