March 23 - 25 Anahiem, CA

The B3 in Anaheim, CA was the first competition of the 2001 season.

The street, or "park" (as ESPN now calls it), competition took place over Saturday and Sunday in Anaheim. The crowds, at least on Saturday, were thicker than those at the Vert competition, just one day earlier, so things were looking up already. Then I took a look at the course. There were changes on this course, from courses of the past. Most notably was the domination of square rails over round rails. If I remember right there were only two round rails on the entire course and those were barely long enough to be considered rails. The second thing that I noticed was that there were a lot more wedges than transitions. At first I was pretty upset that the course seemed to be built primarily with the skateboarders in mind. Then I took another look and something occurred to me. This course had the ability to level out the skaters. The real street skaters would have the ability to use the square rails and wedges effectively, while the transition or park skaters would have a more difficult time with things than usual. As it turns out I was right. The real street skaters ruled the park.

ESPN has said that they haven't seen any progression in skating. Well I'll tell you, the skating progressed right in front of their eyes in Anaheim. Although a well put together run consisting of both airs and grinds still took home first prize, it was obvious to anyone that has been around skate competitions for a while that true street has heavily influenced competition skating. The runs are becoming a combination of stunts rather than a lot of smaller tricks packed together into a line. Brian Shima was the winner this weekend, followed by Louie Zamora in second and Mike Budnik in third. Brian's run was truly packed full of tricks, he barely had time to land before he was already into another trick, but although I said the runs had changed this is still what it takes to win.

Skaters who haven't made any strong competition appearance in at least a year also came out and proved themselves once again. Namely Josh Petty, who really impressed me, specifically with a 270 to backside fastslide down the entire 20ft of a big rectangular rail. Mike Radebaugh also came out and skated extremely well bringing his big technical street style to the course. Ben Taylor showed the greatest improvement since last year and skated extremely well with some of the smoothest style of the weekend. Jaren Grob, who is usually a huge contender for the title, came up short this weekend. By not even making the finals, he just didn't seem to be as sure footed as he usually is. There also seemed to be a greater sense of maturity among the skaters. It seems that they are starting to realize their roles in the greater scheme of making skating successful. It's a trend that I for one hope to see continued. I guess we'll find out when Louisville roles around at the end of April.

Check out the Vert Recap