The Pros are at a whole new level in the new bowl... Bucky completely blew my mind with his gay twist over the middle hip and his frontside alley oops around the corner... Rune was blasting so high and spinning some of the most stylish fives I've ever seen... Omar was all over that bowl... blasting airs and doing the most complex combinations of switch and lip tricks... Pedro Barros is so insane with his numerous variations of fives, huge airs and one of the sickest styles I've seen... Nolan Munroe? Damn... humongous slow motion fives and crazy ear breaking madonna's around the corner were simply unbelievable... Josh Rodriquez... that kid is coming up so fast... he just leaned fives right before the contest and he had some of the best lines in there... like the triple hip air line (air on the round shallow hip, then air the middle hip and then air the shallow square hip)... Alex Perelson doing backside 50/50's to revert around the corner and frontside tailgrab reverts were mind boggling... Josh Borden style for miles, fives and a huge bag of lip tricks... Bob Burnquist with his switch everything, I never know which way he's riding and his creativity is unmatchable... Lincoln Ueda definitely goes the highest in that bowl... he's over the fence and his body jars are the biggest I've ever seen... that boy's got some power.
My personal highlight of the ProTec Pool Party was watching Jeff Grosso stick out his bare belly and rub it while getting ready to tail drop on the combi's middle hip... then he tried to spin a five in the round. Showmanship at it's finest.
I have to say how amazing the Vans combi is now... that new surface is perfect and in my opinion the best pool I've ever skated... it's a great time to be a bowl skater... Thanks Steve Van Doren for the new bowl and another intense bowl contest.
Written by: Lester Kasai
Left to Right: Pat Hgoho, Lester Kasai, Steve VanDoren (photo: Lee Leal)
