If you're looking for men's vert, big air or superpark photos, they aren't here. Instead of standing out in the sun for 6 hours trying to jockey for position amongst the overwhelming number of photographers and videographers, most of whom, know nothing about skateboarding, I decided to shoot one event. Ladies' vert. In the 90° Carson heat, while moto-something was going on in the arena, Cara-Beth Burnside, Mimi Knoop, Julie Kindstrand, Karen Jonz, Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins, Gaby Ponce, Annie Sullivan and little Allysha Bergado ripped up the, not so original, rented vert ramp. Yeah, the ramp was a rental. It was evident that the super "mini" park had exhausted most of X Games limited fundage for vert, so ESPN plopped down the LG ramp, so they could satisfy the skaters who threatened to boycott the big air if they took vert out of X. For the girls, this day wasn't about performing for the media, this day was about pushing the boundries of ladies' vert skating, having fun and skating for themselves. The 23 year-old phenom, Karen Jonz has an insane amount of vert skills. She came out all smiles for her intro run and nailed everything. You name the grab and Karen's got it, frontside tuck knee, stale, lien, mute, backside method, she's got them all on lock. She also has gay twists, shove-its, shove-it mute fakies, finger flip indys and backside nose grinds. Her effort was awarded with the gold hardware.
Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins, at 18, is the highest flyer of the bunch. Her effortless airs and style make her a podium contender every time. Lyn-Z was the only one to drop in off the extension roll in which resulted in a 6-foot backside air. She also landed her kickflip indy among the myriad of stylish airs she does. And as time wound down, the elusive mctwist was attempted, but to no avail.
The judges gave Lyn-Z the silver this year, much to the chagrin of Mimi Knoop who was right there in a battle with her for second. Mimi coming off a win at Pro-Tec and the Soul Bowl this year skated hard and put in some good, clean runs, but came up just short of second and took home the bronze. Some of Mimi's runs included, frontside bonelesses, fastplants, front and back inverts, front ollie nose grinds, backside and frontside airs, alley oop indys and an alley oop kickflip indy attempt.
I'm guessing for the first time since ladies' vert was introduced into X Games, Cara-Beth Burnside failed to medal. Is the torch being passed? No, I don't think so. Although CB is the veteran of this group, she is still progressing. She was really, really close to landing a kickflip indy in her run and was also trying backside 50-50 to fakie in practice. She had some good runs and a great intro run. CB was popping airs in the 4-foot range, back, front, mute, lien, back inverts, judos and even a frontside pop tart disaster. No doubt that she was just a hair out of medal contention. If you know CB at all, you know that she is one determined skateboarder. This will only fuel the fire to train harder. I know that we'll be seeing her on the podium for years to come. Out of the remaining four girls, only one, Annie Sullivan, has competed in X Games vert. Annie has a few tricks, but is more well-known as a bowl skater. I saw Gaby Ponce for the first time a couple weeks back at Soul Bowl. Although Gaby has some nice backside airs in the 5-6 foot range, she needs a little work on her lip skills and air variations. Gaby was attempting frontside 5s though. At the end of the jam, she attempted her third or fourth try and got rid of her board before her kneeslide. When her board hit the ramp, her back truck exploded. Hanger, bushings and the two halves of her kingpin went flying. Lucky for her it didn't happen during the contest. Julie Kindstrand took the X stage for the first time this year and didn't do too bad. She had some clean airs and a frontside standup 5-0. Like Annie, Julie is known as a bowl rider as well and needs a bit more practice time on the vert ramp. The darling of ladies' X vert was first-time X competitor, Allysha Bergado. At only 12 years-old, she has come such a long way since the first time I shot her in a street contest at Upland skatepark. Allysha has all her airs wired, frontside, backside, mute. She also does inverts just below coping, learned ollies on vert and stomped a gay twist in her run after landing her first one the previous day. Look for big things from Allysha in the future. Despite all the drama of this year's X, the girls skated their hearts out to a spattering of fans who came out to watch. Absent from the mainstream media and most other media outlets is the ladies' vert contest. There are possibly only a few girls on this planet that can do frontside inverts or kickflip indys on vert, but ESPN chooses not to air it. So another X Games has come and gone. Vert was out, then was back in. I think that superpark was a flop. That thing was like a beginner/intermediate playground with some expert obstacles sprinkled in. A far cry from a "super" park. I didn't go to the Maloof Money Cup nor did I watch it on TV. All I know is that by the coverage that I saw, skateboarding has a new home with the Maloofs. Maybe next year, they can work the ladies into the vert ramp. So, as far as next year's X Games… who knows? But then again, who cares? They'll probably red-flag my name next year. Maybe I can get in under an alias, Christian Coo– no that won't work. Whatever. ¡Viva la revolución! Click here for the Girls' Vert photos --- sidenote: If you want to read a funny article on the superpark from the LA Times click here. Pay close attention to what the X Games GM says about skateboarders. Knucklehead.
|
