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Beijing is now a modern day sprawling metropolis with millions of inhabitants running around like they are on crystal meth. Traditional Chinese heritage is still abundant with the various temples and shrines but is quickly being more westernized everyday. From massive skyscrapers, neon lights that are reminisce of Vegas, and a curious youth that is just starting to understand what goes on in the rest of the world. We can just skip The Great Wall of China, The Forbidden City, and The Temple Of Heaven and get to the more exciting stuff like shuttlecocks (read below).
The big event this year took place inside one of the newly designed stadiums that hosted the Badminton tournament for the 2008 Olympics. Now I must take a step back and ask myself if there is anyway that some of the best skateboarders in the world can even compete with such an exciting sport as Badminton. Before I can answer this question we must first take a little lesson of the Badminton world. Since 1992 Badminton has been an Olympic Sport that has amazed audiences with it’s nail biting action of hitting a shuttlecock (a stupid looking plastic ball with feathers) back an forth over a volley ball net, that can at times go on for hours. Now the answer to the earlier question of can we compete with such a sport is a big “NO” but the show must go on.
The vert contest was just seven guys, so there was no prelims just a final. The young Florida boy Adam Taylor came out swinging with a flawless first run that had plenty of flips, spins, and a stalefish 540 that was enough to get up on podium with a 3rd place finish. 2nd place went to none other than PLG who rolled right into massive 540’s that would have easily cleared the regulation size of a Badminton net and a huge 720(though still not as exciting as hitting a shuttlecock back and forth) that got Pierre the silver medal. But the man of the day was Andy Macdonald who proved why he got the name mister consistent. Andy packed his runs full of flip tricks, 540’s, a 720 and ended with a nollie 540 frontside air that helped secure 1st place and the gold medal. I bet Andy is pretty good at Badminton too.
The street contest should have been renamed to the more appropriate “Battle of the Brazilians” since more than half of the riders are from the aforementioned country. When it was all said and done Carlos De Andrade snagged 3rd place with smooth consistent skating and big 360 flips to flat. Austen Seaholm came straight off a victory in Shanghai the week before and it showed with his consistency of extremely difficult combo tricks. Austen ended up with the silver medal. Now it’s a good thing that Rodolfo Ramos picked up a skateboard and not a Badminton racquet. Rodolfo skates with so much speed and power that if he tried to incorporate that into a Badminton swing would end up hitting the shuttlecock into the stands. Powerful front blunts and backside noseblunt slides got the gold medal for Rodolfo.
Special thanks go out to the staff, skaters, and especially the sport of Badminton for providing us with a top-notch arena to showcase a sport not quite as exciting as Badminton. Maybe next year we could use the Cricket arena.
-MM
Complete results click here... China Invitational Dew Tour results
Gallery click here... China Invitational Dew Tour gallery |
