Mervyn’s California Beach Bash 2000

April 30, 2013May 21, 2024 Jeff Greenwood 274 Views Adil Dyani, Arto Saari, Ben Schroeder, Bob Burnquist, Brian Patch, Chad Vogt, Christiano Mateus, Chuck Wampler, Craig Johnson, Dave Reul, Geoff Rowley, Jake Brown, Jake Piasecki, Jon Comer, Lance Mountain, Omar Hassan, Pat Channita, Ricky Stiles, Steve Alba

Mervyn’s California Beach Bash 2000
Hermosa Beach, CA
June 2000 Three days of Beach Bashing pretty much cured me of the desire to hang at Hermosa Beach any time soon. It was a great atmosphere to hold a big competition, and obviously, a unique situation. The venue for the skateboarding competition was a gigantic vertical bowl in the shape of a pill. There were more events than the bowl though including a Best Street Trick, a Masters Division Bowl Comp, and a Girls Street event as well. The competitors were a mixed bag of today’s top pros since it was an invitational event.

The Best Street Trick:
There were only five skaters invited to participate: Pat Channita, Geoff Rowley, Arto Saari, Jon Comer, and Chad Vogt. Though they all ripped the three targeted obstacles, it was obvious that Rowley was killing all of them. Arto Saari was next in line.

The Masters Division:
A few old pros paid the ramp a visit. It was great to see Craig Johnson, he brought back memories of enormous Texas plants. Ben Schroeder skated big and fast. After the cut was made on Friday, the qualifiers met up with the winners from last year on Saturday. From there it was all Lance Mountain. Pulling a very large 540 off the extension was probably the clincher. Craig Johnson stayed on almost a whole run, Salba looked pretty sharp too, Ricky Stiles, Ben Schroeder, and Dave Ruel brought more backyard pool to this event than anyone.

Your final results are:
1. Lance Mountain
2. Craig Johnson
3. Richard Stiles
4. Steve Alba
5. Dave Reul
6. Ben Schroeder

Young Guns:

Last to go were the “Young Guns”. The field included a mix of vertical pro skaters. Half the top-ten were from overseas. Here’s the rundown.

10. Jake Piasecki: Jake couldn’t manage to stay on during his final runs. Just watch him ride the Combi Pool in Orange and you’ll see how good this man is.
9. Chuck Wampler: Let’s see, Chuck lost his wheel during a 50-50 in the pocket. Then he slammed his elbow into submission. All during qualifying day. The planets were not aligned for Chuck. He showed up on Sunday for the finals and took a couple one armed runs to grab a few dollars.
8. Bob Burnquist: He didn’t manage to stay on, but pulled the no-look death drop from the extension to go along with other amazing trickery.
7. Chad Vogt: Difficult trickery is what Chad lives and dies by. Today it was costly as falls set him back into seventh.
6. Rune Glifberg: Fighting off some serious jet lag, Rune seemed to slip into and out of the groove every other run. When he was on he was gonna win, but he couldn’t maintain consistency. It just wasn’t his day.
5. Jake Brown: Jake was consistent all weekend. Not enough hot dogging to get him past fifth.
4. Omar Hasson: Omar worked that bowl into submission. He included bowl tricks in his runs all over the place.

3. Adil Dyani: He was amped for this event. He was skying 360 varials and indy kickflips like nobody’s business. Unfortunately, he couldn’t quite keep it together in his final runs.
2. Brian Patch: Brian (along with Omar) really rode the bowl the best. He was pumping high speed tricks from every angle.
1. Christiano Mateus: Winner! Stayed on through some very difficult vert lines. Didn’t use the bowl much, but looked good and clean. The judges gave him the cash.

So I went home with a nice sunburn, bruised knee, and sore ankles. I didn’t even skate! The temperatures were good, the sun shined all day every day, and the girls in bikinis kept the boys entertained for sure.

P.S. Next year’s Masters Division will probably be quite a gala. There were several vert vets hanging out that were muttering to themselves “I shoulda entered”.