Tuesday, October 9

Vans Triple Crown Finals

By Keith Eric Davidson
EXPN.com

The Vans/XBOX Triple Crown of Skateboarding careened full speed into the SoCal beach community of Oceanside this past weekend, ending it's 2001 competition series. With $150,000 in prize money on the line, many of the worlds best skaters duked it out for a chance of getting some extra spending cash for the nightclub or perhaps some fancy new diamond encrusted jewelry. All the heavy hitters were in attendance, though due to sketchy runs, many of the usual top contest placers couldn't hang on through the finals.

Saturday was "Street," and the weather couldn't have been any better with sunny skies prevailing over the previous practice days' overcast gloom. Three rounds of semifinals proved to be too much for skaters such as Willy Santos, who despite doing difficult Frontside noseblunt/frontside tailslides combos on the picnic table, couldn't quite hang on during the finals. Other notables include Chad Bartie's enormous step up ollies to the flat ledge, and Donny Barley's raw attack on everything he touched.

Koston looking solid with this b/s lip down the rail.

The finals showcased some serious shredding on the RampTech streetcourse, which allowed for a variety of different styles - from tech to gnar, it was all there. 10th place and $600 went to Chet Thomas. Dan Pageau skated a little better and received 9th and $900. Rodil Jr. put on a handrail demo and 8th place and $1000 was his. A semi-iced out Rob Dyrdek overcrooked the flat rail and was given 7th place and $1500. Chris Senn is no stranger to the top ten, he skated faster than anyone, and managed to frontboard the entire plastic Jersey Barrier into 6th and $1700. Carlos De Andrade would have placed higher if not for a couple of unlucky falls, but still managed to whip out perfect three flips and kickflip crooks on the bank to box, thus providing him with 5th and $3000. Rookie pro Colt Cannon fired off rounds of difficult tricks one after another, including lengthy backside nosegrinds down the monster Hubba ledge and big frontside flips over the pyramid, securing him 4th place and $4,000. Ed Templeton proved he is still a contest machine, of which he has dominated since the early nineties. Ed showed no signs of sleeping while barging through speedy frontblunts across the bench, quick backtails on the bank to box, and feebles on the big rail. A stoked Ed earned 3rd and $6,000. Big Guns Eric Koston "sparkled" through his runs with some seriously hard tricks including frontside flips over the Jersey Barrier, backlips down the big rail, and f/s half-cab flips caught high over the pyramid. 2nd place and 10,000 G's were his. 15 year-old Bastien Salabanzi is the best skater in the world, and on this day he let everyone know it. Giant biggie flips over the pyramid, gap to front board on the small rail, kickflip 5-0 the box, and kickflip frontboard the big rail earned the young first place mauler $18,000 for just another day at the "Park".

Andy Mac f/s blunting the vert extension.

Sunday was "Vert" day and the blinding sun didn't faze the skaters who took to the monster 14ft. Ramp Tech vert ramp. Omar Hassan, despite a hurt shoulder received 10th. Mike Crum ally-ooped into nollie flip frontside airs over the channel and received 9th. Mattias Ringstrom got euro tech with front foot impossible liens over the channel and 8th was his. 7th place went to Aussie Renton Millar who three flipped the giant channel a la street. I wonder what it feels like to do 9 foot high alley oop b/s fives drifting twenty feet? Sandros Dios knows and received 6th for being so smart. Anthony Furlong stayed on into 5th place. 4th went to the ever present Andy MacDonald who threw out some unlikely giant indy fives over the channel. Bucky Lasek unleashed the lien rodeo five, a trick he just learned a week ago, and along with his other stunts, earned a respectable 3rd. Rune Glifberg skates faster than you ever will, especially when he's backtailing up the extension for about twenty feet and doing b/s fives about eight feet out. 2nd place was his and it was his birthday to boot. If Bastien Salabanzi is the best skater in the world than how is Bob Burnquist also the best skater in the world? I don't have the answer to that, but if you saw the runs Bob Gnar was doing you'd probably be asking yourself the same question. Switch kickflip indys, switch nosegrinds over the channel bridge of death, nosegrind reverts on the same bridge, plus so many wrong caught kickflips but still landed, earns you 1st with out question. As an added bonus, after the contest was over, Rune Glifberg and Eric Koston were both awarded with an additional 10,000 G's for overall series winners.

Street:
1)Bastien Salabanzi
2) Eric Koston
3) Ed Templeton
4) Colt Cannon
5) Carlos De Andrade
6) Chris Senn
7) Rob Dyrdek
8) Rodil Jr.
9) Dan Pageau
10) Chet Thomas

Vert:
1) Bob Burnquist
2)Rune Glifberg
3) Bucky Lasek
4)Andy MacDonald
5)Anthony Furlong
6)Sandros Dias
7) Renton Millar
8) Mathias Ringstrom
9) Mike Crum
10) Omar Hassan

Bowl:
1) Omar Hassan
2) Brian Patch
3)Sandros Dias