Super Bowl Party!

There is an event, an annual sporting event, that my close friends and I try to mark off on our calendars. Every year, you know how it goes, the boys get together with some burgers on the barbecue, some frosty refreshing beverages, and the excitement of seeing our favourite athletes clash for top-dog status, slugging it out in the big one, the only one: The super bowl.

Y'know...the Combi Bowl, in Orange, CA... It's a super bowl, well built, I'd kill to skate it one day.

Alright, so horrendous puns aside, I and my good friends are all genuinely excited for this year's Pro-Tec Pool Party, held of course at the Orange, CA Vans Skatepark's Combi Bowl. We are planning to have our second annual "Super Bowl" party in which we plan on grilling some burgers, cracking a cold one or two, and watching some of our favourite athletes skate their hearts out.

Seriously, I think Duane Peters is one hospital visit away from having his heart actually outside his chest.



In all seriousness, though, I think the Pool Party is worth being excited about, for a number of reasons, reasons that I will all-to-happily share with you, because really, why would I be writing this otherwise, right?

1. The Masters' Division:
Alright, so I'll be the first to admit that my personal enjoyment of the Masters' contest stems largely from my own inner skate history nerd getting a chance to watch guys like Lance Mountain, Steves Cab and Steadham, Lester Kasai, Duane Peters, Chris Miller, et al skate the Vans Combi the way I wish I could have watched them skate Upland a few years before I was born. There is, however, just as much value in it to me as to those of you who haven't spent rainy days reading online back-issues of Thrasher trying to figure out the names of every hot handplant from 1982.
For one thing, a lot of the maneuvers being performed by the Masters' competitors are becoming something of a lost art. Anyone who watches Jeff Grosso take a run will see anything from a boosted boneless one to tail, to a statuesque sadplant, to a slide and roll that covers more coping blocks than most people will frontside grind in one year!



The fact of the matter, however, is that these tricks don't win modern vertical competitions, and while seeing someone like Ben Raybourn show up and do his own thing his own way, the majority of the young bucks in the pro division compete like they need to if they want to place (no sleight to any of them, everyone has to eat). Point is, watching the older guys pulling the older tricks is important to remind everybody that while, yes, 540s are an incredible feat, there's nothing wrong with styling out a sweeper every now and again.
Secondly, there's no shame in admitting that a group of forty-plus year-old men are more talented and fearless on a skateboard than yourself. If anything, it's actually pretty amazing, inspiring even. Truly, it helps legitimize the fact that the activity we all hold so dear is not merely a young man's game; that there's no more shame in hitting the local park after work as there is the local rink, diamond, or alley. It is so easy to forget that skateboarding is still so young, and that while it will always maintain that inherent rebelliousness of its younger participants, skateboarding will continue to mature, along with those who skateboard, and while hanging up on a backside air could prove more dangerous than getting hit with a pitch in your local beer league, seeing a bunch of middle-aged, devoted husbands and fathers get together and skate really warms the heart.

It seems to me that this post is getting altogether too long. Stay tuned for the next two posts leading up to the Pool Party, and the recap of all the action following thereafter.