Hermosa Beach, California - June 10, 2000
As the competition season goes along the level of performance keeps getting higher and higher. I don't want to spoil the rest of the season, but I can't fathom how the performances could get any better then they were in Hermosa. Arlo made the comment that, "you know it's a tough competition when they pull out the 1080's," and that's exactly what they did. Cesar Mora was the first to throw the big spin. He did it as his third trick in his second run of the finals, which shows his growing confidence with the trick. Not to be out done, Eito Yasutoko attempted and landed a 1080 Flat spin, the first one I've ever seen. The big spins weren't the only impressive tricks thrown that weekend. The entire field of competitors skated extremely well, especially for a vert ramp that was slowly sinking into the sand. The only American in the field, Jaren Grob ended up in 10th place, followed by William Silva in 9th. Silva, who hails from Sao Paulo, had two of the most consistent runs of the field, but he wasn't able to overtake the top five skaters. Sven Boekhorst skated only one run in the finals, but it was good enough to hold him in 8th place. Tobias Bucher, out of Stutgardt, Germany skated two strong runs and threw the highest and best-looking flat spins of the competition. In 6th place was Australian Matt Salerno, who skated well, throwing tricks like a 900 to please the big Hermosa Beach crowd. Starting the top five was Shane Yost, the Tasmanian Devil, who filled his run with so many spins and grab combinations, that it left the MC's speechless. The only way to call a Shane Yost run is to watch it in slow motion. Despite throwing a 1080, Cesar Mora was only able to skate to a fourth place finish, but he was separated from the top three by a very small margin. The battle for the top three, was the tightest and most competitive I've seen in a vert competition so far. The first skater to drop in was Takeshi Yasutoko, who went as high as ever and threw in some technical skills such as a backside to soul to backslide, to temporally win the first place position. The next skater to go, was Takeshi's older brother Eito, who skated on another level, throwing not only the 1080 flat spin, but both regular and switch 720 flat spins to take the first place position away from Takeshi. The final skater of the day was Taig Khris. Taig had qualified for the finals in first place, but he needed to step up his performance yet again in order to beat Eito. Taig skated extremely well, going higher than any other skater in the field, about 10ft above coping. Taig also threw some great tricks like his 900 gato spin, but it wasn¹t enough to beat the Yasutoko brothers and he ended up in third.

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