| X Trials Louisville, Ky April 23-25, 1999 |
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By Dave Metty By Dave Metty
Street Event April 24, 1999
These contests are great. The course is new for the ‘99 Season, thanx to Tim Payne and great skater input. The skating was very street oriented, which was an exciting change for X Trials competitions. When you see Kareem Campbell at an ESPN event , you know things are going to be great.
The street competition was split up between 2 days. The first day was the prelims. The second day was the finals. 25 professional skaters entered and 10 made it to the finals.
Qualifying 5th the day before, Kareem Campbell came out looking smooth. He floated fat kickflips over the pyramid and huge nollie hard flips to fakie on the bank, and smooth F.S. Five O’s on the Pyramid Box but missed a couple tricks which set him back to 10th. Amazing natural style.
In 9th place was the upset of the event, Moses Itkonen riding for Powell and RDS broke his board right before his second run and had to borrow a deck he wasn’t used to. Moses qualified 3rd with a good chance at the top 3 by the way he was skating earlier on. Moses’ teammate, Mr. Fliptrick, Pat Channita landed an easy 8th. After qualifying 4th in the prelims you thought for sure he would have been top 5. He did fat kickflips over the pyramid and skated the flatbar like a champ, but missed enough tricks to lose positioning.
Coming out of Jacksonville, FL, now residing in San Diego and riding for City Stars and Axion is Mr. Strong, Caine Gayle. He can kickflip to anything, it’s always a treat to watch Caine skate in a contest. A 7th place finish is just nudging the potential of Caine’s ability.
Out of Montreal, Canada, is Dan Pageou. This guy shocked us all with super consistent 360 fliptail grabs over the pyramid. Backside nollie kickflips to tail to revert every time on the quarter pipe and various kickflip grab variations. 6th place, well deserved.
Now we have one of the most fluid skaters around, Donny Barley. After floating around the course with killer Smith Grinds on the Pyramid Box, crazy Alley Oop F.S. grinds to fakie B.S. Smith over the Spine and then ollieing a massive gap after the clock , Danny landed a clean 5th place.
Up 3 placings from an 8th place Qualifier the day before, Mr. Omar Hassan has something to be happy about. He qualified 10th and landed 4th in the Finals. He knows how to step it up in a contest.
The number one qualifier landed 3rd in the Finals. Andy Macdonald throws 360 Airs, 360 kickflips to fakie on the bank, varial airs over some wild guys and kick flips to fakie on the banks but a few falls dropped him down a couple notches.
Skating for his own company, Clockwork, this guy comes out punching with a huge Gap Transfer to high speed 50/50 on the rail - Giant Evil Knieval box airs with tricks on every other obstacle to boot. Brian Patch - 2nd place and well deserved.
In first place and what a triumphant victory. Chapman’s wonder boy and skateboarding’s underdog, Danny Gonzalez. Perfect kickflip grabs all day over the Pyramid. Nice backside nosegrinds with style. F.S.180 flips over the hips and then the doozy. I can’t even describe this gap except to say it’s at least 10 feet high and 10 feet across. Danny hopped up there and within 2 attempts and calling attention to the crowd he did a perfect kickflip grab off this and landed on the slant of the Pyramid - needless to say, he was greeted instantly with a roaring crowd and peers and hugs, high fives and cameras.
Congratulations Danny, you obviously deserved it.
So this has been the top ten run down for the 1st of many World Cup Skateboarding events to come. - We’ll see you at Slam City Jam VI in Vancouver, Canada.
Vert Event April 25, 1999
Let’s just begin with this, the crowd was surprisingly large in Louisville, they seemed to be clued in to the tricks by the sound of their applause and the skaters were pushing their limits. That is to say they each had a particular run or trick they wanted to land and even went beyond the clock to pull it.
It looks to me that the World Cup contest series is going to be a strong one this year. The skaters are on fire and the sport is thriving with new and up coming rippers pushing the limits.
The competition: 10th place - The irony of Colin McKay’s 10th place ranking is he claimed first or tenth. There is no doubt Colin has this capacity. One trick is all we need to mention, all right, 2 tricks. He fell, got up, Caballarial tailgrab 540 to a high speed floating frontside Caballarial smooth as cream, the real stuff.
9th. The largest skater alive - Jason Ellis. Don’t get me wrong - he’s big, but his skating is what I’m talking about. This guy has a great presence - check him out in Vancouver next week.
8th place goes to one of the most stylish vert skaters around, Mike Frazier. Just look forward to his runs at the next World Cup event.
The End is the video he’s in and Number 2 is all over him. today 7th is his lucky number. Bucky Lasek is a skateboard trick legend. Today wasn’t his best day, but then again, that’s just more motivation for the next one.
This next place goes to the all around skatehorse, “Brian Patch - 6th.
5th place is the honored position today because it went to Tom Boyle. When 10 years has gone by, we’ll all remember the skills Tom Boyle has left behind for us to ponder.
4th - This guy comes from deep Canada. His extensive training at the new Vans facility in Santa Ana, CA has begun to payoff. Pierre-Luc Gagnon is a rookie pro with a high ranking today and a spot at the X Games in San Francisco this summer.
3rd - The Swedish danish, Mathias Ringstrom. Mathias has come on very strong over the past few months. He won Tampa a couple weeks ago and is showing the of a win very soon.
2nd - Coming in 2nd from the land down under is Tas Pappas. If you want raw ripping and new tricks, look for Tas. A well deserved second.
1st - Ladies and Gentlemen - Can you guess this man’s name? - No, it’s not Tony Hawk, it’s Andy Mac. I have no doubt he’ll continue to do this throughout the rest of the World Cup season.
Thanx for checking out the site. We’ll see you at Slam City Jam in Vancouver or right here. So until next time - Go out, skate and have a blast.
Later. Dave Metty
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