When you tune into for Summer X Games you will find myself, alongside Chris Miller, walking you through the Park Event. It is very important to realize how skating, as an artform, really works. So take the following information to get a better understanding about how skateboarding is judged.

Skating is sport, but is controlled ultimately not by strength, tricks or special equipment, but by style and flow. When you watch this year's Park event, don't look for the kickflip 720 varial over the gap, look for the flow and style in each skater.

Hometown hero Kerry Getz

We are all bombarded by videos that seem to make pro skaters look like they are walking on water. The videos you watch are pieced together from thousands of hours of footage; most of which are guys packing hard. You end up seeing only the 10% of the tricks that were pulled off. Granted, they are attempting to progress the sport to places we never thought it could go, and are making the world open it's eyes to the marvels of skateboarding. For that, the pros deserve only the highest respect.

Now enter the Park Comp situation. To win, it's easy, you have to stay on your board. Each skater has to pick tricks which he has a high percentage of landing. The next step is to connect them all together in a flowed pattern, using different lines and as much of the park as possible. The guy who wins will most likely be the skater who flowed and connected the best - not the guy who landed one trick - that one huge gnarly gap.

Bob Burnquist laid it down nicely in Vancouver BC this spring, when he said, "The vert ramp is like a painting canvas, I drop in and paint a picture with my skating."

Eric Koston smiles when he flows

So, when you are watching the Park event, look for the skater who is painting a picture. Look for the skater who connects the ramps and adds his own style to each piece of terrain. Most importantly, who is sticking their tricks? All of their tricks that is. Like I said earlier, each skater is going to make decisions on how he can complete a series of tricks without falling. They will each put together the tricks they have dialed-in and know they can stick. They will save the gnarly stuff for videos, where the crashes can be edited out.

Skating is suppossed to be fun, and it is. When you go skating today, try skateboarding from point A to point B. Turn it into transportation instead of standing in one spot for an hour trying to learn a nollie heelflip varial. Just go and roll.

Point A to point B skating was brought to light out of the Bay Area by guys like the Gonz, John Cardiel, and Chris Senn. Maybe that's why those guys are still on top and seen as some of skateboarding's best. It's a blast to watch them skate live. Another great example is Cab. He flows like the best 20 year olds, even though he is in his mid-thirties. So go find a couple old Bones Brigade videos and reinvent your skating. Then watch the Park event at this year's Summer X Games and make the call - who do you think really deserves the win. The one trick wonder, or the jedi flow master.

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