Friday, July 28

B3 - Skateboarding

Me and a posse of EXPN crew got off to a great start early on Friday morning, headed out to the main event, B3 at Lake Havasu, AZ. Tunes were jamming and the speedometer was nearly off the scale as we left the LA metropolis and headed into the barren desert of California & Arizona.

After about 3 1/2 hours things were quiet when suddenly instead of ending up in Lake Havasu AZ. we ended up on the wrong side of the lake the Hualapai Indian Reservation. You could see across the lake to where we needed to be, but we soon found out we had a 70 mile reroute to get us there. So much for all the time we had made up.

Rune Glifberg - big ass indy kickflip.

We eventually got there in good fashion and we had an enjoyable off road experience to boot. The scene as we rolled in took shape like this: Yes indeed there was sunshine and plentiful amounts of that.

The competition venue could be easily seen from the highway with a towering 3 story VIP/Production booth for athletes and ESPN production crew. This allowed a great vantage point to watch the action go down. The street course was big and "extreme". The fans were loaded up the bleachers across from the ESPN tower. It looked hot over there with out any shade. The viewing was less than ideal as many of the obstacles were placed in front of good viewing zones, but the skateboarders certainly put the place to work.

On the other side of the ESPN Tower were two vert ramps back to back. The view from the tower allowed for some great scenery of Lake Havasu and the ridges of desert cliffs in the background. Off a bit closer to the lake was the big concert venue where some pretty dope bands went off nightly.

Renton Millar floats a smooth backside ollie.

On Friday they held the street preliminaries and cut the field down to 10 skaters, who got to compete in the finals on Saturday. Anthony Carney, Danny Way, Willy Santos, Bucky Lasek, Frank Hirata, Chet Thomas, Brent Kronmueller, Pat Channita, Carlos De Andrade, and Andy Macdonald made it through. We watched those, and then enjoyed some of the practice sessions over on the vert ramps.

Afterward, we headed out for some fixin's and a place to camp out for the night. Todd Cooke, the worlds greatest lounge act in Lake Havasu, made our night as did a nice little nearby ditch for some skateboard riding. We retired at a reasonable hour after a nice refreshing swim, so we could sustain another 2 days of the B3.

Pat Channita put together some amazing tech. lines. Gap 360 Flip.

Saturday started out with reasonable ease. By the time we hit the contest up it was just about to start with the warm-up for the street finals. Some of the vert guys can hack it pretty well at the street course, but it's unfortunate for many of the street skaters who get bumped out of the competition because of the course design. Pat Channita won it by saving some of his most consistent and technical runs for the finals. Danny Way busted several big tricks and some tech. Bucky Lasek was able to throw down some good street stuff as was Chet Thomas. Andy Mac did his patented stunt show and grabbed 2nd. Frank, Willy, Brent, and Anthony couldn't quite stay on to take it but any one of them seemed to be able to on any given day.

Bucky Lasek got pretty stylie with this smith grind then hammered the vert ramp for 2nd place.

We finished out the day by watching some more vert practice and a pretty wild BMX Vert Final. Watching a 900 on a bike is pretty scary, but there were a couple of those to go around.

By the end of the day the crowd was lobstered out, and ready to go seek out some of the legendary Spring Break at Lake Havasu night life. With all the hype about how crazy the town gets we must have been like the grandparents at the old folks home. Most of the crew was tucked in before 11 o'clock.

Mathias Ringstrom and Anthony Furlong flew big to make the top 10.

Next came Sunday's festivities. For me it was all about the Skateboarding Vert competition. The field was really nice and we got a few new faces up in the top spots. So listen up as I tell you about them.

This was the hottest day of the event by far and the sweat was streaming down on anyone that moved. Bob Burnquist was giving it everything he had all day. His skills are unmatched and he held it together to grab the top spot. Bucky Lasek was completely amazing too. His best qualifying run probably would have won the event, but maybe the gnat in his eye didn't work out to good.

The new faces that are turning heads in the top ranks are Anthony Furlong and Renton Millar. These two guys have a very large bag of tricks covering all the major areas. Technical tricks, big airs, and lots of style are coming to the pro circuit. Anthony Furlong nabbed 5th place making him the newest member of the X Games establishment. All the other guys ripped too, don't get me wrong. Rune, Andy Mac, Tas, Mathias, and Sandro all sweated it out to make the top 10. Danny Way was just pretty much destroyed but persisted on giving it everything he had.

Chet secured 7th spot with this lightly touched ollie.

The fans truly deserve a hand for sticking it out in the burning hot sun. It was about 93 degree's when we left just after the vert finals. The words burnt out just don't quite cut it when describing the weekends lingering effect on our posse. A great time was had, but some rest is in order.

Jeff Greenwood

Willy Santos getting some televison time.

P.S. Andy Mac did do 16 McTwists in a row on Sunday, then on Monday set a new world record for the longest skateboard jump.