The twenty-second year of the Monster Mastership World Cup of Skateboarding went off yesterday without a hitch. I wore an Andy Mac shirt all day that read: "You can’t bring me down." on it. It was fitting because although I had hoped to do better than third in the vert contest, I skated my best and had a great time doing it. As long as I’m happy with the way I skated, it really doesn’t matter what place the judges put me in. It’s taken me years to learn that, but for some reason it really sunk in this year in Dortmund. I can honestly say I really enjoyed the whole event. As a bonus, (as my street skating usually is), I placed seventh in street.

It’s always a long day when I make the cut to the finals in both vert and street. I got to the hall at about noon for practice but didn’t skate my street semi-final run until about four. I was in the last heat and it was loaded with all the pre-qualified skaters. I stayed on both of my runs, though, and headed straight for the vert ramp. I managed about twenty minutes of practice trying to get my legs use to airs rather than ollies. I was the last skater to go and I skated the vert contest just the way I like–I didn’t fall. I made my first run solid and then built on it, trying to one-up myself with each of the next two runs. I managed to do so with three back-to-back 540’s with different grabs and a varial 540 but I sketched a bit on my lien rodeo. After watching how well Rune and Pierre Luc skated, I knew I’d have to bust out something special just to keep up. In my last run, after my varial five, I went straight into a nollie heel varial and straight from that into the lien rodeo. I’d never done that combination before and I pulled it clean. I also made a fakie-to-fakie varial five to finish it off. I was a happy dude.

The high air contest started straight away and I managed about eleven and a half feet on a Japan air with my tired legs. Sandro Dias beat that with a nice twelve footer to take the cash but I was already changing back to street mode for the finals. After about five minutes of practice, it was game on. I started my run on the roll in for the big kicker jump they’d built. They announced my name and the DJ put on some crazy Snoop Dog song that made me start laughing. I’m not much of a gansta. It must have affected my run because I fell twice and the pressure was on for run number two. When my second chance was up, the DJ hooked me up with a little punk rock and I skated much better. I stayed on my board for the full sixty seconds including a frontside flip and a 360 flip. Flip tricks on street are tricky after coming straight from the vert ramp.

After the finals, Pat Channita and I sat on the street course and watched people kill themselves for cash in the best trick contest. I even remembered to shoot some photos! Check it out…

July 25, 2003
SKATE
I got to Dortmund last night and met up with my SoBe teammate Ryan Scheckler, as well as, Chad Bartie and Rodney Jones. We snuck on the street course just as they finished painting the logos on and had our own private session trying to get all the new rails and ledges to slide. Afterward, we went for dinner at a Mongolian restaurant called Mongos and joked that we’d all be pushing mongo in the contest.

Today has been practice all day. There seems to be fewer pros here this year than in years past. Maybe a result of the recession or maybe there are just simply too many events. In any case, I skated street and then vert for a while before heading out front for some fresh air. I got to dorking around on the flat with Tosh Townsted and we played a game of "OUT" (SKATE but with less letters). During our game Colt Cannon came over and said he had five dollars on me winning the next game. Someone took the bet putting five on Tosh. It was on. A game of anything-goes SKATE.

Tosh won the toss and started out with a kickflip and a 360 flip but I kept up and avoided getting a letter. Next it was my turn and with coach Colt cheering me on from the sidelines I took my instructions. "Old school all the way," he said and I knew what I had to do. I set if off with a classic rail-flip from back in the 70’s freestyle days. Then a few 80’s tricks: the 540 varial step-off a la Chet Thomas and the step-off revert. Tosh now had "SKA" and I looked to Colt for the sign. With a nod of approval and a fist for encouragement he said, "Go tech." I hit a backside 180 flip and a fakie 360 flip, but Tosh kept in step, so I went for the back foot flip, but missed. Now it was Tosh’s turn and he was looking for a comeback. He popped a clean nollie heelflip. By this time, a little crowd had gathered to check the action. Colt was whooping it up on the sidelines, money in hand and the pressure was on. To my surprise, I scraped off my nollie heel avoiding a letter and Tosh missed his next trick. I threw a finger flip street plant and Tosh was at SKAT. However, I missed my next trick and opened the door. Tosh wasn’t about to get skunked. He hit a clean heel varial and a frontside flip and I had a big fat SK. But I was up again and I told coach Cannon it was time for the closer. It took two tries but I hit a nice step off shov-it to one footed manual–a trick I made up as a kid–and Colt won his money. He bought me a Coke and we relished in our victory…

It’s the little things that make being on the road for months at a time bearable. Contest after contest would be a burden if I didn’t take time to goof off and just enjoy rolling around in the parking lot.

NYC
July 21, 2003 >check out some pics
I flew in to New York City- not in time for practice on Friday, but in time for what I thought was going to be a best trick contest on Saturday. Upon landing I checked my voicemail and heard a message from Don Bostick–president of World Cup Skateboarding–wondering if I was planning to make it to the comp. Someone wasn’t communicating. I had confirmed my invitation to this contest over a month ago. I called Don to see what was up. My missing practice seemed to puzzle him and my reply was that for a best trick contest, you either make it or you don’t. To my surprise he then informed me that it was not only a best trick contest but a full jam format contest as well. That was news to me but there was nothing to do about it now.

The next morning I woke up early enough to make it out to Randall’s Island in time to get a little practice in. It was quite a bit more relaxing than most contests because I didn’t have to put together a line. The jam format meant that we would all just skate for about fifty minutes and the judges would score the riders on the overall impression they made in the jam. Within the jam there was also a best trick contest with a separate prize, winner take all. I skated solo for about an hour, in between watching the moto X guys do back flips on the track behind the vert ramp. I wanted to shoot a photo but again spaced on bringing the digi-cam. Sorry.

The contest got started a little late but turned out to be a really fun and low stress event. People started out with full runs and gradually started trying harder and harder tricks. By the last ten minutes of the jam it was a straight out best trick session with guys just dropping in for one or two walls trying their hardest stuff. I skated well in the jam and was pleasantly surprised to put together a run with a backside lottery flip, a lottery to fakie and a salad shooter all in the same line. I was awarded yet another second place for my efforts. That makes four second-place finishes in a row for me this year. Meanwhile Sandro racked up another win and PLG got third. It was better prize money than they’ll have at the XGames next month and a fraction of the stress. I’d give the whole first year of Ramps and Amps a big fat thumbs up. Thanks for inviting me!

I’d be staying in the city for the next few days so I made plans to hook up with some of the boys for a session. First, though, I had to take care of yet another book signing. This time out in Elizabeth, NJ at a place called the Rex Plex. It’s one of the giant indoor sports complexes complete with soccer, b-ball and of course a skatepark. I skated the street course with some of the kids and then jumped on the vert ramp with long time East Coast ripper, Sanford Lopez, for a quick demo. Barnes and Noble sold quite a few books and I was sure to sign them all before I left. It’s cool to see kids excited about reading. Some kids just sat right down on their boards and started in on the first chapter while they were still at the skatepark.

Every time I come to New York I make it my duty to sample as many slices of pizza from as many different pizza joints around the city as I can. This trip has been no exception so far. I even ate a slice at JFK Airport while I was waiting to pick up my bag. Last night I had a really good slice just outside of Time Square. It was so good I had another before going next door to order up a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream sundae (scoop #1 brownie batter, scoop #2 oatmeal cookie chunk, hot fudge, whipped cream, and mini-M&M’s). You can’t touch this!

This morning I met some folks from Simon and Schuster and headed down to the Chelsea Piers skatepark for an interview. The interview panel was comprised of three twelve or thirteen year-old girls doing a story for the kids’ section of a NYC newspaper. They asked very intelligent questions and ended up with quite a thorough interview. I skated the park for a few minutes and showed them a few tricks they had asked about and then I was free.

I skated about twenty-five blocks downtown to meet up with my old friend Darren "the Moose" Menditto. It was some of the most fun I’ve had street skating in a while. I was just cutting in and out of traffic and using people as slalom gates. New York is so loud and busy that people didn’t even take a second look at me skating down the street. Back home people always seem to hear me coming. They act as if I’m driving a steam roller–jumping much too far out of the way and making faces as if being an environmentally conscious commuter is the worst thing they’ve ever seen. Darren is one that the professional skateboard community is most proud to claim as its own. Darren left the pro tour around 1998 in favor of attending medical school. He is now in his last year of residency as a doctor working in the emergency room trauma ward at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan. I think I speak for more than a few of my pro skater colleagues when I say that we are glad to know that skaters can still go on to do great things after their pro careers.

Darren and I made the best of our day off. We rode bikes across town to a skatepark just down the river from Chelsea Piers. We stopped at a pizza house for lunch, of course. It was deadly hot in the sun but the bowl had a hip that was fun to fly over, plus the park was free as long as you wore your dome-piece. We skated for a while before heading back to Darren’s house for an iced tea break. I was looking forward to the afternoon session.

We jumped on the R train and headed for Brooklyn. We had made plans to meet East Coast Alva legend Jim Murphy as well as Super-8 filmmakers Rick and Buddy of "Fruit of the Vine" fame. The Brooklyn park was sweet. The cement work in the bowls was smooth and there was pool coping in the deep end. The Moose killed it with BS tail slides and stalled tuck knee inverts, Buddy and Rick destroyed the hips and Murph went faster than everyone thought possible in such a small bowl. The skating lasted a good two hours and was one of the most enjoyable sessions I’ve had the pleasure to skate in a long time. I even remembered to shoot a few pictures and a quick video clip of a transfer line I found. (see attached).

Prague,Czechoslovakia

July 6, 2003 >check out some pics

Well the rain never came and the curse of qualifying first in vert got me again. Either that or it’s impossible for me to beat Sandro Dias this year. I was happy with my skating and especially with the fact that I made every rodeo 540 I tried, when it counted. I placed second. But before the vert contest went down I was busy skating the semi-finals on the street course trying to make the final cut. To my delight, I made two complete runs without falls and even stuck the frontside flip at the end. Then I hurried off to get my vert shoes on. Directly after the vert contest there was a half hour best trick jam. I made the mistake of skating in it rather than going back over to the street course. I had made the street finals qualifying 8^th. I knew I was going to be tired but they had just put a four-foot-high extension block on the top of the vert ramp and I couldn’t resist. I wanted to frontside blunt it. After about twenty minutes I succeeded in my quest but not before taking a few good diggers to the knee in the process.

Back on the street course I had all of about five minutes of practice to get my street legs back before they started. I was just glad to be in the final and on whatever legs I had left at that point. I tried a few 360 flips up the gap and a couple frontside flips over the hip, but my legs weren’t feeling it–or I wasn’t feeling them–whatever the case may have been. When they called my name, I stuck to my line and made everything up to the 45-second mark, at which, I predictably bailed the frontside flip. I felt it coming, though, and quickly scampered to the top of the bank for my last trick. Thankfully, I remembered what my legs were supposed to feel like just before I hit my tail and landed a 360 flip up the gap just before time ran out. It was good enough for a seventh place finish in street.

For my frontside blunt efforts in the vert best trick I was awarded fourth place, a hundred bucks and a pat on the back. Thanks to the guys from Mystic Cup for continuing to support the skateboard scene in Prague. This was the tenth year for them and I’ve been to quite a few Mystic Cups in the past. It keeps getting bigger and better. My flight leaves first thing in the morning…again. Have you seen my legs?

July 5, 2003

Yesterday was practice all day–nothing much to write home about. I made a frontside blunt up on this highway barrier that’s at the top of one of the banks. The vert ramp is a portable set up. It has good transitions but the surface is a bit crazy. About 3/4 of the ramp is so grippy that you can’t even knee slide down it without falling forward onto your face. The other side is so slick that you slide out with even the slightest carve. It made for an interesting qualifier today. The rain also added some treachery. Sandro Dias and I were both pre-qualified for the finals at this contest but because of the threat of rain, we were made to skate the qualifying round just in case. The street course had a huge tent over it--the vert ramp did not. If it rained all day Sunday, they would take the results from the qualifiers. I managed to qualify first in vert and fourth in street. Pray for rain.

July 3, 2003

I left San Diego amidst talk of firework displays and picnic plans for the July 4^th holiday. I would once again be spending America’s Birthday in another country. This year it’s the Czech Republic for the Mystic Cup contest in Prague. The trip across the puddle was pretty non-eventful. Just the way I like it. I did leave my board in the overhead when I got off the plane in D.C. to make a connection. I had to run back to get it and then skate through the airport in order to make the next flight. Upon arriving in Prague I dropped my bag at the hotel and headed for the skatepark.

This city had some serious flooding last spring and the skatepark where the contest is always held was literally under water. The good news is that it’s dry now and they’ve built even better ramps to replace the ones lost in the flooding. I skated the street course with Rodney Jones and a few others for hours. It’s a really fun course and I couldn’t get myself to stop skating even though I was still a bit sluggish from jet lag. After an iced tea break, we motivated a session out at the new cement park with a few of the guys from the World Cup staff. It was a small park but good fun in the bowls. I even made an "Emanuel Louis". It’s a one-footed frontside roll-out-manual and I’ve only ever done it three or four times. The rain came to end our session but my legs were shot anyway. We took the metro back and called it a day. With the exception of a little catnap on the plane, I have been up for a little over twenty-five hours.