Monday, August 14

Klaus/Rogers find gold in the sky

By Nicole Dreon
ESPN X Games research

SONOMA, Calif --This fall, skysurf team Stefan Klaus and Brian Rogers will be delivering the game ball to six home games of the San Francisco 49ers-- right after they skysurf into the stadium. Fortunately for them, it will not be the first time they have soared through the San Francisco skies.

The two recently surfed their way to a gold medal in the Skysurfing competition at the 2000 X Games. Amidst tight competition from the skysurfing duos of Valery Rozov-Clif Burch and Eric Fradet-Alex Iodice, it was the teamwork of Klaus and Rogers who drew the judges' attention and took home the gold.

Judge Rob Chickering said, "The top three teams were all very different. Some teams (Stefan Klaus and Brian Rogers) were excelling in the area of teamwork, while others were banging out more technical routines (Eric Fradet and Alex Iodice). Valery Rozov is so technical, while Clif Burch's camerawork is amazing."

It was Eric Fradet and Alex Iodice who jump-started the final day of competition with a score of 97.0. Fradet and Iodice scored much higher the final day of competition than in the prelims. Iodice's reasoning was that, "It is because our routines were different. I did not like the ones we did yesterday." Iodice said they repeated jumps two and four from the prelims during the finals.

Fradet/Iodice were the favorites coming into the X Games, but a weak third round really hurt them. Iodice said, "The third jump was fun for us, but the judges did not like it. We should have chosen a different routine."

In the fourth jump of the prelims, Klaus and Rogers scored a 92.6, which they considered generous. Klaus fell out a flip eagle in the beginning of the routine and Rogers said he was having to second-guess the remainder of the routine just to keep Klaus in his frame. Klaus said, "I was nervous as hell jump four. It was the first jump of the day, my legs were shaking. I couldn't do it--after that I was relieved."

Going into the finals, only 13 points separated Klaus/Rogers and Rozov/Burch, one of the closest finals in X Games history. After the final jump, Rozov/Burch said they made some mistakes, which they thought were going to move them back into third place. Rozov shook his head and mumbled, "It was bad." In the end, the two did maintain their lead over Fradet/Iodice and took home the silver medal.

What was most exciting about the 2000 X Games skysurfing competition was that any one of the top three teams could still grab the gold going into the final jump. Klaus/Rogers secured the lead after the first jump, but Rozov/Burch and Fradet/Iodice slowly closed the gap as the competition went on. However it was Klaus/Rogers who reigned supreme.

The fierce competition among the top three skysurfing teams earned the respect and attention of fellow skysurfing competitors, especially the South African duo of Hilton Roos and Wayne Peinke. Roos said they were both in awe of the top teams because, "They incorporated so much freefly. They are flying head down and it makes them spin so fast. They are flying so close together and in control." Roos said that he and Peinke can do most of the same moves, but they cannot transition between moves as quickly and as smoothly.

Skysurfing competitor Dave Briegs said, "Klaus and Rogers deserve to win. It all laid out the way it should have."