© Skate Scene Media Click on a photo for a larger photo |
With the help of 2 Rockstar energy drinks we were awake again and on the road to Orange. This was the first major contest that has ever been held at the VANS skate park in Orange, California. This contest had a whopping $85,000 purse which is a decent chunk of change for a contest. |
Buddy Carr |
Swellbow |
Scott Taylor |
Jim Murphy |
First event of the day was the Media Concrete Challenge. This is where full time employee from various skate media outlets would compete against each other. The cool thing about this is that these are all the same people you would be skating with at any given skatepark around the country. Everyone of the skaters in this division can throw down hard and it really did not seem like a contest because all of these dudes skate this hard all the time. |
Kim Peterson |
Lyn-Z |
Jenn O'Brien |
Amanda Eschemann |
Honoring The Hoffmans |
Dave Duncan |
Stan Hoffman |
Something that was really cool that went down as part of the event was to give honor and respect to Stan and Jeanne Hoffman who owned the Pipeline skatepark in Upland California, the site of the original Combi Bowl. Stan was presented with a plaque that recognized their contribution to the replica Combi as well as their overall contributions to skateboarding. |
Salba |
Mike Smith |
Marty "Jinx" |
Jeff Grosso |
After the presentation to Stan Hoffman it was now time to run the Masters division. The entire contest was like watching an old Bones Brigade video live. The skating styles that were being represented were very unique to each skater and all of them could win on any given day. No matter what tricks the spectators liked to see, they saw them all from the stiff arm inverts by Lance Mountain to the blasting airs of Kevin Staab to the stylish style of Mike Smith's Laybacks to the full charging board slides of Jeff Grosso, it was all there...and more. How any of this could be judged to determine the overall winner is insane, but before the contest the buzz in the air was all about Chris Miller who was the favorite to take it all...and he did! |
Don Hamilton |
Chris Miller |
Lance Mountain |
Kevin Staab |
Rune Glifberg |
Brian Patch |
Omar Hassan |
Scott Taylor for media |
Ladies Top 3 |
Masters Top 3 |
Pro Top 3 |
The event was a total success in our eyes and it is our hope that when the video portion of this event is aired in 2 months that it will build contest like this into a regular event not just in Orange, yet all over the place. As we said when we started this report, this event left us spinning and it is hard to put into words what we experienced, hopefully the marginal photos that are part of this story will help you put you own interpretation on how bitchen this event was. |
Media |
Masters: |
Women: |
Pros: |