The temperature was in the mid 80's, blue skies, and a swell out of the south at about 4-5 feet hitting the coast. You gotta love San Diego, a abundance of great skate spots, killer weather, fine-looking women, and great surf. I lived in Diego back in the late 80's and went to Grossmont College, well kind of. I surfed and skated and attempted to pick up on chicks more then I actually went to school. Back in '92, I competed in a C.A.S.L. (California Amateur Skateboard League) Contest in San Diego at the Murphy Canyon Rec. Center. I got 3rd place in the street contest. It was held on a tennis court with a small pyramid, 2 wedge ramps and a flat-ground rail for flat-ground frolicking. Skateboarding has come along way since "92". Now new super-parks are popping up everywhere. Down Diego way even the YMCA's have sick parks. The ESPN Tony Hawk Gigantic Skatepark started in San Diego back about 3 years ago at the Mission Valley Skatepark. Who knew it would grow to be such an overwhelming tour?

Kris Markovich throw out a VERY large stalefish transfer.

The crowds we experienced this year were far bigger then any of the last two years of tours. In Louisville, Kentucky we saw somewhere near 8,000-10,000 people at an unadvertised demo. Those kind of crowds rival the early days of the X Games. Speaking of the X Games, they hit Philly August 15-19th 2002 check out the TV schedule right here on EXPN.com. Anyways, back to San Diego. Over 20,000-30,000 spectators combined turned out this year for the Hawk Tour, that is a lot of skate moms and dads and grommets all in one place. I can't believe it's been three years since we started the Tour and along the way I have made a lot of friends, pro's and spectators alike. "What a long strange trip it has been," Thanks Garcia!

The Skate Nomads showed up about 1:20, that would be 10:20 in Hawaii. The place was a rockin' with about 1,000 or so people there ready for some skateboarding fun. Rooftop got there about an hour before the demo so he could make a couple of changes before it started. He took a piece of protection wood off the side of the vert ramp for a trick to be named later. Brian Sumner has so many rail variations it is incredible what can't he do on those metal sliders? He probably has his breakfast on them at home with the family. Markovitch did a stailfish grab on this quarterpipe about 12-13 feet in the air, the funny thing was is that the quarterpipe was only about 4-5 feet high, the dude has some serious pop! Mike V was doing these huge frontside 50-50's up this step up wall to vert, and doing a boneless back in to transition. Lets just say it was pfat with a pf. Rooftop busted a ga-narly flair from the vert ramp to the street course on his trusty Volume Bike. That is why he got there early to make adjustments.

Rooftop leaves the vert ramp and heads to the street course with some flair.

The Vert ramp had just gotten re-sheeted days earlier with the new stuff from Ramp Armor. It turned out that we had a special visit from a couple of skaters for the vert session. Skateboarding Legend and inventor of The McTwist, Mike McGill was on hand for a reunion session with Tony and da boys. Mathias Ringstrom even made an appearance and what an appearance he made. MR was ripping so hard it looked like he was throwing down an X Run. He must have pulled off about 14 tricks back-to-back. Sean White busted out a 720 again, this kid must have some huge nads. Bob Burnquist was destroying it too. Bob and the guys were joined by Bob's significant other Jen O'Brien for the vert sesh. Jen did a backside ollie over the channel with Bob banging his board on the coping with approval. Jason Ellis was there but unfortunately couldn't skate because of mini-bike accident he was in which required some stitches. Bucky, and Colin were also out as well because of injuries. I was so stoked on the whole day especially getting to witness Staab, Hawk, and McGill seshing together.

Mathias Ringstrom fresh off a victory in Barcelona, came to throw it down.

What a mind-boggling Tour it has been. It's great to be part of such a great team. I want to thank all the park owners, volunteers, medical people, the skate moms and dads, the skaters of all the cities, and some of the law enforcement agencies, you know who you are! I also want to thank all the pros and all the people behind the scenes you don't see on TV like; Norm AKA (Barracho), Matt AKA (Drum Circle), Matt AKA (Mattlok), Tim AKA (Tim-dog), Andy AKA (MD Love), Tracy AKA (I'm not Tony Hawk), Mike T. AKA (Bourbon Street), John AKA (big bad John), Morgan AKA (Dude) Frankie AKA (sick-oi-ya), Heather AKA (Is that conflicting), Kathleen AKA (can I use your shower?) and all the independent film guys. But last but not least I want to thank you for reading all the Tour Stop reviews and rating the pictures as well. Make sure you keep up with the Tour on TV, exclusively on ESPN 2. Click on the TV schedule for the times in you're area. And don't forget to check out the X Games on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN 2.

Quote of the day from the final stop comes from some random skate dad: "How long is this gonna take there is a good south swell running"

Skate tough,
-Brad J

Quote of the day from the final stop comes from some random skate dad. "How long is this gonna take there is a good south swell running"

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