July 30 Woodward, PA
Camp Woodward, the place where new things are accomplished and new things are seen. It only seems fitting that the street competition at Woodward would be the place where a new champion on street would show his face. As usual, Sunday would be the day where the world's best street skaters would showcase their talents on a street course. The day started out in question. Would the competition be held indoors or out? Nature's input was disregarded as the boys from television spoke up and decided for everyone that the show would be of higher quality if done outdoors. Very well, we made our way over to "The Cage", one of the outdoor street courses, and proceeded to prepare the site for competition. A staple gun became part of my anatomy and I used this newfound appendage to decorate the course with representatives of the numerous companies that make an event like this possible. As our work continued the skaters started to arrive and began a tentative practice session, because they were as unsure about the plans Mother Nature had in store for us as we were. With this in mind, it was decided to run the prelims as a best of two run format. So that in case the rain came, we could use the prelims as the final standings. As the afternoon progressed, Mother folded her hand and unveiled the most beautiful day we had all week. We were able to run a final and this is how the story continues.

Jon Julio, considered by many the father of modern street skating, took the 10th spot. He had one of the most creative lines I've seen yet this year. His run included a fast plant on the side of the bauer box to soul grind down the entire length and a fast plant to disaster soul along one of the quarter pipes. Clifford Viljoen, out of Centurion, South Africa took only one run in the finals, but it was good enough to take the 9th spot. Matt Lindenmuth, should have the course memorized, because he could skate it everyday if he wanted to. I don't know if he skates the course everyday, but it certainly seemed like he does. He started his run with a big 360 transfer out of the rhythm section and up to a backside stall on the railing surrounding the course. His run was good enough for 8th.

The hottest skater on the tour, Sven Boekhorst, met his match. Either in the course itself or the skaters he was competing against. Sven couldn't quite hold together his runs and ended up in the 7th spot. Another Woodward local, Jason Stinsmen had flashy runs, which were filled with tricks like a backflip in the rhythm section, followed by a 900 over a double dip launch box. Jason finished up his run and captured 6th with a fakie backflip over the big launch. In 5th place was Sam Fogarty out of Melbourne, Australia and in 4th was Franky Morales, who had another good finish in only his second appearance on the tour this year.

Starting the top three was Jaren Grob, who 360'd every bump in the rhythm section straight into a 900 over the double dip launch box. Talk about spinning yourself silly. In second place was another Australian. Blake Dennis, who was qualified in first after the prelims couldn't hold off the charge of Santiago Azpurua, who had an amazing run, consisting of huge spins and super high speed grinds like a 270 to topside soul along the entire length of one of the banks. The competition proved to be a huge success and drew not only the rollerbladers at the camp, but made fans out of the bikers and skateboarders there as well.

Check out the vert competition.