April 20 - 22 Louisville, KY

Thunder, Thunder, Thunder! Does anyone else hear a commercial for a monster truck show? The Thunder over Louisville is the event that brought us to Louisville, KY. What is it you ask? Well it's not a monster truck competition, at least I didn't see any. It's actually the nation's if not the world's largest fireworks celebration that basically kicks off a week or two long celebration before the Kentucky Derby (that's a horse race). Even though I'm not a huge fan of fireworks, I will say that I was impressed with this show. At times there were so many shells going off at once you'd swear that they were blowing up the bridge. After a half-hour of them I was over it and if I continue talking about them I'm sure you will be too, so on the skating.

ESPN's B3 site was on the waterfront, just like last year, except that due to the construction of a new apartment building ESPN was forced to move the site further down the river and away from the real hoopla of the weekend. After taking the initial trip to the site and seeing just how secluded we were, we were curious to see just how successful the weekend would become. Our fears were soon calmed by the mobs of fans. Even on a day that seemed colder than my trip to Minnesota the week before, the people just kept coming. I guess the people of Kentucky really like their action sports.

The weather on that first day of competition, proved to a bigger player than any of the athletes. Due to the high winds, all of the vert competitions that were scheduled for Friday got pushed over to Saturday, including inline, which the skaters decided to change to a finals only format. Friday was then left to practice and catching up with friends and seeing what's new in the industry, such as a sneak peak at 7XL's new UFS frame which looks really good and RB's new skate, which should shake things up a bit when it comes out this Christmas. The day ended uneventfully with another late night in a hotel bar.

Saturday morning rolled around and the first thing across my mind was how windy was it going to be today. As it turned out the day was warmer, but it was winder too. We had no choice but to run the vert competition as scheduled because you know the show must go on. The skaters actually adapted really well to the gusty conditions and pushed the progression line once again. I'm not sure if it was the crowds or the roar of the fighter jets overhead, but whatever it was, we need to have more of it at every event. The competition was pretty good overall, with a lot of solid skating. The top three if you can't already guess were Eito Yasutoko in third, Takeshi Yasutoko in second and Taig Khris, who is skating well enough to easily dethrone the Japanese powerhouse of last year, in first. The progression came with two skaters, Matt Lindemuth and Eito Yasutoko. Matt has spent a lot of time at Camp Woodward and his skating is reflecting the time, especially with the first ever in competition double backflip on vert. Matt tried the trick three times and got so close to landing it that I'm sure we'll see it by the next stop or two. Eito was up next and although he didn't try the trick during the competition, doesn't make it any less important. A 1440 is what I'm talking about. I was standing on the flat bottom of the ramp during the awards ceremony and all I saw were so many spins it took me a second to figure out what happened. Mark Englehart also attempted his flatspin to backside grind again but didn't land it. Damn, vert can be fun to watch.

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