July 29 Woodward, PA
The Vert competition took place on Saturday at the world famous Woodward Camp. As I walked down to the big B3 ramps in the early morning, I was overcome with feelings of peace and serenity and I saw a beauty to skating that I've never seen before. The B3 ramps at Woodward are in the lowest part of the camp. They sit all alone at the bottom of a valley, surrounded on all sides by the lush green foothills of the Appalachian mountains and on this morning the clouds hung low around the hill tops, adding a calm before the storm element to the morning. We got to work to make sure the ramp was ready for the competition later that morning. As we finished, I stood in the middle of the flat bottom and looked up at the ramp, now complete with its compliment of sponsor banners and stickers. I became aware that I was in the middle of our version of a racetrack, which would soon include the flashing visions of metal, plastic and flesh accompanied by the destruction of the once peaceful silence, by emotionally charged music, played at full volume, by the skaters request.

The threat of rain hung over the competition the entire day, so the skaters elected to compete in a finals only format. Using the better of two runs to determine the winners. Warm-ups ended and the race had begun.

There were only 18 skaters in the competition, but as usual I'll give you the run down of the top ten. In 10th place was Pennsylvania and Camp Woodward local, Andre Englehart, who had a rough first run, but was able to move up to 10th with a highly improved second. Nel Martin, out of Barcelona, Spain, made his first appearance in the states, and was able to capture the 9th spot. In 8th, was Manuel Billiris out of Melbourne, Australia. Capturing the 7th place, with possibly the most impressive single trick of the day, was Marc Englehart and his 540 flatspin to disaster. Sven Boekhorst skated to 6th place with two identical runs, both of which included buttery smooth alley-oop fishbrains completely across the ramp. Another Camp Woodward local, Matt Lindenmuth made a strong appearance and was able to grab 5th place with a real solid run. Beni Huber, out of Oftringen, Switzerland skated great with easily the most powerful run of the day. His airs were the biggest of the day, soaring to over 8ft above the coping.

The top three kicked off with Tobias Bucher, the 15 year old out of Stugardt, Germany, who's first run, was the one of the smoothest of the day. Every trick flowed into one another. Tricks like a backside farfegnugen across the entire ramp and his signature flatspins, secured the 3rd spot. The magician, Taig Khris, skated extremely well and pulled out just about every trick in his arsenal, including his 900 gato spin, but they weren't enough to beat out Shane Yost. Shane skated the best run I've seen him skate yet this year. His always technicality was complemented with increased height, and in Camp Woodward tradition, he threw in his new trick, the Garfunkel spin, which he unveiled at the Gravity Games. The spin is a fakie flatspin and with it, he has pushed vert riding to a new level yet again.

Check out the street competition.