Related Photos: The Woodstock Files Hawk Tour - Louisville 2002 Hawk Tour in New Orleans 2002 Hawk Tour at the Kona Skatepark

They call Minneapolis one of the Twin Cities, with St. Paul being the other one. I didn't see one set of twins when I was there, not even the Double Mint Twins. The 3rd Lair Skatepark is the third Skatepark to occupy the warehouse space, hence the name 3rd Lair. The first Skatepark was called the Skate Oasis. It opened up back in the late 80's-early 90's. That's back when I was working for Powell Skateboards and the infamous Powell Skate Zone, home of the Taj ma wall. It is pretty rare for a Skatepark to be open for that many years. The Powell Skate zone lasted only about 2-3 years before it was turned into a storage facility.

Tony goes old school with the handplant.

The Pros showed up at 4:20 pm to a packed house. It was so crowded we had to hold 2 separate demos. They seshed the park course first then we had to have the crowd exit and bring in a whole new set of spectators for the vert portion. It was worth it because no one got turned away. The Skatepark owners and managers were awesome and treated the crew great!! Once again I have to ask this burning question, why is Kerry Getz so so good?? This guy is insane, I asked Kerry how many kickflips he does in an hour-long demo and his response was "about 200." How could somebody do 200 kickflips in an hour and his name isn't Rodney Mullen? Mike V. was in the zone and ripping as usual. He's like a skate mutant or something. Chalmers was doing these huge frontside flips as well, check out his part in the new Flip video.

Mike V. doing what he does best...with no regard for his body.

After we got a new set of spectators in the park for the vert demo, it was on! Bucky was trying to stick an Indy 720. That trick has only been pulled off by 1 guy and his name is The Great Danny Way. Tony Hawk was going for a frontside 540, a trick he hasn't done since about 8 years ago. Jason Ellis jumped off a steel girder that was about 10 feet away from the vert ramp and about 4 feet higher then the ramp, he pulled it after about 3 or 4 tries and the crowd erupted. I think I lost my voice on that one. Jesse Fritsch stuck a frontside gay twist which is a trick that he has been trying for a while. They guys went off, what a great demo it was. The spectators were super into it and got the pro's pretty pumped up. The skaters in Minneapolis rule!

Ellis didn't want to be outdone so he climbed the rafters to drop in.

Tony Hawk Gigantic Skatepark Tour Stop # 6 was a huge success. This brings a close to leg #1 on the tour. Leg number 2 kicks off in a week or so with stops in Colorado, Utah, Las Vegas, and San Diego. Consult the schedule for a stop near you. All the stops will hit ESPN 2 towards the end of July Make sure you have it or call your cable or satellite provider to get it. In the words of my Daughter Damiana " Papa loves skateboarding", I sure do!

Quote of the day from stop #6 comes from Kerry Getz:
"I do about 200 kickflips in an hour long demo"

-Brad J

Related Photos:
The Woodstock Files
Hawk Tour - Louisville
2002 Hawk Tour in New Orleans
2002 Hawk Tour at the Kona Skatepark

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