You know what they say, "Everything is big in Texas," or is it "everything is phat in Texas?" I know it's one of those. Over twelve-hundred Texans turned out for U.S. Stop No. 1, sporting cowboy hats and big shiny belt buckles. Eisenberg Skate Park has a great set-up, with two indoor parks and an outdoor fun zone for the kids. The skaters joining Tony for this stop consisted of Mike Vallely, Brian Sumner, Alex Chalmers, Bam Margera, Lincoln Ueda, Jason Ellis, old school style master Kevin Staab and Texan John Commer. Mat Hoffman is still on board but cruising in his own R.V. with the family. The Condor's rig is just as big as the tour bus the rest of the boys are in.

Bam Margera.

Alex Chalmers is sick! This guy was busting out huge airs all over the street course. Birdhouse team rider Brian Sumner was getting super technical over the pyramid with late flips, varial flips and 360 flips, I guess you can say he was flipping out. Keeping with the "everything is big in Texas" tradition, Jason Ellis decided to fly out off the vert ramp, over a five-foot fence, onto the park course. The gap was pretty big, even by Texas standards!

Mike Vallely going big.

The guy who definitely stole the show had to be the tattooed Mike Vallely. This dude does it all for the love of skateboarding and the kids. Vallely slammed hard a couple of times, but every time he would get up, spit and continue skating. Mike and Alex Chalmers discovered this big, old eleven-foot roll with a seven-foot fun box in its path and proceeded to fly it. These skaters were logging in more air miles then ESPN host Sal Masekela. The highlight of the day was when Vallely pulled a backside 180 one-footed Judo Air over the seven-foot fun box landing on the transition.

The crowd was treated to yet another great Tony Hawk tour demo. The vert portion went off the sick scale when Lincoln Ueda hit the ceiling with his high-flying vert antics. It was great to watch the style master Kevin Staab stoking out the Texans with his skills. Texas native John Commer was holding is own on both the street course and the vert ramp too. On street, John-boy was busting backside tailslides on the u rail about ten feet long. On vert, he was blazing with his usual arsenal of lip tricks.

No more Robert Earl. Keep an eye out for this bus.

On a side note, tour mascot Robert Earl got kicked off the tour bus when he lost a weight bet with some of the pros. Now he has to drive his own car by himself. In Germany, Robert Earl was told by Tony and the crew that if he couldn't get his weight down to 210 lbs. before the start of U.S. Tour he wouldn't be on the bus. To Robert's credit, he did lose some weight but unfortunately he was still four pounds over the limit. Look for Mr. Earl on the highway driving North in his little white Hyundai, it's the one that say's "210 or bust" on the side of it.

U.S. Stop No. 1 is in the books. The next stop is Tempe, Arizona for a slight detour to an empty pool we heard about. The boys are looking forward to de-virginizing a brand new skate park that has never been skated before. How sick is that?

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