2007 Wild In The Parks: Stop #1 Results - Here we go! The first stop of the 2007 North American Wild in the Parks tour went off without a hitch at Peoria, Arizona’s Rio Vista Skatepark Sat June 2!
2007 Wild In The Parks: Stop #1 Results
by Jarnold
Here we go! The first stop of the 2007 North American Wild in the Parks tour went off without a hitch at Peoria, Arizona’s Rio Vista Skatepark Sat June 2!
Before we get into it, I want to mention a few notable additions to this year’s tour. First and foremost has got to be the WITP championships coming up at the Skatepark of Austin, TX on Sept 22! The top 7 skaters from each division on the tour (21 per stop) qualify for the event and a chance for a piece of the $15,000 cash purse! The series also includes an all-new Open Division. This group is geared towards the sponsored kids boasting local hero status. The top 5 rippers in this division take home loads of product while the top three also claim cold, hard cash (1st - $200, 2nd - $150, 3rd - $100). Whirred!
If you’ve never been, Arizona is beautiful, but man-alive is it hot!! The locs are claiming no biggie because it’s a “dry heat”. Balderdash! We went swimming and our boardies dried while we were still in the pool. No complaints here though because the free hot dogs for the contest cooked themselves in the car. Think we might try steak and lobster next year!
Kevin Naughton, Steve Richardson and their crew from the City of Peoria hooked everything up and made life easy on us. In addition to the Wild in the Parks, Rio Vista Skatepark is home to the annual Phoenix Am contest. Everything in the park has been built right. The layout consists of a large street area plus a few bowls for good measure. Trust me, there are more then enough ways to lose track of time, especially if you’re willing to spend a little time improvising. The concrete is so smooth (and hot) the impact of a bail is lessened because you nearly slide into the parking lot!
After a quick contest meeting, the 14 and Under Division kicked things off in fine form. Chad Kwiatowski and Dylan Lantz were in the 1st heat and gave the rest of the competitors something to think about! Kickflip 5-0s, smooth tailslides and frontside flips were just a fraction of the impressive trickery that went down! Tyler Peterson had everyone on their feet with his huuuuge kickflip down the 10-set.
The 15 and Over heats were up next and didn’t miss a beat in picking up where the younger division left off! This group was absolutely full of rippers and the tricks had the judges tripping over their clipboards! It would be unfair to name one name over another, but tricks I can do: Over the course of the three 15 and Over heats we saw: switch hardflips, nollie backside big spins, switch backside/frontside flips, kickflip maunals plus too many more to count!
With Rio Vista skatepark ripped apart and humiliated there was nothing left to do but awards and a write up right? Nope. This year’s Wild in the Parks tour features the all-new Open/Pro-Am Division! I can fairly accurately begin and end my description of the Rio Vista pro-am competitors with the term “reckless abandon”! Some of the best ams in Arizona and surrounding states were in attendance and vying for a spot at this year’s $15,000 Wild in the Parks Championships (Sept 22, Austin, TX)! The tricks were pretty much all heavies, but Tyler Hendley’s “double forward flip” was absolutely mind blowing and by far the single best trick I can recall over my four years on the WITP tour! You’ve gotta check the video to believe this one!
A huge thanks to Kevin Naughton, Steve Richardson, Ben Florine, Ben Rowberry, Jessica Jensen and Sean Kaus at the City of Peoria for all their stone support. Thanks also to sir Jordan Mead for help holding things down, Jordan Dickson for snapping photos and to our three judges Roy, Adam and Rustico. Last but definitely not least, thanks to all the companies that helped us stoke kids with prizes: Powell, Thrasher, Slap, the Skateboar Mag, Bones Wheels, Blind and Digital Skateboard. Couldn’t have done it without you guys.
Take it easy and I’ll talk to you again in a few weeks after the Austin, TX WITP!
2007 Wild In The Parks Stop #1 Results:
14 and Under:
1st: Tyler Peterson 2nd: Chad Kwiatowski 3rd: Zack Leckey 4th: Justin Cymbalski 5th: Lane Paul 6th: Dylan Lantz 7th: James Schwartz
15 and Over:
1st: Jeff Patrick 2nd: Sean O Lloyd 3rd:Quinton Hall 4th: Brandon Reis 5th: Travis Curtis 6th: Danny Duncan 7th: Devin Cain
Open/Pro-Am:
1st: Josh Hawkins 2nd: Tyler Hendley 3rd: Nick Fiorini 4th: Brian Bourgeois 5th: Josj Shupe 6th: Luis Terango 7th: Marcus McGee
