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There were many highlights throughout the event.... I
wish I could have seen more, but I guess that's a sacrifice for being a
organizer/planner
in a skateboard competition. Anyway, from what I saw there were many
talented skaters completing in each division... to name a few outstanding
performances would be Lyon Farrello from
Maui, this little grom (10 & under) could of almost stood up in the
13-14 age group, truly amazing
and fun to watch! Scott McClain (HSH
Local) was hot on his tail, but just couldn't quite make up the difference
to catch Lyon. Kevin Bell (11-12) kept
it smooth and consistent, but wasn't quite enough to catch Tyler
Mederios who combined his style and trick
difficulty to edge him out for first.
The 13-14 age group was probably the hardest and closest division to
score.... Squeak Dahlke pulled out 1st place
by maintaining a balance of all 3 areas scored...Style, Trick Difficulty
and Consistency with smooth grinds, ollies, and 50-50's on the ledges....
Little Daniel Vinci and Nick
Long
battled for the second spot... Daniel squeaked by with being more consistent
between his 2 scored runs... I have to mention Nicks bomb drops
off
the 6ft platform and then the 8ft roll in... let's just run, leap and land
on the board! Crazy!! (Btw, don't do that anymore.. hehe..
serious!) Ahhh,
the 15-17 age group.... now that was something to see as well.... Justin
Tamayo suffered a "bonk" to the eye brow during practice
and almost decided to bow out.... but obviously by his performance and 1st
placing he overcame his obstacles and dominated with grinds, ollies,
smiths on
the handrail and numerous flip tricks.... Eric Pugh
was close behind but a little less consistent than Justin therefore taking
2nd place. The 18 & over
division first worried me... hardly any entries at first... Vance
Rickafort dropped by last minute and took the whole thing with his
style and consistency of flip tricks.... George
Banks came close, but no cigar and had to settle for 2nd....
Romel and Jim fought it out for
third... Romel won.
The Sponsored Division.... cream of the crop
(at least for today at HSH).... I hope you guys are sore... you deserve
it....LOL (you can thank me later).... yes, PASS put them to the
test with a head to head, double elimination.... basically 2 skaters were
paired off for a 90 sec jam... one advanced, the other dropped to a Loser
bracket with the chance to make it back into the Final.
Once down to the top 6 skaters, they were given each one 60sec run scored
by the 3 basic rules, STYLE, TRICK DIFFICULTY & CONSISTENCY.
Nick Yamasato took 1st by
dominating (I like that word) the street course by saying "yo mine
b*tch".... he might be a practicing vegetarian, but he became a carnivore
of HSH,
chewed it up, and spit out the fat with big airs, smiths, ollies, grinds over
the big 3, and lien to tails.... I don't think he missed an obstacle.....
gulp!
In 2nd place was Emil Lacuesta, he also one
of the three in the winners jam bracket, and kept getting better as he
skated... solid 50-50's on the hubba ledge, kick flips, ollies and
spanking the handrail once or twice just for good measure. Kaikea
Kaimura was close on Emils shoes, falling
just 1% behind 2nd place....Kaikeas' flip tricks, handrail and hubba ledge
grinds, not to mention a easy going smooth style headed off Silent John
for 3rd place. Btw, Kaikea skated back to the Final after losing to Larry
Upchurch in the 2nd stage of the pre-lims, but advanced past Applenuts
to make it into the Final. In 4th was John
Olivera... silent John always seems to amaze me.... he definitely
has a talented bag of tricks and experience.... John got better and better
throughout the event; he lost in the first round of pre-lims to Alika
Virtudes , but came all the way back along with Tim
Jackson to make it back into the Finals by skating past Aaron
Lee & Lucas Hancock.... needless
to say, these two guys wanted it and skated the most out of everyone to
come back to the Finals! If this was a taste of Hawaii's best,
I'm really looking forward to the street team challenge!!
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