Kicking the event off in full throttle, the top female pro skaters dropped into the Combi Bowl at Vans skatepark with fierce determination, drawing gasps from the crowd of nearly 1,000 fans. The 20-minute jam-format competition contained three divisions – top female, masters and pro skateboarders – at yesterday's Pro-Tec Pool Party in Orange.
With moments of gut-wrenching near-collisions as skaters dropped in at the same time in the pool and skated impromptu doubles, the event proved to be the type of competition Vans head Steve Van Doren set out to create.
“Every other skateboard competition seemed to be the same cookie-cutter event. We wanted something special and decided to have a pool party,” Van Doren said. His father created Vans 40 years ago.
In its second year, the Pro-Tec Pool Party invitational event gathered the top names in the industry, with a roster full of San Diegans. Bucky Lasek, Bob Burnquist, Cara-Beth Burnside and Rune Glifberg were just a few of the hometown heroes that came to skate a combination of three different shaped pools with steep walls and tight corners.
“The fact that it's dangerous adds to the high level of excitement,” competitor Bob Burnquist said. “It's an environment out of control, is what it is.”
With the jam format, at times it was not about the difficulty of tricks performed, but the ability to power through a run with another skater trailing behind you or intersecting your path.
The sport itself grew out of the pioneers such as Tony Alva and Duane Peters, among the group of teens who paved the way by skating backyard pools in the 1970s. Alva was there to watch Peters and his peers compete in the masters division at yesterday's event.
“I just think it's good that there's a resurgence of how skateboarding started out,” Alva said. “That's where the roots are. Even though it's a young sport, we have an old-school group of skaters.”
The finals of the pro division were made up of 10 skaters, with six from San Diego County, including Andy Macdonald and Lasek. The heat was packed with amazing skating, including a frontside 540 from Burnquist. Omar Hassan of Newport Beach took the title and the $25,000 grand prize.
Last year's champ, Rune Glifberg, skated to second place, and Brian Patch of Huntington Beach came in third.
“It's really hard when you don't have the pool to yourself and you have to deal with snaking,” said Glifberg, who said he wasn't able to complete all the lines he had planned during the jam format.
During the masters heat it was mayhem as the veteran skaters dropped in on one another, exchanged a few pushes and collided on at least one occasion. Chris Miller of Del Mar defended his title to take first place for the second year in a row, impressing the crowd with a blunt slide around the corner of the pool. Jeff Grosso took second, and Steve Caballero came in third, and pulled a caballerial, his namesake trick, which is a fakie 360 ollie.
Burnside showed overall consistency and the biggest bag of tricks to take first place in the women's division, followed by Mimi Knoop in second and Holly Lyons, third. All three skaters live in Encinitas.
For photos and complete results, visit www.vans.com.
