How does he do it?
The Real Street Contest
by Mike Sinclair

The X-games "real street" contest was about to begin and all of the skaters had been practicing for hours while Koston was no where in sight. If you were lucky enough to catch the 2 hour practice this afternoon everyone was ripp'n. There was also a good mix of competitors from Mike Vallely to Chad Muska to Chris Senn. Everyone seemed to skate completely different and have their own unique style to bring to this raw street event. The course was basic and with the help of Chad Muska it was all set up perfectly the day before since Chad showed up a day early to push every ramp / obstacle in a different direction than the contest builders had originally set up. Chad skated the entire day and had every kid in the crowd psyched on his hot pink spray painted Circa's. Paul Rodriguez was the first competitor to show up for practice and he killed it all day long. Paul was actually the first competitor to skate his runs which is always a tough spot to be in. Nobody likes going first but it didn't seem to phase Paul today. Right before Paul's first run Eric Koston showed up. Eric didn't seem to be in a hurry and Paul started the contest with a amazing run. Paul's stand out tricks were a frontside feeble down the 9 stair rail, frontside flip down the 9 and nollie krooked grinds on the ledge. Mike Vallely was very impressive with ollie airwalks down the 9 stair, around the world boneless' on the bank ramp and an insane ollie to rock on a 4 and a half foot ledge off flat ground. He then mute grabbed and pulled off, I must say that was one of the best tricks that you never see done all day. Mike seemed to be having fun and killed the course in a different fashion which the crowd seemed to appreciate. Crowd favorite, Chad Muska, had a good line for this contest and stuck to it until he made everything. Muska's stand out tricks were a tailslide to fakie on the Jersey barrier, hardflip to fakie on the bank and K grind on the picnic table. Eric Koston took his first run on the course and just played around with the obstacles a bit. Koston used his first run as his practice. Rodil Jr. had a flawless run with backside lipslides down the 9 stair, switch lipslides down the 9 stair and kickflipped everything in sight. Rodil was in first after his first run. In the end it came down to Koston's second run which started out with a backside lipslide down the 9 stair. Koston's other highlights included a kickflip nose manual on the picnic table, big spin the ledge gap, noseslide the Jersey barrier. Eric had everyone looking around all confused since skating that good is not possible without any practice. Eric's run would be the run to beat and only a few other competitors were left to try. Chris Senn gave it his all with hurricane attempts on the bank to wall. Kyle Berard gave it a shot with backside tailslide over the bank to wall gap. Wagner Ramos tried some of the hardest tricks in his runs but fell on the easy ones. Wagner managed to pull off a switch tailslide on the Jersey barrier and a switch heelflip manual on the picnic table. At the end of the day nobody could touch Koston's run and I think everybody left pleased with his performance and probably said the same thing I said while driving home "How does he do it?".