Pro Tec Pool Party 2005
The riders were skating like there is no tomorrow. Piles of money on the table. Rune and Patch doing full doubles runs un-planned nearly made me def from the crowd eruption. It really felt like a great moment in skate history was taking place.
Pro Tec Pool Party
May 14th, 2005
Luckily I scored a ticket in to cover this contest. As most of you know this was a very limited entry affair at the Vans Skatepark in Orange CA. and many people were shut down who would have liked to have been there. Since I was a lucky one I thought I would do my best to act like a real reporter and bring the story out of the confines of the skatepark to Concrete Disciples for our readers’ enjoyment. Believe me it was a battle outside the bowl for me as I fought a herniated disc in my back and tried to shoot photos and video.
I gimped up to the gate and secured my pass and hobbled into the Combi Pool area. There was some practicing going on and I jumped right in there and started snapping photos for the first time on my new camera. The day worked like this once it got rolling. 30 minutes of practice, then an introductory run and jam session for another 30 minutes. The media contest went first, the ladies second, 3 divisions of Masters riders (top 10 went to a finals), then a couple of Pro divisions (top 10 went to a finals).
Media Division
The media competition was for bragging rights for the magazines. Who’s top dog on staff was the best. Scott Taylor from Skateboarder Mag tore it up real good for 1st place. Dave Swift scored second with some frontside ollies, and the session was a good time.
Immediately after them the ladies started struttin into the bowl. They all charged it hard. The full snake session was in order for practice then into the contest. The 2 young gun girls, Apryl Woodcock and Lyn-Z Adams, were skating hard against the veteran ladies and they placed very good. Cara-Beth took 1st, I can recall the video footage of her skating the original combi pool at Upland some 20 years ago, and nobody deserved it more then she as she plain old killed the pool.
Masters Division
Once the Masters got under way they mayhem got started even more. Ben Schroeder was charging and slamming, Red was going for padless frontside 540’s and other crazy tricks. Into the finals Lance Mountain broke out the most heinous pink argyle socks, Grosso skated out of body, Salba and Ngoho were relentless iron man style, Mike Smith was either ripping or hurting – no middle ground, Reategui wrecked his ribs, and Staab and Magnusson could still fly. But the man who always wanted to win one back at the Upland Pipeline, the man who skates with the smooth as silk bowl rider style, the man with his own family cheering section, Chris Miller, just dove into that bowl with more style and beautiful lines then anyone else and deservedly took home 1st place. What a skate spectacle to watch his every run. Smooth Ollies into the corner, backside no handed blunts like kick turns in the square, Indy Nose bones just to name a few of his signature moves he was making every run.
Pro Division
Now on to the pro’s… I don’t even know how they really judged this thing, but cutting Burnquist doing switch roll-ins to switch corner airs, and indy kickflips to fakies seemed criminal. None the less the finals was set up for rip riding and it delivered. It all went down in a hail of roaring, grinding, high flying Combi Pool madness! Rune Glifberg was on fire, taking on multiple riders at once often and having a good time doing it. Bucky Lasek freakin pulled a frontside bluntslide (no hands) around the square corner. Omar Hassan was all over the place in every nook and cranny of the combi pulling tricks no one else will ever even have the balls to try. The Greek and Trujillo went the padless route and shredded up the bowl with no real plan of attack just a straight out mad dog rush at what ever wall came up next. Brian Patch muscled his way into 3rd with powerhouse style and Benji Galloway was a crafty fucker pulling all kinds of his repertoire from his bottomless sack. Jake Piaseki and Bruno Passos were in there battling it out too with big airs and inverts.
The Vans park was electric as time was winding down. The riders were skating like there is no tomorrow. Piles of money on the table. Rune and Patch doing full doubles runs un-planned nearly made me def from the crowd eruption. It really felt like a great moment in skate history was taking place. The resurrection of the Combi, bowl riding in all it’s glory, years of industry neglect, finally meet up with the modern day of skateboarding and pushing a huge swell into a new era of skateboarding, making it impossible to ignore! Let’s hope so!
Oh yea, Rune Glifberg took home – $25,000! Many thanks go out to Pro Tec, Vans, and the other sponsors, Tylenol, Epitaph, and Campbells soup for making such a great day of skateboarding possible.
Results
Pros:
1. Rune Glifberg – $25,000
2. Omar Hassan – $15,000
3. Brian Patch – $8,000
4. Benji Galloway – 4,000
5. Bucky Lasek – 2,000
6. Jimmy the Greek – 1,500
7. Lincoln Ueda – 1000
8. Bruno Passos – 700
9. Tony Trujillo – 500
10. Jake Piaseki – 300
Masters:
1. Chris Miller – $10,000
2. Jeff Grosso – $6,000
3. Lance Mountain – $4,000
4. Steve Alba – 1000
5. Pat Ngoho – 1000
6. Ben Schroeder – 200
7. Tony Magnusson – 200
8. Kevin Staab – 200
9. Eddie Reategui – 200
10. Mike Smith – 200
Women:
1. Cara-Beth Burnside – $2,500
2. Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins – $1,300
3. Mimi Knoop – $700
4. Apryl Woodcock
5. Holly Lyons
6. Amanda Eschemann
7. Nicole Zuck
8. Kim Peterson
9. Jessica Starkweather
10. Jen Obrien
11. Heidi Fitzgerald
Media
1. Scott Taylor – Skateboarder
2. Dave Swift – The Skateboard Mag
3. Buddy Carr – Concrete Wave
4. Jim Murphy – Juice
5. Roger Harrel – Skateboarder
Tylenol Award
Mike Smith – 5,000