2007 Pro Tec Pool Party Results - Reaches 4.9 On the Scale of Metal! - What the hell is the scale of metal? Well, let’s say that certain bands and situations are more metal than others. For instance, is Motley Crue at the Whiskey in 1982 more or less
What the hell is the scale of metal? Well, let’s say that certain bands and situations are more metal than others. For instance, is Motley Crue at the Whiskey in 1982 more or less metal than Winger in 1988. Who is Winger? There is the answer – Motley Crue. Here is the scale of Metal on a scale of 1 to 5:
5) Motorhead in the Basque Country of Spain playing for 3.5 hours with Lemmy on Heroin and wearing lead weights in his boots so he walks like Frankenstein with no opening band (the most metal you can get)
4) Van Halen completley drunk in 1982 (Pretty damn metal)
3) Van Halen in 1984 (average)
2) Metallica with the Symphony (a symphony is not metal)
1) Cinderella (makes you wish they never invented music)
As a friend said “I don’t think it is possible to reach a scale of 5 on your scale of metal. If you do not understand what I am talking about, then you should quit skateboarding!
Ok, the Pool Party took place in the Vans Combi Pool, a thirteen foot deep cement behemoth that is a square bowl connected to a round bowl. This thing is hard to skate! Slippery, lots of vert and endless lines. There is constant motion in there while riding, which is exhausting. The judges (Christian Hosoi, John Cardiel, Owen Neider, and Sasha Steinhost) were looking for a combination of tricks, lines, speed, amplitude and overall metal. The action was furious, the craziest skate event there is, period. People were practicing for this event for weeks - more than they practice for the X Games – insane! Here is a very small list of who was watching; Danny Way, Geoff Rowley, TNT, Jeff Ho, Jeff Grosso, David Loy, Rob Mertz, Tony Alva – you get the idea.
There are articles all over the web about this so let’s simply break down many riders runs and some quotes for you so you know what’s up
The Combi in all it’s glory with endless lines that begs the imagination to come up with something new
Women
April Woodcock – got 6th but she could have won. She missed half the final due to a stomach problem, high airs, lip tricks, the young girls are giving the veterans a run for the money. Here’s Apryl in action
3rd Mimi Knoop – Mimi possibly had the best lines and most technical lines of the group. Ollie over the channel, nosegrinds, frontside inverts were all part of her runs. More amplitude and she could have won 2nd Lyn-Z – Great to see her back in action after an injury kept her out of action for much of 2006. She spent the winter in Mammoth riding snow and she still rips on the skate. She goes the highest and has a lot hand plants, even Andrechts. Lyn-Z gives this Indy a nice little poke
1st CB - Been skating and snowboarding since the 70’s, mad respect to her. She was the overall best even though Mimi had better lines and Lyn-Z went higher
Masters
Basically 6th through 12th places were a crapshoot, throw the dice, they all had such different styles there was no way to judge them Glen Charnoski – Ripper from PA way back in the 80’s. Had a large array of tricks. Micke Alba – The brother of Salba. So rad to see him charging. Him and Salba even did some doubles. Malba rode very intensely and was looking to win Buck Smith – Had a pro model on Sims in the 80’s. Skated like Glen but with more intensity. Lots of tricks and lines, ok probably more lines than Glen Ben Schroeder – Holy shit, get outta the way. Ben is super nice but when he skates he is a demon. The sickest eggplants ever! In one run he kind of blew it and apologized to the crowd. Ben goes big or goes home on a stretcher. My God check out this egg plant by Ben, really an inverted indy air to tweaked out egg!
Lester Kasai – Kind of the opposite of Ben. Went big and smooth, not so crazy lines, graceful Salba – Very intense, stay out of his ways. Had the best lines of all the masters. Won the first pro bowl contest in Spring Valley in 1977 or 1978. Steve Alba is the definition of a lifer. Steve Alba carves underneath his brother Micke Alba – so classic
DP – Duane got hurt in practice but still sacked up, entered and got fucking 4th place. A little mellower than usual but still rocked his Indy’s foot plants, inverts to trucks and crazy slides. Duane said he just entered for fun and so he can skate with his old friends despite a knee injury – punk rock! The Master of Disaster rocks a frontside grind to backside revert
3rd Steve Caballero – Timeless style, boneless ones, board slides, and airs put him in 3rd 2nd Lance Mountain – Gotta say that Lance and Chris outdid the rest of the group. Lots of inverts (like this egg plant), footplants airs and creative lines put Lance in a well deserved 2nd place
1st Chris Miller - Chris’s kid said Chris was a little nervous about the event. No doubt! The jam format should be called the joust format, it was insane. Chris is a mellow dude but dug in deep in deep. His fast skating requires the whole bowl and he hauls ass so big shouts to Chris for pulling out the win the third year in a row. Chris shows off his style in the square with a lien air
Jeff Grosso and the man behind the Label – John Lucero
PRO
Nolan Johnson – Nolan ripped lots of tricks for a 17 year old. Nolan should have been in the finals. No disrespect to Serge’s huge airs but Nolan had more lines and trick. Shit, to be honest, you can pretty interchange 7th through 15th place, they all ripped and could have place anywhere in that range. Sergie Ventura blasts over Chris Cudlipp and Bucky Lasek in a hectic triples line
Josh Borden – He surprised everyone last year, like Nolan did this year and now he got into the finals and deserved it. Josh even did 540’s. Josh made it look easy to ride up a 13 foot tall wall, pop a backside ollie and land on the skinny ass hip – it isn’t that easy though
Bruno Passos – Nothing huge other than ripping the pool a new ass with crazy lines. Bruno helped Bob get into skating back in Brazil Andy Mac – Always get’s screwed. Andy had made some of the sickest use of the pool and got into some hard to reach places. Andy also added many of his tricks from a large arsenal he keeps Benji Galloway – Some call him the Andy Mac of cement I call him one of the best all around riders. Benji worked the pool so hard but did not the trick arsenal as the other dudes Bob Burnquist – Take an alien, mix it with Duane Peters crazy style and Tony Trujillo’s cat like style and you get Bob. He made the combi look like a mini ramp. Fakie everything, spins, grinds, airs, flip tricks, lines no one else used and so on 3rd Omar Hassan – Omar has won this thing and he was ripping this year too. I have to say Bucky and Rune took it to other levels though. Omar Hassan Madonna’s amidst the media frenzy
2nd Bucky Lasek – Bucky got two runs in 2005, and had a broken arm last year. This year Bucky got into the mix and it was only a matter of time. He is very competent on round walls and brought some crazy vert tricks to the joust fest. How about an egg plant 540? Bucky being competitive got the whole group going. Every year this event gets a little crazier. Bucky presents to you the square
1st Rune Glifberg – Rune now has won this thing twice. He is an absolute animal. There is no question that he deserved to win with crazy lines and tricks. Rune brought crazy combinations. If Omar learned a few new trick and if Bucky could be more consistent…next year will be sick too. Rune Glifberg, if you can imagine, took this tailslide all the way to the hip, went halfway around the hip, tweaked his board around with it and launched straight into the round bowl. This photo also shows the craziness’ of the crowd
TNT and Jake Brown
Little Morgan Burgess is like 13 or so and came all the way out from Ohio with the Skatopia crew to compete with the big boys. Morgan actually had to qualify and made it into the Pool Party. In the very near future he will be making the finals
The Vertical Vampire made a rare daylight appearance, although it was indoors so he was shielded from the sun’s rays
Rune Glifberg reaping the first place award and the 25 k that goes with it
Results
Media Jam 1 Garret Shigenaka-SK8Session.com 2 Brian Fick-Every magazine under the sun? 3 Scott Taylor-Skateboarder Magazine 4 Jim Murphy-Juice Magazine 5 Buddy Carr-ConcreteWave 6 Dave Swift-The Skateboard Mag
Masters’ 1 Chris Miller $10,000 2 Lance Mountain $6,000 3 Steve Caballero $4,000 4 Duane Peters $1,000 5 Steve Alba $200 6 Lester Kasai $200 7 Ben Schroeder $200 8 Buck Smith $200 9 Micke Alba $200 10 Glen Charnoski $200 11 Mike Barnes 12 Mike McGill 13 (tie) Pat Ngoho 13 (tie) Steve Steadham 15 Mark Partain
Pro 1 Rune Glifberg $25,000 2 Bucky Lasek $15,000 3 Omar Hassan $8,000 4 Bob Burnquist $4,000 5 Benji Galloway $2,000 6 Andy Macdonald $1,500 7 Bruno Passos $1,000 8 Joshua Borden $700 9 Lincoln Ueda $500 10 Sergie Ventura $300 11 Nolan Johnson 12 Remy Stratton 13 Brian Patch 14 Darren Navarette 15 Darin Jenkins
The inventor of the Mctwist, Mike Mcgill tweaks out an invert
