etnies Goofy vs. Regular 2007 Finals Recap

 

What do you get when you mix me, the city of Lake Forest, a blazingly bright sun, a lack of sun block, and a team-based skate contest featuring riders separated by their stances? Obviously the answer is the 2007 etnies Goofy vs. Regular Skateboard Contest finals held this past Sunday, October 7th.

 

The event was held at the etnies Skatepark in Lake Forest, California, where skate fans of all ages (though most were of the teenage variety) gathered to watch some of the best young skaters mixed in with some top notch pros duke it out based solely on the way they stand on a skateboard. After a weekend of madness, including a Yeah Yeah Yeah’s show, the main street course became the center of attention Sunday as the 30 qualifiers (15 skaters per team) took to it for the finals.

 

My day at the finals started out great as I was greeted by an inordinate amount of attention from all the young girls at the contest while walking towards the entrance area/press tent. I could see the twinkle in their eyes as a sign of attraction and it gave me such a confidence boost up until the point they called me “Ryan” and I turned around to realize that I was entering the contest 5-8 feet in front of Ryan Sheckler. That right there was probably the worst trick of the whole event.

 

Upon setting up shop in the press/family area I quickly realized that what had been a cool, breezy past few days had turned into a hotter, brighter, UV bonanza, Sunday afternoon. Sure enough my skin turned into the color of the most delicious beef jerky within a couple hours. But enough about me, onto the contest.

 

The format of the GvR finals was broken down into two main parts. The first involved three five-man heats where each skater from the heat was given two one-minute runs, where the best result from the two runs would be their individual score. Then after an open twenty minute best trick session on the Zumiez couch (a promo for their Couch Tour) that served as "halftime" the second part of the finals would kick in. The second part of the finals were four ten-minute jam sessions (two per team) where each team would pick five riders (plus one alternate) to tear up the course as they pleased for the each ten-minute session. Scores would be added up from all heats/sessions to decide the winning team.

 

After a lengthy warm-up session and a coin toss it was declared that the Goofy team would be up first with a group that consisted of Taylor Bingaman, Nick Fiorini, Morgan Smith, Rodrigo Leal, and Alex Olsen. Their heat would bring the finals to a lackadaisical start as most of the riders seemed not fully warmed-up or disinterested. It wasn’t until Terrell Robinson set up shop as the first rider for the regular team that it started to feel like we were at a contest. The energy Robinson brought, which seemed to carry over from his all-out warm up session helped spark the rest of the group which consisted of Andrew Langi, David Loy, Luan De Oliveira, and Tulio de Oliveira. The highlights of the group were the duo of youngins in Loy and Oliveira. Both showed major consistency while landing some gnarly tricks left and right including Olveira’s kickflip boardslide on the couch and Loy’s backside lipslide down the 10-step rail. By the end of their run it was obvious that even without calculation the Regular team was up on the Goofies.

 

Up next was the second Goofy team that consisted of Chad Fernandez, Danny Cerezini, Jordan Hoffart, Joey Brezinski, and Tyler Hendley. Though Chad Fernandez went all out in his run including landing a frontside nose blunt down the rail, it was Oakley rider Tyler Hendley who seemed to take his team on his shoulders when he came out and did everything in his run BIG (and I emphasize the capitalization). Everything Hendley attempted seemed like 150% of what the others were doing height-wise including both a huge one footer and a huge kickflip off the kicker and over the main island. Outside of the Sheckler machine Hendley was the one getting the most applause out of the crowd.

 

After Hendley finished up his last run the second Regular team took to the course with Fabrizio Santos, Kurtis Colamonico, Billy Marks, Ryan DeCenzo, and Vince del Valle. Santos was one of the skaters that had been fully utilizing his warm-up session, and in terms of his group it showed as he stood out by throwing down both a backside lipslide and a frontside nose grind down the rail, though Colamonico did come with a big bluntslide to fakie on the couch. Once the Regulars finished up it was quickly announced that the Goofy team had rode their way back into contention off the strength of Henley’s run.

 

For the third group the big guns finally came out with the designated “Starters” for each team. The third Goofy group featured Collin Provost, Greg Lutzka, Darrell Stanton, Jereme Rogers, and Nyjah Huston. At first the Goofy Starters didn’t seem like they were fully into it with their first runs until Huston hit the course. The twelve year-old lit up everything including a backside lipslide down the 10-step rail, a smooth kickflip down the 5 steps and the gap and a 360 shove-it to boardslide down the middle rail. After Huston’s run and into the group’s second run things started picking up with Provost pulling a backside 360 over the couch, Lutzka putting down a clean run, and Rogers’ amazing switch 360 flip down the 10-step staircase (probably the trick of the day in terms of the 1st five-man heat runs. Nyjah even added a noseblunt down the rail to boot.

 

Then the Starters for the Regular team pulled up with Rick McCrank (who seemed to show up out of nowhere), Andrew Reynolds, Ryan Sheckler, Leo Romero, and Sean Malto. McCrank rolled into his run and showed why he had no need for warm-ups, meet-and-greets, or smoozing at all. His run featured a crazy frontside 180 to a 50-50 on the couch, a large tailslide down the ledge, and a 360 flip up the gap and 5 steps. Basically it was good. Andrew Reynolds went up next and went hard at everything he did though he didn’t land the majority of them, but if he did…oh my it would have been a lopsided heat. Once Reynolds finished his first run there was a palpable energy in the crowd, actually there was just an upping of giggles coming from the girls as Sheckler was up. Starting from the pool area Sheckler showed his Starter-status with a big kickflip off the kicker and over the main island leading into a solid run that also featured a big nose grind on the couch. Soon Leo Romero took over and pulled a long noseslide along the top ledge that bordered the park area that highlighted his run. After Sean Malto put up an uneventful run McCrank took his second shot at the course and again went off with a half-Cab nosegrind to a 180 out on couch and a crooked grind down the main ledge. Following that Andrew Reynolds started landing some of the eye-opening stuff including a huge frontside 180 kickflip over the couch and a frontside 360 down the set of stairs. Sheckler’s second run was much like Reynold’s first run with Ryan attempting some big things but landing few of them. After that and Romero’s second run Malto came back with a nice run including a backside Smith grind to a 180 out on the couch.

 

Upon finishing the first major part of the finals the audience was told that the Goofies were still in it though the Regulars had the lead. Then the Best Trick On The Zumiez Couch “Halftime Show” set up shop. Quite frankly the whole scene was chaotic as rider after rider (the session was open to all) pulled up to the couch popping the craziest stuff they could think of for twenty minutes. About 10% of the attempted tricks found success including Alex Olsen’s frontside feeble 180 out (the 3rd place winner), Kurtis Colamonico’s kickflip backside noseblunt (2nd place), and Danny Cerezini’s nollie heelflip frontside boardlide (the overall winner).

 

Once the best trick session was finished and after a oh-so-short break the real fun stuff started with the second, jam-session portion of the finals. As mentioned these were 10 minute sessions whereby each team had 5 riders going crazy on the course with the option of subbing out any rider in exchange for an alternate at the 5 minute point. This time around since the Goofies went first for the 5-man heats the Regulars got on first for the jam session. The first chosen five for the regulars were Rick McCrank, Andrew Reynolds, Ryan Sheckler, Fabrizio Santos, and Luan De Oliveira…quite a lineup, and they didn’t disappoint. Pretty much every one from this group was going off, from Santos and Sheckler pulling nosegrinds on the couch, to Sheckler’s nice backside 180 kickflip down the stairs, to Reynold’s backside 360 and fakie kickflip down the stairs and the frontside kickflip over the ledge and stairs that he used as his finale. But the group was utterly dominated by the youngest one of the bunch, Luan De Oliveira. At first the attention was clearly on the “stars” but seemingly out of the corner of the eye one could see Oliveira just going completely berserk landing almost every crazy trick he pulled. At first it was a backside kickflip to boardslide on the rail, then it was the amazing switch heelflip down the stairs, then it was the halfcab kickflip down the stairs, then the kickfilp boardslide down the rail. The kid was a robot out there, no alternate needed. Once the time was up in my mind the Regular team had built an insurmountable lead on the back of Oliveira’s consistency.

 

The Goofies then had their work cut out for them as they showed up with Nyjah Huston, Chad Fernandez, Jereme Rogers, Greg Lutzka, Jordan Hoffart, and Danny Cerezini as the alternate. The action picked up with Hoffart’s kickflip noseslide on the main ledge and Rogers’ switch tailslide on the middle rail. Lutzka pulled a frontside 180 kickflip down the stairs as well as a nice kickflip backside lipslide down the main rail. All along Chad Fernandez had it in his mind that he wanted to land a 360 flip to a noseslide over the rail and he set aside much of his time to landing that trick, which would have been one of the best tricks of the event had he landed it (he didn’t). And much as how young Luan De Oliveira was to his team in their session Nyjah Huston was to his team in their session, though to a lesser degree. Nyjah was both consistent in landing his tricks as well as ambitious in attempting the ones he didn’t land, but in the midst of it all he threw a sick switch heelflip down the stairs followed by a nollie heelflip down the same stairs and a kickflip frontside boardslide down the stair’s rail. Jereme Rogers topped his group’s session off with a nollie frontside 180 heelflip down the stairs.

 

The second and final jam session for the Regular team featured Romero, McCrank, Sheckler, Oliveira, and David Loy, and once the team hit the course it was the Luan De Oliveira show all over again. This time around Oliveira pulled a hardflip AND a switch frontside 180 flip down the stairs, plus a big frontside flip going up the 5 steps and gap in the middle of the course. McCrank did pull a nice nose blunt down the main ledge and Sheckler threw a switch heelflip down the stairs but Oliveira finished everything off with a switch 360 flip down the stairs (let me remind you it’s a 10-step staircase). At this point it seemed like there was no stopping the Regular team from taking the event.

 

But the Goofies still had their last stab at it with Huston, Rogers, Alex Olsen, Darrell Stanton and Tyler Hendley this time around. Yet again Huston was going off on his attempts including another nollie heelflip paired with a 360 flip down the stairs. Rogers was also coming up big with a switch backside lipslide down the main rail. But like he did in the first portion of the finals Tyler Hendley grabbed the spotlight. Along with just going amazingly big on everything he did Hendley pulled of a huge crooked grind to nollie kickflip out on the couch then got an amazing amount of cheers with a big forward flip (which I thought was a hardflip at first) down the stairs (check the sequence above), that was probably the best trick of the whole weekend. At that point the rest of the rest of the session was moot. Tyler Hendley had just killed it.

 

The night though, despite Tyler Hendley’s heroics, went to the Regular team based primarily on the team’s top performer Luan De Oliveira (bagging I believe a total of $15,000), as well as the much more consistent across the board performances of their team, including team MVP Rick McCrank. Hendley finished up as the Goofy teams MVP with Jereme Rogers being named top scorer of the losing team (must have been that switch 360 filp down the stairs).

 

The Regular team’s win evens up the overall GvR record to two wins for Regular to two wins for Goofy. Let’s hope next time around both Tyler Hendley and Luan De Oliveira show up again because they made both the sunburn completely worthwhile.

 

 

Regular Team (Winning Team)

1. Luan De Oliveira
2. Rick McCrank
3. Sean Malto

MVP: Rick McCrank

 

1. Jereme Rogers
2. Nyjah Huston
3. Tyler Hendley

MVP: Tyler Hendley