and casual tricks often go unnoticed. Neal
and Frazier were both out, and Colin had
a broken wrist. Lance Mountain still 540'ed
the extension. Danny Way decimated the
sky with huge kickflip nosebones and nine-
foot airs. Henry Sanchez skated the most
of anyone with his parking lot display of
flatland wizardry. The Moose blasted to
fakie. Andy MacDonald was his usual cir-
cusy self. Mattias Ringstrom rode only
twelve feet of the ramp. Omar stomped
big Madonnas up the E. Sergie Ventura
launched a titanic backside over the mea-
suring grid to land the thousand clams for
high air. Hosoi slashed and sliced. Bob
Gnar lined up nosegrab dog pisser to
fakies followed by switch stalefishes, and
the trick of the weekend was Bob's eight-
foot long switch backside lipslide. Crum
stuck nollie heelflip frontsides and other
feats of no-grab wonder. Tom Boyle want-
ed that ten grand. He was one place away
from it and his last run included frontside
and backside kickflips without grabs that
might have made him the victor, but the
Hawk still had one more ride. You know.
the story, flawless. First wall varial 540 into
the deepest bag of tricks in history: bone-
drecht to frontside handplant to unit to
the motherfucking bank with the biggest
check ever handed out for a vertical win.
While everyone still does the basic back-
side air routine, few push their own limits
in contest situations for fear of low placing
or getting cut from their teams. Maybe it's
time to gauge the tricks on technical merit.
alone. Lines are one thing, but who's to
say if you did a kickflip backside noseblunt
nollie 180 flip out you shouldn't win?
-Robin Steele
Left to right: Danny "Wanna see me bust a
fat ass kickflip Indy?" Way, Photographic
proof of Tony Hawk's certified genius by
way of the old varial 540. Sergie "Baby
Jesus" Ventura can still blast like a rocket.
DWAY