Ontario, California - May, 27 2000
Ontario Mills Mall in Ontario, California was the site for the fifth stop on the ASA Pro Tour. The vert competition took place on Saturday afternoon and was nothing short of spectacular. The vert ramp that was used was the ASA's big 40ft wide aluminum ramp that folds down from two big trucks. A metal ramp and the desert heat of over 105 degrees, meant that the competition was essentially being held in a huge frying pan. The skaters soon found out that if any exposed skin slid across the ramp, it wasn't going to come up unburned. The skaters didn't seem to let this fact stay long in their minds; the tricks got higher and more technical as warm-ups progressed. When the competition got underway, a trend towards technicality seemed to arise. There were as always the big spins and head high airs, but each grab was emphasized. The grinds also took their turn toward technical, with the skaters switching up just about every grind once if not more.

Sam Fogarty skated to 10th place with tricks like a kind grind to soul and a disaster 540 right in front of good friend Cesar Mora. Fellow Australian Matt Salerno skated to 9th place with his trademark style of tweaking back all of his airs. The man from Spain, Javier Bujanda ended up in 8th overall by throwing big 540 McTwists with grabs that were held until the last possible moment. The ever-present Mike Budnik was there in 7th place with his trademark inverts and alley-oop fishbrains all the way across the coping. Just one year shy of being the youngest competitor, Tobias Bucher from Germany, went huge. Tobias ended up in 6th place with over head high stale 540's and 720's. Sven Boekhorst captured 5th place with his amazing ability to flow from one trick to another and Shane Yost got 4th place with quite possibly the most difficult trick vocabulary of all the skaters.

The 13 year old superman from Japan, Takeshi Yasutoko, amazed everyone once again by soaring higher than everyone else and throwing in very technical grinds, to win 3rd place for the second week in a row. In second was the powerhouse from Australia, Cesar Mora. Cesar skated extremely well by throwing tricks like a 720 liu-kang and his trademark disaster 540 with a 360 in. For the second week in a row, Eito Yasutoko pulled out a 1st place finish. Eito's run was huge. He threw 720 flatspins in both directions and even pulled out an amazing 900 flatspin to end his run. Two women competed in the event. The always-dominant Fabiola da Silva ended up in 1st by conquering a 540 flat spin. Kerstin von Rautenfeld got second with some great grinds like a backside farvegnugen and an alley-oop makio all the way across the coping.

Click here to check out the street competition