Related Photos: The Woodstock Files

The Land of Lincoln, that's what they call Illinois. I think even good old Abe would have been proud of our demo stop at the Warp Skatepark in Woodstock. Temps were in the upper 80's, not bad after dealing with the excruciating heat in Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Kentucky. We visited Warp Skatepark on our first year on the Hawk Tour, and the demo went off without a hitch. Rooftop and Kris Markovich pretty much stole the show back in 2000 on the park course. This year Rooftop was relentless with his attack, in fact he was ripping so hard he pretty much destroyed his bike and was trying to borrow one from a spectator. Randy the park owner has got a pretty cool setup, and yes he skates as well! Randy changed up the course from the last time we visited. In fact the skatepark had a lot more room on the park course.

The crew pulled up to 1,000 screaming skate fans, which couldn't wait for the demo to get under way. Dave Mirra is my hero! Dave and Rooftop were simply tearing that park a new one. Flairs, decade airs, and tailwhips are becoming the norm on this tour. Kerry Getz was doing double flips, hardflips and kickflips to 5-0's and boardslides. Bucky pulled a switch kickflip to fakie 5-0. Jesse Fritsch busted a nosegrind on a bike rack from a wedge ramp. Mike V is insane! If I had to pick 2 words to describe his skating I would say "Amplitude and Attitude". I swear Mike V is made out of some kind of space age alloy or something.

Jesse Fritsch pulls the Ellis Ape Hanger out of his bag of tricks.

In the last article we talked about the infamous Ellis Ape Hanger, let me break it down for you. The Ellis Ape Hanger was first done at Warp back in 2000. It came about when Jason was busting a big air and he grabbed a hold of a metal beam that was directly over the vert ramp. He held it for about 1-½ seconds then released it, landing on the transition. First of all that shouldn't even be legal. He busted it again this year to the amazement of the crowd. The guys were ripping, Tony linked about 15-17 tricks back to back to back. Staab was almost hitting the ceiling on his backside ollie attack. Koji Kraft showed up as the visiting pro and was busting out with his vert skills. Koji and I even rode the park course after the demo for about an hour I saw him bust a backflip out in front of my face, but that's another story. Jesse Fritsch was on fire again after seshing the park course during the park demo. How can these guys manage to still have energy after these demos? These guys really give it their all every single demo and should be commended for it!

No, this wasn't the transport to the skatepark. But the guys do have a bit of off-time. Time to play polo!

The Tony Hawk Gigantic Skatepark Tour is definitely the coolest thing I have ever been a part of! Make sure you don't miss a minute of the TV programming once it hits the air in late July. Click on the TV Times to find out when. The Hawk Tour will be on ESPN2 this year, if you don't have ESPN2, get it!!!!! Next stop, 3rd Lair Skatepark in Minneapolis MN. I hear we have to cut through Wisconsin to get there, hopefully we will be able to score some cheese when we pass through. We are half way, 5 stops down and 5 to go.

Quote of the day for stop #5 comes from another random skater:
"Where is Bam?"

L8er
-Brad J

Related Photos:
The Woodstock Files

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