X Games 13: Vert Report - Shaun now is not only a Winter Olympics gold medalist but also a summer X Games gold medalist as well. Pretty amazing stuff if you think about it. It all came down to the second to last run too. The Games ramp
Shaun now is not only a Winter Olympics gold medalist but also a summer X Games gold medalist as well. Pretty amazing stuff if you think about it. It all came down to the second to last run too. The Games ramp had been moved from indoors at the staple center to outdoors at the Home Depot Center. It was hot as heck. The heat combined with the very large amount of time between runs I believe led to a large amount of bails. I do not think anyone made it through the first round with a complete run. By the end of the second run the medalist were PLG, Mathias Ringstrom and Alex Perelson. Wait, who is Alex Perelson? Alex is a 16 year old, 5’6”, 125 lb ripper from San Diego and he was sitting in third place at the X Games after round two. All the heavies (Bucky, Bob, Rune, etc) all bailed in their third runs too. It all came down to Shaun White’s last run to knock the 16 year old out podium contention. Shaun made his run and got the gold and knocked Alex down to 4th place. It was history in the making folks and it all came down to the 2nd to the last runs of skateboard of the thirteenth X games
The vert ramp crowd
This is who Alex Perelson is. A young ripper from San Diego that skates a Claremont. He used to be influenced by Neil Blender and Darren Navarette, now I think his influence comes from the many pros that visit the park. Fourth Place in the X Games – sick
PLG put together a sick run for sure but he really won simply by completing his last run
Andy Mac does a nice little front blunt on the offset extension. Andy is usually Mr. consistent and even he was bailing
Here is what the ramp looked like. Basically a straight vert ramp with two little offset extensions on either end
Rune Glifberg sizes up the ramp
This may be a fakie to fakie 540 by Mr. Bucky Lasek. Either way it is crazy. Bucky ALMOST took it in his third run but fell a few walls before his 45 seconds were up. Even if Bucky did make his run I am not sure it would have taken Shaun’s run. We will never know though. Bucky was recovering from something like a month or so ago so maybe that affected him
Bob Burnquist also fell victim to the bailing syndrome but not here. I did not even know what this is, some of frontside spinning handplant. Bob is a true nut and a true joy to watch. Bob could barely get up after some of his falls in the Big Air, let alone skate in the X Games but sure enough – here he is
Rune Glifberg ollies on the offset extension
Shaun White warms up with a heelflip to fakie. Shaun said that “Pretty much my goal was to never do a straight air”
Shaun signs an autograph during practice
Shaun does a frontside 5 on his way to victory at the X Games. Shaun has done a lot of skating with Tony Hawk over the years. Shaun trains at Tony Hawks’s facility in Vista on the old huckjam ramp. Shaun even has a similar style to Tony Hawk. So it was really cool to Tony that Shaun won. “To finally see you make it in this arena is amazing” is one of the things Tony Hawk said to Shaun
I have been backing Mathias Ringstrom for years. That guy has put out some amazing things in the past, just not at the X games. Today he put one of those runs together that was certainly worthy of X Games Bronze
Rune Glifberg with a massive front heelflip – straight to hell!!
Here is another look at Alex Perelson. You know what, with all the current skaters approaching their mid thirties it is real good too see from fresh blood
Bucky Madonna’s onto the offset extension. Bucky always comes up with creative tricks
Shaun White with a bad ass looking slob. Shaun’s winning run included but was not limited to: heelflip 5, 720, stale front 5, front 5, fakie to fakie 5, varial heelflip and more
Mathias answers back with a sick melon grab
X Games 13 - Vert Results:
1) Shaun White 2) PLG 3) Mathias Ringstrom 4) Alex Perelson 5) Andy MacDonald 6) Bucky Lasek 7) Rune Glifberg 8) Bob Burnquist 9) Rob Loriface 10) Sandro Dias
Shaun in turn answers back with a 720 and takes it all for his efforts. Do you think spinning 1080’s on a snowboard helps him spin 7’s on a skate? I don’t know do you think having sex with a Playboy Playmate would rule? Shaun was spinning 720’s like they were a set up trick. Congratulations Mr. White!
