by Mike Sinclair

Tonight's vert final was one the best vert contests I have ever seen. Everyone was staying on and at least three guys spiked their boards at the end of their runs. Any of the top five guys could of easily won tonight's vert final and Bob wasn't even in the top five this time. Bob skated amazing during practice and managed to pull off switch nosegrind revert over and around the over vert pocket and a one footed backside smith up and around the same thing. Andy Macdonald was sporting his usual yellow suit for tonight's finals and did the most 540's I have ever seen in one run. Rune Glifberg skated amazing but couldn't snag the top spot tonight even with completing a perfect run with a switch flip at the end. Sandro was edged out by Rune but Sandro was in the second place spot for most of tonight's contest. Sandro went over head every wall and pulled a christ 540. Pierre Luc killed it during his first run and banged out nollie heel 360 indy. Bucky Lasek started his run out with a nollie flip indy and mixed it up with tricks like frontside cab heel, switch rodeo, backside tailslide up and around the over vert pocket. Bucky skated amazing and nobody could touch his run tonight. The crowd however thought Shawn White should have won. Shawn edged out a few guys but his runs were no comparison for tonight's top five. Bucky was waiting to see if anyone would edge him out of first place. If anyone could edge Bucky out of his first place spot it would have been Bob Burnquist. Bob fell on his last run and Bucky ran for the door with his big bag of X-games loote.

By Jason Rothmeyer

There were really two stories for the Vert Best Trick at the X-Games, what was landed and what was almost landed. Skateboarding isn't an exact science and there's no better proof than seeing that only three out of the eight skaters landed what they were trying during the contest. The tricks people are trying for best trick are so far beyond comprehension that I think it's overlooked how hard they really are. Let's start with what almost went down during the contest:

Pierre Luc does nollie-heelflip 360-indy's during his runs so why not go indy 540? He came real close but couldn't get it all the way around in time. Rune hands down has the best backside tailslides and stuck about 2 kickflip backside tails over the clamshell oververt hump but never stayed on. Danny Mayer skipped his usual kickflip mctwist to try kickflip varial mctwist. He caught a couple but again didn't have enough time to come through.

Bucky Lasek was sticking nollie kickflip mctwist (totally upside down). It seemed that he was way closer during his first 5-10 tries and it just got further and further away from him as time went on. This brings us to Jake Brown. Jake is so fun to watch and is a favorite of most skaters in the contest. He was definitely the crowds favorite on this day because he was trying tailgrab 900's! Yes, that's correct. Pretty much the hardest grab and spinning 900 is insane. He layed down a few and every try had people on the edge of their seats rooting him on. Oh yeah, his set up was a pair of 9 foot backside nose grab airs. Not bad. But we'll have to wait later on in the year to see if any of those tricks go down.

Andy Macdonald had a healthy amount of tricks under his belt but he wowed everyone with an ollie-backside grab from the deck into the clamshell. This combined with a sick one-footed 5-0 over the clamshell secured him a third place bronze medal.

Sandro Dias is a maniac. He did a christ 540 with ease and ended up with the silver medal. Sandro spent most of his time trying a 540 body varial to tail (body varial gnar jar).

Tony Hawk had a couple of tricks down during the first 40 minutes of the 45 minute jam. A fakie to fakie 540 stale was landed as was a 360 varial to hand varial. With about 2 minutes to go Tony gave up what he had been trying (indy 900) to stick a 900 in three tries. Remember in 1999 when he did the first one in about 20-30 tries? Well three tries. Peace out. Birdman walks with the Gold.

By Mike Sinclair

Vert Doubles was the only skateboard action that went down today and it was insane. There was a total of nine teams battling it out for the gold. It would of been a total of ten teams but Andy Mac Donald and Tony Hawk decided to retire from vert doubles since the have won every vert doubles that I have ever been too. Each team had it's on team name and I must say that the wackest name goes out to Jesse Fritsch and Anthony Furlong. Jesse and Anthony's team was named "team queer eyes for skaters guys" I knew from the start with a name like that and a pink t-shirt they would not place in the top three. The queer duo skated great and nailed 540's over each other. Tas Pappas tried a 900 while Lincoln went head high each wall. Tas came close to the 900 while Tony Hawk was giving advice. Tas was deteemined to make it during and after his run. Tas didn't make the 900 today but look for it soon. Team "boost" was Rune Glifberg and Mike Crum. Team Boost skated amazing and put it down in both runs. Neal Hendrix and Buster Halterman tried to pull off a stunt which never worked but well worth watching the attempt on tv. Neal body surfed on his board along the top of the deck while Buster ran to catch up to Neal and tried to jump on his back for a boneless in. Neal stuck as soon as Buster's foot planted on his back and Buster went head first into the ramp. Bob and and Bucky almost fell of the deck in laughter. Neal and Buster would of scored much higher if that last stunt was a make. Bob and Bucky know today as "the Killer Bee's" blew everyone out of the water. There was no stopping Bob and Bucky. Look for the playback on tv soon. Bob and Bucky were so amazing I thought they were going to get a score of 100 from the judges. Bob and Bucky came close to getting scored 100 walking away with a 96. Hat's off to Bob and Bucky for making vert doubles so enjoyable to watch. Some stand out tricks from Bob and Bucky were a handflip to Bucky and Bob jumping to Bucky's board into a frontside tailslide revert. Bob did a stand up nosegrind up and around the over vert pocket followed closely by Bucky who once again pulled a backside tailslide revert up and around the over vert pocket. It's a shame we will have to wait another year to catch vert doubles again.