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Friday 4/27/07 |
Friday gets it's own page...too many pictures and too much going on!!! Friday was the day the "big boys" started to roll into town. I started the day with a little
work from home as Greg "Sig" Sigfried arrived from Ozark. He and I met John Waight and Competition Skates owner, John Skelton for lunch nearby. During lunch, I get a call
from Barry "Butters" Gililland. He says, "You're not gonna believe who just walked up to the bowl.....Lance Mountain!" What!?!? He did come!!! (*there had
been speculation otherwise) So we all finished up lunch, and John, Sig and I hurried off to get to the skate park. I pulled up around 2 pm and found quite a few more people had
come in town. Besides Lance Mountain, there was Sergie Ventura (Hosoi Skates), Steve Reeves (Creature), Johnny Turgeson (Bacon), Donovan Rice (Bacon), Tim Johnson (Crown)
and his Kona crew, Susie "Sue" Strege (from Maryland with her GRO girls), and Blair Watson (reporting for Concrete Wave). They were
joined by the folks already in town...Steve Steadham, Benji Galloway (Bacon), Josh "Skreech" Sandoval (Scum Skates), Tommy "Alabama" Little, Sasha Steinhorst, Dave Duncan, and Don Bostick. Later in the day,
Load, Jimmy O'Brien, and Ray Fennessey made it through traffic and to the park. Of course, all the locals made it out too...Kerry Johnson, Tim Spinosi, John Waight,
Patrick Jackson, Barry Gililland, Greg Sigfried (from Ozark), Ohio Paul (from Athens) and Chris Solomon (me). It was an insane gathering of ripping skaters!!! I can't begin to
recount the whole day...I hope the pictures can tell the story. (I got lots of video too!)
One of the highlights for me, I will say, was hanging out in the parking lot with John Waight and Greg Sigfried
talking to Lance Mountain for a good 30 minutes or more. It was like we were all old friends catching up. Lance is a great guy....real nice and somewhat humble in person. He was telling us all about traveling, his
opinion of our park, contests, his decks over the years, being on Flip now, stories from the past and most surprising....about how Flip wants to build a bowl for him in his
backyard!!! He said he is having to "think it over" because he and his wife doesn't like people just showing up at the house (or being there when they are not) like they
use to do back when he had his famous ramp at Mountain Manor. He has to think about it?!?! A free bowl in your backyard?!?! Too funny! Sig joked with him "Just let us know when
it is done, and we will show up on your door step to skate!" Without skipping a beat, Lance replied "Sure...come on over!" What?!?!? We were shocked! How friggin
cool is that! Like I said...Lance is just a class act and definitely a highlight of the day (let alone the whole contest). |
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Walking up to find a session (Lance, Sue, Skreech, Steve, Packy, Benji and Dan Ray)
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The KONA crew travels in styel and parks where the please....bowl side
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Session line-up (Lance, Sue, Donovan, Steve, Johnny and Skreech)
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Tommy "Alabama" Little, Blair "Slob-Air"Watson of Concrete Wave and Barry Gililland
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John Waight and Sig watching Lance take some runs
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Sergie Ventura getting a feel for the coping
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Sergie backside smithing
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Lance boardslides 1/2 the deep end
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Reaction from John and Sig to Lance's boardslide
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Lance finds a sweet spot for his airs
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"Ohio" Paul and Kerry Johnson watching from the bleachers
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Lance...what can I say about this ?!?!?
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13 year old ripper, Morgan Burgess, frontside air
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Benji Galloway inverts-to-fakie
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Will Powers sliding to fakie
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Benji Galloway works a long feeble grind-to-fakie
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Benji coming out of a feeble grind-to-fakie
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The GRO girls van decoration
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Jimmy and Ray watch as Load unpacks the truck
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Greg "Sig" Sigfried and John Waight hanging out with old friend Lance Mountain
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Patrick and Greg "Sig" Sigfried taking in the show
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Josh "Skreech" Sandoval tail stall to disaster
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Session gets heated with triples snake runs (Donovan, Johnny and Skreech)
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Another triples run
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Sasha gets a feel for the bowl with highspeed carves
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Sergie Ventura airs while Donovan Rice rolls under
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Sasha boardsliding
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Donovan Rice pops into an extreme frontside tail tap
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Sun goes down, session heats up
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Tricia Spinosi holds court in the parking lot with Barry, Packy and Ryan
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The GREEN Skateboards assault vehicle
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Session line-up as more join in
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Sergie boosts some crowd pleasing airs
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Session continues as lights come on
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Huntsville's Scott Hughston works on his frontside invert
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FAITH skateshop owner, Peter Karvanen, and his family came out to watch
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Jimmy O'Brien backside grindage
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Johnny Turgeson floats a frontside ollie
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Tim Johnson goes HUGE over the hip
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