October 18 - 20       Los Angeles, CA

After an insane year of qualifying competitions, the ASA faced a daunting conundrum. How to create a competition course for the best skaters in the world. But they conspired and theorized and sold their souls, and by 10:00 on Friday morning, the bleachers were packed with spectators hungry for a firsthand scoop on the ASA World Amateur Championships.

The amateur street field was 80 skaters deep. For the second time ever, a global amateur field was allowed to compete and the international representation was fierce. On street, Matt Donald of Canada and Jose Felix Hormaetxe, the champion of the Barcelona circuit, came prepared to compete against super-ams, Rachard Johnson and Chris Majette. On vert, it seemed almost impossible that anyone would beat French skater, Fred Volpi, whose airs would have cleared all three Japanese prodigies stacked on top of one another.

Men's vert looked like a ten-year cross section of rollerblading's demographic. In an alternate universe, the oldest competitor, 33 year old Paul Noworyta could have sired the youngest, 12 year old Shuhei Iwata. The skating was great and the crowd was appreciative. Elmer Pillon of Ft Lauderdale was in top form. After his first (and highest scoring) run, he raised his hands to heaven and shouted, "Thank you, Jesus!" Colin Parish crashed on a flat spin over the channel, but pulled it after the buzzer. Jose Felix, who only learned how to skate vert after a year of shows with the Red Bull half pipe in Europe, pulled a flat spin 900 and an alley-oop inverted 540. Swedish skater, Eric Persson, no taller than the hemline of a supermodel's miniskirt, performed a liu kang invert that had announcer Dave Paine singing his praises.

Fred Volpi dissected the ramp like a master sushi chef. His smooth skating carried him across the panels from end to end. Huge airs set up his run from flat spin 540s to solid lip tricks. But his run was bested by the Hawiian legend Thumper Nagasako, who not only pulled a flat spin 540 but also a clean 900 and a load of progressive lip tricks. Thumper's run earned him the title of 2002 ASA World Amateur Vert Champion.

"I roll for myself because I love it," said Thumper after the comp. "And he worked very hard for it," contributed his mother. Thumper's mom brought a special ti leaf lei for her son's graduation into the pro ranks.

"This was the best am vert event since I was an am in '97," pro skater Tyler Shields commented. Then he added, "Life is a cookie."

The amateur street comp was, if it's possible, even more exciting. It was so competitive that Chris Majette and Rachard Johnson, whom everyone was certain would qualify pro, didn't. Londoner, Matt King who just missed qualifying three years in a row, pulled his eponymous King flip and finally made the pro ranks for 2003. Jose Felix, Ernesto Borges and Bobby Tateishi all landed flawless 900s. Fritz Peitzner of Plano Texas, demonstrated superb control of the course and even pulled a triple variation down the 13 stair rail. Perhaps the most creative line was discovered by the intrepid Richie Velasquez, whose transfers took him all over the street course and awarded him an eighth place finish. England's Joey Egan bombed the course with unmatched speed, but was just inched out by Artie Pimental who spun into everything. First place qualifier from the prelims, Eric Perkett slipped to 5th place finish, his mind bending prelim runs marred by uncertainty in the finals. Matt Moya re-engineered the course with a line that nobody saw until his run. Clark Kirkman executed a series of acid drops that should have paralyzed him. Ivan Malvido, whose dark features could land him a role as the next Harry Potter villain, skated a solid run that brought him up to second place. At the end, it was Canadian Matt Donald with his unbelievably tech tricks that took the gold.

"Ikea's dope," said Eric Perkett. When asked how he landed those tricks, he thought for a moment before answering. "How do you not land it?"

In a surprising outburst of emotion, Jon Julio was overheard saying, "That was amazing." And so wrapped up an amateur championships that introduced twenty-two super-solid rookies to the 2003 ASA Pro ranks.