Omar Hassan

Rune Glifberg

Brian Patch

Chris Miller

Duane Peters

Duane Peters

Bob Burnquist

Bucky Lasek

Bucky Lasek

Steve Caballero

Josh Borden

Sergie Ventura

Sergie Ventura

Lester Kasai

This is one of my favorite pictures of the weekend. On Thursday night after practice was over, we headed out for a dinner break. This is when you get to hang out with old friends and catch up as well as finding out what people think about the contest and whatnot. You get to hear about the lines people are looking at as well as how they are going to throw them down. This dinner picture was taken with some of the best vert dogs (and girl) in the world. From Left to Right.. Louie Baur, Sergie Ventura, Rune Glifberg, Holly Lyons, Brian Patch, PLG and Jake Brown. Notice that Jake is drinking Odoul's what discipline!

Results from the Protec Pool Party at the Vans Skatepark at the Block in Orange, CA May 13, 2006
Best Trick: Will Powers doing a Bomb Drop from the bleachers into the round of the combi.  This video clip courtesy Socalskateparks.com

Pro Women Results:
1 Carabeth Burnside
2 Mimi Knoop
3 Holly Lyons
4 Nicole Zuck
5 Jen O'brien
6 Mandy Esch
7 Julie K.
8 Heidi Fitzgerald
9 Kim Peterson

Best Trick Girls:
Mimi Knoops Nose grind in the square

Masters Division Results:
1 Chris Miller
2 Jeff Grosso
3 Steve Caballero
4 Lance Mountain
5 Tony Mag
6 Mike Smith
7 Steve Alba
8 Duane Peters
9 Pat Ngoho
10 Lester Kasai
11 Eddie Reategui
12 Mike Barnes
13 Dave Reul
14 Dave Duncan
15 Chris Cooksie Cook
16 Ben Schroeder
17 Eric Nash
18 Lonny Hiramoto
19 Mike Rogers
20 Jim Gray
21 Steve Steadham
22 Dave Hackett
23 John Fudala

Pro Division Results:
1 Omar Hassan
2 Rune Glifberg
3 Brian Patch
4 Benji Galloway
5 Andy Macdonald
6 Bob Burnquist
7 Bucky Lasek
8 Joshua Borden
9 Bruno Passos
10.Jimmy The Greek
11 Tim Johnson
12 Lincoln Ueda
13 Ben Butler
14 Darin Jenkins
15 Bennett Harada
16 Sergie Ventura
17 Matt Moffett
18 Will Powers
19 Al Partanen
20 Steve Reeves
21 Cristiano Mateus
22 Rion Linderman
23 Johnny Turgeson
Media Contest Winner: Scott Taylor

Rockstar Energy Award: Josh "The Future" Borden

Best Trick: Will Powers doing a Bomb Drop from the bleachers into the round of the combi.  This video clip courtesy Socalskateparks.com

Clown Award: John Fudala

All Text Courtesy of Vans.com

Reflections on a few key moments from the Pool Party Pt.1
A momentary stream of consciousness, some of the things that made this year's Pool Party one of, if not the best contest in skateboarding history.

Bear with me, as I know I've mentioned a few of these items already, It's just that lacking any of these, the contest would not have had quite the same energy, chaos, and intensity. These are in no totemic order, in other words every single one of these items is of equal importance all adding up to the best skateboarding contest ever in my opinion.

Duane Peters. Anyone even remotely familiar with skateboarding knows something about Duane. D.P. is, as he always been... 100% D.P. He skates like no other, He thrives on pain, He rips in a way that mere mortals can only dream. The first guy to do a loop, decades before today's pros, he's been legally dead at least once and possibly twice, he's been homeless, he's been a punk rock star, and he is the original anti-hero that I chose to make one of my heroes so many years ago. Just seeing Duane skate, let alone skate this event and make the finals was something special that I will never forget. Duane is one of the yardsticks by which all skateboarders will be forever measured, and for that we should all be thankful.

The crowd. Maybe it was the endless stream of free Rockstar energy drinks, or the omnipresent free food... Naw. Each and every person who scored a ticket to this event had a profound respect, appreciation, and rabid hunger for what they witnessed on Saturday. By the time the finals rolled around it was well past standing room only and the crowd was so pumped up, they drowned out the music and the MC entirely on many, many occasions. The adrenaline was like a tsunami roaring down on the place with the crowd feeding off of the skaters and the skaters feeding off of the crowd simultaneously. It felt like the whole place was going to explode at any moment, and that's precisely as it should be. Skateboarding isn't made for TV. It shouldn't be stopped for network commercials. It should be a non-stop energy session fueled by a crowd who gets it. It was. And they did.

The youth. I saw a lot of younger skaters having a blast and really getting into the event. I think older skaters are quick to dismiss the youngsters as not having an appreciation for pool skating, the assumption being they are just part of the ledge and rail generation. From what I could tell, there are a lot of hungry young tykes out there, hitting the bowls at their local skateparks, and having seen this contest, they will probably be completely hooked into pool skating because of it. There is a groundswell of bowl skating amongst our youth, that has not yet been acknowledged by many of the major magazines, but if one or two more events like this happen, we may see an entire new generation of pool skaters coming up that will challenge today's best for superiority in the very near future. Heck, they might even get some magazine coverage out of it.

John Fudala. Yeah, the guy in the clown suit. John was just reveling and having fun. So what if he finished last? He skated hard, was a crowd pleaser, and he's just a really good guy. Ask him to show you his fork brand if you doubt his significance in skateboarding history.

Bucky Lasek. I think as a general rule, most people would just categorize Bucky as a "vert jock". a back and forth x-gamer who only rides big showtime ramps for big money. Not only Did Bucky adapt his immense skillset to the Combi and ride it as a pool with dramatically impressive results, Some of his tweaked corner airs were so impossibly contorted, he either does a very serious amount of yoga, or he trains with chinese acrobats. Add in his participation with the Make-A-Wish foundation to help a young man by the name of Jared battling leukemia, to realize his dream of being able to meet and ride with some of skateboarding's top pros, all in the most personal way. A lot of professional athletes will just throw money at charities, and maybe do a TV commercial where they appear to be personally involved, you know, reading a children's book to paid child actors. Well, I applaud Bucky for his charity, and wanting to do something for others. Skateboarders are a different breed, and it shows.

Will Powers and the bomb drop. As if the insanity and madness of the contest wasn't enough to drive the crowd into a frenzy of ridiculous proportions, Will decided to give everyone a little extra something to scream their lungs out about. What was it? 5 tries? 6? Who cares? That was something that was so completely wrong and completely right at the same time. I love spontaneity. Throw in craziness and it's 10 times more appealing. So yeah, Will anytime you want to bust out like that, you go right ahead, we all love it.

Josh Borden. You'd think the first time a young gun has to go up against the pros, he's going to be nervous, shaky, and otherwise rattled. Sure, Josh skates with pros all the time in sessions, but a contest is another story altogether. It's a pressure cooker, with a big bag of money at the finish line. It can't be stated enough what an impression young Josh made by holding his own, and making the finals. With the level the pros skate at today, it's impossible to just stroll in and knock a few of them off. This kid is only just beginning to rise, he's got natural ability, a cool head and he loves skateboarding. Look for big things from Mr. Borden in the very near future.

The Van Doren family in full effect. All week Steve and Christie were working non-stop to pull this thing together. They fed thousands of people on their own dime, not just on Saturday, but Thursday as well. You get a sense that they take real pride in hosting this event, not just the riders but the spectators and media and other dignitaries as well. Their efforts are appreciated beyond belief! What's a hamburger and a soda cost at the x-games? 17 dollars? Yeah I thought so. Everyone got so much out of their massive contributions, and without them, none of this would have happened. Hats off!

Steve Caballero. If you saw him skate, I need not say anything more. This is the first time he has competed in quite some time, but he still has that magic ability to turn it on in the finals. One of the smoothest characters of all time, Cab still has it and he is the epitome of flow. Not only that, but Steve is also one of the friendliest guys you'll ever have the pleasure of meeting. You get the sense that whatever Steve applies himself to, he excels at it, and he has already proven that, in art, in music, in skateboarding, in life. Steve is truly one of a kind.

I have some more I'll meter out to you tomorrow, along with my final summation...there are so many things that made this contest great, I'm sure I'll be recalling little things months from now, those little things that are so difficult to recall as I'm still reeling from the intensity of the event.

Chapter 3 The Pro Division wrap-up

So how exactly is it that the building housing the Combi hasn't completely exploded from the huge amounts of energy being released? I have to wonder what the equivalent amount of nuclear bomb mega tonnage would be as calculated by a theoretical physicist. Skateboarding is explosive as it is, but with the pro ranks competing in this year's event, it feels like enough to level 50 city blocks and reduce them to rubble. I have witnessed a lot of contests in my day, from the Newark Pro Bowl, to both the Winchester pro-am and Winchester open, the Milpitas pro, both Capitola Streetstyle contests, both Mile High Ramp contests, the Capitol burnout, and quite a few others. I've even been to the X-games a couple of times. And as amazing as all of those contests were, I cannot compare any of those to the ProTec Pool Party. All of the ingredients that came together on Saturday generated the most intense skateboarding contest energy I have ever experienced. Even on the day after the event I am hard-pressed to find words to describe it in any sort of accurate way. I had expectations of how heavy it would be, but those all were completely blown away in a few short hours.

To set the stage for you a bit, I'll start with the pro alternate qualifier which was held Thursday evening. This was an opportunity for some uninvited riders to campaign for a spot in the event in all 3 divisions. Bennett Harada brought his flow in and blazed. Some might call it "old school" but it isn't really, it's just expressive skateboarding, possibly slightly surf-influenced, but aggressive and on edge. Bennett is one of my favorite skaters to watch and he showed everyone a different approach that earned him a spot in the Pro event. Thursday morning saw the arrival of the Northwest Daggers contingent in the form of Steven Reeves, Johnny Turgeson, and Rion Linderman. As soon as they gained access to the Combi, they skated all day. Other riders stopped in for practice and left, but the NW crew went nonstop right up to the qualifier. Their work ethic paid off as all three easily battled their way into the main event. These guys grew up skating big concrete, padless and helmetless and they have an intensity in their skating that is awesome. I can't wait to see them kill their home turf at the Oregon Trifecta this year. Will Powers also made the cut with some power moves and some sick hip transfers. Another Northerner, Will is known for taking some dangerous leaps of faith that others will simply shake their head at, but we'll get to that later. Ben Butler was in there. For those who might not know, Ben destroys backyard pools. Probably his favorite terrain, tight, nasty, whippy basins where he will find the impossible line and then make it look easy.

Other extremely notable riders added to the roster were Sergie Ventura, and Tim Johnson. Sergie was a bit of a Hosoi protege in his salad days, but he quickly came into his own. Everyone will forever compare his style to Christian's, but the fact of the matter is, upon close inspection, Sergie has his own thing going and he blasts. I mean BLASTS. And Tim Johnson is just incredible. Tim skated hard and fast and ruthlessly. The Florida powerhouse hoisted massive airs, and threw down lip tricks on every wall with total control and heavy duty power. Someone had handed me a scrawled rider list with his name mis-spelled and for a brief time it appeared on this website incorrectly. Tim, I'm sorry about that, the chaos and energy of the event interfered with my fact checking skills momentarily, but I'm all better now.

So the pro stage was set and with Dagger Dave Duncan on the mic preparing to call it as he saw it, and a rabid capacity crowd screaming their lungs out, the battle began. Duncan knows what's up. He correctly informed the crowd that every qualifying heat was a final, and the skating more than lived up to that assessment. If there was one slight disappointment, it would be that Tony Trujillo was unable to skate in the event. After Tony's insane performance last year, everyone was hoping to see him in there. He'll be back, don't worry about that. P.L.G. was also a scratch, and he was missed as well.

In addition to the qualifying riders listed above, you have a roster that reads like a history lesson from the past several years of skateboarding competition as well as the less documented, covert underground of skating. Top vert monsters Rune Glifberg, Andy Mac, Darren Jenkins, Cristiano Mateus, Bob Burnquist, Bucky Lasek, Bruno Passos, Matt Moffett and Lincoln Ueda, would be going up against a contingent of pool rippers and all-around skaters. Backyard killers Al Partanen, and Jimmy the Greek would mount the padless, helmetless assault, while reknowned all-terrain annihilators Omar Hassan, Benji Galloway, and Brian Patch would unleash multiple lines of insanity from their bottomless bags of goods. Think it couldn't get any better? It did, as young Josh Borden made the invite list, based on his recent localization of the Combi and his growing mastery of it. To see a youngster coming up and applying his vert ramp skills to the bowls combined with a multitude of lines, you have to realize that skateboarding's future is looking very bright.

Every single Pro qualifying heat was ridiculously hard-fought. The intro runs alone were blazing, and things were only beginning to warm up. Let's ponder for a moment the impossible task of deciding which 8 riders would advance. These are the best skateboarders in the world, and on any given day, any one of them could win this thing, and every last one of them wanted it bad. I was informed later that the judges were under so much pressure from the insanely high level of skating that they were about to have a gangfight over scoring... Talk about too close to call. Any one of the top 12 finishers could have easily made a bid for the top spot and tight hardly begins to describe the margins.

Of the top 10, here's a taste of who they are and how they got there:
Josh Borden. I was betting on the youngster to make the finals, and his practice sessions only hinted on the attack he had planned, and in his qualifying heat he casually tossed a couple of big 540's, the kickflip into the round from the deck, and, now try to picture this: ollie over the channel to frontside tailslide through the corner to revert. Bruno Passos, one of the friendly Brazilians, was on fire. Bruno abused the bowls with speed lines leading to massive ollie tail grabs, mile long 5-0's, lipslides, and some very stale fish. Bruno was one of the most consistent skaters in qualifying and he skated long runs while mixing it up and keeping everyone guessing. Benji Galloway probably did more tricks than anyone else by a large margin, and some of his best stuff was completely unique unto him. A frontside invert hip transfer...WHAT? Eggplant reverts, huge ollie late grab variations, and non-stop runs firmly nailed down his spot in the finals. Brian Patch claims to have difficulties with the round bowl. Okay Brian, whatever. Patch, coming off the better part of a year on the injured list was hungry. He had taken some heavy slams over the past few weeks while preparing for the contest, but he asserted without a doubt that he was on. His qualifying routines featured lien airs approaching the 8 foot range, feebles to fakie through the corners, massive body jars and power lines through every inch of the pool. Andy MacDonald was classic Andy Mac. Some people like to hate on the guy for whatever reason, but you can't say he doesn't rip. Andy does some unique things, and he definitely entered with his game face on. He was consistent and he mixed it up quite a bit in terms of lines and tricks. He earned his way into the final, there can be no doubt about that. I don't know if there are even names for some of the tricks that he pulled. Bucky Lasek was looking to me like he might end up being the man to beat. In practice and his qualifying heat, Buck was destroying it. His lines included 7 foot + method airs to fakie that were impossibly tweaked, switch frontside whipped airs through the corners, 540's, and he adapted perfectly from the vert ramp wall to wall game into use of the total bowl, With every run Bucky took, his airs got higher and his tricks got more difficult. Lasek was shoe-in for the finals for sure. Jimmy the Greek just went totally mental in his heat. He applied his incredibly quick reflexes and aggro backyard attack to the Combi with superior results. The Greek pulled out some stuff that he may never have done before and his creativity, spontaneity and aggressiveness paid off handsomely as he made the cut. Someone should have attached a voltmeter to Rune Glifberg to see how many millions of volts he was generating. Rune took it last year, and he seemingly had no intention of letting go of that title. The approach he took was to go all out in spite of being in recovery from an injury. Glifberg threw big McTwists, switch tailslide reverts, shove it variations, and powerful nose bones and Indy airs. If this is how Rune skates when he is hurt, I can't imagine what he's capable of at 100%. Bob Burnquist popped in on Friday for a few practice runs. I only need mention one astounding thing he did that day: Bob went mach boardsliding through the far corner of the square to fakie, and speeding at the hip into the shallow somehow locked into a 270 degree grind spinning around to fakie into the round. This will make no sense unless you actually saw it, but then a lot of Bob's game is like that. In his heat, Bob tore it up, mixing contemporary vert skills with switch stance bowl riding power that is unmatched. Bob has this uncanny ability to get so completely contorted and out of control, but he stays on and pulls it and it drove the crowd completely insane. Omar. Hassan. Yes. Omar has been skating harder than ever lately and he turned it all on in his heat, well that is until the final where he turned on everything else and then some. Omar has so many lines in the Combi, you could probably write a book on it. He put the pedal right through the floorboards in his runs, but the best was yet to come. When it all came down, The judges decided that the scores were so tight that the final heat would be increased to 10 riders, and the crowd of course, went nuts. As the pros went off to relax before the final, everywhere i saw people shaking their heads in disbelief, so much so that I even felt compelled to go up to people and tell them, "yes, that really happened".

The Masters' final got everyone in the house so incredibly pumped, it was as if we were all being electrocuted just a bit. and then it was time for the main event, the battle royale, the whatever you want to call it and it still will be a weak description thing. How can I describe the energy to you? Motorhead playing in your living room? A 19.0 earthquake? A bunker busting bomb exploding in your car? What. The energy was so intense with the crowd feeding off of the skating and the riders feeding off of the crowd, and everybody just over-amping so heavily that the intro runs in the Pro final seemed remotely shaky. The moment the jam began everything just exploded, the music was maxed out and shaking the building, the grandstands were rumbling, It was standing room only and not a single soul left the area for a moment during the final. Every single one of the pros was vying for and in the running for that number 1 spot. Every time you started thinking the peak had been reached, the bar went 4 feet higher. 20 minutes into it mere mortals would have been collapsing left and right, begging to be fitted with a pacemaker and an iron lung, but these guys are downright inhuman.

So let's get to the final minute of the final jam. By now you've undoubtedly seen the video footage of the wall to wall traffic moving at top speed through the bowls so you have some sense of it. Standing right there on the deck, screaming our heads off, hearts pounding, as 6 guys powered through simultaneously and eventually at the last second with people scrambling everywhere, all hell broke loose, not only in the bowls but on deck as well. Some in attendance may not even have taken a breath for a solid minute after the clock hit zero. There is nothing that can be compared to that final 30 minutes in history, you could say oh it was like this or like that or something or other, but the truth is those would be lies. At the risk of lying to you I'll say it was something like sitting at ground zero of a nuclear test. I'm lying, it was much more powerful than that. The crescendo at the end of the jam was deafening. Duncan was screaming into the mic, the music was at 11 and yet all that could be heard was the roar of the crowd. Each and every body in that house knew that this was the real deal. This is what skateboarding is supposed to be.

How could this be judged? How do you recover from this and somehow make logical decisions about anything? I guess thats why they get paid the big dollars right? To have to sort out the tightest final heat in history is a tough job, but I do believe in this case they got it right on the money, well as right as you can get it if you have to designate 1-10 with no ties. Here are your finishers, all winners as far as I'm concerned. They gave it every last drop they had, and how this could be topped, I'll never know.

10th: Jimmy the Greek. In the absence of Trujillo somebody had to take up the cause of complete skateboarding psychosis. Highlights: A handout barging through the riders on deck and coming back cleanly through the channel, and absurdly over rotated backside disasters on the verge of complete board breakage.

9th: Bruno Passos. A mild mannered guy, who went all business in the final. Highlights: The stalest of fish and liptricks that were impossibly long at impossibly high speeds.

8th: Josh Borden. You don't just stride into your first pro contest and beat out names like Lincoln, Ventura, and Mateus. Wait, I guess you do if you happen to be Josh. Highlights: Big spun 540's, that channel hopping madness, and the kickflip in, which barely eluded him in the final. With the level of skating in today's pro ranks, Josh's debut has to be one of the best in history.

7th: Bucky Lasek. Bucky's qualifying heat had me thinking he was going to have a good shot at knocking Rune down. Highlights: Slob tweakers through the corner approaching 8 feet + and backscratching method to fakies in the same range. Bucky's ability to adapt to the Combi proves his all-around ability beyond all question.

6th: Bob Burnquist. What could I say about Bob that would do him any justice? Bob has to be the most positive person I have ever met in this life, and probably the most creative skateboarder I have ever met as well. Highlights: A frontside 540 in the round that sent even the calmest people in the house straight through the roof, and his signature switch game that baffles all who view it. Did I mention a frontside blunt on the hip? His uncanny ability to land tricks that would kill most people is legendary.

5th: Andy MacDonald. Andy is powerful and and consistent, but I think he realized halfway through the final it was going to require more than that. He rose to the occasion and in the last 10 minutes he just blew minds. Highlights: That whipping 360 varial body varial thing that he does, a varial 540, and a host of spun and flipped stunts.

4th: Benji Galloway. Benji hands down did more tricks than anybody else, and his runs were long with every wall being a trick. Did he even once do a 50-50? It's hard to recall him doing any set-up tricks at all. Highlights: Eggplant reverts, switch inverts, Miller flips and a multitude of lip tricks.

3rd: Brian Patch. Patch turned it way on for the final and brought the house down with his power moves. Highlights: 360 airs, massive table-topped lien airs, 5-0's to fakie through the corners at mach 16. One of the most intense performances I've ever seen.

2nd: Rune Glifberg. When a guy is hurt you expect him to be a bit tentative. Not so with Rune, He blazed it hard and all out, having some of the most spectacular near-misses with 2 and 3 riders in a single run. Highlights: Alley-oop Indy hip transfers, 540's, and towering frontside nose bones. As intensely as he skated, you could still tell that Rune was enjoying the heck out of himself and just completely bringing the level of the entire jam up as his own skating increased.

1st: Omar Hassan. Now if I had to list Omar's highlights, This would never end. Omar had the hunger this year and he never let up for even an instant. He battled like no other and overpowered everyone to take it on home.

In the best trick category, Will Powers decided to upstage everything and go completely mental. When I saw him first climbing into the stands next to the round bowl, I thought he was just trying to score another energy drink from Hensley. This nut, this lunatic from Oregon decides to bomb drop the round from the the seats. Will pulled it after only a few attempts and left a lot of people wondering if maybe he shouldn't be committed immediately.

Chapter 2 The Masters division wrap-up
The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire...

Have you ever tossed a can of gas onto a bonfire? Probably not or you might not be here to be reading this... But certainly you can imagine the effect. The Combi was already burning from the heated Media and Womens events, and a can of gas appears in the form of the Masters division riders. The Masters division was stacked top to bottom with a wide variety of legendary riders. Let's talk a few names first with a bit of background.
To the best of my recollection, David Hackett is the Masters rider with the longest pro career in the ranks, and long before the ollie was introduced, photos appeared in Skateboarder magazine of Dave and his brother Paul(sadly RIP) using velcro devices to hoist huge no-handed aerial stunts out of a backyard pool with a sheet of plywood as a roll-in to the shallow end for added speed. The Hackett boys were completely nuts. Combine Hackett's pro career with that of Lonnie Hiramoto and we are talking some 40+ years of pro skating experience. Lonnie has returned to skating after a hiatus and is quickly getting his groove back with speed and authority. Historically speaking, the next newest pro riders would be Steve Alba, Mike Smith, and Duane Peters. These three guys were the kings of the waning days of the Hester pro series bowl circuit and the early days of the gold cup pro bowl series and they all trail blazed pioneering lines through the original Upland Combi. Salba essentially lived, breathed, ate, and slept the Combi until the day of it's demise, Smith had it wired, and D.P.... well, D.P. emerged victorious in a pro contest there and completely defied any sort of rational sense of danger avoidance. One would almost think Duane thrives on pain... I myself, think he is the quintessential definition of pain. Battered, but unbroken. I can't tell you how cool it is to see him in there this year, broken foot and all. Next up we have Steve Caballero, Lance Mountain, Chris Miller, Steve Steadham, Eddie Reategui, Dave Duncan, Lester Kasai, Pat Ngoho, Tony Magnusson, and Jim Gray. While we are talking a spread of a few years here between Cab and Miller, all of these guys actually competed against one another in at least one or more events. Caballero has one of the all-time win records in professional skateboarding. For a few years before Hawk came on the scene, Stevie owned the pro pool and ramp circuit while everyone else tried to catch him. Miller won it last year and he doesn't appear to be at all ready to relinquish the crown, but Cab is looking strong and smooth, and Lance always has a shot at it. John Fudala, Eric Nash, Jeff Grosso, Chris Cook, Mike Rogers, and Mike Barnes all came up right around the same time with Ben Schroeder and Dave Ruel following by a year or 3 at most, rounding out the youngest faces in the Masters division. Of this last grouping, Grosso stands out as being the guy who has a hole shot at top honors as he took second last year and has been skating really good of late, although he will tell you he sucks and chokes more than anybody. Funny thing about Jeff, It seems like the worse he feels about his own performance, the better he skates, so yeah Grosso, you choked so freaking hard you won your qualifying heat. I wish I could choke 1/100 of 1% as much as you do.

Enough. Here's the rundown. Essentially you have a couple of guaranteed difficult heats to advance through. Anybody in a heat with Miller, Grosso, or Caballero had to know that there is one less spot available. The way these guys were skating in practice, they were looking like easy advancement candidates. If you happened to be in a heat with Tony Magnusson, you had to know he was going to snake the hell out of it, get in your way a bit, and be uber-competitive. Mike Smith also gets a bit snakey and can limit your run opportunities. As fate would have it, Three of the biggest demolition experts got lumped into one heat. Duane, Cooksie, and Schroeder. This is my worst nightmare quite frankly, having to skate a jam format situation with any one of these guys, let alone all three of them. Lance Mountain was thrown into that heat, but his biggest brush with danger would occur later in the final jam.

So the qualifiers began, and half a can of gas hit the fire pit. The heats would be judged with the top 10 riders finishing in the money, and the top 8 skating the final. 8 seems about the right number for a Combi Pool jam, any less and the pace would slow towards the end, and any more and you're talking demolition derby and too much cross traffic to navigate when things get hot. After the dust had settled from the Masters qualifying heats The top 8 riders advancing to the final jam were Alba, Caballero, Grosso, Magnusson, Miller, Mountain, Peters, and Smith. Ngoho and Kasai rounded out the top ten scores but did not advance.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for this important announcement regarding judging. Judging skateboarding is not easy, and in all these years no one has found the formula that will ensure perfect and fair scoring across the board, and yesterday's event ran true to form. I'm not sure exactly how the judges saw it from the catwalk, but from the deck, Pat Ngoho appeared to have easily made the final with his consistent flowing skating. Pat straight out ripped in his heat with a multitude of lines and stayed on. His back to back to back to back to back air lines were incredible. How he didn't make it to the final will forever remain a disappointing mystery, not only to myself, but to just about everyone I talked to yesterday. I have a feeling that next year, Pat will be out for blood.

After a pro practice session and qualifiers, the Masters final jam got underway. 8 cans of gas thrown on a raging house fire in one half hour of all-out madness. Every rider was given an introductory run after which all hell broke loose. DJ Smokey set the wheels of steel afire and we were deep into it immediately. Duane took his time getting his runs in in the first 15 minutes, strategically building runs on edge of complete destruction, but pulling it in classic D.P. form. See Duane rarely ever bails, he commits and will take the slam if necessary, and more often than not he somehow against all odds, makes it. I told a few people last night that Duane will ride a skateboard until the day that he passes from this earth, he has to, to keep us all honest. 8th place went to the Master of Disaster, although he might have easily been judged a bit north of that. In 7th place was Steve Alba, the original badlander Upland Combi local. Salba had a few lines that I've never seen duplicated. Salba skated aggressively and structured his lines around his mastery of the original bowls in a ripping performance. Mike Smith rolled his way into 6th with a lean mean attack. Smith has things named after him, important components of skateboarding that he would never try to trademark. Last year's Tylenol award winner threw down a wide variety of moves in a year of no pain killers. Mike still has it after all this time and he nailed his namesakes cleanly and powerfully. 5th place brings us to Tony Magnusson. Tony is highly competitive and you have to wonder if he isn't trying to screw people up just a bit. He snakes. He sort of gets in the way on the deck. But he also skates hard and a has a pretty deep bag of tricks to back up whatever attitude he is pushing. Mag had a few bails in his runs but he was definitely pushing it and going all out. Now about those phone calls... I am now aware of exactly who placed those calls, and for the right amount of money I might be bribed into divulging said information.
In 4th and 3rd place respectively were Lance Mountain and Steve Caballero. The Pair of 80's powerhouses were once doubles partners at the original Combi and there is a very famous photo of Steve airing over Lance while grabbing Lance's helmet in a make or break moment. In the final seconds of the jam, Lance and Steve were skating a spontaneous unplanned doubles run which ended in a jarring collision at the mouth of the square bowl, which momentarily knocked the wind out of everyone in the house and resulted in Lance's shoe flying all the way back into the round bowl. Both Lance and Steve were okay after a quick inventory to make sure they had all of their vital parts still attached. Steve saved it up for the final and proved that his frontside inverts still are the best in the game, then or now. Lance's runs were explosive, utilizing the hips, throwing impossibly huge drawn out corner airs, and just prior to the collision he hucked the one-footed sadplant to the delight of everyone watching. This year, just as last year, The top two spots came down to Jeff Grosso and Chris Miller. Grosso was on fire, I mean he sucked so bad it was amazing. Massive air assaults, more speed than any other rider, 50-50s through nearly the entire round all the way out and off of the hip, insanely stalled inverts and eggs. His skating was a complete, full power trip. Jeff earned 2nd place for the 2nd consecutive year and everyone was stoked on him beyond belief.
Chris Miller. I think you could actually lobby for making Chris skate the Pro division and he would do incredibly well, but being in the masters he is virtually unbeatable. The mild mannered Miller went full-tilt and launched a salvo of high speed bombs in each and every run including fastplants, lipslides, clean large airs and a ridiculously huge transfer from the shallow hip into the round which covered about 20+ feet in distance. Chris even threw in a bit of a slam in the corner which surely must have made some recall his pro debut, but he retained consciousness and fought off all of the hungry final jam riders to keep his grip on the Masters for the second straight year.
All 23 of this year's Masters division riders deserve a huge amount of respect and praise, they keep getting older but they all skated more intensely this year than last. Thank you Masters, you all showed us why it's called "The Masters"